I am from Charlotte, North Carolina but I have been living in Chongqing, China since September 2009 and will continue to do so until June 2010. I have had a great time learning about Chinese...

Beijing
Beijing, China
tianamen square on a hazy day
Ummm okay here's the thing. I think that its going to be much easier just to show lots of pics because way too many things happened here (a picture is worth a thousand words anyways, right??) I probably should have kept up with the blog as i went along each week because now it is just an overwhelming amount of information. Yea i kinda suck and I was having too much fun, haha.
friends
forbidden city
soldiers did a show
yumm peking duck
summer palace
summer palace- great view of beijing!
summer palace iced over lake
forbidden city take 2
norma thing in the redlight district. ice cream/ sex shop one stop shop haha
atm getting money to buy stuff at the pearl market
big OL pants
craig and mat got us gross shots
austrailian matt...one of the many roomates we had in the hostels
olympic stadium
b-e-a-utiful mountains
beginning our trek
sweeping the wall
beer tastes better on the great wall
arggg
nick!
with the lovely marjorie, one of our beijing roomates
salute your shorts
my slashed bag. someone tried to steal my items!
learning how to make dumplings
beijing at night
panda time
at the russian bar
slippery ice on the great wall..tryin not to bust a
at the zoo
riding an elephant
mat got a baby pint
new years night of spring festival
List of things that happened to me that I can remember off the top of my head:
1) a beggar and her child kept coming after us for money after we left a nightclub. After a few minutes of her not going away she started yanking on my purse and then i started running and she ran after me and she was trying to steal my bag. I had to push this crazy lady and almost fight her.
2) If you want to buy electronics the pearl market is the place to do it. However, be advised that you will get attacked! The sales people there are so pushy and so ridiculous that they actually were tugging at Mat's limbs and screaming to get Mat to buy things from them. After Mat was pushed around like the runt of the pack during recess, we all ran away and never went back.
3) Someone slashed my purse during a night out and I didn't notice til the next morning; luckily they were not successful in taking my stuff.
4) we were gonna go see the killers concert but they bailed bc they suck.
5) If you are ever in Beijing and want to go to a sports bar with awesome food, go to a place called The Den. I'll miss that place!!
6) I learned how to play squash.
7) me and Lilly almost got into a physical fight with a Russian man. its a long story but I basically took the liberty of kicking him out of the bar. He made Lilly cry; no one messes with my friends, haha.
8) *** psycho of the century*** We were hanging out watching soccer and tennis at the Den sports bar. A man from New Zealand is sitting alone at the table next to us. He introduces himself; he is drunk as a skunk. He later asked Mat, "hey what are you doing." Mat says "just watching the football match" Well for some reason this set the man OFF. He called Mat and Pete cunts and then went on this spiel about how they were fags and morons, and I quote "This is how you live? You are in fuckin' China you moron. I shit turds bigger than you. Look at this guy (pointing to Pete) he is a vampire. What's the matter with you? you are with two babes!" WOW. whaaaat? vampire? turds? hahhaa needless to say it ruined the night we had to move tables but the mood just wasn't the same.
9) I was the only one who caught this god AWFUL virus that wasted a week of my life. I had a fever, was throwing up, going to the bathroom every ten min, was dizzy, had a terrrrrible headache and couldn't even keep water down for the first two days. I kind of thought I was going to die. The worst part was it made me miss the superbowl =(
10) New years in Beijing was awesome. Fireworks all day and all night! (for a week) The city was completely trashed!!! firecracker papers everywhere. Although for a few days it sounded more like a war than a celebration.
Staying in Beijing for a month allowed us to explore the city thoroughly. We didn't realize til the last day of our travels that we had been stayin in the red light district of the city aka half naked girls in "massage" places peering out the windows, haha. We had a great time and overall I really enjoyed my time there.
Surprisingly enough, after seeing the capital of China, it made Chongqing seem like a not-so-bad place. Chongqing has taller buildings, the beautiful Yangtze river, plenty of bars and western food. So I'd have to say I had a sense of nostalgia and a much better attitude towards Chongqing. <3
If you need more specific stories on Beijing they are available upon request!
written by  cz74699 on March 14, 2010 from Beijing, China
from the travel blog: Beijing

The last piece to the traveling puzzle
Xi'an, China
terracotta warriors
City wall of Xian decorated for spring festival
I went to Xian; home of the terracotta warriors and delicious Muslim food. We spent about 8 days there in total. Because of our carefree lifestyle we would get out of bed around 2 o’clock maybe later and not to go bed until around 4 or 5. It actually started becoming a problem when we started seeing sights because we wanted to get our sleeping schedules back on track, but it was really hard.
Xi'an at night
The hostel we were staying at had a really big bar on the bottom floor complete with live music every night. Needless to say, we went there every night, even if it was to pre-game and it was always packed. Xian proved to be a pleasant surprise for Lilly because there were tons of Irish people there! We hung out with them a few nights and I learned some Irish drinking songs and some Irish history.
As per usual, we met some token weirdos. This boisterous group came up to us, clearly already drunk. One guy said hey what are you guys talking about? Can you entertain me? Tell me a story. To which we all just laughed because it caught us off guard and we couldn’t think of anything to tell him. After all, he was a stranger and we didn’t know what the hell kind of story he wanted to hear. So, he didn’t like it and he started getting angry and said well if you want me to go away just say mango mango mango. And, again, what else could we do but laugh? This Canadian girl that was with him came up to Lilly and I and was like shhhhh don’t tell but I just stole a baby solider. She pulled out this weird figurine out of her pocket that she had taken from the hostel bathroom stall.
One of the main points of interest was Market Street where many people sold souvenirs and local delicacies. Right around the corner was Muslim Quarter where I ate some traditional food -- amazing noodles with what I can only describe as tiny chunks of bread.
Going to see the terracotta warriors was an adventure; not because of the tourist site itself, but because of the condition Lilly and I were in. We bought tickets and transportation through the hostel and the bus left at 9 am, so the night before we were going we decided we should have a quiet night in. WRONG. We ended up at the bar downstairs. Around 2 am we got kicked out of that bar so we kept drinking upstairs. We got hushed and insulted by a man that looked like a skinny Santa Claus in his 60’s. We went out to a night club around 4 or 5. We bought 20 beers and literally ten min later the workers were like ummm we are closing. OK why would you sell 5 people 20 beers if you are closing in a few minutes? Just doesn’t make any sense.
warriors
So we went to bed around 6 am. Had to get back up about an hour and a half later to get on the bus to go to the terracotta warriors and we were not in a good place. Well, we were still drunk for the most part. Long story short on the ride home a few hours later (when the beer started wearing off) the ride was really bumpy and poor, poor Lilly ended up sneakily throwing up into a small plastic bag on the bus. I wanted to raise my hand and say “we need an adult” but that would have just caused Lilly more embarrassment. Haha, love her.
ghosts
puppets used during the 2008 Beijing olympics
creepy puppets that were used in 2008 Beijing olympics
And that my friend is the end of my tale. Traveling was amazing – everything I hoped it would be. I met lots of strange and awesome people from all walks of life, ate interesting food, saw lots of historical places, and had plenty of time to relax and drink a beer or five.
written by  cz74699 on March 30, 2010 from Xi'an, China
from the travel blog: Xi'an Chikity China

