travel plans!..zhouzhuang & fen shi jia's birthday!

wow, it's been a crazyy past week!
i'm gonna go backwards so..

#1 ..not sure what i last wrote on here about my plans for our 6 week vacation, as it's changed a million times over the past few weeks but its finally set!!! First I'm going with Alicia who teaches in Changzhou through ciee and her friend, and her friend's 2 friends..so 5 of us total.. to the Phillippines for a week!! and from there Alicia and I are going to Thailand for 6 days!!

i finish class on friday at 10am and i'm then going to meetup with everyone in shanghai
our flight leaves shanghai at 12:55am and arrives in Manila, Phillippines at 4:20am! haha, thats why its soo cheap..
we're gonna spend the first 3 nights/2 days in Manila and then once we get there we'll figure out where we can get to by bus..and where to book hostels for the rest of the week.
on fri. the 18th alicia and i have a flight that leaves Manila at 10:05pm and arrives in Bangkok at 12:20am (sat)
it seems like most of the famous islands and beaches are actually really far from bangkok, like a whole other flight.. so we booked the first 2 nights a hostel in the center of the city..and then we'll see what people at the hostel recommend and where we can go by bus or train.. not really sure but it seems like Ko Samet and Pattaya are both nice beaches that aren't too far from Bangkok.

alesia realized that its rediculously more expensive to get a flight from bangkok to Shanghai, than it is to just take 2 planes..one from Bangkok to Shenzhen (a city in China), and then from Shenzhen to Shanghai..so we went with that!

since we're gonna stop in Shenzhen we figured we might as well spend some time there too soo..

we have a flight from bangkok to shenzhen on Thurs the 24th thats from 6:50-10:50pm

then we're gonna spend thurs night, fri, and saturday in shenzhen and then we have a flight on sat. at 9:45pm to Shanghai

of course, lol..since we're gonna arrive in shanghai at 11:45pm I won't be able to get a bus back to Zhangjiagang..so we're gonna spend one night in a hostel by the airport and then catch buses in the morning.

its been pretty crazy trying to plan all of this especially since none of us knows anything about the phillippines or thailand, lol, and being that its all kind of last minute..haha, but i've been up til 1am everynight for a week looking at info and stuff and i can't wait!! 2 days : )

oh, also...we have officially been invited to celebrate the Chinese New Year with Fen Shi Jia's family! We're gonna spend the day at her house making dumplings and meeting her whole extended family which will be a lot fun! thats on feb 6th...

and..after that, we'll have about 10 days left of our break so i think i'll probably go to Beijing with Candice, but nothing's definite yet..

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#2.. Last Wed. was Fen Shi Jia's birthday, so Candice and I planned a surprise lunch! We spent Sat afternoon buying decorations like balloons and candy and stuff, and a cake, and flowers, and a teddy bear.. (yea, she's 22 but thats not weird here, LOL) On Sunday we had plans to meet her for lunch at the walking street (and then of course she called and asked if we wanted to go to Changzhou with her and parents instead..lol, but we had already bought all of that stuff so we said we were too busy..) So, Sunday morning Candice and I took all of the stuff to our favorite restaurant and set everything up in a little private room (it was actually tiny, lol). Then we went and met her at the walking street and told her we wanted to take a cab to our restaurant. She was very surprised and happy, and said that she's never seen that done in China, lol. ..Then while we were eating she asked if we wanted to Changzhou after, so we went. I bought a pair of fake levi's for $13 which actually fit good, which is nice since everything i own is basically stretched out by now, lol..and then we had dinner with her parents at a spicy Sichuan style restaurant..which was very good!

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#3 Last Tuesday, New Year's Day, Fabrice and I went with Flora and her friend to Zhouzhuang. I thought it was a place in Suzhou..but its actually a different town nearby, we went to a few small museums and ate lunch there, but turned out there wasn't much to see..then, after we walked around the walking street in Suzhou & ate dinner there before we came back. i forgot my memory card in my computer, haha..but Flora emailed me some pics so here they are..

sooo, thats latest news here..can't wait to blog from the phillippines & thailand!!!

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