TravelStream™ news feed for member bambbles on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/bambbles en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:39:37 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1248589297/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1248589297/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1248589297/tpod.html Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:39:37 -0400 There And Back Again

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Seoul, Korea Rep.

Clearly its been awhile since now the experience is almost over, or at least moving into a different phase. Let's see. I think the best way for me to do this is to add some pictures that I have and just go from there. It seems that the last thing I wrote about was the soccer game. Alright. I just spent like a hour packing and updating the calendar where I write everything down. So now I know what to say. I think for this entry though (since I am exhausted) I will just put up some pictures that I have collected thus far. Descriptions will be with the pictures!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/1/1238292480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/1/1238292480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/1/1238292480/tpod.html Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:38:06 -0400 My Halfway Around the World Experience

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Chengdu, Sichuan, China

Again I have gotten behind on my blog, but I have time now so lets talk about the Sichuan Opera. In a sidenote: the funny thing is, I am behind because I have been "super studying" Chinese at places where I have no access to the distraction that is my computer. Anyway, a few Mondays ago the Shanghai USAC group came to Chengdu for a visit. We were all invited to a dinner at a nice hotel and to see a Sichuan Opera performance. Since I have never yet seen this critical part of Chengdu life, I wanted to go. Plus it was free... and so was the food!After class I headed to the Starbucks near the school to study. Dinner was at 6:30 so I started to walk down Tibetan street to get to the restaurant about twenty minutes early, but I got stopped by the lovely police force. I tried to explain that I was just going to the road, but he was very adamant in his "No." What I should have done is pulled out my student ID and told him I was going to school... but oh well. I am glad that is over now.Because of this I had to walk in a very, very large circle until I found a cab (with adorable Chinese guys inside that were so happy to give their cab to a foreigner). I was just on time for them to start eating. All the food was out already; it was cold, and just okay. But it was free. A funny phenomenon that I've noticed is that I enjoy the cheap restaurants better than the expensive ones. It just overall tastes better to me, and maybe also the hectic atmosphere makes me feel more alive. But my experience with expensive food has not been as memorable as my everyday meals. But I digress. After dinner, we walked right back to the Starbucks where I had been, well actually past it because this street is the "ancient street" of Chengdu. It's really cool at night. It looks kind of like the pictures I have of Lijiang with all of the lanterns. And, of course, all of the snack food. We sit down and I realize its practically a private showing for us. We are in bamboo chairs and there are two rows with a table in between every two chairs in the first row (so chair chair table chair chair table). It's so that everyone has access to tea that they poured without having to reach over any other people. They also gave out sunflower seeds and peanuts. Oh and how could I forget the people coming around asking if you wanted a massage or an ear cleaning? Ha. No thanks. I am not brave enough to have a metal stick poked into my ear by a stranger. The performance consisted of different acts. The first was two guys doing what to me looked like sword tricks with teapots whose spouts were as long as swords. They even came right into the audience and refilled some people's tea cups. Then this puppeteer came out with a puppet who could grab things. Oh! And then there was the guy who made some awesome shadows with his hands, you know like what you do when you are 5 and camping, but his were awesome. Not just a bunny for him; He could turn his hands into kissing people! The next part of the show has a name in Chinese that I can't remember (surprise!) but it is basically the wife ordering the husband to do more and more ridiculous things. Sort of like "Honey do this please" "Ok dear I will balance this flaming bowl of liquid on my head and do a dance." He actually had to crawl under a bench while balancing a bowl that was on fire on his head. He did it on his belly and opposite. It was ridiculous! This was followed by a guy who threw knives, complete with audience participation. I have this gem on video. They chose Kevin and he was blindfolded. He was under the impression they were throwing knifes to hit balloons around him, but of course there is a trick involved, which I will not reveal. It was a very entertaining part of the show with many "Oos" and "Ohs." And then the main event! Face changing!! I had heard so much about it but never seen it. These people wear a bunch of masks and pull them off so fast... its crazy! They can be right up in your face and you can be staring so hard, trying your hardest not to blink, and still you can't really tell that they have changed their mask until its already done! It truly is a masterful skill! Such a unique artform. I wonder how they even came up with that. "I know a perfect form of entertainment! We will wear 20 masks and pull them off so fast it will baffle the people!" =It was a good night, and a good cultural experience. It was funny though, because it had the feel of a baseball game because of the peanuts shells crunching under my feet. An American pass time meets a Chinese one in my mind I guess! I am glad I didn't miss seeing this awesome part of Sichuan culture.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1247414363/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1247414363/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1247414363/tpod.html Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:20:39 -0400 There And Back Again

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Seoul, Korea Rep.

