Blogs from Zhengzhou, Henan, China, Asia - page 2

Well, I suppose I should begin by apologizing and thanking those who encouraged me to continue blogging. So thanks to Mom and Tucker, I am gonna give it another go. I hope you continue to read, I am gonna give one or two updates a month. As many know, I spent the intervening months since my last post and now taking care of law school applications. I fell into a nice groove studying for the LSATs. Since I only work 25 hours/week, it left plenty of time to study, exercise, and ensure my mental health leading up to the test day. Pretty phenomenal how one test can determine so much. Five points on the test can mean the difference between a top 50 law shool and a top 5. I scored a 169 to those who ... read more

After one month, I have finally moved into my new apartment. The contrast in neighborhood, living accomodation, and pace of life is stark from the first place to the current place I live. While the hotel I temporarily lived in was near the heart of the city, my apartment is on the outskirts in 'new city' much closer to where I work. There begins the explanation for the differences: recently completed, the 'new city' is not yet overly crowded as many apartments have been purchased by wealthy families on behalf of their children. By the time their kids marry, the neighborhood will be hustling and busy; plus the families will have a new apartment to begin their new life. Several Chinese friends have told me that people choose to invest in real estate rather than the ... read more

I am not a clever writer. I am not going to pretend to be. So with that see if you can guess the theme of this post. Last I remember, I was telling you of my surprise of how comfortable I was in China compared to the first time... And that is still true. After I arrived in Zhengzhou (ZZ), I was picked up by Chinese Tim who works for Tengda (my school). Talk about VIP treatment, he waited with a namecard and once we were in the car he handed me an envelope with 2,000 rmb and a cell phone. Then he took me to my temporary apartment where I crashed immediately. Not a bad place, living room, a little kitchen with a washer, bathroom and bedroom (with a rock hard mattress) So yeah comfort ... read more

Kung Fu day!! Today we were up again bright and early and leaving behind the city of Zhengzhou to head to the Shaolin Temple. The bus led us up the winding roads of the mountains towards the Temple and the views from this high were stunning. There was still a hint of smog this far out from the cities, however not as bad as the inner cities have been. It is also still incredibly hot and every time we leave the air con buses or rooms we are immediately dripping in sweat. We all piled out of the bus at the Temple, all very excited and eager to learn kung fu. We were lead into the Shaolin Temple grounds to be met with a host of school aged children learning all different types of Kung Fu, ... read more

Knowing how much of a Dunkin' Donuts coffee addict I am, most of you will not be surprised at the first part of this entry. I first heard that there was a DD here in Zhengzhou a few weeks ago. It is in a part of town I was unfamiliar with so I knew it would be an adventure to find. I’m sure I could have had another one of the foreigners send me the address in Chinese and just taken a cab to it but where’s the fun in that? Anyway, walking there would allow me to justify eating the donuts.  On a free afternoon this week, I decided I would set out to find this elusive DD. I got the basic directions (“go to this intersection and it’s like right there”) from another ... read more