El Nido

Hello folks,

This is a quick post as I have plane tickets to purchase, Bank of America to call AGAIN (they are taking $5 a month from my account for no reason, AGAIN, I'm shutting this crap down when I get back to the states), and packing to do.

Just wanted to say El Nido and our entire trip to the Philippines has been amazing. You can see all the pictures here. Nathan and I are happily engaged now and getting excited for Hawaii next year!

I am happy to be finished studying. I don't think I would ever study at BLCU again, but the teachers are really fantastic there. I wish the program had been more like USAC, but oh well.

Right, I have to get going!
Love!

Playing Catch Up....

Okay, lots of things have happened since I last posted, so I'm not sure I'll be able to remember everything. Let's see...

A couple Thursdays ago my classmates and I went out for duck and to see the Beijing Opera. We thought maybe we would be able to find a place that had both a place to eat and watch, but we were definitely mistaken. We ended up on the super touristy 'old style' street which was showing opera on a rooftop to watch from the street. The speakers were pretty busted so the sound was not good. After about 5 minutes we decided to bail and find a duck restaurant. We ended up at Quanjude. We had headed out from Wudaokou with about 16 people but as the night wore on and we finally arrived at the duck restaurant we were down to 12. I ended up ordering for us, 3 ducks, rice, dumplings, and a vegetable dish. Of course all the food except the ducks had MSG and the idiot waitress wouldn't or didn't tell them to prepare it without (which makes me think the food is probably pre-made). The bill ended up being a whopping 1,276rmb. Luckily split between the 12 of us it wasn't too bad. We did a few ganbei's, enjoyed our duck and headed back out to the touristy street.
A few more people decided to head home leaving Thai Patrick, Patrick, Anna, Sylvio, and I. We went to the area of the tourist street where you can buy live scorpions to eat and one of the cooks let Thai Patrick play with one, we have some good pictures of him pretending to eat it. We decided to leave around 11pm but couldn't find a cab who was willing to take all 5 of us without charging an exorbitant (80rmb!) amount, so we took the subway to Xizhimen before it closed down and grabbed a cab from there. It was a fun night and I really got to know my classmates which was cool.

Nathan is back from his trip to the states which is great. We had a lot of fun going to the zoo last Saturday and seeing all the animals. They could really do with Hayley's help there as some of the enclosures where a bit horrible. The people could also do with a bit of educating as to how to treat the animals, we had to tell one girl who was our age to stop banging on the monkeys glass windows and pissing them off.

Nathan and I found a huge underground market in Xizhimen which I absolutely love. They are very few foreigners there and they don't try to rip you off. The first price they give you is usually very low so you don't spend forever bargaining. It's good stuff. I went back on Friday and nabbed a pair of jeans and a few other things.

Today Nathan and I went for brunch at Steak and Eggs, explored the Alien Street Market in little Russia, and went to The Place mall. It was all very good stuff, but probably more shopping than Nathan liked. Haha.

Classes continue to go well, I'm really glad I'm in the class I'm in and I've learned a lot of new vocabulary. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the studying when I get back to Jiujiang.

Tomorrow Nathan and I are going to the travel agents to check out Manila tickets. Only two and a half more weeks! I'm looking forward to our nice relaxing vacation and some time with Nate's parents!

Success

Yesterday I decided that I was in need of some shopping therapy seeing as I'm not doing so well with making friends here in Beijing (blah...).

Having never ridden the subway by myself that was my first objective. Luckily Nathan and I had made the trip to Sanlitun via subway before, and I remembered the way. I made it to my goal rather quickly.
Next stop was the underground market where I met some really nice people. I bought another Coach purse, so Aunt Karen can pick from the two. I met a couple of super nice ladies who sell stuff down there, and I actually wouldn't mind going back just to chat with them. Their English was really great and I am betting they would let me practice my Chinese.
After the underground market I headed over to Yashow to grab another pair of shoes (I really wanted rainboots due to the fact that Beijing monsoons in the summer) but couldn't find any I liked. I did find a gorgeous jacket and very nearly had a shouting war with the lady who was selling it, but I was triumphant and left with one new pair of flats and a pink leather jacket.
I walked back to the subway and returned to Wudaokou where I was delighted to find a night market set up on the street. I did some bargain hunting and came away with a 15rmb pair of Crocs (aka the ugliest but most comfortable shoes in existence), a light cardigan, and a new shirt. Excellent.

I won't tell you how much I spent yesterday. It was exorbitant, but totally within my budget.

Does anyone want a pair of Crocs? They're only 15rmb a pair so I would be happy to snag you a pair and deliver in January. Just send me your shoe size.

Today I'm dedicating my afternoon to studying and reviewing. We've learned a lot of words in the past week!

Purchases from yesterday:
Pink Coach bag
Crocs
Le Sportsac Bag with birds on it
Pink leather jacket
Two pairs of shorts
One skirt
Four shirts

Plans for the week:
Beijing zoo...?
Studying
Laundry (for some reason I can't buy a laundry card from the desk until tomorrow?)
Nathan comes back
Make friends...?

I live....

I am quite sure I had a kidney stone but it has passed. Nathan made me an oh so delicious remedy of olive oil an lemon juice. Ew. But whatever, I am cured.

Classes are going great. I am in the perfect level class for my Chinese so I am being challenged but still learning.

Hrm. I have nothing else. Update later.

Bad Luck Streak

I seem to be a on a bad luck streak at the moment.

Last night and today I was so incredibly sick I had to miss the first day of class. It was awful, it still is awful. I'm not sure if I have food poisoning or what, but my stomach is very unhappy.

I managed to make it to class to meet my teacher and tell her (in Chinese) how very ill I was. She seemed to understand and let me leave. I am now with Nathan who is taking care of me. Hopefully I'll start to feel better soon, although I really wish I knew what was wrong.

It seems that our class will be conducted entirely in Chinese which means I have some studying to do this weekend. While I was in class there were three other boys in there and one other girl. I wish I could have stayed to see how everything would go, but man, I felt awful.

Here's hoping Monday works out. Blah.

Hooray for a proxy

Okay, this will have to be quick as I don't know how long I have before this proxy kicks me off or my internet disappears. I am in the hotel on the Beijing Language and Culture University and the internet is not very reliable.

Beijing has been a blast the past few days, I've really enjoyed myself. I wrote up a couple of journal entries which I will be sure to post up on here at some point. Look for them later.

Yesterday was a bit of a nightmare. Nathan and I arrived at BLCU to meet Ella who is the Wentao of Real World Chinese. Only... she wasn't there to meet us. And she doesn't speak English at all. Uhhhh....
Anyways, after a few minutes (half hour) of trying to find her to meet up, an American student also on the program took the phone, figured out where we were, and brought Ella to meet us. This was all fine and well until she gave us a list of things we had to do that day; find the dorms, register with the police, register with the school, etc. Errr. Then she told us she wouldn't be coming with us. What?
She took us to the housing office and got me registered there, then gave me a map and sent us packing. Victor Zhang, the program coordinator (located in Canada) had told me I was going to live in building number 6. So Nathan and I trooped over there (poor Nathan had my very heavy suitcase the entire time) only to find out that I was not in building 6 after all, but in building 4 where we had just been. So we went to building 4 and this is where the real drama began.

We found the front desk and I attempted to check in. Only, I have a resident visa seeing as I live here and all, which the program knew ahead of time however didn't inform the dormitories. The dorms are for students only and apparently to live there you have to have a student visa. Which I dont'. After much back and forth between Nathan and the front desk staff, Ella was called in. She, of course, wasn't informed of my visa situation.
Hohum.
The only solution was for me to move into the hotel. They wanted another $800. Wtf, no. I told them that either they paid for the hotel since it was their mistake or I would like a complete and total refund of all the program fees. They paid the hotel fees and here I am.
In retrospect it doesn't look like we went through much, but trust me, it was an incredibly tense and stressful situation. Thank God Nathan was there or I would have been utterly screwed since Ella does not speak English whatsoever. Thank you, Nathan!

This morning I took my placement exam and was put in the class I wanted. The tester was a bit scary, a man who just yelled (only in China they just call it talking). I held my own reasonably well, but he told me I needed to study chapters 1-10 of a book he didn't give me tonight. Haha. I guess we'll see how that goes. Classes begin tomorrow and I am quite thankful that we'll only have one day before the weekend. I think it's going to be exhausting.

Right, that's all for now. Nathan is meeting me for lunch. Sorry if this one is a bit sporatic and poorly written, that's how it goes when you're a 'busy' student.

Is School Over Yet?

*Warning* This journal entry may contain explicit female content which men and minors probably do not want to read about.

Busy weekend in Nanchang.

Headed down to Nanchang on Friday, finally making it in the late afternoon due to a one hour delayed train. Grrrrr. Nathan and I went to a cafe for drinks and a snack while waiting for 5pm to roll around so we could join Nik, Cici, and Stewart for dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant.
The food was pretty good and MSG free. Cici ordered 'drunk shrimp' which are live shrimp that they bring out in this bowl, then pour an alcoholic sauce on them which makes the shrimp drunk. You then eat them ALIVE. Needless to say, I didn't try one, but Nathan and Cici seemed to enjoy them quite a bit.

We headed to Stewarts bar after that for a fun evening there. Pearl joined us later and she, Graham, Nik, and James all played poker into the wee morning hours. I was exhausted after awhile so Nate, Nik, and I headed back out to their campus.