This evening, even though it rained all day, I went to see the Soul of Seoul. The FC Seoul club soccer team (I feel like FC may stand for football club so that sentence is redundant). I finished writing my last entry and headed out to meet the guys. None of the girls showed any interest in the sporting event, but I was stoked. Four of us took the bus to the subway and hopped on. It's about a half an hour to the World Cup Stadium, where they play their home games. It is an awesome stadium. I was in shock when I first saw it.Our first goal was to get tickets because we weren't sure if they would run out (far from it). And we popped a little extra for the east side seats so we could see more of the field. All in all it was 12,000 won which is approximately 11 dollars maybe? I don't know. I usually just move the decimal three places and know its really better than that. Anyway, I digress. One of the guys who came with us decided not to go in at this point and would just stay to eat with us. He was really tired. He gave one of the other guys his really nice camera to take some photos which was nice since we discovered on the way there that Derek's cameras screen was broken. We found some food at a food court and I ended up eating some spaghetti (accidentally but it was still good). And then we went to the convenient store for some beer because unlike every venue for everything in America, you can bring in your own bottles and cans. The guy even gave me some cups. That was nice of him haha. We got inside and got some fans (they were a dollar i picked some up on the table during half-time for free). It was a good game. Seoul scored in the first minute. The final was 5-1 with Seoul beating Incheon. It was a really good time! Actually some other american students sat behind us. They were from New York doing a similar program at a different university. I had such a good time but now it is really late so I think i better get to bed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1247383514/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1247383514/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1247383514/tpod.html Sun, 12 Jul 2009 04:01:30 -0400 There And Back Again

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Seoul, Korea Rep.

I've been a little lax in writing this. But I hope to do better. I am going to jump to today though since it is fresh on my mind. I will go back and cover some of the other things that have been going on. But right now it is Sunday and I met this girl, Allison, who asked if I wanted to go to church with her. There is a huge cathedral in Seoul called Cathedral Church of the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception and thats where we wanted to go. Apparently we didn't have to rush for a mass because there is one every hour for the whole day practically. So we chose the 11 o'clock mass and left the dorm about 10. Of course it was raining. Pouring really. So we took a bus to the subway. I was wearing a long dress so I had to hold it and my umbrella, while my pink-sandled feet got soaked. Luckily we ran into Hemmi who lives on our floor, also catholic, and was heading to church to meet her Aunt. She speaks Korean which was helpful because she could ask how to get to the church and we wouldn't have to walk around in a monsoon trying to find the entrance. The first woman we asked was also going there so she took us too. We had to stand in the doorway for a bit while the other mass finished. Also they have a plastic bag that you put your umbrella in so as not to get the ground wet. Pretty smart in my opinion. We got inside and picked a seat toward the front. The cathedral was beautiful and old. There was a huge pipe organ and choir. They had songbooks and since I can read a bit of the korean (just not fast or to the point of comprehension) I could sing along. The first thing I noticed that it was a very small minority of women who did not wear a white veil over their hair. It made me feel like a heathen for showing my shoulders! The mass was fine. That's the one good thing about being Catholic. Catholic means universal and our mass definitely is that. It was easy to follow the rite even though I didn't understand a word. And I love the bowing sign of peace! They did that in China as well. After church Hemmi's Aunt took us to an underground (literally not knock off merchandise) mall and showed us to the food court where Allison and I ended up eating really nice food along with sharing some really good conversation. It was still raining when I came inside but I hope it stops as we were planning on going to a soccer game tonight! In a side note, last Tuesday I went to the Korean National War Museum (which was really awesome). I took so many cool pictures (i'll do an entry about that later... i just really want a nap now!) but sadly I did not put the camera back in my camera bag and just set it in my purse. My purse is pretty deep but there was a lot of stuff in it that day, and I ended up getting my camera stolen on the crowded subway. I am not going to lie and say I am not sad about that, but I really just want the memory card. With social networking sites like facebook, my korea trip will not be without photos. So I am not as sad as one would think.I met this one woman who told me now that my Korea trip was ruined and you will always remember this trip as the one where your camera was stolen. And I don't really think of it that way. Yeah my camera was stolen but that is only one bad thing that happened in a series of good things. Everywhere I go someone has a camera. So I am not worried. I'll look into getting one in China if it is a good deal. It looks like we are heading out to the soccer game now so no nap :( But I am really enjoying my trip so far. I've been to multiple shopping areas during day and night, have gone clubbing til morning (not as bad as you would think), been to a water park, seen an indie music festival... just so much! I'll get some picture for you guys to see soon!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1246965058/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1246965058/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1246965058/tpod.html Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:05:15 -0400 There And Back Again

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Seoul, Korea Rep.