Bob Ross and the bucket challenge on the Island of Hainan
Haikou, China
Where to begin....
always good to know. no smoking, no drugs, no prostitution haha
i am burried and i am also fully clothed underneath
This was a much needed vacation and break from the cold weather. The first day we arrived was bleak and not laying out weather so we mostly walked around and explored Haikou. Because of winter and our location on the island, there were hardly any tourists yayy, and everything was very cheap! (we expected prices to be very high, but so far its the cheapest place I have been to in China) The hostel was in walking distance to the beach, a park, and a small fair-like amusement park.
bumper cars wooo
paddle boat race
beach
The hostel was pretty nice: it had a pool table, ping pong table, and a big screen tv with lots and lots of tv options.
lilly beat pete and needless to say she was stoked
our hostel
One of the signs in our room said no drugs, no smoking, no prostitution. DAMN i was gonna do all three at the same time, I mean they go hand in hand. haha anyways..at this hostel I encountered two ridiculous characters...
First: Bob Ross look alike from Holland. One of the strangest people I've met in my life, seemed out of it and slightly cracked out. He was also hitting on/ propositioning some of the random Chinese girls in the hostel. While he provided much needed entertainment for me, he annoyed Lilly because of stupid comment about Ireland and he struck fear in Tom's heart haha. Tom did not even want to be in the same room with the man. I managed to shmeige a picture with him in it hoorah! Lilly bet me that I wouldnt ask Bob Ross to dance with me, and of course, I can't turn down a dare so I asked. He declined he said," no, I can't dance with out because I don't have my clogs" bummer haha.
look its a baby camera!
Second character: An American man from Missouri.Pictutre this: about 250 lbs all in his belly, slightly choady, tats lots and lots of tats, shaved head. SOOO not your typical backpacking type of guy. The things that came out of his mouth made me ridiculously ashamed to be from the same country as him. At one point we were in the other room and we heard him say," Fucckkkkkkk!!" then a while later he said, "I'm a fighter. I like fighting. I like fighting and sex." This might be attributed to the fact that he sat in the DVD room from breakfast time untill about 4 in the morning chugging beer by himself.hmmm sketchy fellow.
Meet the hostel dog. I think his name was Marley and he was only like three months. He was super hyper and kept shmeigling into our rooms and humping Peter. Very funny dog =)
The food here was excellent. My favorite would have to be a seafood place where you walked up to the tanks and chose what you wanted. Me being the baby that I am, could not stand to choose the fish so everyone else chose for me. I just cant look at something alive and then eat it mintutes later...just seems wrong. Not to mention they were flapping around in the bucket after they got caught. Poor fish =( the mussles were sooo very good.
yum yums
at the best seafood restaurant ever
mats signature dance
partay
One of my favorite nights out was with this guy we met at the hostel. We had grilled seafood and grilled veggies (yummm) and then he took us to a club in the center. This guy was a ridiculously good dancer! Never seen anything like it. He showed us a wicked good time and shimmied on stage with all his might. He was a tinny lil man with some sweet moves.Thanks Mark, wherever you are.
funny people
happy people. minus the sunburn
Bucket challenge: There was a KFC across the street from our hostel that we had been frequently visiting. I don't really remember the exact way that it happened but Tom said that a girl would not be able to handle an entire bargain family-sized bucket from KFC. WHOA was he wrong. Lilly and I strategied and she beat Tom at eating the bucket by about 20 min. She also topped off her bucket O chicken with an ice cream sunday. What a girl -- love her! We proved Tom wrong and I've never been more proud of anyone. haha. I would have done it myself but we all know I have the weakest stomach in the history of time.
eating...
struggling a little..but powering through like a champ
done with the KFC family-sized bucket
The beach was pretty nice. The water was amazing and warm with no waves. I wish I could have stayed there for about another week or two. I miss the beach =(
hostel dog that humped everyone
at 5 am in the airport. lilly was too tired
On the last day I got burried in the sand -- not in my bathing suit either, haha, fully clothed. here I am. We reluctantly left the beach at 5 am to catch our flight and headed alllll the way to Harbin, basically the coldest place on Earth.
written by  cz74699 on January 22, 2010 from Haikou, China
from the travel blog: haikou, Hainan, China

Ice Ice baby Harbin：the good， the cold， and the russian
Harbin, China
harbin ice festival
Words cannot explain the temperature that was Harbin, China. I would compare it only to the tundra. The warmest it was was -5 and the lowest were -20's or so with a wind chill because some days it was so windy. It did not matter how many layers you were wearing, what kind of fur your coat was made of, how warm blooded you are... you would be freezing your ass off. I was wearing - 4 pairs of wool socks,leather boots, fleece lined thermals, thick jeans, two shirts, a flannel, a sweatshirt, a jacket, and another jacket. two scarves -- one for my neck and one to cover up my face, a hat, and two hoods overtop that. Now that you can picture the gravity of the situation we can move on.
me tryin to be like goofy
tom sliding
sooooo cold
harbin
Harbin was b-e-a-utiful! They had ice sculptures and things everywhere. The architecture in the city was different than the other cities I have seen in China. The city has a lot of Russian influence because it is so far north. There so many good places to eat, but one of the best was a quaint but very elegant Russian restaurant.
russian restaurant
russian cuisine
beautiful church
lil mermaid!
We tried some traditional food and it was very hearty and good for the cold weather. The city is also famous for the best dumplings so we had many different kinds at The Dumpling King restaurant. Walking around the city as painful as it was was probably my favorite part. We stumbled upon a nice church and paid a few yuan to go inside. They had photos of the city being constructed and they also had a random chorus performance that we watched some of. Have I mentioned that Chinese (girls in particular) are all very good singers and not shy at all! who knew?
Now about the ice festival -- best thing and worst thing I've experienced. I literally thought my body was shutting down from the cold. About every 30 min my feet would lose all feeling to the point of panic and you had to pile into one of the small cafes and defrost. However, it is hands down the best winter wonderland EVER! One of the benefits of having ridiculous temperatures is that they can build huge buildings and entire towns made of just ice. It's hard to describe how amazing the sight is and its strange because it doesn't look like its just ice, but it is. The buildings have lights in them, so it is best to see it at night. The first ice town we went to was a disney one. Lots of fun small slides and rides for the kiddies. The boys had their fun attacking eachother with snowballs, but I was nice and safe because I am the photographer. The second and main bit of the ice destival is across a lake that is completely frozen over. You can walk across it if you like, I chose not to because I am already accident prone as it is, I dont need any more variables thrown in. The ice festival had castles and famous buildings made of ice like the empire state building. They also had lots of giant ice slides and tubing. There was also ice skating and this ice bike -- it had a blade on the front and you were like on a lake and it was really hard to peddle, but good fun. About midway through the ice festival my camera either ran out of battery or froze, idk it just stopped working unfortunately sooo I didn't get as many pics as I would have liked.
disney ice festival
snow ball fight
sledding
haha...
jasmine's castle
mat on a yak
harin ice festival
harbin snow and ice festival
ice festival
USA was not as impressive as other countries with this ice sculpture
china's sculpture
Local problem: UMMM they are really racist against Russians! The Chinese people around Harbin cannot tell the difference between any westerner and a Russian. We could not get a taxi because they would just shake their head at us.We occasionally got dirty looks from people in like restaurants, but as soon as we were like uh, we speak English, we are from England, America, and Ireland they warmed up. It was a pain in the ass really.
We found a nice pub to go to and they had some skanky Russian dancers.
Also at the club they had lasers around the dance floor. Me, being the retard that I am thought it was a rope and walked under one green line and then ducked under another. Right after I had manuevered my body around the "rope" I turned around and a girl was laughing at me so I realized it was a freakin laser. Top five dumbest things I have done.
We found a buffet that is apparently pretty common here in China that is an all you can eat buffet with lots of good food and FREE BEER. I about had a heart attack. That would not fly in any other country.We seemed to be one of the few people drinking the beer. The cost of the buffet which includes: pizza, american food, chinese food, desert ect. and all the beer you can drink was 50 yuan aka like 7 dollars. WOW thats a deal! I had a hay day in there
One day we also went to see the siberian tigers. Again, it was very cold and we got on a bus that took us around to different cages and there were lions and tigers. I dont understand what the lions were doing there? he looked really cold, poor thing. Lions don't belong in the tundra. Anyways I loved the tigers and they were huge! I really wanted to ride one but I guess that will just have to be another day, haha.
toit like a tiger. tom and I
then we got up soo very early to catch a flight out to the big city of Beijing. So ready to leave because it was so cold, but it really was a very cool place. Highly recommend you do it once in your life.
written by  cz74699 on January 27, 2010 from Harbin, China
from the travel blog: Ice ice baby

