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Published: September 18th 2010
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TGIF!!!!! Life has been pretty easy going or we are just used to the life in China or more prepared than last year. Our 2nd week of classes was welcomed with a little cooler weather and another good week of classes.
We decided on Friday that we would try to find some foreign restaurants that Pete had found on the Hangzhou expat website and later hit up a social event to meet other ex pats held at JC Mini Golf near West Lake on Nanshan Rd.
Our journey to find Pancho's Mexican Restaurant was vague as the website postings only had the road and not an exact address for the restaurant. It did say that it was near Myth Cafe another foreign restaurant which is highly regarded in the expat community but we didn't know where that was either. We ended up finding Myth Cafe and went there since we couldn't find Pancho's. To our surprise there were burritos on the menu which Pete had and I had a chicken curry dish. The food was great and a great price of 60RMB=$8.84 for the total bill including 2 Coke's.
After dinner we headed to JC Mini Golf, it
took us a little while to find it as not every building in China has the number on it, only on every few buildings. We were shocked to see the course was actually inside as I was expecting it to be an outdoor course. We were greeted with a couple from Germany who just moved to Hangzhou 6 weeks ago for the husbands job at Bosch, JC from Montreal, Canada who recently moved to Hangzhou and was the partner of the mini golf course, a man from Ireland and a few locals who spoke excellent English.
The event included a free Coke or Tsingtao beer(we chose the free beer) and a free round of golf(18 holes). It was quite fun playing as we had a local play with us who worked their part time and Julia, from UTC San Diego. Julia moved to Hangzhou in February, her pharmaceutical research company has a location in Mira Mesa San Diego and was opening locations in Hangzhou. She was born in Xian, China but moved to US when she was younger and now back working in China.
We stayed at JC Mini Golf until midnight when they closed as we were
Crazy Holiday Schedule
Days off are shaded in gray, if the day has a circle and arrow it shows what day to teach that schedule on the appropriate weekend. Some days just are not made up but some are. I have learned to not ask "Why?" chatting with the two owners and having a good time. This year will be quite different meeting people as last year we had a network of 115 teachers with CTLC at our fingertips. We met many great friends last year and hope to meet many more this year.
On Sunday, I have to teach as the Mid Autumn Festival (Moon Festival) is on Sept 22nd. It is the 2nd most celebrated holiday in China behind Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) many people travel back to their hometowns to spend time with their families. I will have Wed-Fri off from teaching but need to make up 2 of the 3 days from the holiday. Check out the photo with the crazy schedule that encompasses the Mid Autumn and National Day holiday make up schedule. Last year the 2 holidays coinsided but not this year as the Mid Autumn Festival is on the Chinese calendar instead of the Lunar calendar. National Day is always October 1st.
Pete was lucky and isn't effected by the schedule at all since he only has one class on Tuesdays. He will be flying to Beijing on Wednesday until the following Monday, while I will be in Hangzhou. We then leave by train on Sept 30th to Shenzhen to cross over to Hong Kong for our Oct 2nd-9th Philippines trip for our honeymoon. We will arrive back in Hangzhou on Monday Oct. 11th early in the morning.
***An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence
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Mom
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Night out on the town
I wondered what expat meant...thanks for explaining at the end! Sounds like it is a small world after all!!! Mira Mesa is where you worked at one time , isn't it? Where the Tom Cruise airplane was??? Glad to hear you got the honeymoon all planned out...be safe when Pete is in Beijing!!!!