Tianping International Hotel Suzhou

... enough.

an hour of tossing the apartment later, i went back to work with three boarding passes. (thank god i travel so much.) got one from my trip to japan, singapore and taiwan. the one for taiwan was over 8000 rmb so that should be good and enough, right?

wrong! went back to the accountant and she said that the one for singapore was from a long time ago- she said a year and a half ago. the others were also old- japan was a year ...

... s, walmart or walgreens (lil had forgotten which one it was). you put your credit card in these machines and it'll tell you everything about your account: which movies you've watched, suggestions for movies, etc. and you can return the movie at any place with one of those machines!

so i know it doesn't sound that amazing- esp if you were in the states when all these changes happened. but honestly, if i mention blockbuster, it's going to date me?! how bizarre is that?!

... refreshing experience in my opinion. I mean, most years i do the routine two family dinners, both a little boring and containing not near enough booze to get me through happy and content. Also you could never play a decent game of Trevors Ass at a family dinner haha. Trev i'm hoping you'll read this because then at least one person will get my joke! But anyways, great night, great company, and great laughs =). 
Happy turkey eating!
-B

... had golden dragons carved on it. It is where the Qianlong Emperor sat when visiting the Lion Grove Garden. He wrote a calligraphy for the the building which can still be seen. This garden was small, but really great. I plan on taking my family to Suzhou in 2009 and I will definately be returning to this garden.



Ticket Price:
Peak Season ...

... is now. The garden is separated into three principal parts, east, central and west. The eastern section has colourful flowers but is of less interest than the other two.

We enjoyed a cruise on the one thousand year old Grand Canal then went to an embroidery workshop and had lunch at a nearby restaurant.

That night we took a taxi to a shopping area and checked out the local shops, found a KFC and had a burger for tea.

... from Shanghai and known as a garden city. The traffic is horrendous and road rules are very limited, there are push bikes, motor bikes and scooters everywhere, helmets not worn and even the babies are taken on the bikes and held by a parent. Enjoyed a walk along the street dodging the bikes parked on the footpaths and taking our lives in our hands when we crossed the road, even when it's on a crossing with the green light.

... the Blue Wave Pavilion, which was again another garden but very nice. We also happened across the former Confucius Temple which was a bit overgrown with vegetation. We eventually reached the SE corner of the old town where there was yet another pagoda (Ruiguang Pagoda) and another large park with a lake. We wondered around this park and arrived at the only remaining part of the city walls and the last remaining city gate. I even got to shoot ...

... a charming city with a nice pedestrian area, surrounded by the canals. At night we went to see an acrobat show, amazing tricks we saw there, this show probably exceeded everyone's expectations. After that we started to do some shopping and spent some time in an Australian pub to end off our day in Suzhou. A bus was supposed to take us to Shanghai the next day.

I can't believe I'm heading home tomorrow! These three months have gone by so quickly, yet I feel like I've done so much. Unfortunately, the past couple days have been rainy so I couldn't do as much around Suzhou as I would've liked. Still, I've gotten to spend time with people in our group and our Chinese friends who I won't see again anytime soon. Last Thursday we had the last day of our internship at the school. We taught a 5th grade class and then a 6th grade class and afterward ...

... and caught mr & ms. Smith. It was a totally weird experience... chinese people with chalkboards in the theater translating for their elderly parents, popcorn with weird crunchy stuff on it, nooooo english speakers, no western letters for movie names (we pointed at the poster and were handed two tickets, and bumbled around the 5 story theater untill we saw our film, and then bumbled around to find our assigned seats. After the movie we walked around the mall a bit, even ...