The hardcocks are formed
Chongqing, China
where to start....hmm. This is my first time in China so I didn't know what to expect. The following will be a list of experiences, observations, general thoughts, ect. If any chinese read this, do not be offended its all in good fun.
Chongqing air quality= terrrrible. The sky is always grey, the air is so hot that the students were fainting and so the university had to cancel classes. The appartment that was provided for us is roomy and better than I expected. There are many mystery meats everywhere but most of the time it ends up being pork. they freakin love pork, so much that they even put some sort of pork paste on cookies and pasteries. They do not have breakfast foods really...they just jump right into lunch. The food is like WHOA spicy. even if you ask for non spicy guess what you are getting - SPICY - The school does really random loud ass anouncements and theres often Chinese opra waking me up at 7 am. All of the freshman have to participate in military training so I don't start teaching until Sept 18. When we first arrived we had to be under quarentine for 5 days incase we had bird flu and that basically meant we had to stay in the apartment at all times; however, we got bored after the first day and broke that rule basically almost immediately because we wanted to sing karaoke.
All of the students love America! we get stopped in the middle of the street when we are shopping because people want pictures of us. its just like being famous haha. one person actually asked me to sign her arm. its just bizzare. They are all very eager to learn and are all very friendly. Im excited to start teaching them, but they are all at different levels of English some can barely speak and others have been studying english for ten years.
They play a hell of a lot of basketball and bad mitten. We have a height advantage and for that reason only is how we win games.
You know how you hate going car shopping bc the sales ppl pounce on you and haggle? well everytime you go shopping for anything thats how you are treated. ten people start shoving items in your face.
chinese beer is pretty good.
Overall all good stuff.
written by  cz74699 on September 13, 2009 from Chongqing, China
from the travel blog: Chongqing, China

week deuce
Chongqing, China
more random information:
Step 1:The English names for these students are hilarious. Im not sure where they get their American names from...they might just open a dictionary. here are some of the names they have introduced themselves as
twinkle (a male), Mark of the sky, Tom sunshine, tomatoe, stamp, popcorn, and my favorite T BAG. And no one wanted to break t bag's heart and tell him what his name actually meant.
Step 2: babies dont wear pants or diapers. They wear assless chaps and the parents might get peed on. They just find the nearest bush for the baby to pee or poo into. I know they are just babies, but its still weird to see their wearing crotchess pants.
Our boss, Mark, loves us and takes us out like twice a week. He is good friends with the police department and so we got drunk with the sherif last night. all the food and beer for the entire night is paid for. and bonus...the policemen around Chongqing are our new BFFs they think we are hilarious. They also think Americans love popcorn and at the bar, the owner came out and gave us like 6 bags of popcorn to take home. weird. LOTSS more karaoke its really big here and they are very passionate about their singing.
Mark is taking us to a nearby town tomorrow to see a giant Buddist temple and we are having a banquet in our honor so that should be interesting. I'll have more photos to post after this weekend.
- peace
written by  cz74699 on September 17, 2009 from Chongqing, China
from the travel blog: Chongqing, China

good and bad day
Chongqing, China
Today has been a very long day to say the least. Started out at the foreign teacher's apt at 9 am this morning and ends right about now. 11:14. So we have been trying to figure out who we work for (directly take orders from) for a few days because there seems to be a conflict. This lady who is in charge of the foreign teachers and who helps us with everything from fixing our sinks to getting good food around here, does not get along well with the head of the english dept. SOOOO the other day she told us we do not have to do what the head of the english dept asks us, such as when we go out to eat and get wasted with him. (however you dont want to be rude if an adult invites you to dinner for free in your honor) If its not in our contract we dont have to do it though. And to make matters more complicated...the head of the english dept said that this girl is below us in rank and we dont have to listen to her. So today we were invited to go to a temple in another city with the head of the English dept. and the girl in charge of us was not allowed to know where we were going. Long story short they each want us to do what they say and its causing major issues because they each make plans for us everyday and we have to piss one of the two of them off. And they want us to lie to the other person about where we are and what we are doing. This is just going to end badly and we are not sure who to listen to.
next issue. we were told we were going to a temple and then eating at a banquet...well little did we know we were going to meet the mayor of the town plus the board that manages the entire county. AND we would have to make a speech which would be on their local television network. We only found out when we saw people taking pictures of us and then we had to sit a desk in front of hundreds of people at a middle school and talk about education in America. We really didnt mind talking about ourselves or even being there it was the fact we were lowered there under false pretenses. No one told us what we were doing until we got there. We had been the first foreigners the people had ever seen in real life so at the end of the press conference all hell broke loose! Students and people bombarded us like we were fuckin Michael Jackson risen from the dead. I took two photos of it..but we all agreed it was freightning and we never want to be famous. ever. shit kept being shoved in our face to sign and people were taking pictures of us and shooting video.
Did I mention before the press conference at 11 am we had to be in the car for almost two hours then we had to take like 20 shots a piece at this place (which doesnt sound bad but it was soo bad) that early in the morning and it was terrible ass rice wine. Drinking that early plus that much plus that fast was not fun at all. I wanted to shoot myself and I love drinking! And i had to put on a happy face. I was just still shock from the fact i had to go on tv right after that.
on the upside, the temple was very interesting and I took lots of great shots. The people were very nice, I just have never been around people who literally force you to drink so much. and you can't say no because it is rude.
sooo that concludes why I had a good and bad day.China is an interesting place indeed.
written by  cz74699 on September 18, 2009 from Chongqing, China
from the travel blog: Chongqing, China

