Jin Cheng Hotel Shenyang

... so Shuang Shuang's place at the best high school in the city tells you something about her, the girl is really freaking smart. She speaks English almost as well as I do, and better than quite a few Americans, I think. But anyways, her life here is tough. She leaves for school at 630 every morning, and doesn't get home until 10:40, then it's another 1 1/2 to 2 hours of homework before she crashes for bed. This is Monday through Friday ...

... jeste objevili skvely placek na pousteni draku, i kdyz tedy za barierou na stavenisti (cti "planina bez techniky s obcasnou nedbale lozenou hromadou pisku" R.), ale cinanu tam byly davy, spadnout na nas nemelo co odkud, takze fajn misto. Staveniste v cine jsou jinak dost nebezpecna mista. Jenze evropana zvykleho na bezpecnostni predpisy to nenapadne. Tam, kam by v evrope nikdy nedovolili chodcum vstoupit, s ohledem na riziko padajicich ...

... another home to go to besides my empty apartment. Monday the school took us to mount qianshan. It was stunning. climbing was exhausting but the views were absolutely breathtaking, and totally worth the trip. I love exploring in China, its much less safety coated than America. There were parts of the climb that were slightly scary, but the ascent was worth it. i felt like i was on top of the whole world.

... really a futon, and thank god that I'm so short, as I'm exactly the same length as the bed. I am lucky however, that my bed has a fair amount of padding in addition to the feather bed I insisted upon bringing with me, as beds in China are typically hard (I'm talking like a slab of wood here) and there are no springs in the mattresses. As I stumble out of bed and into the day, I head towards my teeny bathroom to take a shower. This means I better have ...

... jsme chteli, uz samozrejme nemaji a nejlevnejsi pda stoji od 2500 yuanu, coz je jeste o tisicovku drazsi nez v CR. Takze zbyvalo jedine pockat na lepsi kurs koruny. Po dvou hodinach courani a dohadovani nas to uz prestalo bavit, ja a Radek jsme nejak prosvihli snidani i obed, tudiz nalada byla na bodu mrazu. Smerem na autobus byla milionta prodejna HP, Yuri prohlasil, ze bysme se tam meli mrknout, my uz toho meli tak akorat plne zuby, Yuri ...

... But oh well, my kindygardeners make it worth while. Dave, a former teacher at Apollo took Anastasia and I out to dinner and introduced us to many of the foreigners in the area. it was an....experience. Many of them seem to dislike China and much of the culture and griped about a lot of their experiences. I was a bit disappointed as after my initial culture shock there are many things about this place ...

... and 3 (6,7, and 8 by American standards). It is about how to improve their oral English skills, and some classes have such basic English that I need to have every word I say translated, but they'll look at me when I ask if they have questions with these blank stares, and say no....if I say understand? they all say yes! then ask Lulu wtf I just said. It is ***********ly to struggle to get my students interested in English, but also to do it with ...

... as one word pops out of my mouth in Chinese they are off in a torrent of eager questions and comments, many of which i cannot understand...i have to simply shrug my shoulders and say "Ting bu dong" i hear but don't understand. Anna, as I call her, as the Chinese struggle with Anastasia or Stacy, her nickname in the u.s., has much more Chinese than me and has helped to translate but even she struggles with the never ending questions ...

... Zhang, Doug and I spent the afternoon at Haicheng No. 2 Middle School, where the students gave performances for us. Again, as we entered the auditorium, we were greeted with applause. Students sang, danced, recited, played Chinese instruments and gave a stunning Kung Fu demonstration. The student performers were quite polished and confident on stage. While Doug played basketball outside with the boys, I went to visit Principal Zhou's daughter in her ...

... But she did manage to sell us a foot massage after the FULL body massage. After 3+ hours in the spa, I came out smelling nice, feeling clean and my skin felt softer than ever. Thank you, Mr. Du. This was my first time in Shenyang, but our driver must really love when my dad comes to town. We spent more than his monthly salary at the spa and probably 2 months salary the whole day. Since he was driving us around, all his expenses were covered too for the entire day.