Xiang Quan Hotel Changsha

... finally came to a stop at a farm in the middle of no where and started walking towards the woods. Adam and I were completely clueless of what we were doing there.. my guess was picking some vegetables or planting something?? She brought a bag of sweet potatoes and they started to build a fire. We ended up throwing the sweet potatoes in the fire until they were black... took them out and hit them with a stick to open them up... then eat the insides. just like roasting ...

... of cool people. We were invited into a private VIP room with some Changsha locals, one of which studied in Canada for 4 years. His English was amazing, and they were celebrating his brother's birthday. We played some drinking games with them for a while, and then went downstairs to dance the night away! The next day we went to an amusement park called "The Eye of the World." This place had a little piece of every country. We saw Mount ...

Nov, 20th was my 23rd birthday. I am aging well, but I am seven years from thirty!! It is crazy!!

Anyway, I (with some help from friend) booked a suite at the HuaTian (5-star) Hotel. It was incredible. About 15 people from all over Hunan came for the celebration and it was swell.

This month my buddies (Team Sharks) and I participated in No-Shave-November ...

... ole juurikaan vapaa-aikaa. Pari oppilasta kertoi keskimääräisen päiväohjelman kestävän aamukuudesta ilta kymmeneen. Kerroinkin luokalle, että Suomen ja Kiinan erona on se, että Suomessa nuorilla on enemmän vapaa-aikaa.

Vietimme Erikan luona mukavan, pidennetyn viikonlopun, jonka jälkeen pakkasimme tavarat ja lähdimme Kiinan etelä-osaan Kunmingin kaupunkiin hankkimaan Vietnamin ja Kambodzan viisumit.

I just got back from a night in Changsha. I went with three students and the heads of the English Department for an English competition. I have been training the three students for about a month now and they had their competition today.

I was unable to stay in Changsha tonight, so I will not be able to see Willow's speech. I have a ...

I have finally returned from a well needed break. The last nine days, I have been in Changsha and Shanghai. I went to Changsha for two nights and then Shanghai for seven. It has been a good adventure.

I went to Changsha to celebrate National Day with all of my fellow teachers. It was a huge day for the PRC and Changsha was wild.

Besides partying with everyone, not much was done.

Here are the few pictures from the nights in Changsha.

This morning I woke up at 7am to try and watch my Gators play against Charleston Southern, but unfortunately for the first time my internet was down until 10am. I was only able to watch the last minute of the game. Also I had no running water until 12 b/c they are doing construction on the new gym and shut the ...

Last night was a great night, Michaela one of the world teach volunteers organized a potluck dinner and it was a huge hit. There were about 25 people that show up. I made penne pasta in vodka cream tomato sauce with pork meatballs. Everyone raved over how great my dish was but I'm not sure if ...

... started out the same as all the students, boy meets girl, they fall in love at first site etc. etc. when we suddenly hear: "The girl told the boy 'I'm really a boy so I can't marry you.'" Now coming from a Chinese student this surprised me and I noticed all the teachers in the back listening intently. The girls seemed to sense that their story and sparked a lot of interest and so they quickly rushed through the ending in embarrassment. "But because ...

... for Christmas, which made it festive, although for the wrong holiday. Christmas carols played in the background and all of the waitresses wore antl**s on their heads. Friday, Shannon and I trekked down to Zhuzhou to meet Melissa, then the three of us continued down to the city of Heng Shan, which lies at the base of the Heng Shan mountain. The mountain is one of the five sacred Taoist mountains in China. Buddhists and Taoists both live on the mountain, in the many ...