Nik and Nathan left early (6am-ish) for Shanghai for their 'boys weekend'. I got up about an hour later to catch the bus to meet Cici in town. She picked me up from the bus stop and we headed to the hospital. Why, Jessica, did you need to go to the hospital, you are asking. Well, dear readers, while doing my monthly womanly booby check I chanced upon two lumps which gave me a bit of a scare. I decided to head to the women's hospital to have them checked out so I could quell my fears. The hospital was actually quite nice and because I was a laowai I was sort of rushed through the lines of girls. The doctors asked me a few questions (translated by Cici), then I had an exam given by a female doctor, then was sent off for a blood test, a mamogram, and a sonogram. The mamogram hurt like a b*tch, but they let me keep the pictures, so now I can see what the inside of my boobs look like whenever I want. The sonogram went well, and the blood test wasn't no thing. The conclusion? I have hyperplasia and do not need surgery. I am on a number of medications to increase my estrogen levels or something along those lines for the next three months which should decrease the size of the lumps. I have to go back for a checkup in 6 months but they think that it should be just fine. Whew.
However, due to the medication I can no longer drink tea for the next three months. Drat.
How much did all these medical procedures set me back? Less than 600rmb. That's right, that which would cost thousands of dollars in the states only set me back about 95 dollars.

After that relieving hospital visit Cici and I headed downtown to get some lunch, sushi, at a really nice Japanese restaurant. It was sooo good. Slightly more pricey than my usual sushi place in Nanchang, but well worth it.

We went shopping afterward and even found a store that does copies of the outfits from Gossip Girl. Sweet. Didn't buy anything this time around but I definitely have my eye on the white dress that Blair wore to the white party.
We finished shopping and headed to Cici's house where I met her parents. They looked so young! She packed a bag, we picked up some students, and headed out to Nanchang Agricultural University so that the students could get ready for a speech competition. We finally got a hotel room after a bit of arguing and decided to veg out for awhile. Cici had a meeting so I watched a movie until she returned, then we headed to dinner.
The Agriculture university campus is gorgeous and amazing! They had all these restaurants with tables set up outdoors so we found one that looked good and sat down. Ordered a couple beers, some eggplant and greenbeans, fried squid, and chicken. Delicious dinner. We walked around the shops out there then checked in on this cool little snack street they had. I am smitten with that campus! They even have a forest!
We were pretty exhausted from the day so we crashed around 2am.



The next morning I had to leave relatively early to meet Pearl. I said bye to Cici and caught the bus into town, then a taxi to the campus. I dropped off my bags in Pearl's apartment and we headed to lunch at Le Bistro. Shrimp spaghetti, a raspberry vodka fizz, and cheesecake later, we were stuffed. We decided to walk off our meal under the hot sun of Nanchang and find a Tibetan store that Pearl knew about. We finally located it, and had a fun time perusing the goods. We caught a cab back to her apartment. We didn't get to a reiki session but I did get some tarot cards to practice with and some meditation stuff. I guess I need to practice a bit on my own first.
I headed home in the evening and arrived in Jiujiang after dark. Caught a cab home, made up my lesson plan, and passed out.

Happy belated Mother's Day!

School let's out June 20th. WOOO!

Frack, I am tired.

So... classes today.

......

The 8am kids were alright. Not the best, but they did the work. My 10am class makes me want to rip my hair out. I actually had to say to them, "This is oral English class. If you do not even attempt to open your mouth to speak English I will FAIL YOU!" (Insert appropriate swear words here.) It's just such a shame because I have about ten really great speakers in there, and the rest of them just..... don't care, don't try, don't want to be in class.
Gaaaaaaaah. Semester must end now.

Had a good afternoon though. I rented a bike from the school then Cary and I biked out to Jiujiang University. The campus is gorgeous! It backs up to Lushan and there isn't too much around them except the campus. Saw a ton of the Indian/Bangladeshi/Pakistani students, but they were too busy playing cricket to take much notice of us. Ran into Stan the man. Cary and I will probably check out the bars out there sometime in an effort to run into more of the other foreigners. They have a lot of grates out there and when I went over one too fast my water bottle flew out of the basket on the front of the bike, over my shoulder, and I ran over it with the back tire. Oops. Pretty spectacular move though. I think I will buy a bike... although it only cost 2 yuan to rent one for a couple hours, not shabby. Now I can say I've survived a bike ride through the mean streets of Jiujiang. Score.

Nathan is having a 'boys weekend' this weekend in Shanghai, but my friend Cici will be in Nanchang so I'm going to go stay with her. We're spending the night at the Agriculture University for some reason, so I'm hoping to meet the foreign teachers there. Then on Sunday I'm meeting with Pearl to have a Reiki lesson. Pretty neat. Home on Sunday night, must plan my lesson tomorrow so it's all set for Monday so I needn't worry about it this weekend.

I finished my first water color experiment, however the pictures I've been taking of it are muting the colors, so I shall try again tomorrow and post pictures later. It's... eh, okay I guess. A pretty fun experiment to see how these water colors work.

Over and out.

Sanqingshan

Look! Look! I'm updating!

Thursday evening I trained out to Nanchang, not getting there until around 10pm. Nathan met me at the train station and we headed to his place, I was beat and wanted an early-ish night.

On Friday we woke up around 5:30am, got ready, and headed to the train station to catch our train which departed at 8am. We found a reasonable mien bao che driver, picked up a few more passengers along the way, and were dropped at the station with plenty of time to spare. We were on the express train which is quite posh, so it was a very comfortable and fairly short ride. The city that our train dropped us off in is still a fair distance from the mountain, so we found another mien bao che driver to drive us to the mountain for a reasonable price.
The drive was gorgeous as we made our way through mountains, countryside, and along lakes. The drive itself took about and hour and a half to two hours, not too shabby. Our driver dropped us at the north-eastern side of the mountain where we decided to catch the cable car up instead of walking along the road trying to find the stairs. It was around 12:30pm then, and the light wouldn't last too many more hours.
The cable car ride was pleasant and short, dropping us off near the Goddess Rock. We slowly made our way up and down many stairs, weaving along narrow pathways, until we came to Sun-Rising Mountain Villa. We were disappointed to discover they had no rooms, mostly because we were tired from getting up so early and for hiking with our backpacksfor so long. After a couple trips up and down some of the paths we found a hotel, the Heaven Gate Mountain Villa. We were wiped and crashed early.

On Saturday we abandoned the bags in our hotel room and made our way back up to the Sun-Rising Mountain Villa. After talking to one of the porters we decided to take the path leading west, and also what turned out to be the longest way. However, the views were breathtaking and we were spit out at a nice lake and the Sanqing Temple. After looking around that area for awhile, we decided to head for Yujing Peak and along a different path which would take us back to the Sun-Rising Mountain Villa. Despite my protesting legs, Nathan and I climbed to the top of Yujing Peak, a whopping 1819.9 meters tall. Unfortunately a thick mist and rain had settled over us, so the views were mostly of the gray clouds that surrounded us.
We headed down from the peak and back along the alternate pathway where we discovered a great bridge and a place where there were glass tile so you could look down at the drop, eventually ending up back at the SRMV. We were both soaked from the rain, tired from the climb (stairs) and hungry. At the hotel we made instant curries, took hot showers, and collapsed into bed, falling asleep around 8pm.

Sunday morning we departed the hotel around noon, carrying our backpacks. We were ready to go home. We took the cable car down the mountain, found the bus, and hopped on. It was a two hour ride to the bus station, then a half hour taxi ride to the train station which we arrived at with plenty of time left to get snacks and relax before catching the train.
We arrived in Nanchang around 9pm. Cary managed to find us at the station, so he and I got tickets back to Jiujiang together. Nathan headed off to meet Nick so they could share a cab ride back to their campus together, while Cary and I went to McDonalds for some dinner. Cary and I caught our train and spent the ride playing Cribbage. I still don't quite get it.
I finished up my lesson plan around midnight-thirty and crashed into bed by 1am.

Today my kids were great! I made up a lesson plan where I spoke as little as possible and they spoke as much as possible, and it went amazingly well. The 10am class was a little painful, and most of the boys in the 2:30pm class didn't do their homework (to punish them I made them stand up and come sit in the front of the class, which actually forced them to participate). This is a good lesson, but kind of tiring for me since I have to stand up there like a cheerleader trying to get them to talk. It takes about half an hour, but they do open up eventually. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Pictures for Sanqingshan can be see here.

Not much to say...

There isn't much going on here at the moment. We have Friday off due to a workers holiday, so Nathan and I will be spending the weekend climbing Sanquingshan. I'm pretty excited, but I know I'm going to come back super sore. It's pretty on par with Huangshan, so I know the views will be spectacular.

Aaaaaaaand, that's all. Sorry. I wish I had more interesting news to report on.

Folks in America, don't get swine flu.

Well then...

Okay, I've figured out what I want to do. I'm definitely going to work on/start a magazine. I've already started to figure out the content, my customer base, who to sell ad space to, etc.
I would like to find an internship in Beijing this summer for a magazine if I can. I may have to wait to find that until I can get to the city though.

I need to buy Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe Photoshop, an external hard drive, and a Nikon D4.
I've figured out that a 160G external HD will be about 420 yuan, a Nikon D4 will be around 3500 yuan, and the Adobe Pagemaker and Photoshop I can get for about 10 yuan each at this dvd place I know. Haha.

