Suzhou Fu Hui Hotel Suzhou

... br><br>So far, our trip in the south has far exceeded our expectations in everything but the food. The lunch and dinner were both less appetizing than the food in Beijing. Perhaps it&#8217;s because it was the fourth day in a row with just Chinese food. XO, the downtown GR Chinese restaurant will be off the rotation for a while when we get home!<br><br>A couple of random Suzhou notes:<br><br><br> Chinese people don&#8217;t generally care ...

... side of the street are homes, shops, eating establishments, hair salons, a scooter mechanic shop, a small hotel, and many street vendors. It seems like the entire neighborhood is out on the street every morning getting ready for the day. As we turn onto the street we often see a little old lady hunched over as she works on her small garden plot beside the road. A few more meters and we pick up the pace as we pass the ...

Suzhou<br><br><br><br>It is gloriously warm in Suzhou as we make our way to the central park. We find ourselves in "pet shop alley". I am tickled by a minah bird outside a shop which greets us with &#8220;Ni hao&#8221;, We understand the &#8221;Hello,&#8221; but unfortunately can't follow the rest of the bird&#8217;s chat. We meander past the fish tanks and flower sellers but then, unfortunately, our route takes us out of the pedestrian area ...

... pretty relaxed time. I now wonder how we manage to wolf down our lunches in Canada. When I come back to Canada having two hour lunches is going to one of the things I'm really going to miss. <br><br>At 1:30, it's back to class. School ends at 3:25pm. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we do clubs with the students. Right now I'm doing a card playing club and Lois has a drama club. <br><br>The students here are pretty awesome to teach. There are zero discipline ...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!! I'm dressing up *s * pir*te / cr*cked out gypsy loh*n, it's pretty legend*ry. Tonight were going to Pulp Fiction, who *re ridiculously nice *nd giving free beer to everyone who is dressed up. It should get f*irly rowdy. App*rently none of the chinese dress up so it's b*sic*lly drunk exp*ts flooding b*r street cre*ting *ll sorts of shen*n****ns. <br>H*ve *n *wesome h*lloween!!! <br>-B

... we made our way back to the hostel and examined my battle wound. (While playing darts, someone else's dart ricocheted off the dart board and struck me in the chest and drew a little blood!) Then it was sleep time! Monday, April 28 The day began pretty lazily. After our late night out we decided to just sleep in until we woke up. Unfortunately, my "sleeping in" is about 7am. I forced myself back to sleep for ...

... went home and memorized the words for egg and tomato, which in case you are interested are jidan (chicken egg) and xihongshi (tomato). Finally typhoon Wipha has now been downgraded to a tropical storm so it looks like there will be no excitement tonight. OH ps if you want to learn how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with chop sticks please watch the following video.

... streets, tree-lined avenues and canals! Once again I ask myself 'why can't I write something so simple and short!' I jibber on for a page or two to get such a simple thing written. <br>HHHHhhhhhmmmm! <br>Stop now! <br> <br>Anyhow, after walking around Suzhou's streets for the last six hours I wouldn't change or add a single word. It really is a wonderful city to be in ...

... the silk - each cocoon is so small they need to use so many to make anything. We were also taken to an embroidery factory. This was possibly the most interesting part! In the entry hall there are 2 photos, one of Chairman Mao and one of Princess Di - but when you look closely enough you see that they are embroidered not photos!! It was absolutely amazing. Wanted to buy some of the good stuff but was way too expensive. All over a very good day!!

... to pry my beloved piece away. Never the less I worked abit of magic and got what I wanted for a tidy price. I was happy with the buy and suspect that the toffee nosed art dealer underestimated me. Memories of carting art work around Cuba soon flooded back to me though and I really didn't want to face 3 months attached to this painting. Consequently the day after my purchase I posted the painting home! I figure that there's probably more chance of it getting home though than what there ...