My fourth of July weekend was like what you would expect most forth of July weekends to be like: swimming, barbecue, friends... but all of this with a Korean twist. Our first field trip was this weekend and we had the choice of either going to Everland (Korean version of Disneyland one website said) or Caribbean Bay (a pirate themed water park). Seeing as Ohio has one of the best amusement parks just around the corner, I thought I would take this time to battle the crowds and take a dip into the water park. We left the university around 10:30 and upon arriving and each destination ate a hearty lunch. My lunch surprisingly enough consisted of something akin to home fries and syrup, chicken, pork and soup. It was quite good. Then we were off. But while the rides and amount of people were the same, dress code was a little bit different. "I bet they were more conservative" I feel like may be what comes to mind. And to an extent they were, but there were a good deal of people in bikinis, so nope you would be wrong. What I am talking about is the amount of people wearing hats. They were required to be in the water. "Well that seems reasonable" you may say "swim caps will keep the hair out of the pool"And that's where you would be wrong. It's not a swim cap, the majority of people were wearing baseball hats. Baseball hats in a water park. Clothing in the water. I could just hear my mom talking about dyes and chemical level. So that was interesting, wearing a baseball hat in a water park. We did the normal things, rides, slides and wave pools. Fun fun! After it was over, we headed to our resort which was in the mountains where we were to be having the opening barbecue. I have not eaten as much food in one sitting prior to or since that night. It was that good. We had sausages and ketchup (happy independence day!) and pork and rice and beer and soju. I see I lost some of you at beer. I was surprised at how much beer there actually was, but not the point. Let me do food first then I will get to drinks. There was this one thing, you take a large piece of lettuce, put in a little rice, smear some hot spicy sauce on it (not too much) and then top it with some pork shreds. Then you roll it in a ball and chomp down on some awesome food! It was so good. Soju is the liquor of choice in Korea. It takes like Vodka, is about as strong, and comes in a beer bottle. Quite fiery. So much fun and socialization ensued. It was a great time and as close as I think I could have come to a traditional 4th in South Korea. No fireworks, but we did sleep on the floor. Not that those correlate but still. The next day we headed to a Korean Folk Village, which is like the Korean version of Colonial Williamsburg. It was very cool to watch some of the performances. A nice chill day. Too bad I had to come back and work till the wee hours on a presentation.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1246848464/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1246848464/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1246848464/tpod.html Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:04:43 -0400 There And Back Again

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Seoul, Korea Rep.

So I've been in Seoul a little over a week now. The temperature checks are done and the classes are in full swing. I am taking a class called Globalization which we talk about how the "shrinking" of our world is affecting different parts of society. It is really interesting and I really like the professor. The other class I am taking is Beginning Korean. It's a bit challenging, especially if I don't want to pronouncing the words like I would in Chinese. The good thing is this language uses an alphabet system instead of 30,000 characters, so I can walk around reading signs at the level of a 3 year old Korean. Yay! But I don't understand anything.. (except for milk 우유 because of allergy issues. I learned that the hard way!)Most nights I have gone out and done something. There is a subway station on campus, so after walking about 10 minutes uphill both ways, you are connected to Seoul. And since I have a T-Money card, which acts as a bus pass, subway pass and even a taxi pass, I can easily get anywhere after a short jaunt on the subway. Let's give a brief rundown of some of the things I've done: - visited the Seoul Art Museum with my friend Caitlin who I met in China and was visiting Seoul before retuning to America. It was so nice to see her again and this time we got to discuss Renoir. - seen a couple of shopping markets in Seoul. very crowded and busy! - walked along the "lovers river" of Cheonggyecheon at night complete with light up water fountions and stones. It was so adorable. I'll probably write about this more because I am in love with the pictures. I've already gone twice but I want to go again and walk the whole thing. But don't worry family. No lovers walk for me! just the walk of a tourist with a camers - ate fried chicken with tongs and chopsticks on multiple occassions, food poised from one of them which was not very fun! - hung out with a couple of students who are coming to Ohio Northern in the fall! They are so nice! They organized a nice dinner and drinking for us. - karaoked for two hours! I sang Bohemian Rhapsody, Hot N Cold, I Love Rock and Roll, and some N*Snyc and Britney Spears! It was a fun night! There is so much to see in this city, but after all, it is still just a city, but a bigger one than I have ever lived! More later as it is time for food and I am hungry :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1246089328/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1246089328/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/2/1246089328/tpod.html Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:11:11 -0400 There And Back Again

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Incheon, Korea Rep.

