Jiping Hotel Siping

... or native Chinese students and said hi only to ask them to please write down the name of the dish they are eating so I can try it next time! Lol

Holidays are coming and I am getting excited! Before we talk about Thanksgiving and Christmas I have to mention that the Halloween celebration here was incredible! I went to a party at a foreigner bar which was decked out with a haunted house, an amazing live band who played all of the classic Halloween music ...

Woke up early in the Mix, was told I could catch a bus to Jiuzhaigou anytime, but when I arrived at the station, they were all sold out and the last bus was leaving. So, instead, I hopped on the bus to Leshan. Walked around the park, saw the Big Buddha (biggest in the world), along with numerous other sculptures and carvings and such. I'll post pictures whenever I can.

... marched up to me, gave me a huge hug and whispered in my ear these words "You are not inadequate! You've thought so your whole life, but you have never been!" Instead of thanking her for her kind words I just blurted out "how did you know?". Her words really hit home with me. Like something just burst open in my chest (in a good way). Robin also told me she had "a vision ...

... t get everything I was looking for/expected out of this experience. I've gotten all that, and more! But, I was seriously contemplating staying for another month or two here. Unfortunately, that would mean scrapping my trip to Japan, and I came all the way across the world for that. There's no going back now! I wanted this post to be a summary of my time here, some thing that would ...

... are too many stories to share in detail, but over-all I am happy, and getting the hang of living out here. I am a little sad this weekend, as I realize just as I'm getting settled, my time here is half over. Anyway, as there are too many stories, there are also too many lessons. Most notably this week, I've learned that some times you have to let things go that you really REALLY want in favour of the things that you need. This is not a fun lesson ...

... Pretty embarassing. But, I guess that's what you get when training kung-fu is all you've known your whole life. Speaking of training your whole life, the teachers here seem to have done nothing else in life. There are four of them. They are: Jong Shifu - He is about 23 or 21 (the chinese have a different calendar than us, so he has TWO ages! I guess everyone here does). During training he is as stern as a drill sargeant, but outside he is ...

... is my first time seeing them! I used to laugh at those people who wanted to turn off more lights around Toronto so they could see the stars at night. "What a silly cause to fight for" I thought. I must say, I owe them all my deepest apologies. It makes me want to weep knowing that Toronto has been missing out on the stars all this time.) As I neared the training hall, I noticed the light was ...

... ways, it feels like I could be back home right now. Aside from the Mando-Pop and the penchant for red-coloured decor, that is. To my right is a guy from the Czech Republic, and beside him is a guy, who I could swear is named "Iceberg" (which is an awesome name to have) from Iceland. It's nice to have a multicultural atmosphere again. I guess it's true what they say "you don't know what you've got till it's gone". Anyway, it appears most ...

... to Beiling (North) Park. Too bad they don't have a Nanling (South) Park or I'd definitely have to go there to visit Emperor Kenny's Tomb (You *******s!). After working up an appetite wandering all around the massive grounds of the Park and the tomb, we stopped for an insane amount of dumplings. We had 6 20 dumpling orders with all manner of stuffings: beef, pork, lamb, melon, veggies, and fungus. Surprisingly enough, we managed to finish almost all of them between ...

... almost exactly like my late grandfather as well as my oldest maternal uncle. It's the Tian family look. He doesn't look all that Chinese. It's possible that he has some Indo-European heritage via the steppes connection as a Manchu nomad living in NE China, the terminal region of the vast steppes ...