I may give private English lessons this summer while I'm in Beijing so that I can save up for these items. Not sure about that until I get my courseload. May be too busy studying the Chinese.

Summer school is all paid for, I got the reciept in my inbox a few hours ago. Glad that's taken care of, it's really a load off. I used my paypal and wiped out my checking account, so now I'm left with about $40 in there and all that RMB I have saved in my secret hiding spot. I ended up having to pay an extra $54 to use the paypal, but I found out it would have been almost 500rmb to transfer that much in RMB if I had opened a Chinese bank account. I figure the $54 is worth it.

I found Bank of America being shady with my savings account today. I was checking to make sure I had the funds to pay all of my tuition with my checking account when I noticed that there was money missing from my savings account. In order to keep Bank of America from charging a 'bank maintanance fee' I have to retain a balance of $300 in my savings account. Well, after I got my nice tax return from the government, I made sure that the balance in my savings was exactly $300 so Bank of America would stop charging me. Today when I checked the balance it was at $292. For some unexplained reason there was a $3 'bank fee' and because that brought the balance down to $297, they had charged the $5 'bank maintance fee'. What the hell? I got on the customer service chat thing that they provide so I could chat with a representative. When I asked what that $3 fee was for I got this message, "I've got some good news for you! Because we value your customer loyalty I can reimburse those fees to you. All of it should be credited back to your account in the next business day." She wouldn't answer me when I asked why they had charged the $3 fee. I know, I just know, it was so that they could bring the balance to below $300 and have an excuse to charge me that $5. If you have a Bank of America account, keep an eye out for that stuff. I'm thinking of shutting down my Bank of America savings account when I return to the states. There have been a few strange incidents like that, and I don't trust them anymore.

That's all from me. Laundry to do, then sleepy time. I should really tidy up the house, but I'm having too much fun with my magazine project. Whee!

My China Career Goals...

Some of these are serious, some are just for fun (but I wouldn't pass on them if they came up):

• Be a model for the home shopping network
• Be a regular on a Chinese soap opera
• Work for a magazine in Beijing or Shanghai, preferably Elle or one of those types
• Club promoter
• Own a bar or club
• Own a restaurant
• Front Desk manager at a hotel in Beijing or Shanghai
• Write a book or two

I've pondered grad school recently. I could easily slip off to Korea for a year, earn the money, and return to China. However, I have also realized I have NO IDEA what I want to be when I 'grow up', so I guess grad school should probably wait until I figure that out.

Teaching is not my future. I need to figure something else out.

Crap Weather

Nathan and I didn't do much today, but yesterday was pretty okay.

We woke up late yesterday, got ready, and dinnered at David's pizza place. His dad wasn't there, but it was sooooo nice to have pizza after all this time. We walked around downtown despite the rainy weather and found some shops I didn't know existed. I found a few gorgeous LV purses I plan to go take a look at again tomorrow or Tuesday. They're too lovely to pass up! Haha.
On our walk back towards the school we passed this lit up building on the lake and went to have a look. It turned out to be a nice little area where you can drink tea and watch a show for 15rmb each. We bought tickets and spent about an hour enjoying the nice outdoor atmosphere and music. It started raining harder while we were there so we cabbed home.

I'm teaching interviews this week because I can't get karaoke videos since youtube is STILL BLOCKED! BAH!

Nathan and I are going to San Qing Shan for our may holiday, I think it will be lovely.

Here is my hair, I hate it:

I'll probably like it in a couple week when it's a bit longer.

Things I did today...

• Taught a class about American universities.
• Got my hairz chopped the heck off. Pictures later when I am not so sleepy/having a bad skin day.
• Ate baozi.
• Watched a singing competition.
• Came up with the idea to have a karaoke class next week since my students are willing to sing but not to speak in class....?
• Bought a Japanese fashion magazine.
  
• Bookmarked all the clothes I want to have made in my various Elle and other fashion mags.

That's all.

Tomorrow... more of the same.

Edit:// So when Mom was here, on our way to catch the train to Nanchang I had to run through the train station with no shoes on. I got a small cut on the bottom of my foot, but I got it all cleaned up and band aid-ed. Well, all this time later it still hadn't healed and was somewhat sore... so I decided to get a pair of tweezers out and have a dig around in there... I just pulled a rather large piece of glass out of the bottom of my foot that had been in there this whole time. D'oh. Guess it'll heal now.

Cool

So, this was an interesting day full of Chinese language triumphs.

Nathan wasn't feeling well so I took the bus downtown by myself to catch the train. I got off after a few stops and hailed a cab, because I wasn't entirely sure which stop was near the bus station. The driver was an interesting fellow who definitely thought he was a race car driver.

I made it to the train station very quickly and headed in to buy my ticket. I've never bought one by myself in Nanchang, but I didn't have a problem at all. Ticket in hand I made my way to the waiting room, which was baking hot. I'm not a fan of Nanchang train station.
While heading to board the train a young man came up and tapped my shoulder stating that, "We have the same ticket." I just nodded as he waved his in my face, and we boarded the train together and found seats. We chatted for awhile but he left me in relative peace. I'm pretty sure he spent a majority of the train ride attempting to think up questions he could ask me. Bless.

I 'yo bailed' as quickly as possible after the train station and found myself a cab (the trick to avoiding the cabs who cheat you is to grab one just as they're dropping someone off near the entrance of the train station.) This cab driver was very talkative and even after I told him I didn't understand half the things he was saying we still managed to have a good conversation.

The best news of the day?! I got my acceptance letter to BLCU!!!! Now I just have to send them my monies by June 1st, so I guess I'll get a Chinese bank account all set up and rolling since I have the money now. May as well get it to them... although I may wait to see if Nathan and I can get an apartment together for the summer first.

Right, I'm wiped. Off to unpack and eat.

Wiped

I am wiped the hell out. My students are exhausting and I've got a cold and I have been going to bed too late.

Today Cary made pizza and let me eat a lot of it. Apparently I have a rather gregarious appetite. Super. But it was really good and I haven't had pizza in quite awhile.

I've spent my evening looking up bad words in Chinese.

I taught my kids the F-word in class. They already knew it.

I'm going to Nanchang this weekend.

These journals entries are getting more and more bland. Maybe I'll have something interesting to write after this week. I'm having a 'girly' day with my friend Cici on Saturday, so that will probably provide a few antics to write about.

Until then, Happy Easter!

Nada

Not much to say.

Kids were awful today. No one was in the mood to learn and we all wanted to just be outside where it was a gorgeous, warm day.

Went shopping at Walmart and saw some Bangladeshi's. They pointedly ignored me. Nice.

Played badminton with Cary for about an hour until some punk ass little brat Chinese kids started harassing us by yelling 'hello' and other things then throwing rocks.

Studying Chinese now.

The end.

Wuhan 2.0

So... Friday afternoon I headed down to Nanchang. I rode the train with Sophie and some of her friends. It was packed! When I arrived Nathan greeted me at the station and we headed off to Metro to pick up some groceries for a curry night.
Nathan cooked curry which was delicious! He's a superb chef. Pearl joined us for dinner and we had a nice chat while watching Anthony Bourdain.

Saturday morning we woke up early-ish and Nathan made pancakes. Fei Fei joined us and got to try her first pancake. We, (Nathan, Nikolai, FeiFei, and I) headed to the train station to catch the train to Wuchang (one of the Wuhan burroughs). The train ride was pretty quick, three hours or so. One of Nathan's students had recommended a hotel which turned out to be excellent, located only a few minutes from the train station and right on a night market street. It was a steal at only 100rmb a night. We checked into this great hotel, dropped off our bags, and headed to food street, we were all hungry. It was packed! We all ordered food from different stalls, and I managed to order noodles by myself sans MSG.
We decided to go back to the hotel for a bit then it was time to hit the bars. We had a cab take us to a bar street near Wuhan University and found one that was suitable to play a few dice drinking games at until we were ready to go to a club. Eventually we tired of the bar and headed to a club that was down the street. We were ushered to a table by an incredibly nice manager and along with the bottle of vodka we ordered, given a free bowl of fruit, french fries, and cucumber. It was fantastic. The music was okay, and we had some fun times dancing around. There was a group of French people, the only other laowai, who were polite and came over to introduce and offer us drinks. After a few hours of dancing, drinking, and socializing we were beat. We left the club and found a late night restaurant where Nik, FeiFei, and Nathan all enjoyed a various assortment of food such as snail and a whole duck (which Nathan ate by himself.) We went back to the hotel after that.

Sunday we had a lot of things planned. We rose pretty early considering how late we were out and headed to the Yellow Crane Tower. It was a beautiful day and we had a great view from the top of the tower. Nathan and I enjoyed walking the grounds and I found a great deal on some antique looking silk paintings, 3 for 20rmb. I am eager to get them framed now for when Nathan and I have a house together again. After walking the grounds we decided to go to Wuhan University to poke around the campus. It's a beautiful campus and I enjoyed seeing the grounds. We eventually found our way to the large lake (East/West Lake?) and walked onto the narrow docks. Poor FeiFei doesn't know how to swim so that made her a bit nervous.
It took us ages to get a cab near the university but we eventually managed it. We had the driver take us to the ferry, then caught the ferry to the other side of the river and another of Wuhan's burroughs. We grabbed dinner there, but I think there was a bit of MSG tainting our food and I didn't feel so well afterward. We decided to head back to the hotel and passed out.

