IrishGlobetrotter

As always since my last blog quite a lot has happened! When I last wrote I was preparing to get organised for my trip back home. Before that though I got to celebrate Paddy’s day and my final night out in Alice for a while, both of which included plenty of alcohol and fun times!! I then began to pack up my things which believe me after settling for 10months in the one place was a difficult task. It most certainly didn’t all fit back in to my rucksack... so I took what I needed and then stored the rest at Doc’s as I knew my days in Alice weren’t over yet and that I’d be back! Then instead of flying out of Alice to Sydney and catching my flight home another perk of my days ... read more

Okay so when I wrote the last blog I said I’d continue it in a few days, clearly that didn’t happen. And just talking to Mum and Aunty Geraldine the last day on Skype they were reminding me how behind I was and also Mum said Aunty Philomena had commented that I hadn’t blogged in a while. So apologies for the lack of recent updates but I have a few reasons (/excuses??!!) To begin with considering I write my blogs a while after the events have taken place I do have a little mini diary that helps me to keep track of what I’ve done but I lost this for a few weeks. I couldn’t find it anywhere then after asking all my flatmates had they seen it, one of them actually came in from outside ... read more

I know that I’m uploading these two blogs back to back but it’s a long story as to why.... as I write this I am currently snowed in, in a remote town on the Tibetan border and there is no internet access, so as soon as I get out of here and back to relative civilization I will post these two blogs together. Before I go into my current situation however let me pick up from my last blog. It was off to the Sichuan province, namely Chengdu which was further South than my last location, progressively moving southwards in order to get to Vietnam (if I ever get that far..... never expected to spend this much time travelling China but it really is an amazing place). It was another 16 hour train journey which again ... read more

We had a full week off for spring festival to celebrate Chinese New Year, this was like my Christmas holidays coming late! We (Adam, Demond and myself) booked return flights to Shanghai and got them at a great price considering it was the holidays. Our flight was from Tianjin (a city 1 and 1/2hours away by train) at 4pm so we decided to set off early giving ourselves loads of time to get to the airport and get checked in etc. Firstly when we got to our local train station it was eerily quiet, never before had I ever seen any train station in China like this, usually they are packed with people and they are a great staring opportunity for all the locals when we three foreigners walk in, but not this time. It was ... read more

Ok so it’s been quite a long time since I’ve updated this therefore some of the things in this blog are a little outdated, but I have been meaning for ages to get around to writing this and telling you all about the way I celebrate the holidays over here in China. Firstly I’m just going to say that it's only because I am a foreigner and that I work for an American company that these holidays were celebrated to the extent that they were! I'll start with Halloween. Halloween isn't something that is traditionally celebrated in China, however in the shops there were costumes and masks for sale and there were some pumpkins to be found albeit they were tiny. This is one thing that I am beginning to notice about China, that all of ... read more