My first trip to South Korea started off with a bang. After flying from Cleveland to Atlanta, we took off for Seoul. 14 hours, a touch-screen personal TV, one inflight medical emergency, and three "delicious" meals later, we were in Incheon. In addition to filling out the normal immigration forms in flight, I noticed one extra, asking me about if I had coughed or sneezed or had a fever. Now of course the answer, even if I had cough (which I didn't) would be "No" to all of these. I figured that this was for the H1N1 or Swine Flu scare, and that would be the last I heard about that. Oh no.Right off the plan you were lined up and had your temperature taken with one of those ear thermometers that babies use. I was fine and got access to the airport. That makes sense I guess. Detain them before entering the country. Nothing wrong with that. That's probably all I will hear about the Swine Flu.Wrong again.After arriving at the university, immediately after getting my key Derek and I were told to go see the doctor sitting in a chair about 100 feet away. There we had our temperature taken again. Also we were given a chart and our own thermometer to fill in our own temperatures as we take them every morning and evening for a week. "Ok," I think. "A little extravagent, yes, but if this is how their country wants to deal with it, alright." But not only are we required to take our temperatures and monitor our coughing and sneezing, we also on the first two days of classes all must wear breathing masks. When handed them I almost started laughing at the picture in my head of 20 students sitting in a classroom looking like we just escaped from the ICU. I am bringing my camera that day. They also cancelled our orientation and just gave us packets. I am a little sad about this because orientation is where you meet people and ask questions. Where you learn about the area around you. But oh well. What can you do? They are going to have a mini-orientation later but I am not going to just sit and wait until then. Exploration is in my near future. In fact, it is also in my near past. Adventures are already pilling up faster than I have to write about them. But don't worry, faithful readers, I will catch up. Let's just hope the internet is working on my side and not against me :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/1/1242272100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/1/1242272100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/1/1242272100/tpod.html Wed, 13 May 2009 23:47:04 -0400 My Halfway Around the World Experience

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Dazu, Chongqing, China

It's past "The China Experience" but there were a couple of things that I never got around to posting. The least I could do was share the photos. First, the trip to Dazu, a small city near Chongqing, where there are a bunch of ancient rock carvings. They are pretty sweet looking. I don't remember much from the trip but lets see what I can remember. We bused there on a Friday, the whole USAC group. It took a while. Like 3 hours? When we got there we checked into our hotel and went to dinner, which was alright, but not Sichuan enough for me. We then went to the first night of rock carvings which were lame and fake looking. I proceeded to explore and ended up at a cliff 8 feet high. My friend and I jumped down it and I was covered in dirt, but empowered. The next day's carvings were actually really sweet looking. I enjoyed them much more. And that was it. We went back that afternoon, and I helped one of my friends move into my other friends house. I remember that part, because getting everything in the taxi was a challenge but we did it.That was the last real trip going around China. I have some other pictures of time spent with my friends (which was what the last couple of weeks really were... well that and writing papers). I'll include some photos with that as well. In the end my China experience was unforgettable. Part of me wished it could go on forever, but I know that in order for things to be special and memorable, they can't last forever or else they would get dull, monotonous, boring... life is just a series of experiences and though we may not remember it all, we will remember how we felt during them. And that is what I will remember. The feelings. That and the friends I made, and because of the awesome invent of the digital camera I will not forget them or the experiences that the photos will bring up for me. It was exciting, China. And I am sure I will see you again soon.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/1/1236788700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/1/1236788700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/1/1236788700/tpod.html Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:51:57 -0400 My Halfway Around the World Experience

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Chengdu, Sichuan, China

I've heard a lot of stories lately. Due to a certain anniversary that just happened, China has amped up it's security in certain areas, and you know, if that is how they want to handle it, that's cool. It's interesting seeing FBI equivalent guards and cops galore all staring at you with their machine guns, questioning with their eyes, "Are you American?"My University is a minority university located in the part of Chengdu that is now covered with the police. It's been gradually getting worse and worse since I've been back, until this weekend when you wold see trucks filled with soldiers. Anyway, I was searching through China Daily for some information regarding a different story I heard from a friend about arrests yesterday, but did not find anything about that. I did however find this story. My eyes were drawn to this "never restricted overseas touring groups in the province's famous Jiuzhaigou scenic spot" which is not true. My friend, whose parents are coming from America very soon, was suppose to go to Jiuzhaigou on the 18th and there is no travel allowed until the 16th at the earliest. Not only that, but they mention not restricting certain people to certain areas, well I have not experienced that. Instead I've had cops come up to me and say "You can't come this way!" while many Chinese people pass. My friends went to a small place just around the corner to eat jaozi yesterday and were told to go away by a man and his machine gun. It is definitely an interesting experience and I am being super safe about it because of all of the mistrust, and my passport is now on me at all times. The last place I want to end up is in a Chinese jail because I wanted to eat some yak meat (which by the way I had in the form of a steamed bun the other day and was quite impressed by its awesomeness. that and some potato baozi. Oh, man my mouth is watering just thinking about it).But yeah, I wanted to remember this feeling. Remember this event I guess. And my thoughts on the matter is you would have to be stupid to try anything now. I would never in the first place, number one because China is not America and number two because I am here to learn Chinese, not get deported!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/1/1236348240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/1/1236348240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bambbles/1/1236348240/tpod.html Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:39:02 -0500 My Halfway Around the World Experience