This morning we got up early and headed to the train station. Because I was going to Jiujiang and Nik, Nate, and FeiFei were heading to Nanchang, I had to sit in a different part of the train. I said goodbye to Nathan in Wuhan. The train was packed, I spent most of the time reading and napping.
I found a nice cab driver once I got to Jiujiang, and now I am home. This week I'm teaching my kids slang, and I've had a good time looking up words to teach them. I am eager to see the dialogues they come up with.
Tomorrow I have plans to play badminton/frisbee with Cary and some friends. I am also going to meet up with David's cousin, Kevin, to hang out this week and I have arranged to see Jiujiang University campus with Qiao who is seeing if they offer Chinese classes there for me. Busy week!

Montezuma's Revenge....

I should think of a Chinese name for this.... Confucian's Revenge...?

I was very unwell in a very unpleasant way this morning. To the point that after two trips to the toilet during class (luckily I had short vids associated with my lesson that I could show during my bathroom breaks) I canceled the rest of class, canceled my next class, and walked home.

Ew.

However, I have strangely not been 'sick' since getting home. And I haven't actually felt that ill. My body is whacked.
I will take a couple pepto's before bed though, just in case.

Today was April Fool's Day, and for some reason the people in this country view this as a major holiday, or at least think it's one in the western world. I have received a number of texts telling me to have a 'Happy Fool's Day'. Right.

I'm off to read. Happy Fool's Day to you.

Well that's that then...

Another stellar weekend down, only a few more to go until summer vacation bliss (except I will be in school for a majority of my vacation).

Nathan and I are thinking about renting an apartment instead of me staying in the dorms and him doing whatever. I would actually save money since I'm paying $800 for 6 weeks and I know for a fact I can get an apartment for cheaper than that. I would just need to purchase a bike for getting to/from classes. We're thinking of taking a trip to Beijing during our May holiday to scope out places and all that.

Next Monday we have off, so Nathan and I shall probably take a short trip either to Wuhan or Changsha. Not sure where yet. It will be nice to explore another area though.

This week I'm working on pronunciation in my classes. Today my 2:30pm class might as well have all been sleeping, they were truly out of it. I made them get up and do exercises until they woke up. I ended up dismissing them early because I think we all just wanted to be out of class.

I'm off to read/nap/do laundry/clean.

Real World Chinese

I'm still waiting to hear back from BLCU, although the program adviser said it would be a couple weeks until I heard from them... so maybe this time next week?

In the meantime, I thought I would post some information about the program.

I will be in class between 4 and 6 hours a day. If I take the intensive class, which I'm planning on, I will be in class 6 hours a day. The extra two hours for the intensive program are one-on-one tutoring, how super is that?

I'm going back to the beginner class since my character writing is not very strong and I think it will be good to review the basics.

Textbooks are included in the $1200 program fee. There are no additional fees (besides my own personal spending and $800 for housing).

In order to ensure your Mandarin skills are developed in the best possible way, the classes have been divided into the five key language developing areas: reading, writing, listening, speaking (oral), and grammar.

Reading: Classes will focus on building vocabulary and strengthening reading comprehension, with a focus on accuracy and speed.

Writing: Classes will introduce and develop the composition of characters and stroke orders of radicals, or bushou.

Listening: Classes will focus on improving listening comprehension of spoken Mandarin at regular speed. At the beginner level the primary focus will be understanding basic facts; at the advanced level the primary focus will be developing implicit comprehension and drawing inferences from complicated passages.

Speaking (Oral): Classes will facilitate the development of proper pronunciation and intonation, and will help students recognize common stress patterns in Mandarin.

Grammar: Classes will introduce and develop proper sentence structure, word order, spelling and colloquial expressions.

After school there is complimentary tutoring and a partnered language exchange.

They also have free electives, whee!

Language: Chinese Character Writing and Chinese Song Classes

Chinese Character Writing: A supplementary class to writing classes. Focus is on further development of characters and the radical system.

Chinese Song Classes: An introduction to both traditional folk and modern (pop) Chinese songs. Lyrics are written in both pinyin (Romanized letters) and hanzi (Chinese characters) in order to further strengthen reading and speaking skills.

Non-Language: Chinese Painting, Calligraphy, Traditional Chinese Massage and Medicine, and Taiji Quan (Tai Chi)

Chinese Painting: An introduction to one of the most popular traditional Chinese painting techniques - water colour painting, taught by a professional artist.

Calligraphy: An introduction to the ancient and sublime art form of Chinese calligraphy. Learn the eight styles, how to hold the brush, and the proper order of strokes. Students will select one style and develop their skills.

Traditional Chinese Massage and Medicine: An introduction to the ancient Chinese view of the human body and the causes of illness. Remedial techniques will include herbal medicine and massage.

Taiji Quan (Tai Chi): An introduction to the softer and more fluid martial arts, with a focus on internal power to improve health and wellness, both physically and mentally.

Aaaaaaand, they even have social activities set up, along with a welcome lunch:

• The Peking Duck Feast
• Bowling nights
• Karaoke nights
• Movie nights
• Friday Bar and Club nights
• Bowling
• Paintball
• Snowboarding trips

Once a month Real World Chinese will also host a dinner and social evening where you will have the opportunity to share your experiences and stuff yourself silly with all the rice, soup and assorted Chinese dishes you can imagine.

Plus: Our Real World Chinese include Emergency Travel and Medical Insurance, which covers emergency medical and dental treatment, pro-rata return of program fee in case of curtailment, personal liability and more.

This summer is going to AH-MAZING!

P.S. I've already saved up all my tuition money and dorm money. Now I'm just saving up for living expenses for the summer. Yay!

Nothing, Nada, The Big Goose Egg

I did nothing today.

Okay, not entirely true. I did the dishes, swept, studied some Chinese, and did some laundry.

I also found this website, which is like Ross for Juniors online. Love it.

Shower, then bed. Tomorrow it's back to the grind.

Chores

Edward from Twilight = Cedric Diggory
Whoa.
How did I miss that?

No work tomorrow, they've canceled my class for some reason or another. I shall be sleeping in, cleaning, doing laundry, studying Chinese, and meeting up with a friend in the evening. Blah. A day off should not be spent doing things like chores.

FYI, Nathan's hard drive is fried, so if you're trying to reach him and can't, that's why. He's trying to get it fixed tomorrow.

That's all.

A fairly decent weekend.

I was in Nanchang this weekend, and it ended up being a good time. As soon as I arrived, Nathan and Pearl were there to greet me at the station. We headed to Metro for a little grocery shopping, before sending Pearl home with our goods while Nathan and I dashed off to a birthday dinner for our friend Leo.
The dinner was good, and while the entire thing was held in Chinese, I got the gist of most of it. I guess that means I'm getting better at this stuff. The meal was fantastic, but after many 'ganbei''s it was time to head home.

The weather was so nice on Saturday Nathan and I decided to go for a bike ride. We mis-judged the humidity though, and ended up pretty sweaty. We found a creepy abandoned building and graveyard on our ride which was interesting.
For dinner, Pearl was kind enough to cook us Tex Mex. It was delicious! We had a nice chat about a variety of subjects. We returned to Nathan's to get ready for an evening out. Soon Nik, Fei Fei, Nate, and I were on our way downtown to hang out with some friends at Le Nest. We met the Captain, and Leo, enjoyed a few drinks, then headed on to Soho bar.
Soho was quite fun, and the Captain was able to fanagle some free drinks for us. Luna, Simon, Leo's girlfriend, and a couple other girls joined us for the evening. After a few hours of dancing and drinking, we headed on to Stewart's bar to wind down.
Nathan wasn't feeling too good, so we headed home around 3am, the night complete.

Today we spent the day being sleepy and lazing about. I trained home around 5pm, and was happy I had a seat this time. I headed to Walmart after dropping off my bag to get some groceries and a few supplies for my classes tomorrow. It's game week, so hopefully it will go well. I'm off to pull some stuff together then sleep.

Twilight, Twilight, Twilight.... Squee!

School-wise, it was a long day. The kids didn't seem to love the sports lesson. Blah. They enjoyed the clips, just not learning the rules and terms in English. Next week is game week, where I'll be using games to test what they remember, so maybe it will be more fun.
After my last class I then went to Grace's class since they had never spoken to a foreigner before and answered questions for awhile.
Yeah, teaching totally kills any nervousness you may have about speaking in front of crowds you don't know. It's totally no sweat anymore. Bizarre.

As my treat for working so laboriously today, I decided to allow myself time to eat girl scout cookies, finish the final Twilight book, and finally watch the Twilight movie.
It was a good afternoon.
I didn't know what to expect with the Twilight movie. I hadn't watched any of the trailers and I had only seen Robert P (the guy who plays Edward) in pictures on Perez Hilton. I was actually thoroughly and happily shocked by how good it was. The first Twilight book was not the best, so I wasn't expecting too much from the movie. Stephanie Meyer (the author) didn't seem to find her voice until the later books, and thus, Bella (the main character) was incredibly irritating to start off with. However, in the movie she was well-played and they toned down the irritating bits. Overall, a success I would say.

