Blogs from Changchun, Jilin, China, Asia

We are so lucky that our friend Emily invited us to her family home to celebrate Spring Festival. Better known as Chinese New Year, Spring Festival is actually a celebration of the lunar new year and is celebrated for 15 days in many Asian countries. The holiday is basically like having all of China throw a family reunion - at the same time. In China, the Spring Festival travel rush, known as chunyun, is probably the worlds biggest seasonal human migration. Shannon and I made the 1000km trip north from Beijing to our friend's village, near Changchun, by train. Though we paid for seats, many of the other passengers stood or sat on the floor for the crowded seven hour trip. The countryside we saw was somewhat unremarkable, made up mostly expansive corn fields dotted with ... read more

I'm taking a break from packing my bag. I need to get the next year of my life, in clothing and nessecities, into a backpack that seemed a hell of a lot bigger before i accumulated a year of shit in an apartment. The sacrifices :warm clothes will be left, a cat (becasue they die in backpacks) as well as a 3D MAO picture which i dont want to give up but is to big. I finished my contract yesterday and had a farewell party with a whole wack of people i've met over the year. I didn't even realise how many people i had met till we got to the bar (or that i could remember that many names). I think the recovery ain't helping my motivation to pack. In the next day I'll be ... read more

There are many things you can talk about when you speak of the best parts of living in china. The food, the smells, the buildings, and the people all come to mind. But one of the things that hits you in the face is B-grade attractions. Places where health and safety laws are told to fuck off and fun is put at the front of the line. I love this part of china not just because it makes me laugh consistantly, but that everyday people in china just dont seem to notice or care. This is entertainment in its most disfigured and enjoyable form. Before you come to northern china you try to educate yourself on everything that is around you (i think most people do this where ever they go). You become a mini-encyclopedia on ... read more

I have been struggling to write my next blog. I'm nearing my three month mark here and there has been alot that has happened. I still love it but difficulties and unexpected smiles are still popping up. I am beginning to develop a routine and slowly losing my connections with how i felt at the beginning of this trip. I think thats just part of traveling. It's a differrent life you begin to live. As soon as you step off the plane into a new country you can't help but be starry eyed. The novelty and excitment of adventure takes you over and even the worst situations dont seem so bad. You forget that you are far away from home and you ride the euphoria of adventure. This is definatly unrealistic when living in a foriegn ... read more

So for the last two day me and all the people from my work had to go on a work retreat. Five minutes after teaching my last class of the day we were shoved onto two buses and hurtled into the chinese countryside. This was my first real taste of the what rural china is capable of. Rolling fields as far as you can see dotted with houses and farms. In the distance you see large processing buildings but all in all it is peacful and quiet. We got off the bus to fireworks exploding all around us and people screamiing and music blaring. The "camp"were we were staying turned out to be a "motel 8"style building that surrounded a courtyard with forest and fields stretching on out behind it. There was drinking, a talent show, ... read more