Taicang Qingcaohu Holiday Villa

... ever the wind takes you. Best of luck to you, and 再见.

Well I still look forward to this upcoming semester. 25 new people are coming, and I hope to make some new friends again. I also am looking forward to Monday, because that is when I start my two week trek into Southeast Asia. Warmer weather, beaches, and cheaper booze, hell yeah!

... or I might have bought the cage of barely-old-enough kittens, and then make Rachel distribute them to her friends. :) Despite my aversion to exoskeletons, the crickets were pretty cool. In China, crickets are lucky, so the bigger they are the more lucky they are. You can buy them in little cages. Walking by this was loud. I mean, really LOUD. Kinda creepy, but it was a unique experience.




Gaoqiao, Shanghai, China missyjoymel

... we'd left jackets behind. Needed a bath to calm my aching feet. Then thought about a nanna-nap but Al knew I wouldn't want to go anywhere so made me stay awake. Got dressed and walked up to Radisson New World to meet some of the cruise critters at Sky Dome bar. No idea what anyone looked like but sat down and hoped someone would ask us. Were approached by a lady and we'd found the two Aussies - christine57gdogs - Chris and her husband Ron from outside of Melbourne. Eventually Sandra ...

... so good to see everyone. I didn't tell em, but I had cried the night before because although Christmas in China was fun, it wasn't the same as being with all of em. I miss them so much. But seeing them having a great time and hearing Kimmy's voice on the phone made me feel a lot better. and I got to thank Nana again for her awesome care package- it was such a nice surprise. *We have a three day work week-yippie! After classes on ...

... vanamehed uurisid ühest ja teisest küljest, enne kui tirtsupurgi põue pistsid. Ei saanudki aru, kas putukad olid söögiks või võistluste korraldamiseks. Keelebarjäär on väljaspool turistipiirkondi väga suur, sest ise ei oska hiina keeles rohkemat kui tere-aitäh ja hiinlased ei saa inglise keelest mõhkugi aru, kehakeel ka väga abiks ei ole. Ühes nurgapealses putkas pidi ise putkasse minema, et näidata, millist jooki me osta tahame, sest me ei osanud hiinlast kuidagi sinna riiulini juhatada.

... dumplings) before going to bed so we went to a 24 hour cantonese place which had really good dim sum type dumplings. That day after I met up with Sabine again and we did the Bund 'tourist tunnel'. You pay 50 yuan and get driven through a tunnel with different coloured lights and cheesy music. The sort of thing thats so bad its good. I was pretty tired that day so planned an early night, but made the fatal mistake of going for a 'quick' beer in the bar ...

... I went from this comatose awake state to ****** sleep constantly. Not the way you want to earn frequent flyer miles. Met a really nice guy on the flight to Seattle, we joked around about how lucky we were that no one was between us. He was 6'4'' and around 200 lbs, it seriously made our day. Landing in Seoul was kind of weird, there is this strange familiarity. I saw a soda ...

... that I am, the tree was dressed and in place in our living room on December 1st. Now as we get closer to the big day I am seeing a suprisingly large amount of Christmas decorations/trees in and around Shanghai. I will share some of them with you. While not always completely in the Christmas tradition, I have to give kudos to some of the imaginative ways that the Chinese have created their trees and decorations.

... of the bus. Lap Top lady walked on by and told us the bus was the best option. The taxi drivers weren't happy with her. We boarded the bus and waited. No lights and no driver. Others boarded and waited and left to grab a cab. We thought bugger this and went to grab a cab to. We flew into 'the old' airport known as Hongqiao Airport which is about 18 kms from the city. The journey takes from half and hour to an hour. Ours took half ...

Feeling like we had exhausted the sights we wanted to see in Shanghai we opted to do nothing all day. Slept in as long as possible before collecting our train tickets and heading out. After eating no food on the last train I decided to buy some **** from the corner shop. Few packets of crisps and some muffins, nice and healthy. It was raining pretty hard outside so when I was offered an ...