I've got a stack of movies waiting to be watched, right now it's a tie between 'Rachel Getting Married' and 'Transporter 3'.

Toodles.

.

I've got to throw together a lesson plan, so this will be quick.

Nathan and I had a lovely weekend. It was a nice day Saturday so we decided to walk about town and visit my dvd man. We had a late lunch at a Sichuan restaurant near my campus, and asked them not to add MSG. And... I didn't get sick! So I think it really must be the MSG that's doing it. I found Twilight at the dvd store, so that was another success.

We spent most of today being lazy. Which is why I must go make a lesson plan now. Sports this week. Yippee!

Annnnnnnd...

I've got nothing.

Finished Twilight #2 and Shanghai Baby.

I... hated Shanghai Baby. Isn't that a shame? The main character, Coco, was unbearable. Perhaps that's what the author was aiming for, in which case she succeeded. I suppose I don't have much tolerance for characters like Coco, who are so caught up in their own selfish and greedy world. I can't understand why this book is banned in China, if it is. It doesn't make China look bad, just shows that there are some bad people here, just like there are in every country. I didn't enjoy the writing style very much either, it seemed like the author was trying to make the book longer so she added unnecessary descriptions of inconsequential things.
I read somewhere that it was a popular book among feminists, but I can't remember where. I think this book makes women look terrible. Selfish, weak, and like we must have a man in our lives to be happy, which is untrue.

Twilight is, of course, just mind wallpaper.
I'm almost finished with China Road and shall be able to pass it on to Liz soon.

Please keep an eye out for the following books at the used bookstore:

• Oracle Bones : A Journey Through Time in China by Peter Hessler
• The Elephant and the Dragon by Robyn Meredith
• Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China by Philip Pan
• River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler
• Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China by James Fallows
• Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie Chang
• The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices by Xinran
• Great Call of China by Cynthea Liu
• China Underground by Zachary Mexico
• Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang
• Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
• Becoming Madame Mao by Anchee Min
• The Last Days of Old Beijing : Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed by Michael Meyer
• Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper by Fuchsia Dunlop
• Serve the People: A Stir Fried Journey Through China by Jen Lin-Liu
• Any of the Barack Obama books
• Meltdown: A Free-Market Look At Why The Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse by Thomas Woods Jr.
  

Hamlin gave me the letter from the school that I needed for my study abroad program, so I've e-mailed them all the documents they should need now. Just waiting for the acceptance letter.

Grad school is looking more and more appealing. I'll keep you posted on that. I'm definitely thinking of applying next year. Would need to take the GRE or GMAT when I get back to the states in January. A prep book for those would be super fantastic, also.

Epic... only not so much

Nathan downloaded all of the Twilight books for me, so now I have all four on my computer waiting to be read. Awesome!

I had a great time hanging out with my student Renee today. We did a bit of shopping and I had a chance to not only practice my Chinese but also to eat some street food which was delicious, they were fried dumplings with spicy noodles inside. I must take Nathan to get some when he come to Jiujiang this weekend. We even got some sugar cane to munch on. Yum. Of course I didn't have my camera with me to document all this which is a shame.

After dropping off my purchases at the apartment, I went to Walmart to buy groceries since the house was devoid of food. I got some great munchies, and have found milk which may taste normal, I'll let you know after I try some. And some fat ass (probably Cary or one of the other foreign teachers) bought all the canned spaghetti sauce! Last time I was at Walmart which was only a week ago there were about 10 cans there. Ridiculous. They better order more. I'm stuck with those plastic bag spaghetti sauces until then.
Could someone mail me cotton balls? They are the only thing that I can't seem to find in China AT ALL! I've been using q-tips for my cleanser stuff, and it is just a waste.
On the way home I had a fantastic cab driver who spoke Chinese for laowai (foreigner) so I could understand him and we had a good conversation. He was nice enough to drive me to the door of my hotel (almost all cabbies stop at the main gate) since I had so much in the way of groceries. Apparently I've lost the ability to say the school's name correctly, because he started taking me to Jiujiang University. I corrected him and he told me he knew I was a teacher and so he just thought to take me to JJU or something along those lines. Eh. We figured it out.

Okay, I'm off to read Twilight before I force myself to go to bed.

Wentang

Friday: As soon as my classes were over, I made my way to the train station, bag in hand to buy my ticket and catch the earliest train possible to Nanchang. Somehow, even though I arrived twenty minutes before the train was to leave, I missed the one I was hoping to catch and thus had to catch the next one and wait at the train station for an hour.
Fine.
The train ended up being standing room only and quite packed. No sitting for the hour and a half journey for me, although a creep-o did offer me a chance to come sit next to him. No thanks.
I arrived in Nanchang around 3:45 and met Nathan and Liz (who had arrived before me) at the McDonalds near the station. We sat around for awhile 'shooting the shit' and waited for Nik to arrive. After he joined us we headed back to the train station to meet Cici who had our train tickets and whose apartment we would be staying at.
The train was fantastic, it was the express, and so clean! We arrived in Yichun about an one and a half hours after departing Nanchang. We quickly caught a taxi outside the station and headed on to Wentang where we would be staying.
First things first, it was dinner time. After an interesting meal, which included such delicacies as a vegetable which tasted like grass and dirt, and another which had the taste and consitancy of pork fat, we headed on to Cici's apartment.
We decided that some hot springs were in order, so after mixing a few drinks to take with us, we headed out to the springs. It was already dark outside, and we headed to a close place first. Unfortunately it would be closing only about an hour after we had arrived, so we decided to move on to the posh springs instead. We eventually found the place and headed in.
The springs were very nice and we had a lot of fun trying the different pools, enjoying our drinks, and hanging out. Soon it was closing time, so we headed back to Cici's place where we played a few drinking games with Nathan's snapping alligator, then headed to bed.

Saturday: I was feeling pretty unwell, most likely from the combination of drinking and Chinese food. (Maybe I'm allergic to msg?). We went for lunch at a nice restaurant just up the street where Cici ordered a giant stone bowl full of fish and a few other dishes. We then caught a mianbaoche to take us to the mountain. The ride was a bit uncomfortable for me and my volatile stomach, but the company was pleasant and the views were nice. On our way to the mountain our driver managed to run over a chicken.
Immediately an old woman came running to the van yelling at the driver who then had to stop and pay her off for the chicken. We still don't even know if it was actually her chicken, but she made somethine like 40 yuan off of it's untimely death.
We finally arrived at the mountain which was gorgeous. However, once we had wandered inside and seen how expensive it was, we changed our minds. Almost 200 yuan to climb this stinking thing? Pshhh. No way. We took a few pictures on our way out, and grabbed another mianbaoche to take us back to Wentang.
We decided our money would be better spent at the posh hot springs, so we donned our bathing suits and headed back. We spent most of our time skipping from pool to pool and enjoyed a game of Marco Polo.
Eventually it was time to go home so we headed back to Cici's to pack our bags and catch a mianbaoche to the train station. I only wish it could have lasted longer.
We arrived back in Nanchang quite late in the evening, bid Cici farewell, and headed to Nathan and Nik's apartment complex. We were all exhausted from the hot springs so we headed to bed pretty much as soon as we got home.

Sunday: My stomach was still a bit achy. Nathan, Liz, and I headed to the Muslim noodle restaurant for lunch (I swear, everytime we go there I'm sick and can't eat the entire bowl, so now I'm pretty sure the owner thinks I don't like his restaurant.) It was then time to head back to the train station so Liz could catch her train back to Wuhan and I could get my ticket and head back to Jiujiang. Liz left around 1:30 so Nathan and I headed to McDonald's to hang out before my train at 2-ish.
It was another train with standing only room, but I met some nice kids from Jiujiang University who I had a good chat with on the way home. They even let me practice my Chinese! Not too shabby.
When I arrived home I found this fantastic e-mail:

Hi Jessica,

I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo has been selected for inclusion in the newly released sixth edition of our Schmap San Francisco Guide:

Japanese Tea Garden


****

Neat, huh?
I also had an email from Real World Chinese asking me to send a copy of my visa and a letter from my employer saying I was allowed to study in Beijing for the summer. Ridiculous. I let Hamlin know, so hopefully he's taking care of that. I'll re-emphasize how important it is to him on Wednesday if I haven't heard anything.

Today I taught my kids about going to the doctor and all that related vocab. They really don't know many body parts, so we went over that, and I taught them the different words for 'butt'.
Tomorrow I have plans to meet a student to hang out/ have a Chinese lesson/ shop.
Now I'm off to cook dinner and maybe do some yoga.

You can see pictures from Wentag here.

Tomorrow

You will get an update about this weekend. It was super.

Now... I must make a lesson plan and sleep.

Things of note...

• The fingernails are fixed. I managed to uber eff them up when I got home from the salon so I whipped out the polish remover and repainted them hot pink with glitter. I even managed to cut them down to a more resonable length, although the middle and ring fingers are still looking a bit long. I'm quite proud of my fingernail painting skillz although I'm nowhere near as good as the profs.
• I have already saved up half of the program fee for this summer. Go me! Now I just need to get my tax return in, and save up the other 4000rmb plus any spending money I may need. However, I have been told that I shall probably get about 11,000rmb when summer break starts, so I don't think that will be a problem either. I also plan to do some private lessons for cash while I'm in Beijing if I can, or find some other job on the side.
  
