Hooray For Hong Kong

Things I did in Hong Kong:
1. Checked into my shit hostel with the rudest people I have met thus far.
2. Immediately went to explore.
3 Met a guy in the elevator who told me to go check out the peak.
4. Went to check out the peak...AWESOME you can see the whole of Hong Kong from up there.
5. On the way up met a business man from America who helped me take pictures and I did the same for him as we were both by ourselves.
6. Accepted dinner invitation and had a fantastic steak...I mean a real! steak.
7. Went out for a night out on the town with some old air force pilots and their wives.
8. Went to my first ice bar...brrrrrr
9. Met my new roomies who turned out to be a really cool bunch of people that I ended up hanging out with for most of my time in Hong Kong.
10. Went shopping...DUH!!
11. Went dancing every night where I met my boyfriend Steve. Love you baby!
12. Went to dinner with Steve, to the beach with Steve, to a movie with Steve, drank wine with Steve :)
13. Saw an awesome Chinese New Year parade and had a front row spot (Ive got videos but they take forever to upload so please be patient)
14. Saw the best fireworks show of my entire life!!!!!!!!!
15. Saw the best crowd control of my entire life!
16. Tried to get my hair colored but everything was closed for the new year..had to wait until Shenzhen.
17. Drank a ridiculously huge (and delicious I might add) margarita mmmmm yummy.
18. And above all I had the best time of my entire spring festival travels and even my time in China thus far. Hong Kong I LOVE YOU MAN!!!

Off to Guangzhou

From Harbin my plan was to fly to Guangzhou which is in the South of China for those of you who don't know. One thing you must realize is that Harbin is incredibly cold and in the South of China its warm even in the winter. So once I got off the airplane in Guangzhou I was tearing off all my winter clothing like my life depended on it. In Guangzhou I was able to wear a t-shirt with no coat...it was fantastic.
My hostel was right on the river so all I had to do was walk outside and I got a spectacular view. My hostel was really awesome with nice rooms and friendly staff.
Once I arrived it was about 11pm so since my hostel was also on a bar street I decided to change clothes and go walking to see what I could find. As I was walking I was invited by a group of Chinese to join them in one of the bars. We ended up closing down the place playing a drinking dice game that they were very surprised I knew how to play let alone that I am good at it.
During my time in Guangzhou I did a lot of relaxing and shopping. One thing I found very strange was that aside from the hostel everywhere I went seemed to be absent of other foreigners. And everywhere I went I heard people saying Tai Gao Tai Gao which is Chinese for very tall very tall. It always makes me laugh.
At the hostel I met some pretty cool people from different parts of the world: Spain, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, China, and Canada. We hung out at the hostel and traded travel stories. I would have to say Guangzhou was the place I did the most relaxing..i mean hell i was on vacation right.
There was this little restaurant down the street from my hostel that served American food and I ate most of my meals there. I always seemed to be the only customer and the staff seemed to get a kick out of me being there. The were friendly and funny.
On one day I went to the seaside but it was so foggy you could barely see anything and then I visited a small park that was very beautiful, but I dont remember the name.
One my last night there one of the Chinese people I had met took me out to one of the bars on the street for some drinking and live music. I ended up singing a song on stage and getting a great round of applause. It was a pretty fun night and a great way to spend my last day there.
Enjoy the pictures.
Enjoy the pictures.

