Holiday Inn Youlian Suzhou

... talking/arguing/convincing, she finally told me rationale behind it. apparently the accountant thinks that e-tickets/receipts can be used more than once but a boarding pass is only good once.

so i hurried back home, desperate to find any boarding passes. boarding passes are usually the first things i throw away when i'm traveling. when do you ever need it after you travel??? at all the previous places i've worked at, an e-ticket is more ...

... a couple of things once i'm officially back on us soil. first is a job. like everyone else, this 30% unemployment rate is scaring the bejesus out of me. i've heard that nola hasn't been too bad but i'm not sure if i'm ready to go back to dead-end jobs. but beggars can't be choosers, right?

another thing that's been bothering me is the time warp. i've been away from home for two years. more if i consider new orleans to be my home. but anyway, two years away from america is a long ...

... refreshing experience in my opinion. I mean, most years i do the routine two family dinners, both a little boring and containing not near enough booze to get me through happy and content. Also you could never play a decent game of Trevors Ass at a family dinner haha. Trev i'm hoping you'll read this because then at least one person will get my joke! But anyways, great night, great company, and great laughs =). 
Happy turkey eating!
-B

... ancient shopping street. I like food, and I like ancient so I said sure. The shopping street's name is Shangtang Street. It runs along an ancient canal and the shops were a lot of fun to visit. There were shops selling art, carvings, crystal sculptures, traditional clothing, traditional cloth shoes, food, and brand new antiques. The food was sold in little stands and was unlike ...

... is now. The garden is separated into three principal parts, east, central and west. The eastern section has colourful flowers but is of less interest than the other two.

We enjoyed a cruise on the one thousand year old Grand Canal then went to an embroidery workshop and had lunch at a nearby restaurant.

That night we took a taxi to a shopping area and checked out the local shops, found a KFC and had a burger for tea.

... from Shanghai and known as a garden city. The traffic is horrendous and road rules are very limited, there are push bikes, motor bikes and scooters everywhere, helmets not worn and even the babies are taken on the bikes and held by a parent. Enjoyed a walk along the street dodging the bikes parked on the footpaths and taking our lives in our hands when we crossed the road, even when it's on a crossing with the green light.

... red like the colour of blood"... They aren't nearly as cute as the kids I taught in Hefei but also aren't half as sophisticated as they'd like to think, still finding things like ***** and girls hilarious, irresistible and revolting. Things are much less vague here, I actually know who I'm teachng and why I jump around 20 times a week. Ganbei to the next three months.

This weekend was, as Barney on "How I Met Your Mother" would call it: Legendary. No better word for it. Honestly. It actually all started early last week when Ben and I came to the same independent conclusions that we should visit Suzhou this weekend after our marathon 12-day teaching spree. Then of course, we'd invite Daniel and Ruby to tag along. So while the internet was out all week (Ray thinks it was a "hicker" aka hacker, who brought our entire school's server to ...

... You do not try to change things, you take them as they are. It's a challenge for even the most hardcore Daoist at this temple because it's a tourist site that is mobbed and the surrounding shopping area with people milling about only adds to the chaos. Amongst the hordes you see people making offers of burning incense and praying before some of the statues. Ben and Carolyn were excellent tour guides explaining the significance of the temple. They also provide us with a ...

Hello from shanghai!!! Was going to write hello in Chinese but getting to grips with this language is really hard! And i am not so good with the whole learning of languages anyway so its extra difficult, though we are trying our best. Have had a very eventful first few days and have decided that we don't really like shanghai, especially not the 3rd world part of Shanghai that we are living in....though we should have guessed for the price we are ...