• I talked to Hamlin about my visa issues, i.e. my visa expires the day after I head up to Beijing. He said he would talk to some people and try to get it sorted so I don't have to worry about it.
• Tomorrow I have two classes, then head to Nanchang to meet up with Nathan and Liz before we head to the hot springs.
• I must go pack.

That's it.

P.S. I still really want a trapeze. Oof.

Very little to say...

Not much is going on. The weather has been too cold and wet to spend much time outdoors.

Sophie and I went to the nail salon today and I paid for her to have her nails done. I also had mine redone but I don't like them at all. They're black with white polka dots which would be cute on shorter nails, but on the longish nails just looks frightening. I'll get them redone next weekend or something.

That is all. Going to the hot springs this weekend. Getting paid tomorrow, but a majority of it is going into savings for summer school. I am wiped out, so a shower and bed for me.

I <3 Hong Kong

I'm completely wiped, but I figure I'll try to get this all posted and wrapped up before I pass out (plus the laundry is still going.)

Nathan and I caught the train to Shenzhen around 4pm on Friday. We both took some Nyquil and passed out pretty early, eager to sleep through the fourteen hour train ride. We ended up arriving around 5:30am.

Unfortunately for us, the ticket booth to buy our return tickets to Nanchang/Jiujiang didn't open until later, so we spent some time eating breakfast and hanging out (in the gloriously warm weather) at the Shenzhen train station. Eventually we were able to buy the return tickets and move on to the other side of the train station which was where the border to Hong Kong was located.
We passed through customs with ease and made our way to the metro where we bought tickets to head into the main city area of Kowloon. After a 45 minute metro ride we arrived at our stop, which was conveniently located right next to the Mirador Mansion where we were to stay. Inside the mansion were a number of hostels, so we settled for one, made a deal with the lady who ran the operation, and settled in. Naps and showers were in order, so we set about making that happen.
In the early afternoon we decided to have some lunch (Indian food) before setting out to look around. The area we were in (Nathan Road) was bustling with activity. We walked around and discovered how conveniently close we were to the Ocean Port where Grandma and Grandpa would be docking the next day. We decided to take the ferry across to the island of Hong Kong (it probably has it's own name but I can't be bothered to look it up.) We spent hours looking around at all the markets, hiking up stairs, and peeking into art galleries. In the evening we wandered by the park, and stumbled upon a night market. By the end of the day my feet were straight up busted and we were exhausted.

We met Grandma and Grandpa the next day, at 10am sharp. Luckily the dock was only a 15 minute walk away from our hotel. We decided that breakfast was in order and found a local Starbucks to meet our breakfast needs. After that it was off down Nathan road to have a look at the shops and try to find a tailor (unsuccessfully). After a nice look around the park which boasts a small lake complete with flamingos and a rare bird aviary, we made our way to the ferry to see the island. Nathan has a brilliant mind for directions and took us back to all the markets I thought the grandparents would like to see. We ended up hopping on a tram as a mini adventure, but didn't make it far before deciding to stop at another market for a quick look and some lunch. A pizza hut was nearby, so we headed in there to refuel, gorging on such delicacies as garlic bread and pizza.
The idea of going to Stanley Market kept coming up, so we hailed a cab and headed out that way. It ended up being on the opposite side of the island, but the views were brilliant as we passed all the million dollar homes and small beaches. We did a bit more shopping at the market, running into Grandma and Grandpa's fellow Oriana passengers as we did. After a few picture taking opportunities, we decided to catch a double decker bus back to the city.
We took the top deck of the ferry back to Kowloon which was quite nice. The shopping had accumulated into a bothersome mess, so we went back to our hotel to drop it off before heading on to the night market. Street food was in order, though it cost a might more than street food on the mainland. Nathan ordered about four dishes, and Grandma and I scampered off to have a look at the market while they were being cooked. Unfortunately the dishes arrived soon after we left, so it was a bit cold when we returned, but still delicious.
It was soon time for the light show, so we made our way to where the ferry dock was in order to get good seats. The show was quite nice, although the commentating was in Cantonese. Everyone was pretty exhausted after that so we walked Grandma and Grandpa back to the Oriana and headed off. Nathan enjoyed a couple beers while I did a bit more shopping, then went back to the hotel.

Monday morning Nathan and I hurried to The Penninsula to meet Grandma and Grandpa. We had a delicious breakfast there while taking in all the poshness. We decided it best to drop off the Ribena and book that Grandma and Grandpa had brought with them, so we returned to the hotel, then made our way to the Hong Kong space museum. Unfortunately it was closed, so we headed for the ferry instead. After a short ride across we were once again on the island. Nathan led us to the area where all the art galleries are, so we spent the afternoon poking around in there until it was time to return to Kowloon. We metroed back and stopped by our hotel to check out and retrieve our bags before heading to a small Indian restaurant in the next mansion over from ours.
We ordered our food and ended up waiting forever! I was growing ever more nervous about missing our train, but we were able to eat and get the naan to go. We bid Grandma and Grandpa farewell, and ran for the metro which we had to take to get back to the HK/Shenzhen border. We ended up having just enough time to make it through customs and arrived at our train gate just as it began boarding.
Nathan and I didn't have beds next to each other, so I hung out in his area until we were both exhausted. Then I returned to my bed, had a Nyquil, read for a bit, and passed out.

This morning Nathan tapped me as he was heading off. His stop was in Nanchang, an hour and a half before my own. I gave him a hug, then fell back asleep, before being woken up to hand over my ticket and prepare to disembark. The train was a bit late getting in, but I immediately found a taxi (where I was overcharged but didn't care) and arrived home with enough time to unpack before heading to class.
In class we watched a movie, The Princess Bride, which the kids all seemed to adore. Think I'll stick to the movies this week, next week will be a hard lesson 'At the Doctor'.


P.S. Nathan and I now own Fafu, a lovable panda who like bamboo and traveling as well as blogging. Check out her adventures here: http://chroniclesoffafu.blogspot.com/

Wahoo!

Hi, Jessica,

Thank you for choosing Real World Chinese. This is to confirm that we 
have already received your application for 6-week Chinese Language 
Program at BLCU from July 9th to August 19th, 2009. The application 
fee and program deposit have been received too. You do not need to 
send your application documents anywhere else.

We will send your application to the university in 2 business days. 
Usually it takes 3-4 weeks to get the Admission Notice and JW202 Form. 
(You may not need it since you have been in China.) We will book the 
on-campus accommodation for you too.

Thank you again for choosing RWC. We are looking forward to seeing you 
in Beijing this summer.

Please feel free to contact us at any time if you have more questions.

Best wishes,

--
Victor Zhang
Program Advisor

In order of exciting level...

Today I applied for the intensive Chinese language course at Beijing Language and Culture University for the summer! Very exciting indeed. They have my money, application, a copy of my passport, and my diploma, as well as a passport-sized photo of moi.

Sophie and I went to the train station and bought two tickets to Shenzhen. So, I'm all set to leave on Friday to head down to Hong Kong.

I also managed to break the main computer in my classroom with the arm of a chair, but Max was a superstar and had the crew fix it right away.

Everybody Dance Now

Who's got two thumbs and is going to Hong Kong this weekend? This girl!

Gonna go buy train tickets tomorrow, hopefully. Change some money into HK dollars too.

I'm supposed to make up the classes from Monday, although I'm not sure how I will do that. I'm just having them watch a movie next week at any rate.

That's all I've got right now.

My students rock...

Before you read the amazing, super awesome, long post I wrote below, check this out:
Today I taught 'Greetings' to my students. The following dialogue is written by three boys in one of my classes:

A: "Hey guys. How you doing?"
B: "Great."
C: "I'm great too. How you doing?"
A: "I'm fine. I'm going to the library, what about you?"
B: "Oh, that sucks. We don't like to go there at at all, we're going to a party."
A: "Oh really, what's that party about?"
C: "It's a birthday party."
A: "Great. I'd like to go too, but I have no time."
C: "Oh, come on, man, you got relax yourself for awhile and that's today, now, let's go!"
B: "Yeah, don't stay all the time."
A: "Well, you know, I prepare for a test and I have to pass it."
B: "Bullshit! Move your damn ass! Now come on! You'll meet the girl who you wanna meet."
A: "Ok. Let's go!"




Yes, we all laughed for about ten minutes straight.

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ~Lin Yutang

The Journey to the Land of Ice and Snow
... and all the stops in between.




Sit back, relax, put on your reading specs, we're going to here for awhile, folks.




