Somerset Emerald City Suzhou

... and taiwan was longer than that.

i said i haven't traveled too much this year. the only trip i took was to go to thailand. and y'all never told me i needed the boarding passes to get a reimbursement that is clearly stated in the contract. i asked about other receipts. i've got plenty of medical receipts. she said they're going to have to be traveling ones. i said does it matter if they're not in rmb? i found some rail passes/receipts ...

... what's changed? what's remained the same?

lil was telling me that she had a friend in australia that just recently left the states. as a joke, she asked her friend what's changed back home? it's only been a year so how much could have really changed, right?

well her friend tells her that blockbusters don't really exist anymore. like a lot of other stores, they're all closing, and selling their dvds for $1. and you can rent movies at these machines all over the place ...

Today us canadians celebrated Thanksgiving! you must be thinking, "rice on thanksgiving? that's ********" but no my friends we had a TURKEY! And stuffing and potatoes and gravy, oh my god i'm the fullest i've ever been in my life! It was one of the best nights i've had so far actually, I really don't think i've laughed as much as i did tonight since i've gotten here so thats always a plus =). Celebrating thanksgiving with friends is quite ...

Suzhou's Humble Administrator's Garden

The Humble Administrator's Garden was one of the three gardens I visited in Suzhou during my trip. I really wish I had the time to visit one garden on one day. They are so beautiful and so large. Their designs are so well thought out that even though there may be a large number of visitors, you always feel fairly alone. I would love to ...

A rainy day today due to a typhoon but didn't hinder our day. We visited the Master of the Nets Garden and the Humble Administrator's Garden.
The Humble Administrator's Garden was established in the 16th century by a retired magistrate, Wang Xianchen, and developed over the years as subsequent owners made changes according to the fashion of the day. A 16th century painting shows that originally the garden was less decorative than ...

We leave Shanghai at 9am for Suzhou on the way we visit a water town established about 700 years ago and check out some of the old homes of the wealthy people back then that are surrounded by water canals. We then take a boat ride along the canals.
Had a lovely traditional dinner including a pig hock cooked and marinated in like a soy sauce, it was very nice.
We check into our Suzhou Hotel - Suzhou is about 1 and a half ...

Our "minibus" was waiting for us outside the hotel this morning, only it was in the form of 2 vans. I checked my e-mails as the group gathered and whilst a man watched me check my e-mails. The renovations of the hotel continued, with the men lifting the cement bucket by bucket, using a rope, which they would pull up the side of the building along the bamboo scaffolding. We arrived at the train station and waited for our boarding time to arrive. I ...

... Auchan. Jess had warned us about walking through Auchan, a giant European mega-grocery store. Even though I had seen the outside of the building and heard about her experiences about being swept away in the human horde that is Auchan, I definitely was not prepared for the chaos that was this grocery store. The behemoth parking lot outside the structure is only for mopeds and bicycles and it is packed. As soon as you walk through the door you ...

... were the usual touts and stuff like that - by this time I'm just telling them to shut up and move on. So I begin to line up in a taxi line -- yes a line!! I felt something hit my leg looked down and these this kid latched onto my leg asking for money. Not being insensitive I told his mother to get her kid off me cause I'm not in the mood (all in English of course though i think my facial expressions said it all) - well my intervention was ...

... up. The ride from the airport to the main part of Shanghai was amazing. They have a train called the Maglev. (Magnetic Levitation) It uses magnets and it levitates over the tracks. It goes 430 km/h. We actually hit 431 km!!! It was so much fun. Now that's fast and furious! Oh and I can't forget to say...THE FOOD IN SHANGHAI WAS AMAZING. And so cheap. We ate like royalty. We'd pay $6.00 each and be full where we couldn't walk. Oh the food was soooo good. So so so ...