So I'm starting to think about my 5 week vacation, starting at the end of January. Because we want to see more than one country, I am thinking about this ahead of time because planning will have to be done in advance for sure - for one, I need to look into visas.
For two, I'm really excited!
So here is what's at the top of our list right now:
Thailand
Bali, Indonesia
Malaysia
Cambodia
Vietnam
Laos - we have a sponsored child here that we could potentially meet!
I don't feel a strong pull towards the Philippines or Taiwan so far, but those are options too. I came here wanting to go to Japan as well, but now that I have so many other options, I doubt we will go during our 5 weeks off.
Still want to see in China:
Honk Kong
Shanghai
Terracotta Warriers
Tibet
I want to do EVERYTHING!!!
Ideas, tips, suggestions? Where would you go??
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Out and About
Here is an overview of some of what has been going on with us recently.
We attended our first Chinese Wedding a few weeks ago! I almost wore a red dress and gave them money in a white envelope before I was saved these catastrophes by a fellow co-worker.
We found a skating rink and manicure/pedicure place (Zac and I were both excited for different reasons). I got Zac a pass for the skating rink so I will bring him a few times - it's just down the road.
I survived midterms. That's 1/4 of the school year done and honestly, it was the worst. I am told it gets easier. So maybe next time only 2-3 mini breakdowns?
I've met some families from Saudi Arabia who live nearby and have kids at Zacs school. The ladies are very nice and we may get the kids together from time to time.
We went to a Thanksgiving Feast a few weekends ago and had pumpkin pie and it was sooo exciting! Most of the people there attend a church called Foreign Fellowship and Zac and I have gone a couple of times now and really like the atmosphere. The church is on the other side of the Yangtze River, as is Aloha's - a really great place that has western food and ROOT BEER FLOATS!
We found the movie theatre! But couldn't watch a movie. English dialogue is only on weekdays. We will try again this week :)
We found a store in the mall that secretly sells English movies for 10 qui! We will live on the edge for some English entertainment, thank you very much!
Zac was in a Chinese Recital at school and it was so amazing to see. He wore traditional clothing and had excellent pronunciation and I have been told he is one of the best students of Mandarin in the class :)
We had ice cream at Dairy Queen yesterday. Yes, that is exciting news.
We found an AMAZING street where I want to spend all my money called Han Street - there are these really cool old style buildings and stores from everywhere - back home, England (Marks and Spencers), Germany, France, wherever.
We had the most delicious pizza last night. Delicious pizza is hard to find here, trust me. Exciting!
It's funny because I feel like family and friends back home expect to see lots of pictures of, you know, being in China, but every time we find some Western food we get excited and I pull out my camera. "Look! Look what we found!" Now that is excitement. Yesterday we had our first Christmas drinks at Starbucks. Super exciting. We are having a pretty great weekend :)
We attended our first Chinese Wedding a few weeks ago! I almost wore a red dress and gave them money in a white envelope before I was saved these catastrophes by a fellow co-worker.
We found a skating rink and manicure/pedicure place (Zac and I were both excited for different reasons). I got Zac a pass for the skating rink so I will bring him a few times - it's just down the road.
I survived midterms. That's 1/4 of the school year done and honestly, it was the worst. I am told it gets easier. So maybe next time only 2-3 mini breakdowns?
I've met some families from Saudi Arabia who live nearby and have kids at Zacs school. The ladies are very nice and we may get the kids together from time to time.
We went to a Thanksgiving Feast a few weekends ago and had pumpkin pie and it was sooo exciting! Most of the people there attend a church called Foreign Fellowship and Zac and I have gone a couple of times now and really like the atmosphere. The church is on the other side of the Yangtze River, as is Aloha's - a really great place that has western food and ROOT BEER FLOATS!
We found the movie theatre! But couldn't watch a movie. English dialogue is only on weekdays. We will try again this week :)
We found a store in the mall that secretly sells English movies for 10 qui! We will live on the edge for some English entertainment, thank you very much!
Zac was in a Chinese Recital at school and it was so amazing to see. He wore traditional clothing and had excellent pronunciation and I have been told he is one of the best students of Mandarin in the class :)
We had ice cream at Dairy Queen yesterday. Yes, that is exciting news.
We found an AMAZING street where I want to spend all my money called Han Street - there are these really cool old style buildings and stores from everywhere - back home, England (Marks and Spencers), Germany, France, wherever.
We had the most delicious pizza last night. Delicious pizza is hard to find here, trust me. Exciting!
It's funny because I feel like family and friends back home expect to see lots of pictures of, you know, being in China, but every time we find some Western food we get excited and I pull out my camera. "Look! Look what we found!" Now that is excitement. Yesterday we had our first Christmas drinks at Starbucks. Super exciting. We are having a pretty great weekend :)
Please Slip and Fall Down Carefully
The English translatation of some of the signs we see are pretty awesome :)
The above is what we saw at the pool in our hotel in Beijing!
So, the internet situation here is really awesome. The reason I haven't been able to access my blog is because the Chinese government has been having meetings and my VPN hasn't worked at all. I heard a friend say that China had just elected a new president, and I asked in surprise, "elected??" And she modified.."well...selected." ;)
So, quickly, our time in the city of Beijing was really awesome. We had lots of chances to walk around the neighbourhood our hotel was in (I really liked where we stayed, right off a main street with lots of things to see and do - and right next to a Foreign Book Store...we were there for ages). There was different food to try and yummy bakeries to visit!
We also went to Chayong Theatre and watched an acrobatic show that was pretty spectacular. Even cooler was that back in Wuhan Zac was reading his Guiness Book of World Records and saw some of the acts we saw right in his book!