First Stop : Shanghai


January 25th, 2009
Travelers never think that they are the foreigners. ~Mason Cooley

Nathan and I arrived in Shanghai South Train Station around 6:30am after a long, loud night on a hard-sleeper bed. I had hardly slept and was a bit grumpy, but excited to be in Shanghai, a city I had never before visited. We collected our belongings, exited the train, and immediately found our way to the metro which we took to the North Station. Upon arrival we bought tickets to Beijing, expensive due to soft-sleeper (aka first class) being all that was available.
Before departing from Nanchang, Nathan and I had looked up a number of hostels and their various prices and settled on the Y35 hostel. Unfortunately, the cab driver had not one clue where the road the hostel was located on could be, and so, we drove around aimlessly while he called his contacts to see if they had an idea. Eventually we stumbled upon the road quite by accident, but there it was, the Y35.
The hostel was in a nowhere sort of place. Next to the highway on a bit of a back road where there was a small grocery store and that was about it. We checked into the hostel and went up to our room which we quickly discovered was located next to the bathroom. The place reeked of human waste and the noise of drunk Europeans laughing at 10 in the morning. We checked out, took back our deposit, and cabbed back to the North Station.
Well crap. Now what?
We decided to walk around the hotels in the area to see if they had any rooms. No dice. They were all too expensive at any rate. We were going to be in Shanghai for about five days, and staying in a hotel would add up.
We decided we had no choice but to head to the Captain Hostel, located on the Bund. We hopped in a cab and headed out. Luckily the hostel had plenty of room for us, and we checked into our individual dormitories (me in the girls, Nate in the boys). I was beyond cranky at this point, so I took a short nap, then had a nice hot shower in the locker style showers.
We decided to walk along the Bund which was just gorgeous. It was nice weather outside, a little chilly, but sunny. After taking a few pictures and making a purchase (a pink hat with ears, who can resist?) we made our way to Nanjing Lu, the walking/shopping street. We also did a bit of shopping in the underground market, home to all the faux goods you could ever want. I found a beautiful red Louis Vuitton bag, but alas, it was too expensive. Onward!
Stomachs were beginning to rumble at this point, so it was time for a rather late lunch. Signs for Thai food led us into a huge, expensive mall, and a beautiful but empty restaurant. We had missed the lunch time rush and barged in on the staff preparing for dinner. They nicely let us order and we sucked down such delicacies as curry and fried rice.
Both exhausted, we returned to the hostel for a nap so that we could stay up late in order to enjoy Chinese New Years Eve in style.
After napping for a few hours, we went to the roof where the Captain Hostel bar is located. Pizza and drinks were ordered and enjoyed then it was time to venture elsewhere.
We found the Windows Underground and were delighted with their cheap drinks menu. Who can argue with 10rmb a drink? We enjoyed a few (read 3) then headed back to the Captain Hostel bar, which has an amazing view of the Pudong skyline, to watch the fireworks.



January 26, 2009
Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness. ~Ray Bradbury

Since it had been a late night, Nathan and I both ended up sleeping in. Well, I attempted to sleep in, but my roommates (all 5 of them) decided that rising at 6am sounded like fun! Then they spent the next hour crashing around the room getting ready for the day.
When we finally did rise, we decided that brunch at the City Diner sounded like an A+ plan. We made our way there and were pleasantly surprised with the menu, although perhaps not the service. (To be fair, they were at half staff due to the holiday). I enjoyed my chicken quesadillas, although they made me feel a bit queesy. Perhaps the guacamole.
Our next stop was the foreign book store which was very nice. They had a huge selection of books to choose from, although they were all the same price as books in the states (which equals out to be quite pricy in rmb). Nathan found a couple books he thought looked interesting and purchased them.
The Moller Villa was near the bookstore so we decided to walk to it and poke around. We walked the grounds and peeked into the house. It was gorgeous! Certainly a place I would not mind owning for a second.
After the villa we found Huihai Lu, another shopping street, and walked up and down it. They're building a Barbie store there, but I was quite sad to see that it wasn't yet complete. Perhaps next time I'm in Shanghai...
It was nearing dinner time so we headed to Taco Papa/ Burrito Mama (I think that's the name of it) since they were having a special on beef burritos and margaritas. I ordered a chicken chimichanga and a couple of margaritas, all of which were amazingly delicious. Cheesecake for dessert, while Nathan sucked down two or three more margaritas. While we were eating and lushing, two older gentleman sat down at a table near us. They were very friendly, a German and an American, both businessmen who worked in the area. We ended up chatting with them and after finishing eating decided to go bar hopping together. We ended up at a couple of different bars, one with pole dancers who, since the bar was empty, were mainly chatting and showing each other different pole moves. The second bar was a cab ride away in which the cab driver got lost (it was his first night, poor thing) and the men thusly made jokes the entire ride about how he had only been driving ten minutes or something along those lines.
Eventually we bid our new friends adieu and headed back to the hostel. Nathan spent the entire cab ride home talking about a strange jumble of things mostly having to do with Anglo Saxons and them making horns out of meat which resembled the rolled up magazine he was trying to use as a horn.



January 27th, 2009
The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see. ~G.K. Chesterton

It was a slow day, this day. I started it with breakfast at the Captain Hostel, complimentary, I might add. I crescent, a hard-boiled egg, and some orange drink (I hesitate to call it juice since it would be soda if there were bubbles).
I had formed huge, disgusting blisters on the bottom of my feet from all the walking we had done in the past two days, so I spent some time nursing them (i.e. popping them nasty little things) while Nathan was getting ready for the day.
Soon enough we headed out, intent on making our way to the other side of the river to have a look around Pudong. We hopped on the metro and headed over.
The other side of the river is mostly a conglomerate of business buildings, although it does boast the worlds tallest building, the Pearl Tower, and the Grand Hyatt. Nathan and I headed to the Grand Hyatt, one of his favorite Shanghai spots. We made our way to the top floor and looked down through the lobby, a truly dizzying sight. As someone who is not so fond of heights, it was a bit much, but I am glad I saw it. We sat down in the cafe and Nathan enjoyed an over-priced tea while we people watched.
We soon tired of the Pudong area since we were not wanting to pay to go up the worlds tallest building, nor were we willing to wait in the two hour long line. We metro-ed back to the Nanjing Lu for lunch... a Subway sandwich!
Two and a half days of walking had worn us both out, so we had a nap back at the hostel before leaving for dinner.
Nathan was craving some all you can eat BBQ so we headed to O'Malleys which was advertised to have it. When we got there we found that not only were they sans-BBQ they were sans-politeness too. We left and headed for an Indian restaurant we had passed on the cab ride to O'Malleys. The Indian food was to die for, delicious with polite and efficient service to boot.
We headed back to the hostel where we hung out in the lobby digesting before heading up to the Captain Hostel bar for a mug of hot chocolate before bed.



January 28th, 2009
We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. ~Hilaire Belloc

My roommates, delights that they are, arose at 7:30am this morning. Again, the hour of mucking about while they pack their bags and get ready for the day. It's all part of the experience, it's all part of the experience, it's all part of the experience...
I went down to the dining room area for breakfast again, this time ordering the fruit and yogurt. Yuck. What I recieved was a plate of fruit, mostly a Chinese fruit that's a mix between an apple and pear, with yogurt poured over the top. Not filling in the least. I headed to the convenience store to get something else instead.
Nathan and I spent the morning trying to locate the ever elusive Astor House. No luck, wouldn't you know it. We did manage to find the old British Embassy, still a beautiful building, but slated for demolition.
During our meandering, we managed to find a cute little restaurant named Puzzle. We weren't sure what to make of it with it's Western menu at Chinese food prices. However, once we ordered and had our first few bites we knew we had hit the motherload. This place was gold! This food was just as good as any of those western restaurants we had been hitting up, but it was affordable! We made mental notes to return asap.
More walking, this time we found the Yuyuan tourist shopping area. There were some fantastic paintings in this area, but I didn't want to have to carry a canvas around with me while I was traveling so I passed. It was incredibly crowded and since neither Nathan nor I are fond of crowds, we headed back to that foreign bookstore we had been at a couple days ago. I ordered a delicious apple crumble cheesecake and we soaked up that feeling that you only get in bookstores.
We soon headed back to the hostel and ended up hanging out in the lobby for awhile, reading and vegetating.
Around dinner time we headed to a Muslim noodle restaurant we had seen which was right around the corner. It was delicious, hands down the best noodles I've had so far in China.
Both wiped, it was bed time.



January 29th, 2009
The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway. ~Henry Boye

My roomies woke up around 8:30am on this morning, a much more reasonable hour, but still far too early for someone who values their sleep as much as I do.
I headed down for breakfast, enjoying a feast of a crescent, a banana, and the 'milk' which is really just another name for creamer in this country.
I readied myself for the day, packing up my bags so that I could check into the room that Nathan and I would be sharing with mom. No more dorm-style rooms for us!
We checked into the room and rested until it was lunch time, then headed to Puzzle to grab a quick bite to eat. After our tasty meal it was time to catch the subway to the mag-lev a.k.a. train of awesomeness.
The maglev was super cool minus the fact that going so fast backwards made me feel slightly ill. However, true to it's advertising, it got us to the airport in under ten minutes.
Mom arrived about twenty minutes after we found the terminal, three giant bags in tow. Packing light has never been something we've been good at, but these were some goliath sized bags. We decided that a taxi would be the most efficient way back to a hostel, and so, Mom had her first experience in a Chinese taxi thirty minutes after getting off the plane.
We dropped her bags in our new Captain Hostel room and decided to hit up the Underground Market. Nathan wandered off while Mom and I perused the goods and seemed to have abandoned us when up he popped with that gorgeous red Louis Vuitton bag I had liked so much the first time we were at the market. What a sweetheart!
We hit Nanjing Lu hard, gawking at the throngs of Chinese people who surrounded us as well as the pricey shops that line the street.
We headed to the Indian food restaurant for dinner then hot coco at the Captain Hostel for dessert. It was soon time to pass out, which we did.