standards are just barriers
Hello again from China!
week 3? I'm starting to get my days all mixed up
I finally started teaching this week, I forgot I was here to work not just hang out in China for 10 months. Teaching went pretty well, the students are excited to be there b/c they are freshman and are eager to start learning Enlgish. All of my students are studying to be English teachers themselves. More good English names that they had : Fun, Breeze, Diaper, Donkey. They want to know about weird things here are some of the things students wanted to learn about when I asked them.
How to lose weight, why America says/ does mean things to China, are guns easy to get because this particular kid heard everyone and everyone has a gun.(this made me nervous bc he made it sound like he wants to do a school shooting and needs a gun fast), what I think about assisted suicide. (very serious issue to talk about and it is illegal to talk about it in China) and why did michael jackson die on earth? haha
All the students love Obama for some reason.
So things that happened this week: Three of us got talked into doing a radio spot for the campus radio. For 15 mintues we had to talk about random things. They shoved the microphone in our face and at one point forced us to sing the national anthem, which is actually really hard to sing especially when you get to the "land of the free and home of the brave" part. We didn't realize that the radio segment was live and it was broadcast on loud speaker to the entire campus as well. So everyone heard my terrible voice. I don't sing for a reason!
I dont know if i mentioned it but the clothing sizes here are ridiculous. They are like kids sizes and I can fit into ladies size XL or a men's size L. It makes us feel pretty sad but the Chinese are soooo tiny its ridiculous.
There is this guy..Mark of the sky... that loves us and may or may not be stalking all the teachers. The other day he literally popped out of a bush and was like oh hey where are you going? what are you doing? you can come back to my dorm and help me get my balls ( basketballs we were assuming.) and he insisted one of us give him our number. He is by far the creepiest.
Also, there are random electricity blackouts here. they could last 15 min or 10 hours or more. It's bc there isn't enough energy to support the country so it just messes up and stops working every like few days.
We met two more American teachers that are working about 15 min away from us so we made friends with them. We went out for karaoke and did the golf pub crawl game. I took some pictures of that and of a mountain bike ride we went on today. It was scary bc cars, scooters, and pedestrians are everywhere in the street - there are no traffic laws - sooo it was intersting and it was kind of like a frogger game.
anyways I'll post these pics and keep updating. I finally got facebook to kind of work so that was a break through.
peace on earth and goodwill to men
- CZ

ohhh china china
Chengdu, China
Soooooo much to say since my last entry. Starting last Wednesday we have been on National Holiday aka the same as our fourth of July. They celebrate their 60 years of communist China.
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The night before we went out of town we went to our favorite local club to celebrate. There, we encountered the usual, but one interesting Surprise was the number of babies at the club. Yes, tiny tot babies, who bring babies to clubs at 1 am? The Chinese do...and once again they were not wearing proper clothes.
put some clothes on your baby and put him to bed, come on!!
Our favorite street food at 1 am. They love us and we love them. Its not quite as good as McDonald's at 2 am, but it gets the job done.
So off we went to Chengdu, China via a 4 hr bus ride (which we almost missed b/c there are a million bus stations and the driver took us to the wrong one). When we arrived to the hostel we were confused b/c it was half hotel, half hostel. We were almost homeless because we only brought copies of our passport info page. Apparently they were crackin down because of the national holiday and refused to let us stay. Then God sent us a helper named Eddie ( he was Chinese just spoke some English) got into a 20 min heated debate with the front desk ladies and YAY we got to stay there after all. We were upgraded to the hotel part =)
They had a picture of Malcom X, 2 Pac, and Bob Marley, which i thought was random, neat.
We went to an arcade, good clean fun. I hadn't done that in years.
We did many tourist-like things. We went to an excavation site/museum where religious ceremonies had been held. They buried things that they wanted to sacrifice, like elephant tusks and jade. They had really nice gardens all around it.
There were also remains of humans, more assumed sacrifices. creeepyyy
In the middle of the gardens we stumbled upon this group of guys who wouldn't let us pass until we gave them hugs. Really random, pretty weird too.
Next stop was the home of a famous writer/poet, Du Fu, who fled because of ani-shi rebellions. He built a thatched cottage in the middle of no where, including a building overlooking a pond and garden, where he would write most of his works.
that's what he looked like.
Our next adventure was when we met up with some westerner's that Alison met last year when she was studying in Beijing. We were at an outdoor restaurant where you cook your own food when all of the sudden a building on the other side of the street less than a block away caught on fire. We were all freakin out and the Chinese ppl glanced at it and then went on nonchalantly. WTF? They must not care if babies were dying. We watched stuff fall off the building and fly down from the sky for 45 min. THEN the firefighters finally came. Lesson learned: DO not start a fire in my apt b/c i'll be screwed!
Arts and crafts!The hostel all did origami and made floating candles that we then released into the Yangzte river.
Another day we went to the panda breeding center. Such cute critters, i got some good video footage of three of them getting into a fight. available upon request, of course.
male and female panda reproductive organs ewww
they also had what they called "little" or "red" pandas that resemble coons. ehh i prefer the regular type pandas better.
We went to a Daoist temple where people still currently go to make offerings and to pray. We were given incense when we entered and we were supposed to put it in the giant cauldron as an offering.
they had tables set up with elaborate flower and firework arrangements that we supposed were going to be used in a ceremony later that day.
Went shopping in a large market. I bought various Chinese goodies, a t-shirt that cost me the equivalent of a dollar, pashmina scarves,postcards ect.
Went out to eat at a pizza hut, which was soooo good. Tasted way better than in America,probably because it wasn't noodles or rice, ha.
We also went out for Peter's birthday and hit up some nightlife. More karaoke, like always! we sang ghostbusters haha
There were some dancing girls, and some Chinese breakdancers, woop woop.
passed out men at the bar. haa!
Glad to be back in our more suburban town and we all just joined a gym here. Pretty excited to take some of their classes, which include disco time, street dance, and body shakedown. hmmm....
written by  cz74699 on October 7, 2009 from Chengdu, China

