Swissotel Kunshan

Well, it has been a great semester. Those of you that will be leaving soon, I am sad to see you go, we had some good times. From Beijing to Xi'an it was a good run. Be sure to keep in contact through FaceBook, email, or whatever else and I wish you all a safe return. Maybe we will meet up again someday, but if not, it was good to know you, and have fun ...

... cérémonie du thé, a contrario de celle du Japon où elle
représente avant tout une expérience spirituelle toute intérieure, est en Chine
plutôt un partage social qui aurait la vertu de rapprocher les êtres vivant et
de leur transmettre des valeurs de quiétude, de paix et de bonne conduite. J’ai
donc été initié à différentes saveurs de thé, chacun nécessitant des récipients
différents, des temps d’infusion variés, et aux ...

... in Chinese! Very interesting and I could understand quite a bit. My Chinese has definitely improved since moving to Shanghai 1,5 years ago. I still don't use it nearly enough though, should really put more effort into it. But all this use of English in daily life will probably help me next month when I am finally going on a proper vacation again. It's been too long! For a true change of scenery I'm going to the US and Canada (NYC, Niagara, Toronto, Washington DC). It will be great ...

... deserty and horrible, and the weather wasn't much better as you could see in the pics it was a but overcast and horrible. So we were dead excited when we got across to Shanghai and found that there was sun and some greenery around!! Unfortunately that didnt last. What we should have done was gone out to see the sights of Shanghai when we arrived here at 3pm on Saturday but we were being lazy so just chilled in the hostel, played pool and drank the ridiculously cheap beer (600ml bottle ...

... completees ou leurs visas expires. Jai maintenant une chambre avec un lecteur dvd et une tele sur le mur, qui est dotee dun oeil bleu laser du futur comme big brother chinois me regarde. Je le recouvre du linge que jai porte ce jour la pour pas que ce regard mempeche trop de dormir. Bien entendu, yen a pas mal dautres des choses qui peuvent mempecher de dormir dans la vie, surtout ici, mais loeil bleu du big brother de la chine moderne en est une sur laquelle jexerce presentement ...

... and "What's your name?" I answered their questions in Chinese and also told them that I am a teacher (one of my favorite Chinese sentences). I asked them in English if they understood my Chinese and they said yes. I spoke to them a little bit more in English as well and then waved goodbye as I saw that we were getting a little loud in the otherwise quiet museum. As I made it to the exit, I saw them talking to a couple of other tourists ...

... line between new and old Shanghai. It cuts off the city about 4/5th of the way through. The newer area holds two of the largest buildings in the world and all of the architecture has really gone up since 1993. It is fantastic and has this mall called the Super Brand Mall. I didn't make it there today, but from the outside it makes the Galleria in Dallas look like a super Wal-Mart ...

... playing the Godfather theme song, which we both found quite amusing, seeing as we are both South American. By this stage my shoes resembled the water tanks in front of my house. I was desperate for new shoes but could not buy any until I had purchased a dry pair of socks. I haggled for a pair of fake Nike socks and purchased them for the special price of 4 Yuan, (AU$0.60) down from 5 (AU$0.80). I was unsuccessful at haggling for my pair of ...

... was decided to have dinner on the train, in the dining car, and the whole group save for a few went down to the dining car. One of our group members, a Serbian named Boris, was getting visibly agitated at the waiter, and playing the roll of ugly american, despite the fact that he wasn't even american. He left in a huff after deciding that he couldn't "deal with this" where "this" was the ...

... to the observation deck and the view would have been tremendous were it not for the haze. We followed this up with a walk down the river bank opposite which is called the Bund and is lined with the grand edifices erected by British and American companies in Shanghai's hayday, when it was a bustling port trading opium and silk to the world. The buildings stand serenely and it's an interesting walk down the most famous mile in Shanghai, spotting the different buildings ...