John and Jen

Hi everyone! So I'm back in Nanjing after a fantastic weekend in Beijing. A group of six of us went on Friday night after class and returned Monday morning. I've made a pretty good group of friends here, people who prior to this trip I did not know but living in close quarters, spending five hours in class together means we've come to know each other quite well by now. Friday night we arrived in Beijing and went straight to our hotel located in a Hutong. Hutongs are lanes or alleys with houses formed around courtyards. They are slowly being destroyed in Beijing due to the rapid development so staying in one is like stepping back in time. In the period of two days we managed to visit Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Summer ... read more

Hello from Nanjing. It's been a crazy couple of days and a total adventure getting here with an url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/25/AR2007052502027.html" target="_blank"emergency landing before even getting out of the U.S. The flight over was pretty fantastic. We went straight up over the North Pole through Russia and Mongolia into China. It was a beautiful clear day and I was able to see the land and ice below. Pretty amazing. Arrived in Beijing and needed to transfer to an Air China flight to Nanjing, except Air China would not let us board their flight since United messed up everything when our flights were rescheduled so we spent a few hours running around Beijing airport getting passed off between Air China and United like volleyballs, it was pretty funny. In the end we were ticketed to get on the ... read more

We made it!!! Well after 18 hours on the bus ride from hell we finally made it to Buenos Aires. We arrived on New Years Eve to a very quiet and surprisingly sleepy BA, something very few people get to experience. Due to our last minute planning we ended up staying in a bit of a shithole so we quickly were up and out to explore the city. It only takes a short stroll in the city and you immediately fall in love with it. The architecture, the people, the food, the art, the energy was absolutely amazing. "The Paris of South America" (Jen: You can tell John LOVED Buenos Aires...) Our first day there we got to take in a lot of the major sights, starting on Ave 9 de Julio (the widest street in ... read more

Hello! Hope everyone had a very good holiday and soon a great New Years! We have just spent the last 8 days in Barra da Lagoa on the Ilha de Santa Catarina. The island has loads of beaches and depending on what you are looking for you can usually find a beach to suit your needs. The beaches to the north have calmer waters and more development, the beaches to the east are great for surfers and tend to be cleaner and have a good mix of small fishing villages and developed vacation towns. Then heading south you find gorgeous beaches and less tourism but perhaps rougher water. John and I chose to spend the last eight days in Barra da Lagoa. A small fishing village on the east side of the island. We had originally ... read more

From Parati we took a bus to Sao Paulo and then from there another bus to Curitiba. In total we spent 12 hours traveling. We arrived at our hotel late on Thursday nigt and crashed. Curitiba is a city made up of decendants of Polish, German and Italian immigrants. It is also one of the best run cities in Brazil with health, transportation and education systems that are some of the best in the country. The center of the city is totally pedestrianized so it was a good place to wander for a couple of hours. We then visited the botanical gardens, the Oscar Niemeyer museum (brazilian architect) and saw a bunch of parks. Curitiba is a city full of parks and lots of culture so it was really nice to walk around and soak it ... read more