H1n1 quarantine
oo lord. So today is Sunday and I have been in quarantine since early Wednesday, and let me just say that this is no longer fun.
Wednesday I taught a morning class and I was headed to the on campus shop to get a bottle of water. I saw tons and tons of students at the front gate of the school and the gate was closed, which normally the gate is only closed at night. I didn't think much of it until I went in the store and one million students were panic buying. It was like they are calling for snow in North Carolina and everyone and their mom goes to buy canned goods and water as if it ever really snows that bad in Charlotte. Anyways, a student of mine informed me that we were locked in and that's why so many people were getting food. There is only one shop and one cafeteria on campus so getting food would be a pain.
When I got back to my apt my boss gave me a thermometer and a face mask and said take your temp three times a day, and that they had no idea how long we would be under quarantine for. They didn't cancel classes right away but before my next class that day at 2pm all classes were canceled and they had taken 30 people with the Swine flu to the center city hospital an hour away.
So for the past couple of days we have been watching a few movies, playing cards, sleeping, living off of chips and gross spicy instant noodles, and cabbage with rice from the cafeteria. The fun of not having to teach is long over and we are all ready to get the hell out! haha. One day we did make tombstones and bats our of cardboard boxes and paint to decorate for Halloween.
Supposedly tomorrow or Tuesday classes will start back up, but the quarantine won't necessarily be over yet. Quarantine is like a slightly more free version of jail. crappy food and nothing really to do.
until next week when hopefully I will have done something other than sit in my apt...
written by  cz74699 on October 17, 2009 from Chongqing, China

Soccer game and Halloween!
I have been slacking off big time when it comes to my blog so I will attempt to fix this and cram in lots of info.
Classes have been going very well and I feel like a real teacher, haha. It takes time to feel out each class and figure out how to get them to participate because most of them are pretty shy. The students are great I love them and they are full of questions.
more students!
students!
I also finally feel like I live here – I think before now I still felt like I was on vacation or something. I am also getting Chinese lessons twice a week from my friend Phoenix, and she says my pronunciation is good, but my written Chinese is shit. The characters are like small art projects…I am pretty sure I won’t be able to retain any of them for future use.
m outside my teaching building
more from outside my teaching building
Last weekend some of us went an hour away into the city and watched a professional soccer game. It was a great time; we all started getting really into it after this man started a fire in the stadium seating area and got arrested. It was bring your own beer, and oddly enough we were the only ones drinking. We learned some Chinese chants and cheers and fit right in. Right outside of the stadium they were having a fair so we rode some of the sketchy looking rides and did some bumper boating.
Kathryn and I
go chongqing go!
view from the stadium
We went back to our hostel and had some drinks to pre-game before we went out again and we met a ton of people. We started out playing cards and more and more people joined in. We had some Chinese, Canadians, French, a Kenyan, and several Brits all playing a huge game of circle of death. It turned out to be a great night because all twenty of us went out. Maybe a little too much fun because I ended up losing my wallet in one of the many bars we went to that night. Luckily, I only lost like 250 yuan, and I ended up getting a call from one of the bars telling me they found my wallet. Wooohoo! And then we found this shopping center that had a subway, starbucks, and dairy queen so for the short amount of time I was there, I was in heaven haha.
the bar where i lost my wallet
The people from the hostel came out with us for a night on the town
Next order of business…Halloween. At first I thought that the Chinese didn’t celebrate it but maybe knew about the holiday through movies and such. NOPE, they knew literally nothing about Halloween so it was interesting to think about the holiday from a different point of view. When I did my lecture on Halloween and traditions that go along with it I could see why the Chinese people thought it was a very odd holiday.
basketball game in costume
For Halloween we made gravestones and bats made out of cardboard to decorate our apartments. It was hard to dress up since there are no costume stores…a party city would have been very helpful! But considering our resources we did well; I was a zombie, Alison was a panda, Lily was a witch, Peter was superman, Mat and our friend Phoenix were both pirates, two other American teachers were an aerobics teacher and a pregnant lady. During the day we went around campus in our costumes and took pictures with our students. We also played a pick up game of basketball in our outfits and tons of students took pictures with us.
after we played basketball in costmes
my fav panda and pirate
Phil loves his home country haha. and he wears short shorts
wait pregnant ladies cant do that!
Then at night we went to a local night club. The English society and the bar wanted us to perform so we made a deal…if we performed three songs we could have free beer all night. So we sang Backstreet boys “as long as you love me” and danced to thriller…which ended up starting a congo line that included like 50 people, and then we sang “country road” a john Denver techno remix.There were other people that performed including a drag queen.
long congo line that we did during thriller
the bar owner became Kathryn's baby daddy
The owner of the bar dressed up in three diff cotumes this was one
More of my students came to see me
Some guy said it was his girlfriend’s birthday so we serenaded her and she gave us delicious cake. A bunch of our students came to see us sing and dance and to take pictures with us. Some of them even dressed up in costume too!
Lovely students of mine
Matt and some students
Pre-gaming
Some of my favorite students and I
The bar owner and the group
At 2 o’clock in the morning we went with these people we met to get some barbeque. The Chinese idea of barbeque is just cooking random things outside on a skillet like lamb on a stick. The octopus was actually the best thing we ate..it was freakin delicious!
All in all it was a very fun Halloween and it was a lot of fun to introduce the holiday to the Chinese students =)
they had a bunch of masks to give away at the club
written by  cz74699 on November 1, 2009 from Chongqing, China

just another day in china
Yes life is becoming more mundane here now. Just teaching during the week and going to the gym in preparation for my vacation that starts at the end of December, and hanging out with students. At first I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to be friends with all the students but they ask to do things like play badminton and eat lunch with them more and more often now. Most of the students are pretty cool and just want to learn more about American culture. They took some of us to eat hot pot, which is a typical dish here in Chongqing. It is a very spicy soup and you choose what you want in it and they cook it in front of you. We also tried Korean barbeque and it was amazing. The grilled octopus was by far the best of the meats! The hot pot was too spicy for most of us but still delicious.
Last Friday we were invited to go to a presentation, and we were expecting maybe a play or some people singing. Instead, we got a bunch of people in rollerblades that were super amazing. They brought a bunch of different skates and made us all join them. We had been drinking a few beers so we were well down for it, even though no one had rollerbladed since they were like 8 years old, haha.
We also encountered this random giant dinosaur that is alongside of the road for no apparent reason. We of course thought it was hilarious and took pics with it. Also the random man doing tricks at the bar seen below was pretty interesting i thought he was going to make himself bleed.
I am still taking some Chinese lessons, but I think my learning has hit a wall. I am not really interested in learning how to read and write the characters; instead I would prefer to learn only oral Chinese if at all possible. And I don’t have the dedication it takes to learn a language right now. I rather just enjoy China and not spend my time with my nose in a book.
We have also been taking part in a soccer tournament; yea…even me who can’t play, haha. The British boys signed everyone up so we are taking turns playing. Our team has won all but one game so we are in the semi-finals and the winner gets a cash prize! Woohooo. Wish us luck.
AND ANNOUNCING THE BEST QUOTE OF CHINA SO FAR: A group of Chinese girls announced that they were bleaching their skin because they thought you couldn’t see blemishes if your face was very light. They said and I quote, “The white takes the ugly away” …. Hmmm if u had lighter skin wouldn’t you be able to see red blemishes more? Bless their hearts haha.
NEW holiday! Apparently November 11 is a national holiday –opposite of Valentines Day…Singles day!! Because its 1-11. Clever. They celebrated by having girls/guys night and bonding over beers.
written by  cz74699 on November 14, 2009 from Chongqing, China

