http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Chinese-New-Year-Dragon/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Chinese New Year Dragon en-us Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:08:22 +0000 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:08:22 +0000 Quick note I canrsquot post pictures on this site anymore. The last two times that I have tried it messes up other programs. I have absolutely no idea how or why this happened but it is just too frustrating. Both times I tried typing in Google Chat and my text was entered backwards. My friend thought that I was taking a lot of time to play an elaborate joke and type everything backwards. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-341252.html October 1st is National Day a holiday to celebrate the founding of the PRC in 1949. Most people get a week off to celebrate and I was one of the lucky ones. When I say that I got a week off this is both true and misleading. We get a week as in 7 days. So I had to work on Saturday and Sunday the 27th and 28th to make up for 2 of the days that we would miss during the week. Make sense No. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-332470.html Hello helloI can't believe how fast time is flying My first month back has been wonderful especially since I finally found some Chinese Duracell batteries for my camera. So here is the much anticipated apartment tour. I am headed to Beijing for a few days so I'll have lots to share when I get back.Happy Fall http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hubei/Wuhan/blog-329253.html In my classroom I have taught several lessons on American holidays so I figure it is about time that I share some information about Chinese holidays or festivals as they call them with you. This Sunday September 14th is MidAutumn Festival a traditional Chinese Festival. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese lunar calendar. This is when the moon is at its fulle http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hubei/Wuhan/blog-323081.html How time flies. According to my homepage it has been 101 days since I have last posted a blog. I had intended on writing a reflective wrapup of the yearrsquos trials and tribulations but time just got away from me. Before I knew it I was back at home spending a whirlwind 6 weeks trying to see as many people go as many places and eat as many things as I could before heading back to Wuhan f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hubei/Wuhan/blog-322364.html 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 ldquoEnchantment Under the Seardquo as our theme and we went from there. Alexes painted a backdrop Dan put together a kickinrsquo playlist and we had a student help us book a large room http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hubei/Wuhan/blog-282552.html We had a long weekend at the beginning of May for Labor Day. We decided to go on another ldquofamily vacationrdquo 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 Irsquoll give a brief introduction. The dam itself is one of Chinarsquos most expansive and expensive http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hubei/Three-Gorges-Dam/blog-272646.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-270424.html 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 minibus 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 ma http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-263605.html 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 arr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Lanta/blog-253762.html 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 RR 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Ko-Chang/blog-250906.html Fair warning this is a long entry. Feel free to ignore the text and enjoy the photosAs 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 resistWe started around 930 on the morning of January 24th. We piled int http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-249116.html 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. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-249091.html 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. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-248568.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-236038.html We played softball http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hubei/Wuhan/blog-225363.html I have had an eventful December thus far including the first of too many goodbyes finally making it to a softball game and going to a Christmas Market at a French street in Wuhan but I want to write about todayrsquos adventures while they are still fresh in my mind. Sarah Katie Alexes and I met with Jo and Maggie for lunch. We went to a restaurant with spicy Szechwan dishes. The dumpli http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hubei/Wuhan/blog-225700.html After weeks of good intentions and one thwarted attempt we finally made it to the Art Museum. It was the last day of some sort of festival in Wuhan so we were able to get in without paying the admission fee. Even though we only had a chance to explore two of the many galleries at the museum it was so refreshing to meander through the high exhibition halls and just let the art wash over me. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hubei/Wuhan/blog-225091.html For the last few weeks I have been anticipating the holiday season. I was getting a little nervous because I knew that the excitement and novelty of living in China would wear off right around Thanksgiving and Christmas. I had fully expected to be hit with some fullblown homesickness. This is officially the longest that I have been away from home and I honestly thought that I would be feeling http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hubei/Wuhan/blog-222528.html Well ladies and gentlemen I did it. I ate dog. I decided before I came that I was going to be open to most if not all of the culinary challenges that came my way. Dog meat was not something that I wanted to add to my daily diet but it is something that I wanted to try. To clear a few things up most Chinese people do not eat dog. It is not in the regular rotation with chicken beef pork http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hubei/Wuhan/blog-220641.html