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Lijiang, Yunnan, China

Almost done with this trip, guys! Bear with me! We woke up early on day 6 to take a bus with the other foreigners at the hostel to Tiger Leaping Gorge. This is a world famous hiking/backpacking trail in a beautiful mountainous area of southwest China. We got a deal because of all the people sharing the minibus. On this trip I sat next to a couple of Italians and we talked for a while. It took about an hour and a half to get to the Gorge from Lijiang. Caitlin and I after much discussion and research decided to not hike the whole thing but a pre-planned part that we picked out. Also, it takes 2 days to do the whole thing if you are experienced and we had a plane out on Saturday. (This was a Friday). We hiking, we talked, we got sick, well I got sick and let me tell you, not fun... we had a strip show, you know all the normal things. I am sure you are wondering about the last one. It's late January. We had been sleeping in layers upon layers, so we wore layers to hike. Wow the sun was hot and my tights under my jeans just were not doing it for me, nor her either. So we picked a spot along the trail with a good view and did a mocking strip show of all of those ridiculous photo shoots. Don't worry, family, because of all the layers the most risque thing people saw were my socks. And if anyone saw it was a goatherd and I am sure he needed a new and interesting experience to his goat filled life. We stopped for lunch at a hostel and had some really good cheap food with a beautiful view. A note on the bathrooms here, its a trough (literally) that you do your business in. But what is special about this is it is open air, meaning I had a nice window where I could look out and see mountains (when not in the squatted and ready position of course). In between hostels in when I got sick of course, but that night I felt better. It was so gorgeous and we talked and got along well the whole time. Because of how we did it, we saw minimal travelers (but lots of goats... including a goat family), so that was awesome. We planned to stay the night in the gorge and we arrived at the guest house around 6. We got a dorm room at Tina's and took a beautifully hot shower. We ate dinner under the stars and ended up being one group of two groups of guests, the other being a Chinese family that stayed away from us. So that was pretty awesome. I had a great time sitting on the roof patio and watching the stars. Not as bright as Lugu Lake, but still spectacular. I even had a little dance sequence. Quite fun. Not only that, but this guesthouse had... wait for it, HEATED BLANKETS! Oh wow! We were so stoked. The funny thing was, I didn't sleep well despite all the awesome. Anyway, we woke up late the next day and had some more cheap yummy food. After a little bit of miscommunication we contacted a driver to get us back to the entrance of the gorge and hopped a bus back to Lijiang. This was a frustrating bus because we stopped 800 times, there were other foreigners, and there was a nice little kid in front of us who wanted to practice her english. None of this was a big deal (except the 800 times stopping) but still. And the little girl was adorable with her Beijing accent. Back in Lijiang we ended up helping the foreigners get to their hotel, or at least kind of did. And then I ran into other foreigners who came up to me and asked "Do you speak English?" which I thought was a nice gesture. I could have not. Even though I was wearing my Cleveland Indian's hoodie... in any case they also needed help finding something and I pointed them in what I thought was the right direction.Then we shopped. Oh dear Lord, the scarfs there were awesome. And the colored ones were 3 for 10 kuai! I know have a wonderful rainbow of light scarves to mix and match accordingly. We ate at a pizza place for dinner, in which I had a pizza by my self (it was Caitlin's turn to feel not well, then headed for the airport. Our taxi driver spoke in a minority language and normal mandarin and we had fun talking to her. Our plane was delayed a bit which sucked but eventually we got back to Chengdu, only to wake up the next day and do homework before school started the following day haha. Overall the trip rocked hardcore. It was definitely a memorable experience that I wont forget anytime soon. As to what's been happening lately? I've been studying Chinese (I had a resurgence of motivation and when that happens you take advantage of it) and hanging out with my friends. I teach English tomorrow. Maybe my next entry will be about that is going. In any case the Tiger Leaping Gorge pictures rock so make sure you look at those.
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