On June 29, 2009 I boarded a plane in Hong Kong to fly home, a place I had not seen in almost a year. I had never been away from the US for so long and I was eager to return to see my family and friends, to hug my puppies, and to experience what all the books call ‘reverse culture shock’. I was lucky enough to have several friends I met in China with me for the first leg of my trip (to Chicago). Cara and I had seats just behind the bulkhead and Kim and Sarah (along with their [View Full Entry]

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Our final full day in Beijing we had reserved for Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. They weren’t far from where we were staying and it was only two stops via metro to get there. Tiananmen Square is a really really REALLY big square. It looks big on TV and in pictures but the full scale of it doesn’t hit you until you’re standing in it and it seems to stretch on forever. Other than that it’s fairly boring. It’s probably the most boring national landmark I’ve ever visited because it’s just a really big square. There’s a statue in the [View Full Entry]

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After two days of nonstop stair climbing and touring we were pretty pooped and decided to take it easy on our third day. We still got up pretty early for a free service offered by our hostel: a bike tour of the city. It had been so long since I had ridden a bike that I literally could not remember the last time. Perhaps testing my pedaling skills in a city-setting like Beijing wasn’t the brightest idea, but I survived. It turns out that riding a bike is, well, like riding a bike. Our guide was an enthusiastic young man who [View Full Entry]

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The day after our Great Wall adventure, we headed out early again this time to see the Summer Palace. I love visiting stuff of historical importance so I was pretty stoked about seeing the Summer Palace. I knew that much of it was rebuilt and not original (courtesy of the destructive plundering of French troops many moons ago) but I was still excited to see how the emperor’s spent their summer holidays. A short train and cab ride from our hostel and we arrived at the main gate. There was an immense lake where one could take dragon boat rides. There [View Full Entry]

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Before returning to the States for the summer my friends and I took a trip up north to Beijing. Normally, members of the CTLC have nearly three weeks of training in Beijing during which time new teachers can explore and see the sights. My group last year got the shaft due to the Olympics. Instead of three fun filled weeks in Beijing, we got ten mediocre days in the small coastal city of Zhuhai. So on June 14th my friends, Kim and Cara, and I boarded a train, excited to finally see what had been denied us nearly a year before. [View Full Entry]

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My blog is hideously behind, so I will do my best to catch up quickly without skipping the best bits of what’s been going on for the past two or three months. The last couple of weeks of teaching at Li Yuan were fairly uneventful. The school had a dinner for Rosemary and I before the end of the year. They took us to a vegetarian restaurant that was very very good. I didn’t plan any big extended lessons because several of my classes were being canceled due to testing. I didn’t see my fourth graders for nearly a month! I [View Full Entry]

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During a brief April holiday my friends and I decided it was finally time to check out Macau. It was only a short ferry ride from Shenzhen and, after finding all the affordable accommodations taken, took a day trip instead of spending the whole weekend there. Best decision ever. Macau was meh. To be fair, we really didn’t plan anything. We boarded the ferry sometime around eight in the morning. The ride was pleasant enough until a baby in the dreaded crotchless pants took a runny dump two rows in front of us. The smell was horrendous and only made worse [View Full Entry]

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Day 20 and 21 Sunday and Monday, February 1st - 2nd, 2009 The hostel we stayed at in Bangkok was very clean, very new, and very quiet because I’m pretty sure we were the only guests. I had only two complaints: 1) The beds were so hard that a plywood box covered in a bed sheet may have been more comfortable and 2) The location was not that great. I was so completely disinterested with being there that I didn’t take notes and my time there was so atrocious that I’ve blocked most of it from memory so this entry will [View Full Entry]

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Day 19 Saturday, January 31, 2009 Due to cost concerns we decided that the best way to return home was to take a bus from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Bangkok, Thailand and fly back to Shenzhen from there. None of us really wanted to visit Bangkok, given all the trouble they’ve had, but it was the cheapest way for us to return to China. So, early Saturday morning we packed our things, bid farewell to the Siem Reap Hostel, and went to the center of town to wait with all the other suckers who paid $13 for the privilege of riding [View Full Entry]

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Day 17 Thursday January 29, 2009 Ah! Finally! This was my first day in Siem Reap that I slept in. Till 11am! It was blissful. Then I lounged, wrote in my travel journal, lounged, had lunch, lounged, and so forth. There was one more thing I wanted to do and that was visit the silk farm. Neither Kim nor Cara had any interest so it was to be another lone venture. We had planned to lounge for the entire day. After all, it was only the 28th and we still had two full days before we had to make our way [View Full Entry]

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