Once upon a time, we decided to treat our students to an American cultural experience outside of the classroom. We decided to throw them a prom. After watching Back to the Future one night, we settled on “Enchantment Under the Sea” as our theme and we went from there. Alexes painted a backdrop, Dan put together a kickin’ playlist and we had a student help us book a large room on campus. Everything fell into place. We made tickets (though we didn’t charge) and taught a lesson all about dances in America. We even had a prom court. We had each [View Full Entry]

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We had a long weekend at the beginning of May for Labor Day. We decided to go on another “family vacation” to get out of Wuhan and see another part of China. The final verdict was to go check out the Three Gorges Dam. For those of you unfamiliar with the Three Gorges project, I’ll give a brief introduction. The dam itself is one of China’s most expansive (and expensive) undertakings. Located in YiChang, along the Yangtze River, the dam is set to become the world’s largest hydro-electric power station. Construction began in December of 1994 and it is not expected [View Full Entry]

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As soon as I found out that I was going to be in China this year, I knew that I would have a visitor. My friend Amanda called dibs on visiting the last week in March (her spring break from teaching Kindergarten). Amanda is basically the older sister I never had. We have been friends since Homecoming my freshmen year of high school when we bonded in the bathroom over the advantages and pitfalls of certain formal dresses. It was meant to be right from the start. She went to Augustana, which is the only reason that I had ever even [View Full Entry]

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Sorry for the epic intermission. Without further ado, here is the finale of our Spring Festival trip. We were up bright and early for our 20 hour bus ride down into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We piled into a mini-bus, took the ferry over to the mainland, and hopped onto another bus heading south to a lunch stop about 2 hours from the border. We grabbed some AMAZING sandwiches at a pub run by a man from New Zealand who was not afraid to pile on the sliced turkey and cheese. Our rag tag group of bus mates into Malaysia all decided [View Full Entry]

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We (reluctantly) left Koh Chang to head to Bangkok to meet up with Laura, Nick and Alexes. Poor Alexes had been stranded in Shanghai for a week thanks to the epic snowfall that devastated much of China. She had been planning on returning to Wuhan before meeting us in Bangkok, but she could get an international flight before she could get a domestic flight. So, she was anxiously awaiting our arrival. It was great to see her and start to share all of our stories. Alexes, Katie and I had a pool going on when Laura and Nick would show up. [View Full Entry]

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(This post starts out very Lewis Black and ends very Jack Johnson.) After a week of excitement and adventure in Chiang Mai, we decided that a little R&R was in order. We poured over the Lonely Planet: Thailand Islands and Beaches book at several meals until we found an island that was not touristy and close enough to Bangkok. We settled on Koh Chang. The staff at the Ben Guesthouse was amazing (as always) and they booked us an overnight bus to Bangkok, a bus from Bangkok to Trat, and a ferry from Trat to Koh Chang. We were all set. [View Full Entry]

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(Fair warning, this is a long entry. Feel free to ignore the text and enjoy the photos!) As promised, here is the account of our jungle trek. It was advertised as a 2 day/ 1 night jungle trek complete with a waterfall, hot springs, overnight stay in a tribal Karen village, elephant ride, and bamboo rafting. How could I resist?!? We started around 9:30 on the morning of January 24th. We piled into the back of a pickup truck with 8 other trekkers. There was a roof and some bench seats along the sides, so it was safe, just bouncy. Our [View Full Entry]

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After saying goodbye to Jessi at the Beijing Airport, I had a day to kill in Beijing before flying south to Guangzhou to meet up with Katie and catch our flight to Bangkok. Thankfully, we both made it to Guangzhou safe and sound. One flight delay and 16 gate changes later, we were on our way to Thailand. With a full day of travel behind us, we checked into our hostel in Bangkok for the night. We totally got the Boom Boom Room honeymoon suite. There were mirrors on 3 walls and the ceiling and there was some sexy netting at [View Full Entry]

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I am finally home (in Wuhan) after spending over 4 weeks on holiday (yes, I was on holiday like a Brit) in Thailand and Malaysia. The seven of us all had different travel plans: Laura and Sarah decided to take the train down through Vietnam, Alexes went home for a few weeks, Nick and Dan started in southern China before Nick went to Cambodia and Dan went to the UK to visit his lovely girlfriend. Katie and I decided that we wanted to see Thailand. I went to Beijing to see Jessi off and then Katie and I met up on [View Full Entry]

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With the holidays and Jessi's visit to China, I have been neglecting my blogging. We leave Wuhan tomorrow for Beijing. Jessi flies out on Friday for home, and I leave Sunday for Thailand. As if the last 3 weeks with Jessi here weren't enough of a vacation, I get to go backpack through Thailand for another month. I am a lucky, lucky girl. I promise to write more when I get home. For now, here are some pictures of our adventures. [View Full Entry]

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