No turkey for me. Lots of fun facts
Hechuan, China
No turkey for me
So let’s see…
Thanksgiving is coming up this week. We do not have the day off, but Thursdays I only have one class in the morning and we usually are required to do two hours of English corner from 7-9pm but we talked our boss into canceling it this week because of our holiday. So there’s no turkey to be eaten here so we are going out to eat at this place where they have western food aka steak and fries and spaghetti ect. It’s pretty expensive but worth doing every once in a while.
About English corner, now that it’s like 40 degrees English corner sucks. We have to stand outside in the dark (there are no street lights and we do it outside near a pond) and its only cancelled if its really raining so if its drizzling we still have to stand outside for two hours.
This past Thursday we had a city-wide power outage that lasted from 3 something until 9pm or so. Here’s the situation… if there is no power I can’t really teach because I give my lecture on powerpoint. Next issue, there is no heat in the classroom so by the time class is over I am super ready to go home and sit in my warm heated apt. BUT on this day with no power we all had to wear layer after layer. We went out to try to get candles but shops didn’t have any. So we ended up eating dinner with out winter coats on in the dark at a restaurant, next to a loud generator that was blowing weird fumes. FUN FACT #1: in China, many restaurants and stores don’t have doors (open air) so whatever the weather is outside it’s the same weather inside. I now appreciate the invention of doors.
There’s also no heat in the student’s dorms and they must live on campus all 4 years and they have the same 5 roommates every year! Hope they all enjoy each other’s company haha.
Fun fact #2: if people here don’t feel well, they do to the pharmacy and get an iv drip. They just hook themselves up and go about their day as usual.
Fun fact # 3 Chinese people describe clothes and things as very “fashion.” So if you think your friend looks cute today instead of being like oo I like that shirt, very cute, you would say “oh you look very fashion today” not even fashionable. just fashion. Also clothes have the words fashion written on them pretty often. Weird.
Also people keep contacting me and trying to get me to teach on the weekends. The extra money would be nice but I refuse to teach 7 days a week. I think they believe we don’t need a life and that we have a gift, and that gift is to teach English, and therefore, we must use that gift ALL the time.
We had an interesting night yesterday. Started off as a quiet Saturday night. A student asked if we would go watch the dance team at a bar, we agreed. The show was good some break dancing, some MC Hammer pants and some hoooorrrrrribble attempts to rap. After the show we played this game: you pay money to play, you roll the dice in a cup and the one with the highest amount wins 40 bottles of beer. We played three times and won the beer. There were only 6 of us and our Chinese friend who was already too drunk so we gave away a lot of it and then drank and drank some more. Needless to say everyone had WAY too much to drink. At one point our Chinese friend broke the leg off our table and open beer flew everywhere, like ten bottles broke, broken glass and beer everywhere and it was a hot mess. The owner wasn’t mad at us and instead asked to take pictures with us. Haha!
And a word about gambling here: I thought it was a stereo type to think that Chinese people gambled all the time while chain smoking, but guess what its true! In restaurants, in alley ways, at the park, in the middle of the sidewalk you name it they are gambling all hours of the day.
Lastly, Fun fact #4 Chinese people love Avril Lavine. god only knows why.
written by  cz74699 on November 22, 2009 from Hechuan, China

tis the season for some pork and rice
Hechuan, China
I know im a slacker. I keep forgetting im supposed to be documenting things. I will mostly tell my story through the pictures I have.
Ready set go.
Alison and I missed breakfast food because here in China they don’t really have breakfast food—they just eat dumpling and noodles for breakfast. So we decided to make homemade pancakes and they turned out more like crepes, but they were still good. It was a nice ghetto dinner. There’s no syrup so we used honey and peanut butter to sweeten the pancakes.
We also finished our soccer tournament and we came in third!! Woo we won a cash prize and went out that night for a nice dinner and drinks to celebrate. Our team captain, Lily gave out awards, which were these awesome I love china headband/sweatband things. I hope to find more so I can bring them home for yall in the states. Catherine was pretending to eat a chicken foot in this pic UGH. We don’t touch things that look like a carcass. I was buying fruit at an open air market this past week and encountered an entire pig head that was huge and my eyes watered up and I ran away, I absolutely cant stand looking at dead bodies.
Here is a picture of the main street vendors where I get most of my food. I get the same thing most days though because some food is too spicy or I just don’t know what im getting or how to order it. On adventurous days I do a random pointy to something that looks edible. Haha.
We’ve been working on collecting any and all Christmas decorations in a 30 mile radius. So far so good, more pictures of the winter wonderland to come. We have two Christmas trees yay! We used tinsel to write the first letter of each of our names on the wall.
ghetto x mas tree. we got a better one now haha
And then today there was a talent show. They gave us front row seats with name tags telling us where to sit and free tea and and candy yayy. It was very entertaining here were the acts.
1. Kung fu demonstration
2. A fable was read that had the moral of follow your dreams
3. Two girls sang Madonna’s song “beautiful island”
4. more mixed martial arts
5. a nun chuck fighter
6. a skilled swordsman
7. a girl that danced like a stripper and made people feel uncomfortable
8. people karate chopping wood and glass
9. street and break dancers
10. A play about why you shouldn’t eat dirty food and candy off the street
mark of the sky
We also had to play telephone with Chinese words in front of the crowd just to prove that we, the foreign teachers, are completely worthless when it comes to speaking Chinese haha.
I got pretty sweet videos of all the action unfortunately this website wont let me post videos. Later days….
Counting down the days until I go on my two month vacation and leave this one horse town. JK but not really. Next week I start giving my students exams then Im outa here!!!!
written by  cz74699 on December 3, 2009 from Hechuan, China

