Blogs from Wuxi, Jiangsu, China, Asia
February 3rd 2012
New photos on: http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/draftwrite/ …..local trips only, as the second semester approaches &, after nearly a month of work everyone is wondering how they will cope with kids who have likewise had a month off school. Hence the title of this blog. It'll be all right on Monday, won't it?..... …..we were told that the hot water would be off for 10 days, 19th to the 29th of January. Some of us are back here for at least some of that time, but reasonable in that the school is otherwise almost deserted as the Chinese teachers are with their families wherever they are for the most important festival in the Chinese calendar. However when the hot water trucks arrive & are seen to pump water in but only, at the very best, barely lukewarm water... read more
October 30th 2011
I haven´t had time to edit these photos yet so there may be some randoms or repeats. Apologies.... read more
August 8th 2011
Day 28 I am definitely falling behind on my blogging. A consequence of being extremely busy. I spend a significant part of my day writing, so when I get home it isn't really at the top of my list. I'm particularly excited today, since in exactly one month I'll be heading to the airport to meet my husband! Disclaimer - I am not currently a parent, so I do not have any interest whatsoever in judging anyone's parenting style. This blog entry is merely about what I observed over the course of a day, and how it seems to differ from the way things would go at home. A few Saturday's ago, one of my colleagues arrived at work with his 3 year old daughter. My first thought was "oh, hello, I guess you are just ... read more
July 27th 2011
Day 17 Finally starting to settle into a groove here. I have fully recovered from the sickness that plagued me last week and I'm ready to really get down to business! On Sunday, the only day off, as there is a 6 day work-week here, I decided that my nightly trips to the convenience store around the corner were not going to provide me with enough nutritious food options so I ventured out to the local "western style" supermarket. Now, I was somewhat prepared, since I had frequented one of these stores in Shanghai several years ago, but this place was a ZOO. My first mistake was to grab a cart. There is absolutely no chance that anyone can navigate a shopping cart through this place as there were crowds of people in every aisle, at ... read more
July 24th 2011
Day 14 Customer visit didn't go great. They are un-impressed with our lack of progress (so am I). Spent my birthday in bed sick (happy birthday to me). Finally came out of my coma on Sunday and the apartment has no running water! It is what it is. Life in China.... read more
July 17th 2011
Day 7 It's been a whirlwind of activity the last few days, but I have finally made it to Wuxi, which will be (mostly) my home for the next few months. Got into my apartment around 3:30 on Thursday afternoon, problem with the internet connection (i.e. NONE), so just packed up and headed to the office. GOT COMPLETELY LOST. Now, I've only been here once before, so I'm not that surprised that I didn't get it right the first time, but the worst part is that I walked COMPLETELY in a circle. By the time I realized that I had used the wrong "modern skyscraper" as my beacon, I was staring at my apartment tower again. Yeesh. Just what one needs when it is muggy and hot out is to walk 20 minutes in the wrong ... read more
October 10th 2010
Photos: …..apologies to anyone who has subscribed to the Travelblog site & received multiple Emails about the last YYW, or who received an email but couldn't find the newsletter. They have had server problems & the last YYW (The Large Torturing Machine), is there but doesn't appear on the link I sent. I think the problem has now been resolved..... …..Wenyi is back in Yangzhou, to visit her boyfriend, Farhat, a young contractor from the United Arab Emirates working with Jay, a Canadian, at a solar panel plant to the north of the city. I suggest we catch up before I head off for the holiday. She calls her new “big sister” Shen Yue , who suggests a new restaurant near her apartment. It's very new, beautifully appointed but, we are assured, reasonably priced. We all ... read more
October 6th 2010
After saying bye to Lauren in Nanjing, I hopped on a train and went another hour east to meet my mom's friend Jia who works half of the time in the States and half of the time in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province. Jia's empolyee Shihong met me in Wuxi and then together we took a bus to Jiangyin. I didn't take a lot of pictures and my tooth was killing me. It's hard to enjoy things when you are urgently needing a root canal. I hope I wasn't too much of a downer to Jia and all of her friends. They were super nice and showed me wonderful hospitality! First we stopped by Jia's company for some lunch and then Jia's intern Huadong showed me around a nearby park. We got a great view of the Jiangyin ... read more
The Ancient Gardens of Suzhou and Wuxi Buddhist Temple
Published: July 24th 2010Asia » China » Jiangsu » Wuxi » Suzhou
July 24th 2010
I'm writing this July 25th, Chinese time, because I was too tired last night to write it, but its from yesterday: We had an awesome touring day yesterday. I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep so I went down to find the hotel's gym. No one really spoke English but I could say enough for them to figure out what I wanted. I'm understanding more and more and more Chinese. We eat in the hotel restaurants a lot, because they're usually big, nice, and have enough room for all the guests. I met Jie's dad and he's really nice. So anyways, we always eat with about 5-8 people. Last night we ate in a hotel restaurant with friends of Jie's dad and I could understand a lot of the conversation, and sometimes when ... read more
May 6th 2010
Last weekend I headed to Wuxi (pronounced 'woo-she') to hang out with some friends. Wuxi is lovely and green, on the banks of Tai Lake, but not too different from Suzhou (it is after all only a 20 minute train ride away). I had planned to just take it easy as time off from work is rare, but ended up convincing my friend Andrew to trek to the "Big Buddha" with me. Great decision, as it was a gorgeous day (the sky was actually blue instead of its normal concrete color) and a lot of fun. Ling Shan, as it is officially called, is a huge complex of Buddhist art, temples, and a giant conference hall. And a really REALLY big buddha statue. The place was huge and it took us 3 hours to see everything. ... read more
