7 Days Inn (Changsha Yaoling)

... but not ha. After this they took us to a Buddhist temple that was really amazing. It had some beautiful statues and a lake outside... i didnt get any pics but im sure ill go back. It was pretty brave of the student to take us around (most who dont know english are hesitant to even come by our house).. but i love when students take us out to do something new.

Some good news- i have a new little baby pup! His name is Bucket (Adam liked the name) .. but hes soo ...

... we were hungry! Miss some good 'ol American Junk Food! We went to a club called F1 that night which was pretty fun. Loud music, girls dancing on speakers, expensive drinks, and foreigners! It was outrageous how much the drinks cost. I suppose we have been living in the "Xintian Dream" paying a mere 2 kuai for a large beer. For a small Budweiser it was 30 kuai, and you had to order 12 minimum! It was overall a fun experience, and we met ...

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 ...

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 ...

... game tomorrow. She is an English major, a senior and very talented.

I was able to watch Zhong Bin and Le Tian, today. They are both non- English major juniors and they are very bright.

Le Tian got second prize with 8 other students and Zhong Bin got third prize with 10 other students. This was out of 60 non-English major ...

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.

... off, they just forgot to tell us about it though. Today I created a video slideshow of some of my adventures and interesting things I've seen in China. When you watch the video, click the other side of the mouse over the video and you can make it fullscreen, just go the zoom option. Hope you guys enjoy.

... was truly great or that no one has had Italian food in over a month. After-wards everyone went out to the bars. Today I didn't get up until 12 and then for the rest of the day I watched the TV series West Wing on my computer. I haven't had a day like that in a while and it was amazing.

... ago and I can see why! The body definitely did not look real at all. Although it looked really fake it was still interesting to see the reactions of the Chinese people. Many obviously still revered Mao greatly. After this Sam and I went to the Forbidden City. This complex was immense and some of it was amazing although a significant part of some of the lesser buildings had a serious air of neglect about them. All the buildings were also just large square rooms and by the end of our ...

... numbers and or address for Jenny or the Office in Changsha China. Of course she was happy to help, and I told her I would call her back in a little while to see if she had the numbers. Then I sat in the store and waited for awhile. I had a few conversations with they brother of the owner of the store, he spoke okay English, but he could write English pretty well, so we wrote back and forth to each other. Then I called Carissa back, and she had four phone numbers for me, and I was so ...