January 30th, 2009
To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. ~Aldous Huxley

We woke early, 8am, and headed downstairs for our complimentary breakfast. This time it was six pieces of toast, all of which I ate.
We decided to check out, but leave the bags at the hostel while we walked around Shanghai/
We walked along the Bund then on to Yuyuan where I bought a new pair of boots having thoroughly worn through the other pair I had brought. As we walked around Yuyuan we started to make our way into the area where the locals actually live, and finally found a food street and a market street.
We cabbed to the French area of Shanghai and had a wander around before retiring to Puzzle for lunch. The it was time to catch the subway to Pudong where we graced the Grand Hyatt with our presence once more. Nathan wanted to see what the World Finance Building view was like (tallest building in the world, apparently) so he headed up to the top floors while Mom and I wandered around the shop area. Satisfied with the view, Nathan returned and we walked on to the Pearl Tower for pictures and to see why there were great crowds lined up outside (still don't know).
We subway-ed back to the Bund side of the river and headed to Nathan and I's favorite bookstore for a rest and some more of that apple crumble cheesecake. We also peeked in at the Moller mansion but the gardens were closed off this time around.
We made our way back to the hostel and had some hot coco before heading to the train station with all the bags.
We enjoyed a nice soft sleeper (aren't we posh?) all the way to Beijing.


Second Stop: Beijing


January 31st, 2009
I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them. ~Mark Twain

We arrived in Beijing with me having slept about three hours. Which means I was, once again, cranky. We lugged our bags around, bought our tickets to Harbin, and eventually caught a cab to the Silvermans house, the nice family friends of the Bakers who were allowing us to stay with them.
I was sick, sick, sick in that liquidy guts if I move I'm only going to move towards a bathroom kind of way, so we ended up spending the day resting. It was necessary.
Nate and Mom went to dinner with the Silvermans while I hung out 'shooting the shit' as it were. They were kind enough to pick me up some antibiotics which were fantastic.
Sandwiches for dinner from a store next door.
Then it was time to sleep.


February 1st, 2009
And that's the wonderful thing about family travel: it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind. ~Dave Barry

This was to be a day of exercise, that was for sure. I had finally recovered, thanks to the antibiotics, from the liquid intestines, and was feeling up for the task of climbing the Great Wall. Huzzah.
We caught a cab and negotiated with him to drive us to the Mutianyu section of the wall for 500rmb. It was a fairly long cab ride to the wall, but the scenery on the way was enjoyable, so we just sat back and relaxed. We arrived about 45 minutes later and were immediately barraged by eager hawkers wanting us to buy their goods. "Cheaper for you!"
We took the gondola (ski lift) up to the wall which we then spent the next hour walking up and down and admiring the lovely view. Tourists from all countries were around, but it wasn't too crowded and the weather was not too cold. Soon it was time to head back down, which we did gleefully, as the best way to get down from this section of the wall is via toboggan. Nathan went first so that there would be no one in front of him to slow him down. I went second and was slowly making my way when all of a sudden a guard hopped on and came speeding up behind me. Yikes! I finished at a much quicker pace than when I started. Mom was the last down with her red hair flying behind her.
We did the hawkers a favor and looked through their various stalls, stopping to buy one chocolate pancake, one banana pancake, and a sweatshirt for Mom which said, 'I climbed the Great Wall of China."
Our cabbie was kind enough to drop us at the Olympic Park where Mom and I paid our 50 yuan each to enter the Olympic Stadium while Nathan walked around outside. The birds nest was much smalled on the inside than either of us had expected, but still quite an amazing sight. We walked around the park and were sad to see that no one was allowed inside the Water Cube.
It was getting later and chillier, so we took the subway back to the Silvermans where we hung out for awhile before grabbing a late dinner at a delicious Thai restaurant.
Sleep.



February 2nd, 2009
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu

It was the morning of the Superbowl so everyone rose early, very early... except Nathan and I. We slept through the whole thing.
Cereal for breakfast then onward to the Forbidden Palace. As soon as we entered the Palace we were told of an art exhibit going on, "Free for you". We decided to have a look and were told that the paintings were being sold so that the money could go to scholarships for the students. Right. We decided to buy into it, and Mom came away with a beautiful and perhaps over-priced wall scroll of China in the spring.
We walked around the Forbidden Palace, taking in all the restored buildings and fellow tourists. It was a good picture taking opportunity, for sure.
After exciting we walked back around the palace to Tiananmen Square which was packed with people. There were also a ton of security people on guard, ready to throw you in their cop van if you even looked menacing. We made our way from one of the Square to the other, eventually finding the hutong that Nathan had wanted us to see, the narrowest Hutong in China. True enough, it was only big enough for one person to walk through it at a time.
We went on to Beijing's walking street, then further to their food street which had displays of all manners of things on a stick. Scorpions on a stick, starfish on a stick, seahorses on a stick, you name it. We had a bowl of noodles as a late lunch then headed back to the Silvermans for another lazy evening.


February 3rd, 2009
The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes "sight-seeing." ~Daniel J. Boorstin

We slept in.
Today was the day of all days, today was POWER SHOPPING DAY!
Mom and I headed out to Yashow Market which is conveniently near the Silvermans home. We spent many, many hours buying many, many goods. I bought 2 pairs of Abercrombie lounge pants in pink and gray, one Juicy Couture track/lounge suit in blue, two pairs of jeans True Religion and Victoria Beckham, four polo shirts in a variety of colors, one pair of sunglasses, one pair of regular glasses, a backpack/suitcase to carry everything, a dress, a black skirt, an Abercrombie shirt, and probably more that I can't think of at the moment.
We walked home with our purchases and packed then rested.
Soon it was time to get to the train station and catch our train (hard-sleeper) to Harbin.


Third Stop: Harbin

February 4th, 2009
Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. ~Seneca

We arrived in Harbin around 5am and managed to catch a cab who brought us to walking street where we quickly found a hotel at a reasonable price.
None of us had slept much on the train, so we napped for awhile before showering and getting ready for the day.
Mom, Nathan and I walked down walking street towards the river, enjoying the nice ice sculptures along the way. We decided to stop in a hotel to try to buy train tickets, but alas, they were sold out! Plane tickets were the only answer, which meant poor Nathan having to run back to the hotel for our passports while Mom and I went to find something for breakfast.
Finally we made our way to the river where we found no end of amusements. We decided to try the ice slide where you sit on a sled and slide down a slide made from ice that goes from the river bank to the river (which is frozen solid). It was great fun, although a bit terrifying at the same time as the entire time you're not quite sure how you're going to stop once you make it to the bottom.
We took a pony drawn carriage across the river to Sun Island where the snow festival was being held. It was just a short walk to the snow park from the river and we were soon surrounded by amazing snow sculptures. They were just beautiful and some of them were even interactive! I did enjoy the snow slides quite a bit.
After the snow park we walked back across the river, hailed a cab, and asked him to take us to a good restaurant. The place he dropped us off was decent, but I've certainly had better Chinese food.
Back to the hotel for a bit of a rest and to let night fall before heading to Ice and Snow World. This place is really too amazing for words. It's a GIANT park filled with buildings, statues, and rides all made of ice. It's gorgeous because everything is lit up with neon lights and the place just glows. We stayed for a few hours before, exhausted and cold, we made our way back to walking street, grabbed some McDonalds, and went to the hotel.



February 5th, 2009
It is not down in any map; true places never are. ~Herman Melville

Early morning for us so that we could check out of the hotel, drop our bags at the front desk, and head to the Russian Cafe for a breakfast of tea and toast.
After munching a bit, we caught a cab to the Harbin Tiger Park where we eagerly bought our tickets then stood there in confusion. Where was the entrance? We walked around the buildings for a bit before realizing that the other tourists were getting on buses. Oh, right.
We hopped on a bus and took off into the tiger enclosures where we were able to get up close and personal (with a thick mesh between us) with our furry friends. They were beautiful and it was definitely an experience I would recommend. After seeing the siberian tigers, ligers, and lions, the bus dropped us off at an area where you can feed live animals to the tigers for a fee. Mom and I decided to opt out of that bit, instead going to an observatory deck to see the park better, while Nathan dashed off to watch a man feed a screaming chicken to some hungry tigers.
We took a van back to walking street where we met Nathan's friend Siwen and her friend. They were gracious enough to take us to lunch at a local dumpling restaurant, which was delicious. We then went for ice cream, a local specialty, before heading on to see the St. Sofia church and the underground market. Soon it was time to say bye to Siwen and her friend, and to thank them for being such kind hostesses.
We headed back to the Russian cafe to have another spot of tea and await darkness before heading to Zhaolin Park where the Disney ice festival was being held. Again, it was amazing! Ice sculptures and buildings, all Disney themed, filled the park. Nathan and I enjoyed the ice slides a number of times.
All too soon it was time to head back to the hotel to pick up our bags then take a taxi to the airport. We flew back to Beijing and headed back to the Silvermans for sleep.



February 6th, 2009
What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road. ~William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

It was another sleep in kind of day. Charlie joined us to hang out so we ordered a couple Papa Johns pizzas and watched such classics as American Idol and things of that nature. Soon enough it was time to bid farewell to fare Beijing and catch the soft sleeper back to Jiujiang.


February 7th, 2009
I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

We arrived in Jiujiang around 6am, bid farewell to Nathan who trained on to Nanchang, and cabbed to my apartment. Mom and I set about unpacking then napped for awhile. We walked downtown and did a bit of shopping before heading to David's restaurant for dinner.
The evening ended with an Entourage marathon before bed.





The End.