To the things in life that are colorful, delicious, convenient and lovely…
Hechuan, China
sevenup christmas tree
The title for my blog this time is dedicated to my Chinese students who use these words to describe anything and everything. Here are very common examples of sentences they say:
“I love my parents they make my life very colorful” or “my campus life is very colorful”
“having Chinese new year is very convenient” or “ having a lovely brother is very convenient”
No one speaks like this but I don’t want to burst their bubbles. Also, even students that speak very good English have an AWFUL time with distinguishing the sexes he/she, him/her ect. I don’t understand why it’s so difficult but they always say things like my brother, she is very interesting.
students and I at dinner
I am beginning my second week of exams and it has been interesting of course. Their exams were simply that each one had to prepare a 3 min presentation on a certain topic and then I would ask them questions for another 3 min.
I have had terrible speeches and ones that were very detailed here are a few of the surprises I encountered:
Some students were super personal when talked about their families and I was about to start crying during their presentation. One student talked about how her sister died a year ago and how her father was having a very hard time coping with the situation and it was driving her mother crazy and she was scared for her family’s mental health.
Another student told me that her father died early on in her childhood but her father’s parents, her grandparents, thought it was their fault so they shunned her and then her mom had a really hard time taking care of her. Then another student told me that her father and mother divorced and her father got custody but then a year later threw her out of the house and she had to hunt down where her mother was and ask to live with her. Her mother accepted but died soon thereafter, and then she had to live with her grandparents. Yet another student told me her mother had cancer.
Another student was telling me about she was forced to start school when she was only 3 and is now in college at the age of 16 and she has no friends b/c she is so young. Most of the students are about 19 as freshman. =( GOD BLESS! All I could do was nod and try to cry listening to all these terrible stories, especially because I expected the usual speeches on their favorite hobbies or what basketball players they liked.
On a more upbeat note… One student was like I like American movies. My favorite is Pretty Woman and I like the actress whose name was Vivian and I know she’s a hooker but I chose Vivian as my English name after her, haha.
me and my ghotst pal
This weekend I spent a lot of time with the students. We went out for Chongqing’s traditional dish of Hot Pot, which is kind of like fondu… a giant soup out and u put food in and wait for it to took and u do it yourself.
students and I at traditional hot pot dinner
lily was growing at me for some reason
On Sunday we also were invited to sing karaoke but for some reason they wanted to do it at 1:30 pm. Because no one sings sober, they got us some beer and thank goodness they did because we were there for 4 freakin hours. I like karaoke but seriously 4 straight hours was a pain in the ass especially because all the Chinese songs started sounding the same after the first half hour.
christmas tree made of seven-up bottles
Also, it has been brought to my attention the words that the British dudes say differently us Americans.
Example 1 – Fillet we say it like the French people do as in , fillet mignon. Well, they say it the way it is written fil-let. Makes them sound ignorant haha
Example 2- Parmesan we say it like parmejawn because it is once again a foreign word. The English dum dums say parme-sand
Example 3- Oregano they say it like or-i-gone-o its bizarre
Example 4 – they say piano the same way but not pianist; the way they say it sounds like penis with a t on the end. Pean-ist
I’m sure there are many more but these are the ones that have come up and me and Alison who is also American get into fights with the British on how to pronounce them
I’ll leave this entry on that note. It’s too long as it is and I need your full attention.
Sayonara suckers and
at dinner
*** Happy holidays! ****
written by  cz74699 on December 14, 2009 from Hechuan, China

Celebrating Lilly's arrival into the world and Jolly good fun
We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Good tidings we bring to you and your kin;
Good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year.
my main squeeze -- please notice the brittish flag made of tinsel in the back haha
I finished up the second week of exams OMG it was grueling. Hearing the same speech about hobbies over and over again and hearing about the same hometowns starting getting painful. I stopped listening and was literally thinking about hmm… I wonder if this girl knows she has a lot of upper lip hair and geez this guy has a really big head. Sounds terrible, but after 300 and something speeches, what do you expect? The good news is just one more week of exams. The bad news is THERES STILL one more week of exams ughhh!
my lover giving me a lap dance
me and the birthday girl!
A student of mine today sent me a text that said: Christmas is coming; I want to give u a manual Christmas present. Sounds dirty or sketchy haha we shall see in time what the hell that means.
our friend will. he loves bananas
Also getting online banking in china is the most difficult process you could ever imagine. We needed to get a card so that we could book airline tickets for our vacations but it literally took about ten trips to the bank, hours of frustration trying to set it up, about five Chinese people on the case – even heated arguments with bank managers. All in all could be summed up as ridiculous and very time consuming.
leany x mas tree and drunk lilly
should be a christmas card
So it was Lilly’s birthday yesterday and we threw her a small birthday bash with a few Chinese friends and students. Mat got Lilly a very nice birthday cake ( the cakes in china are really pretty and elaborate) but they also look better than they taste. We went out for some karaoke and dancing at the bars.
present giving time
jolly good fun
Mat got cake all over his face and it just so happened that the chocolate is right in the middle of his lip and it made him look like he had a Hitler mustache. We had a good laugh.
hitler school boy
yayy
Oh yea and the theme for Lilly’s birthday was school uniforms. Peter and I were the principles and everyone else was just students. I tried really hard to find suspenders but they don’t exist around here. I went to about 20 different stores.
Best part of the night was me being a dumbass. I actually walked into a glass door. Best part about it was a lady was opening it...I have no idea how I didn’t see the lady on the other side. It was like a cartoon; I feel straight back after bouncing off the door and the Chinese lady looked reallyyy confused. She probly thought who is this dumbass foreigner? Everyone was in tears laughing at me so at least I provided everyone with some entertainment.
surprise! cake
I’ve also starting teaching one night class on Wednesday nights for some extra mula. It will come in handy during my two month travels. There are only 8 people in the class so its pretty easy -- just sit there for an hour and a half and chat about whatever topic I choose.
For Christmas this week we are doing secret Santa. We are teaching Monday through Thursday morning. Thursday day we are going into the city to eat cheeseburgers and salad haha and to see a movie. I haven’t been able to go to a movie since I’ve been here because there are no theatres.
I hope everyone has a wonderful and very merry Christmas!! I miss all of you and I miss America very much, especially this time of year when I usually am baking chocolate chip cookies and eating them with a nice glass of cold milk. ( I have neither of these)
written by  cz74699 on December 20, 2009 from Hechuan, China

new year for me and u
First and foremost happy new year!
pretty! on the side of a random building
Now, let me just say that the beginning of 2010 has already been a hot mess for me. I hope the entire year doesn’t follow suit.
pirate ship we found haha it was near starbucks, which is all we really cared about
new years masquerade ball on campus
The issue is this entire week I wasn’t supposed to be teaching classes, I was supposed to be putting grades into the computer and getting ready to leave Thursday night for my trip. But… Mark, one of our many bosses has said that we must teach this week including Thursday and Friday. I was supposed to be drinking margaritas and delicious beer and making sand castles on Friday. Here was our mistake: Mark asked us Saturday night if we could all go Sunday to the crazy town where he took us at the beginning of the year (see blog entry called bad and good day) where they took us to a tiny town to be paraded around and signed 100’s of autographs for middle school kids. Which was all fun and games, but we never wanted to go there ever again. We were all exhausted from being out of town and from new years and just needed to stay at home Sunday to plan lessons. So because we said no he decided he would play the asshole card.
The VP and three of our other bosses said it was okay for us to miss Friday but Mark insists that we can’t and he isn’t the top dog but i guess we needed clearance from everyone. This is causing us to change our flights to Saturday (costing us $$$) and also costing us more $$$ because our hotel rooms were booked for Friday night, but we wont be there. Needless to say, im thoroughly annoyed and he can suck it.
He wont be able to use us again; he is always inviting us yo weird sketchy bars and parties to make himself look cool because he has foreign teachers at his school. For instance, just last Monday Mark called and said he wanted us to meet the CEO of some mining company, so he came and got us. After being in the car for 45 min we were taken to a hotel. Then there was a karaoke bar on the top floor of the hotel and we got introduced to a shitload of random people who looked like they were on drugs. We were all sober and it was bizarre. The men were grinding on what looked like their trophy wives with their shirts off and they kept just bringing boxes of beer to our table. I swear if we wouldn't have been there the Chinese people would have been having a giant orgy. It was amusing, but disgusting.
On a different note, new years in Chongqing was a great time. We all went to the city center and there were fireworks, and people everywhere celebrating even though it wasn’t Chinese new years. We all went outside and stood by this monument where there were lots of fireworks, and then we continued bar hopping. I of course broke my camera (for the millionth time) by spilling water into my purse. So the pictures kind of just stop and I wasn't able to capture all of the fun.
typical pose
attempted pic of the crowd and everyone had balloons they let go of at 12
ballooons before the big release at midnight
looks like theres a glow stick comin out of phill's nose
We came back Friday afternoon from the city only to discover that coincidentally Alison and I had both left our keys in the apartment. Normally, being locked out isn’t an issue because our boss lives in the same building and she has a spare, but she was out of town. Next best answer was to break in. Problem with that is all the windows have bars. Somehow some way, Tom, who is Mat and Peter’s friend that’s visiting from England was able to use a knife to derail the sliding doors on my balcony and break the lock. Thank god…I really wasn’t looking forward to being homeless the whole weekend.
kathryn and her zack morris cellphone
me and the brits
tom and i
haha morning after. kathryn stole this hat off some lady's head then bolted
Well friends, hopefully I’ll be shipping off this week…late, but better than never. So, new interesting photos hopefully coming this way soon.
Ive never been on vacation for nearly two months before!!
Peace and love you all,
CZ
written by  cz74699 on January 4, 2010 from Chongqing, China

