http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Jiangsu en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:55:24 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:55:24 BST I got a good amount of sleep last night but the night before I only slept 2 hours and then some 1.5 hours of interrupted sleep on the train. I felt fine yesterday but it's really slugged me todayYesterday we went to our office to get picked up and meet our charges. The CFO of GreenTree Angel left her two kids in our hands for traveling around these 10 days. Their names are Lewis and Carol or http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Nanjing/blog-302723.html Ok so I'm guna break this blog down into chapters which will hopefully prevent it from being as spastic sounding as I'm sure my las one did.Party TimeOk so Friday night of last week Vince past intern Margaret his wife Ruben the italian chef at Jinling Jason works at the front desk and current interns Tim Caitlin Emily and of course me all went out to 1912 which is a bar street. We http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Nanjing/blog-299971.html I'm fed up with this TravelBlog. I can't upload pictures anymore and I could never get the private feature to work for all of you. So I'm moving back to jessicalpayne.blogspot.com I may not be able to consistently get on there but I think it will still work better. See you all there http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Zhenjiang/blog-298158.html Hello againThis week has been a tiring one for sure. Work is good. Having previous experience working in a hotel is def a plus. Today I checked people in all by myself When I'm not talking to foreign guests checking people in watching over the room keys or teaching English I'm learning Chinese. Its a pretty complicated language but so far I am surprised at how much I have retained. I http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Nanjing/blog-297918.html Here we are back in Yancheng for a couple of days before we are off to Hefei the capital of Anhui Province. Anhui Province Adjoins Jiangsu province to the southwest and Hefei is about 150 km southwest of Nanjing. The holiday was generally good as far as a holiday can be in china but it wasnrsquot until we got back to our school apartment that our real dramas began. That will be anothe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Yancheng/blog-297854.html My blog is having issues. This is just one of the many reasons I haven't updated it lately. There actually aren't that many reasons. I just lied there. But I will update this as soon as I can get somethings working. But in a side newsa Chinese guy thought I was 2425 years old Yeah yeah At least someone in this world doesn't think I look like a freshman in high school. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Zhenjiang/blog-296569.html Hello again OK well I apologize for being a little late on finishing up week 2. As you all know July 3rd was my birthday. Short story it was great. Long storyhelliphere we go. So I worked from 7am till 3pm. Getting up early stunk but work was actually really fun. It was my first full day. I learned a lot of Chinesehellipstill trying to remember what I learned. However let me just no http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Nanjing/blog-296433.html I arrived in Nanjing after a grueling seventeen hour train journey from Nanchang but the bad news was that I caught a chest infection on the way down. It was hot wet and humid when I left Nanchang and the temp plummeted by the time I reached Nanjing I also had the top bunk on the train which literally presses you up against the ceiling with a fan blasting cold air at you. There was no air http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Nanjing/blog-295484.html Well back from our lsquoflying triprsquo to Nantong the city located on the northern banks of the Yangtze River just north of Shanghai. Nantong is only a quick 2 12 hour train ride which took us 3 12 south from Yancheng. It was a pleasant change to get some lsquocleanerrsquo air from all the farm burning in Yancheng. We have been booking our accommodation from an internet site http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Yancheng/blog-292286.html OMG. Yesterday was the longest day of my life. So many experiences in such little time. Ok so a review of the day. I got up at 300 AM drove to the airport and took off from Detroit at 600AM. Then I flew 2 hrs to Atlanta then hung out in the Atlanta airport for two hours and then once we took off flew for 14hrs and 58 min. There were some unexpected things that occurred on that flight to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Nanjing/blog-291825.html I really don't have the time to write much but I went to Beigushan about a week ago. This is just about a twenty minute walk from my apartment. These pictures don't do the river justice. There was such a beautiful view of the Yangtze River and it was really peaceful. A picture is worth a thousand words right http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Zhenjiang/blog-291521.html I took these a while ago but I'm having some major picture problems. Andrewyour help would be greatly appreciated Enjoy http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Zhenjiang/blog-291483.html The school I teach at on Fridays is in such a nice area and has all of these old Roman and French looking statues and what not. Very peaceful there. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Zhenjiang/blog-290988.html More sightseeing planned for today the good news is that it isnrsquot so hot today the bad news is that itrsquos raining again so we pack the trusty umbrellas. Destination Zhongshan Mountain National Park where there are several large monuments to important people and the site of 600 y.o. temples. According to the tourist guide itrsquos 21 sq.km of forest mountain with about eight differen http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Nanjing/blog-290777.html Being that my birthday was on Monday here in China it was just very mellow. I honestly forgot about it throughout the day since I had to teach and I was quite nervous to teach the teachers for the first time. But I opened my cards in the afternoon and had an oreo box cakepie. It wasn't bad for a box. That night I treated myself to my favorite street dinner. And that was my day. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Zhenjiang/blog-290750.html So I read this book about a guy's journey walking around the Baja pennisula and it in he talked about this cactus fruit called pitaya. He said it is better than strawberries. Thus I've wanted to try it for quite some time. My first trip to the RT mart I noticed it there and later came back to get one. But it was gross. It was completely sweet. Yuck. There are other variations ones with http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Zhenjiang/blog-290678.html The trouble with not keeping up with diaries or bloggs every day is that you can easily confuse one day with the next. I forgot to mention somewhere we visited after lunch with Dana Kwan was sick of walking which is well worth a mention. It was a memorial museum to remember the 300 000 Chinese men women and children who were massacred by the Japanese on the days following Dec 13 1937 after bei http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Nanjing/blog-290349.html Only been here a week and it seems like ages hope everything is OK back at work send that price book to the printers Tim. Today we were off to Nanjing with or trusty guides Kwan and Dana and were catching the train from the city at 8.25am. We were up and checking out at 7 to catch our own taxi to the train station just showed the guy our tickets and he got the idea. Taxis are really cheap he http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Nanjing/blog-290329.html The school decided to change our teaching schedule so we finished off our teaching term on Friday 13 June instead of 5 July. As we had some unexpected time off we decided to do a bit of exploring of Jiangsu Province where we are based. Yancheng is south of the middle of the Province but closer to the east coast. We had read about some Terracotta Warriors in the city of Xuzhou which is loc http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Yancheng/blog-290275.html I've been extremely busy with choreographing and teaching dance routines teaching extra teaching extra participation going out with people which I feel obligated to do if I have any spare time and trying to see China when I can. I have lots of cool pictures and stories to tell you guys and hopefully I will be able to post them all soon before I forget. But until then I'm in Shanghai and goi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Zhenjiang/blog-289865.html So as I wrote in the last note...we had a night visitor in our apartment...a nice little brown bat From 7pm5am Ben was on a bat hunt because I was scared out of my mind and stayed behind closed doors of the living room.Ben finally spotted the little creature at about 5am hanging from a ledge in the dining room. Ben threw a towel over it and he fell to the ground for the second timepoor thin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/blog-288888.html I haven't updated in awhile since I haven't really been doing much but enjoying our holiday Can't believe it will be all over in 10 days Chinese New Year holidays were on the 6th7th and I was feeling very sick so I couldn't go to the dinner on Feb 6th with Ben. One of his students Jay invited us to celebrate with his family. I'm glad I didn't go in ways I was going to try but was too weak http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/blog-288887.html SaturdayNothing too exciting happened today...just relaxed after a night of drinking and singinglt3 SundayDecided to go to a western fine dining place to grab dinner. We ordered onion rings so fancy lol and macaroni with tomato and cheese to share. Well they got our order wrong and gave us seafood macaroni and it wasn't too great...especially with tentacles in them barf. So we ordered http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/blog-288884.html Today started out bad our sink in the kitchen started to leak...a lot Seriously what hasn't gone wrong in this place So we called Mr. Yang and they came over...couldn't find a problem...assumed maybe something clogged it.We went for a quick dinner and then headed to KTV Diamond Club for some karaoke and drinking for our 3.5 yr anniversary And I'll tell you we had a blast Probably the best http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/blog-288880.html Friday2 months in China...wowie Things are improving...but I'll always miss home I think. I lost my voice at the end of my last class today...it was painful On my way home some guy on a motorbike offered me a ride but I shook my head no since I live 2 mins away and he was a tad on the creepy side. So he basically followed me home...not all the way...just to the gate of the apartments...creepy http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/blog-288878.html The school week went alright. I see a man who sells bunnies a lot and I want to buy one But it seems like I'm always on my way to work when I see him or I don't have money on me On Friday I basically didn't have to teach when I arrived in the class...the teacher said he wanted to do review since exams are coming up...so I just sat there. We got out 15 mins early waited for Ben in the cold http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/blog-288874.html It was really hard to go into work today feeling all down about losing Ben's wallet. I tried by best to act happy and cheerful....but inside all I could think about was the wallet and the scum bag who had it.Mr. Yang gave us 100 yuan to get us through the day for food and what not....so we had lunch bubble tea and dinner. I took a nap because I just didn't want to think about it. About an hour la http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/blog-288872.html One of Ben's students came over this afternoon and played Guitar Hero and he's doing pretty well. Eric they boy we tutor came over as well and he did some reading and I'm thinking about getting a kids movie to watch with him for next time. I'm thinking about doing that with my classes as well.We had a really bad evening here. We went to the shopping mall to pick up some stuff and on the way home w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/blog-288870.html FridayNothing happened on Thursday other than groceries. Today I started working on pronunciation of th words and L words since most students have a hard time saying these words even the English teachers here do as well. They pronounce it like zis for this sink for think etc and sometimes they pronounce L words like R ex rovery for lovely.It worked well most of them only made http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/blog-288865.html Today Funny Sky Jay and Shawn came over again. Ben took everyone but Sky to a place down the street to pick up some lunch for everyone and bring it back to the apartment. We got this stuff that kind of looks and tastes like spaghetti...pretty good.We decided to watch Wedding Crashers and I forgot how bad the language was in that movie. So I had to explain what these cuss words meant and I made http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/blog-288863.html