Well first off, I have passed the state bar of California… which is quite an amazing feeling. After worrying about the about the bar for over three years, it was great to finally be rid of thinking about it and my mind can move on to being paranoid about something else (any ideas???). Second, I left cold Hangzhou behind and taken a week break under the equatorial sun in Bali Indonesia. I left last Friday to spend a night in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (the cheapest way to get to Bali is on a discount airline called Air Asia, but they only [View Full Entry]

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Sorry to all that I have been MIA for sometime now but I have just been extremely busy with classes and other activities here. I have started going to see Chinese tutors for about an hour each weekday in addition to my morning classes. This is helping me immensely because my teachers at the university cannot give me the individual attention I need on pronunciation (since I am tone deaf). My tutors are two women who went to school together, and I met them through my friend Bruce, at a bar no less. Not only do they help me with my [View Full Entry]

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So, I have been studying quite a bit, but as we all know, I do occasionally go out on the town… and this post is dedicated to the most interesting two nights I have had in the first month or so that I have been here. My First Chance at Stardom: Josh as the Lead Singer of a Chinese Rock Band I have a Chinese friend named Tommy who I met at a bar near my house. Tommy is a student also but on the side he is the singer in a Chinese punk band. He is also friends with another [View Full Entry]

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So I am at the end of me second week of school, and I couldn’t be happier. I have class every morning except Mondays (when it is in the afternoon). Starting next week, I will also be taking a class in Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Chinese calligraphy (the last one surprises me also). Our language classes are divided up into 3 different courses: Grammar, Spoken and Listening. Grammar is our core class which we have every day. My teacher even gave me a Chinese name Jiang Xu (pronounced Jee-ang Shoe). Jiang is the Surname and is a common one here [View Full Entry]

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After settling into Hangzhou for two weeks, I decided I need to go visit the surrounding area and get out of dodge (my trip to shanghai the weekend prior does not count because I have been there before, haha my blog my rules). So my friend and I head to a mountain town called Moganshan. Moganshan was created as a cool getaway for Shanghai residents during the hot summers. From Hangzhou, it was only a 40 minute bus ride followed by a 30 minute taxi ride which made this destination extremely easy to get to. We arrive at the top of [View Full Entry]

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After being in Shanghai for about two days, I head to my destination for at least the next year, Hangzhou. Although I had been in China for the past two summers, I have actually never been to Hangzhou. Hangzhou is located southwest of Shanghai by about an 80 minute train ride (if you catch the speed train). The city is best known for its lake called Xihu (or West Lake because the city was originally built to the east of the lake. Now the city surrounds the lake). The Chinese have taken great pride in Xihu and it has become somewhat [View Full Entry]

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Here are some photos [View Full Entry]

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This is a blog to update my friends and family about my year in China. A little background about myself to readers who just happen to find this blog. I am from America (San Francisco specifically) and just graduated law school. I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to take a year off before starting my job so I decided to go to Hangzhou, China to study chinese for a year. Although I have spent the last two summers in China (Shanghai and Hong Kong), my mandarin skills are next to nothing. So I am starting from scratch and hoping [View Full Entry]

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It all started with goodbye to my mother at the airport. She and her husband were kind enough to let me move back home for a week before leaving for China. I had a great time being a mid-twenty's semi-adult crashing at my parents house, and the best part was they didn't even impose a curfew! As I got on the plane to take the 11 hour flight to Tokyo followed by a 3 hour flight to Shanghai, my common sense told me to sleep in the beginning of the trip to try to acclimate myself to China's timezone. However, as [View Full Entry]

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