The day we won 100 beers
The following is a documentation of six people winning 100 beers at a bar -- once again with the good ol' dice game. All I can say is it was one of the funniest nights. ever. We were not quite sure what to do with all the winnings except drink up. I think it was Mat that introduced us to the "dentist chair" and I think it speaks for itself.
before it all began. look what a quiet nice looking group we
are.
and its amazing how many people come try to be your friend when you have baskets and baskets of beer in front of you, ha!
written by  cz74699 on February 28, 2010 from Chongqing, China

getting hardcore
OK well before I forget I just want to say that my fear of insane taxi drivers, lack of road regulations, and the complete insanity that is traffic in Chongqing is indeed justified. Today I was leaving the gym and I heard some chaos. I looked up and there was an unconscious girl who had been slammed into by a taxi.
Picture this: The poor girl looked limp and lifeless. The taxi driver gets out.The girl's boyfriend is like frantic on his cellphone and the girl continues to be unresponsive for about ten minutes. Meanwhile, there are tons of ppl crowding around and the road is completely blocked. Buses are honking with people hanging out the window, police men circling the area, motorcycles trying to squeeze through,ect. It took the ambulance a really long time to get through because no one was getting out of the way and vehicles just stayed on the road. What a mess. This certainly made me check twice, no X that, at least three or four times before crossing the road!
Dear lord, please never let me get hit by a car in China.
- yours truly, Carolina
ladiesss
Now on to prior business. We went to the center of the city a while back for Fiona to get a traditional Chinese hand chiseled tattoo. They apparently are supposed to hurt a lot more, but according to Fiona, who has many tats already, it did not hurt more. But it did take two and a half hours for just this small flower.
almost finished..ouch. it is a traditional Chinese flower
setting up the ink
We got so bored at the tattoo studio that we decided to get friendship piercings that we will probably take out in a few months (if we ever get real, big girl jobs haha)
it takes two ppl to chisle away at her skin
Fiona's Traditional hand-done chinese tat
Patricia and Alison got their noses done. I got my tragus done (the funny little part that's really thick in the middle of your ear)
friendship piercing haha
patricia gets nose pierced
good fun.
Afterthought - I ended up going back to the same tattoo parlor and getting a tattoo of my own! (not my first so I wasn't too nervous) However, the traditional style would have taken about six hours, so I opted for just the regular type. Here is what I ended up with.
The back story isn't too exciting, but long story short was that I got my fortune told at this temple with tons of Buddhas and in the middle of the room there was like a queen bee, mother figure with tons of peacock feathers. And there my friends, the idea was born.
My tattoo
Finished!t
When my students have speak out in class to answer a question or such they will end it with "and that's all" so, in the name of my students:
That is all.
written by  cz74699 on April 6, 2010 from Chongqing, China

My fellow americans
Zhongshan, China
My fellow Americans and loyal readers,
Due to the fact that I have been very busy and also frustrated with some things here, I have not really felt the need to write any more blogs. I lost the lovin feelin' as they say. However, I will give u this link to see the mini vacay I had this past weekend...
and I will also give u this passage which is from the city I was in.
An incredible love story has come out of China recently and managed to touch the world. It is a story of a man and an older woman who ran off to live and love each other in peace for over half a century.
The 70-year-old Chinese man who hand-carved over 6,000 stairs up a mountain for his 80-year-old wife has passed away in the cave which has been the couple’s home for the last 50 years.
Over 50 years ago, Liu Guojiang a 19 year-old boy, fell in love with a 29 year-old widowed mother named Xu Chaoqin..
In a twist worthy of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, friends and relatives criticized the relationship because of the age difference and the fact that Xu already had children.
At that time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love an older woman.. To avoid the market gossip and the scorn of their communities, the couple decided to elope and lived in a cave in Jiangjin County in Southern ChongQing Municipality.
In the beginning, life was harsh as they had nothing, no electricity or even food. They had to eat grass and roots they found in the mountain, and Liu made a kerosene lamp that they used to light up their lives.
Xu felt that she had tied Liu down and repeatedly asked him, ‘Are you regretful? Liu always replied, ‘As long as we are industrious, life will improve.’
In the second year of living in the mountain, Liu began and continued for over 50 years, to hand-carve the steps so that his wife could get down the mountain easily.
Half a century later in 2001, a group of adventurers were exploring the forest and were surprised to find the elderly couple and the over 6,000 hand-carved steps. Liu MingSheng, one of their seven children said, ‘My parents loved each other so much, they have lived in seclusion for over 50 years and never been apart a single day. He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother’s convenience, although she doesn’t go down the mountain that much.’
The couple had lived in peace for over 50 years until last week. Liu, now 72 years, returned from his daily farm work and collapsed. Xu sat and prayed with her husband as he passed away in her arms. So in love with Xu, was Liu, that no one was able to release the grip he had on his wife’s hand even after he had passed away.
‘You promised me you’ll take care of me, you’ll always be with me until the day I died, now you left before me, how am I going to live without you?’
Xu spent days softly repeating this sentence and touching her husband’s black coffin with tears rolling down her cheeks.
In 2006, their story became one of the top 10 love stories from China , collected by the Chinese Women Weekly. The local government has decided to preserve the love ladder and the place they lived as a museum, so this love story can live forever.
So with that I bid u adieu and hope u are well friends!
written by  cz74699 on May 6, 2010 from Zhongshan, China

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