Today I am extremely tired. I woke up at 6:30am and then got on a bus to Mohan (again, it was that same kind of horrible road with even worse driver where all you can do is hold on and hope you don't throw up - which I was fortunate enough not to). Then I met an English guy who seemed to who only half wanted me around when I crossed into Boten where we waited for a bit until a sawngthaew took us to Nam Tha. A sawngthaew is like a pick-up truck with seats built into the back with a roof overhead where luggage can be placed (or apparently so can people), ours was crammed but not that crowded. I talked with the English man, a Chinese guy (who said there were a lot ... read more

It's very surprising to me that all of China has the same music, I can go to whatever place I want and sing along to the Chinese and Western music since it's been the same ever since I first moved to China. I thnk it's pretty strange, if every place in America had the same type of music people would go on strike. I'm just sitting now listening to the music as I'm waiting for my bus to Jinghong and there's not too much to do. Unlike yesterday today the weather was great, I took an umbrella with me this time because of the sun, not because of the rain. So today I went to two beautiful places to take some great pictures. The first place I went to was Yuantong Temple where I saw a ... read more

I was just looking for a restaurant from the Lonely Planet but I didn't find the first one I was looking for so I went to the second one and on the way I found a great looking Korean restaurant, but of course every good thing comes with its' bad. When I was eating there was a really loud little girl behind me, her parents just ignored her. She made me think of how I know her parents and Cam and I are different. Cam doesn't let me speak loudly or draw attention to us so I know that he would never let our child be like this. I think Cam and I would be great parents. On another note, today it rained a lot, unfortunately I think this is the rainy season. The very first ... read more

On the plane I started to feel really alone, there was no one to talk to and nothing to do. I slept for a while but when I woke up I had the urge to talk to someone so I ended up missing Cam a lot. After I got off the plane I went to ask whether or not Camellia Hotel had a bus (like it says in the Lonely Planet). Turns out there was no bus but the man put me on a bus going in that direction (although he told me to get off at a stop way far away from where I was to get off). Fortunately I had the map with me so I just followed it until I thought I needed to get off and I got off and walked, which ... read more

So I'm off on another trip around Southeastern Asia. I'm going to take my notebook again so I can keep a journal (although I'm going to take some of it in Chinese this time so I may have to translate it when I get back - hence the English might not be so good). I'm really looking forward to this trip!... read more

Hui and I spent most of the day shopping. Afterwards we went out with Cam's friend. my what a strange time we had! Cam started off the night even before his friend came by telling me that his friend wanted us to pretend like we were from TIGI and that I couldn't speak Chinese. i was like ... um ... ok ...??? It was quite an experience, turned out his friend set it up so that I was a 28 year old customer service representative at a hair shop of TIGI's in shanghai and I'd been living here for 2 years. So as to not make it super confusing I had to pretend Cam wasn't my boyfriend as he'd supposedly just come from Singapore where he worked as a hairdresser at TIGI. Wow! What a story! ... read more

"She's a friend" Cam says to another hairdresser with me standing right next to him. I think to myself "Friend? Since when are we friends?" but I don't say anything to him cause I know he'll be angry at me for asking him. It'll have to wait for a time when we're alone together, which will have to wait another 5 days at least. We've just arrived in Shanghai for a show of theirs. It should be an interesting time, i've been partnered up to hang out with his co-boss Hui who I really don't know at all, we practically never talk to each other. so the two of us are sharing a room together and the boys are in the other room. I mostly wish Hui weren't here so she wouldn't have to drag me ... read more

I just went to buy a printer for the computer. It's 75$ for an HP printer, scanner and copier all in one and I'll be able to use it here and in the US. Right now I need to do a lot of printing and copying for the visa so it's important for now. If I copy and or print up to 500 things then I've already paid for the price of the printer so it's worth it. Anyways, I was at the shop buying it with Cam just now and afterwards I had to go pay for it and get the waranty put on it with one of the salesmen. When I was getting the warranty he asked me "So who was that just now, your student?" "He's my ..." I stopped mid-sentence. How to ... read more

Ok. So since Cam and I are engaged to get married I've decided to drop the idea of not talking about him on this blog. It's impossible. I live with the man, almost every cultural issue I have is with the man or his friends, he's my life. If you don't want me to talk about my life then I can not talk about him, otherwise it's not going to work. Anyways, a lot's been going on over here recently. Today is the 10th anniversary of China getting Hong Kong back from England so last night at midnight we watched the changing of the flags with the English national anthem playing as the English and Hong Kong flag went down together and the Chinese national anthem playing as they went up. A bunch of people talked ... read more

So I've been going through a bunch of tests in the past couple days. First of all I took a Chinese test this morning. It was a bit rough! There were two parts of this test, the first part was listening and the second part reading. The listening wasn't too bad. I know I made a couple mistakes - one I chose the wrong answer and it kept going before I could change it, two I didn't write one of the characters properly and third there was one where I didn't take notes on a long passage. I often have difficulty with listening for one main reason - I understand everything the people are saying in the listening, but when I have to read and answer a question based on it it's a bit more difficult ... read more