I fell *completely* in love with the art district. Lots of pedestrian streets to wander around in, little boutiques and art studios and galleries, some big, some small, some for clay, some for paintings, some for statues...there was everything here and it was all just so adorable and fun to go walking along with anticipation as to what the next corner would bring :)
We also did some "must see" tourist attractions like Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (we walked all around it but opted not to go in - the place was ridiculously packed. Like you don't understand the term 'packed like sardines' until you see a Chinese National Emblem on a Chinese National Holiday. Oh my! Speaking of this, the subway system in Beijing was amazing and made us way more mobile than here in Wuhan, but boy was it crammed. Every once in awhile in crowded situations (like being in Carre Four yesterday - a store from France that has some of the things we enjoy back home. Or being in the washrooms at the mall - VERY different than the public washrooms I am used to at home! I won't ever complain on that topic again) we get poked and pushed and prodded as people brush by and it can be very frustrating because I'm not used to it. Everyone else around me seems used to it and has a higher tolerance but sometimes, I'm just not in the mood and I want my personal space back!
Anyways, tangent over. We also went to the Summer Palace, which I loved, the Temple of Heaven and the Llama temple (I think we'll take a break from temples for awhile - Zac gets bored quickly and though it is pretty to see, I don't think it's necessary to see one in Shanghai, Hong Kong, etc etc. :) I asked Zac what he wanted to do on our last day, and we spent one morning in the natural history museum discovering dinosaur bones we’ve never seen before, so that was pretty cool. Everything was in Chinese though, so it was mainly a visual experience :)
The above is what we saw at the pool in our hotel in Beijing!
So, the internet situation here is really awesome. The reason I haven't been able to access my blog is because the Chinese government has been having meetings and my VPN hasn't worked at all. I heard a friend say that China had just elected a new president, and I asked in surprise, "elected??" And she modified.."well...selected." ;)
So, quickly, our time in the city of Beijing was really awesome. We had lots of chances to walk around the neighbourhood our hotel was in (I really liked where we stayed, right off a main street with lots of things to see and do - and right next to a Foreign Book Store...we were there for ages). There was different food to try and yummy bakeries to visit!
We also went to Chayong Theatre and watched an acrobatic show that was pretty spectacular. Even cooler was that back in Wuhan Zac was reading his Guiness Book of World Records and saw some of the acts we saw right in his book!
I fell *completely* in love with the art district. Lots of pedestrian streets to wander around in, little boutiques and art studios and galleries, some big, some small, some for clay, some for paintings, some for statues...there was everything here and it was all just so adorable and fun to go walking along with anticipation as to what the next corner would bring :)
We also did some "must see" tourist attractions like Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (we walked all around it but opted not to go in - the place was ridiculously packed. Like you don't understand the term 'packed like sardines' until you see a Chinese National Emblem on a Chinese National Holiday. Oh my! Speaking of this, the subway system in Beijing was amazing and made us way more mobile than here in Wuhan, but boy was it crammed. Every once in awhile in crowded situations (like being in Carre Four yesterday - a store from France that has some of the things we enjoy back home. Or being in the washrooms at the mall - VERY different than the public washrooms I am used to at home! I won't ever complain on that topic again) we get poked and pushed and prodded as people brush by and it can be very frustrating because I'm not used to it. Everyone else around me seems used to it and has a higher tolerance but sometimes, I'm just not in the mood and I want my personal space back!
Anyways, tangent over. We also went to the Summer Palace, which I loved, the Temple of Heaven and the Llama temple (I think we'll take a break from temples for awhile - Zac gets bored quickly and though it is pretty to see, I don't think it's necessary to see one in Shanghai, Hong Kong, etc etc. :) I asked Zac what he wanted to do on our last day, and we spent one morning in the natural history museum discovering dinosaur bones we’ve never seen before, so that was pretty cool. Everything was in Chinese though, so it was mainly a visual experience :)
One of the best spontaneous decisions of our trip was to go visit the Olympic Stadium one day after being out and about. It was really cool to see it up close, and the Aquatics Centre right next to it was also a really cool building. Even better, we went in and Zac got to go swimming where the Olympians did! The whole experience had a dramatic twist where I got ripped off outside by a couple of scalpers who followed me around for more money to upgrade and I almost cried in front of Zac and was advised in broken English by a very nice man to "please not to trust those guys" but it had a happy ending so it's all good! Zac was so happy to have this experience and I took a bunch of photos and a video before noticing the sign telling me not to (naturally, if I had seen the sign I never would have tried).
We also went to the
silk market where I bought a tea set! I am pretty excited about it still. Turns out I’m really good at bargaining,
by accident. The lady asked for an outrageous price, way over 4000 qui (so over 68 Canadian dollars), and I told her I wouldn't pay more than 3000 qui. She went down a bit and then invited me to go up a bit, but I told her I really didn't want to pay over 3000 qui (and by told, I mean I folded my arms and shook my head. She understood. Body language can go a long way!). So she finally agrees to that, and I start to have my doubts. Do I really want to pay this much for this adorable little tea set? I can see it on my coffee table in the future one day back home when I invite people over. I tell them casually, "Oh yeah, I got that at the silk market in Beijing." It's so tempting, but no, I tell this woman I have to consult my consultant (Jon - he lives in Beijing). I tell the lady I might come back (if my consultant approves), but I know that it is unlikely with time constraints, so I am a bit disappointed. The lady sees I am leaving, and offers it to me for 200 qui. I take it!
Out last night in Beijing we went out for dinner
at Da Dong with Jon. This restaurant was recommended to me by multiple people as the best place in Beijing to eat duck, so we went for it. It was a pretty fun and fancy restaurant and Zac and I both really enjoyed the meal.
In conclusion: It was super great :)
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