Zhong Da Hotel Yueyang

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 ...

My Faithful Followers,

Monday, before I caught a horrible cold, I took a tour of the city, solo. It was fun. I invited my fellow teachers, but schedules conflicted.

First I went to Bai Lu Temple. It is an ancient temple in the heart of the city. I had not been yet and I was surprised when I found it in the middle of the city. It is only 50 years old because it was destroyed (not completely) during the cultural revolution. It still resembles an ancient temple. I ...

Hello All,
I am still teaching about 3 hours a day and spending the rest of the time enjoying the wonderful country that I am visiting.

On Sundays I am tutoring a local high-schooler. He comes to my apartment for about 2 hours and we just have conversations in English and I help him with his homework. He is very intelligent and works 1,000 times harder than I ever did. One of our topics last night was the Chinese Education System. As many ...

Changshan jälkeen otimme junan Zhuzhou:hun tapaamaan uutta tuttavaamme Erikaa. Asemalla meitä oli vastassa Erikan lisäksi myös pilvenpiirtäjät ja kirkkaat neonvalot. Yllätyimme ensi näkemästä, koska luulimme saapuvamme pienempään kaupunkiin. Zhuzhou ei ole lonelyplanetissa, joten jostain syystä oletimme kaupungin olevan pieni idyllinen maaseutukaupunki. Tai no jos ei ihan maaseutua niin pieni kaupunki ...

Hello Friends,

Things are trucking along in China. Nothing new has happened lately except me eating DOG. Please do not tell Isabelle if you read this!!! It was incredibly good. I couldn't figure out what it tasted like until someone said lamb. It was really tender and better than beef and chicken. It ...

... They had 30 students in their class and they all managed to organize everything perfectly. They split up into four teams and they all cooked at a different BB-Q pit.

After the meal we played cards, tried different obstacles in the parks obstacle course and played sports.

It was a good day, but for some reason it reminded me of a middle school Field-Day.

-Adios

... 1502;סקנ 92; ברורה. מסקנה שהתחד 91;ה לי כשהמש 99;תי בדרכי.
ימי בסין ספורי 01; המה, ובקרו 89; אצטרך ל ...

Thanksgiving arrived just in time. Cold weath** and homesickness made the preceeding week a little mis**able. I spent a lot of time trying hard to look at life h**e with new eyes, rememb**ing what I liked about being h**e in the first place. Wh**e else would a student come up to a teach** and say, out of the blue, "Teach**, you're beautiful!"? Wh**e else would 12 year olds get so excited about playing pictionary or hangman? Today I rolled out of bed late, didn't have ...

... actually come in handy. Josh took us on a late-night adventure to sample a Changsga specialty called "tasty shrimp" at a nearby restaurant. Because it was raining, they set up card tables for us across the street in an underpass, right next to oncoming traffic and about 20 feet from a homeless man sleeping in the gutter. The shrimp, or crawdads, were cooked in hot sauce so potent that the restaurant gave us plastic gloves to wear while eating ...