http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/amandainshenzhen/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from amandainshenzhen en-us Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:48:01 +0000 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:48:01 +0000 In a way Chicago is my second city or maybe it's Cleveland. I'm not sure yet. There is something about revisiting a the city where I grew up figuratively that makes me wonder. I'm not sure if it's just the water or the fabulous food at brunch or the awareness of it's people. Chicago reminds me of me. In a way it's not reality. Everyone is pretty fabulous in Chicago. There are too many gre http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-386738.html 9 days in Honduras. Hours of waiting. Wrong turns. Upset stomachs. Undetermined bug bitters. Roosters crowing at every nighttime hour. interesting roommates. Sometimes I wonder why I travel. As I learned it's not because I have excess money. Mary and I felt cheated paying 40 a night for a hotel room but as soon as I got back to america spending 10 at Wendy's somehow felt normal and ac http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Roatan/blog-359412.html As my mom will tell you there are a vast number of things that I don't know for sure. Can you use vegetable oil when the recipe calls for canola oil or Is it ok if I bake zucchini bread with a glass pan Why did you always use metal pans and still Pecans or Almonds or wait what about walnuts which one should I use and that is just in one evening whilst trying slightly successfully http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Ohio/Cleveland/blog-312454.html Home. I have called several places home. I have filled out the box for onersquos home address with more than 15 different locations. I had a home in 4 different time zones traveled up to 24 hours to get home and lived with over 12 different people. I have started over more times than I can remember. I have favorite coffee shops in D.C. favorite shops in Chicago favorite bars in Dayton an http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Ohio/Cleveland/blog-286645.html Monks that is. Luang Prabang has everything. Temples Temples on mountains with beautiful sunsets monks in orange robes rivers rivers with beautiful sunsets waterfalls monks singing good food plenty of bakeries monks praying night markets night markets with tough sellers aged 12 monks in the morning monks in the evening monks in the summertime beautiful rolling hills the only thing http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-142289.html Being that March 8th was International Women's day it was only naturally expected that we would celebrate in a grand way. My seventh grade office kicked off the women's day celebrations early by ordering a 15inch size cake having it delivered to the office sending the bill to our office leader a man and serving up cake slices the size of my entire head to all the women. There was much giggli http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/blog-142389.html Would saying it was too good to be true be too cliche' to say right now Might you see where this is going. The price was too right for our upcoming weekend with a Chinese tour group to China's second largest island behind Taiwan to be spelled out in long days along clear beaches sipping coconuts and perfecting our already pretty perfect tans. We embarked on our journey with high hopes http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Hainan/Sanya/blog-143887.html Life in between the trips and parties and parades is what my time in china is all about. The inbetween is my frustration satisfaction education and what consumes me.FrustrationThe staring....we all know I'm not Angelina Jolie....I mean I'm close in looks but not in achievements. I have no adopted children no People's sexiest man 2004 boyfriend and after June 2007 no future prospect for a job. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-147855.html I'm not the one who named the mountain the penis mountain. I'm not the one who works at the evolution of sex in China musuem. I'm just the one giggling in the pictures. Let's just say in a country when everything is censored and dating is forbidden until you graduate from high school I was quite suprised when Mary and I arrived in the nearby drab town of Shaoguan. The afternoon fog never wore http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shaoguan/blog-149232.html Tired of the same old pampered way of life escalators to our destinations lunch in our cafeterias street food at ever corner warm beds with only the occasional cockroach or mosquito affordable bottled water at every bodega mary and I planned to challenge ourselves and our friendship. Would we still be friends after one of us me forget to bring her own bottled water Would we still be frien http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Sai-Kung/blog-151613.html It's spring Break and ALL of China has hit the ground running. Plane tickets are three times the usual. Trains are all booked. Hostels can charge ungodly amounts for a bed that lacks a mattress and a shower that lacks hot water even though they claim hot water. Chinese merchants can get away with anything this week.....it's May holiday. Just as in October the government of China declared May 1 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Dali/blog-153647.html With Mary off in Toyko and Eli and Jaime in Borneo I was forced to attack China's tiger leaping gorge with some new travel pals. Having spent my time in Dali half independent and half with my new English friends Emily and Katherine both english teachers in Guangzhou so there were hours of competing in memorable chinese stories....emily won with the story of rats running over her head just befor http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Tiger-Leaping-Gorge/blog-156406.html An old friend from Rome Rena once wrote the top ten things she loved and hated about India after spending 7 months there. Here is your top ten lists for china.What I love about China.10. Street food. No matter what it is pig ear dog meat or is always good and cheap and just want you wanted.9. Communal eating at meals. Gone are the days of order envy. Whatever your friend orders you get http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-157034.html Here is just a selection of what china has given me which i will most surely miss. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-158645.html Finally after months of anticipation and seemingly endless preparations passports and visas to apply for plane tickets and luggage and appropriate travel clothes to buy camera batteries to charge PTO to save and work coverage to arrange... I went to China. I'd never been anywhere. But thanks to Mandy's or Amanda's depending on what phase in her life you met her encouragement I decided to s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-174405.html what its becoming hard to wait for. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-158732.html As time begins to come to the end we never believed would actually arrive everything becomes bittersweet. The cost of drinks in Hong Kong is still bitter but the dancing with 20 friends on the streets into the wee hours of the night is so sweet. Going out to dinner proves to be the last time for our favorite dishes but our minds are filled with visions of papa johns large salads and menus we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-165096.html Because we hadn't been and because it is so close and mostly because couldn't let ourselves watch NipTuck for another 24 hours....Mary and I headed off to the neighboring island of Macau. We had separately been there previously but only to the airport. We had heard people only loved it or hated it. The latest review came from Jaime and Eli who raved about the food and cheap wine....That pretty http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Macau/blog-160538.html is like lunch without four scoops of rice in every chinese person's bowl. It is like walking down the street and no one is staring at you and no child is peeing on a tree. It is like waking up to the sound of your alarm clock instead of the sounds of construction street sweeping or kids screaming. It's like ordering a chicken dish and not receiving the chicken head on the plate at garnish.....It http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-166887.html I leave today leave China for who knows when. I of course tell my teachers that I will be back as soon as I can. But my history tells me a different story. I still have not returned to Italy after 7 years and I loved loved it there. As I leave I wonder if I will return. Will time away from China make the heart grow fonder or will the lure of toilet seats and signs in english make me curse l http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangdong/Shenzhen/blog-173041.html