Next Stop: Harbin

First off it must be said that Harbin is freaking COLD!!! The reason I went to Harbin was because during that time of year they hold an ice festival where they have huge ice and snow sculptures.
When I got off the train in Harbin a man outside the train station helped me to find the correct bus for me to make my way to my hostel. On the bus I was lucky enough to meet a young man who spoke English and he was kind enough to ask the bus driver to let me know when I needed to get off the bus. Without too much trouble I was able to locate my hostel.
The thing about the hostel I was staying at is that the staff there do not speak English. I was given a notebook on which was written "Do you have a reservation?" I answered in Chinese that yes I did. Then they point to "how many days?" and so on. Arriving at the same time as me was a guy named Daniel who was also from America. We had come to Harbin for the same reason and so decided to combine our plans together as travel buddies. The following day we were also able to add three more people to our group, a girl from Germany and two girls from the UK. The first night we were there we tried to go ahead and go to the ice and snow world where they have the huge ice sculptures all lit up but by the time we got there they were about to close so we decided just to go for a meal instead. We grabbed the closest taxi and asked him to take us to a restaurant where we could get some traditional Harbin specialties. After a very short ride (without the use of a meter) he tried to tell us that we owed 30 Yuan for the ride. Daniel and I have both been in China for a little while so we knew that this guy was trying to rip us off. So we told him in Chinese that it was too expensive and I went to hand him 15 Yuan. He didnt want to take it from me. I told him that was all I would give him and he still refused to take the money, so Daniel and I said fine and just got out of the taxi giving the driver nothing. Of course the driver did not want this so he got out of the taxi too. I then again offered him the 15 and he begrudgingly took it. He figures because we are foreigners we dont know any better but to his chagrin we did. Note: when taking a taxi try to go away from tourist spots to catch one. If you have no other choice either bargain for the price right away or demand that the driver use the meter.
Daniel and I then enjoyed some delicious food and then made out way back to the hostel for the night.
The next day we all met up and decided to start our day visiting the Siberian Tiger park, head over to the snow sculptures and then finish with the lighted display of ice sculptures.
Tiger Park
The tiger park was awesome. It is a large area filled with tigers, lions, white tigers, ligers, and even a jaguar. We bought our tickets and Daniel and I split the cost to feed the tigers a chicken. We all got on the bus and after they fed the tigers our chicken we wanted to see more. There were 24 people on our bus and we figured that if everyone threw in 50-60 Yuan that we could buy a cow to feed the tigers. So we found someone who spoke both English and Chinese and proposed our idea to our fellow riders. The bus driver and tour guide then suggested that we use our money to get two sheep instead as it would be a better show. Turns out not everyone wanted to put in money so we collected from everyone who wanted to throw in and decided to buy one sheep and six chickens. The bus driver then made everyone who didnt throw in money depart from the bus. You dont throw in the dough you dont get to see the show. What followed was both grotesque and awesome. The tigers move so fast and you get to be so close it was well worth 50 Yuan. I have great pictures and video from this adventure.
Snow Sculptures
The snow sculptures are fantastic. The detail and creativity that is shown is amazing. What they do actually is build the figure out of ice and then cover it with snow. While we were there, we ran into a parade. As we were taking pictures with some of the people in the parade they asked where we were from. When we said America they got very excited and wanted to get lots of pictures with us. Things like this always amuse me. "America! Okayla"
Da Da Bing Shui (Big Ice)
These were absolutely amazing. There is so much to see and its so impressive it would take your breath away. There are games you can play and ice slide to have fun with that were all free to enjoy. But it was freaking COLD!!!!!!!!! At one point we ran into what can only be described as an outdoor dance party so we stopped to dance and warm ourselves up. I definately needed this as I felt as if my feet were going to fall off. Did I mention that I was wearing two pairs of pants, two shirts, three coats, three socks, a face mask, gloves, and a hat and I was still cold?
After our journey we went back to the hostel, exchanged pictures and then the next day parted ways. That is one thing I love love love about traveling in China is meeting all kinds of new people! I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Spring Festival Travels: The Beginning: Beijing

So now that spring festival is over in China I think it is about time that I got around to writing about it so that all of you at home can share in my joy. I'm going to do this little by little so dont expect it all at once; I went a lot of places and did a bunch of things so one city at a time is all I can promise you :)
My travels started by going to Beijing, a city I have visited on a number of occasions. I wanted to start there because it has become familiar to me and it cut down the time I had to spend on a train. On the way to Beijing on the train of course as always I was a popular sight. The people I was sitting with all wanted to try and talk to me but as we all know my Chinese is pretty sub-par i.e. I speak like a child and can only carry on a very basic conversation. As luck would have it though there was a Chinese man who could speak English and so he was the interpreter for all who were interested in talking to me.
When I arrived in Beijing I made my way to my hostel to unload for the night. I ended up meeting a Russian girl in the hostel bar lobby and we decided to go out for the night which is always fun. We then spent the next few days together shopping and eating good western food. She had been studying Chinese so was also able to help me buy my train ticket for my next stop in my travels: Harbin.
I dont have any photos of Beijing from this journey as I have been there before and plan to go again. Remember, Beijing was only the beginning of what turned out to be a fantastic trip.

New Years

For New Years all of the classes had a party and I went to as many of them as I could. They all wanted me to stay for the whole time but I had to explain to them that I had to visit all of my classes if possible. Each class that I went to had me sing a song and some even sang songs to me. In one class they had me dance with their other teachers. They all had so much fun. On that day I also went ice skating with some students in my class 15. None of them were very good but neither am I so it was a lot of fun. After that I had to attend a New Years party for the school which was very entertaining as well. I only have a couple of pics of the school party because my camera went dead but I do have pics of my students' parties.

Christmas

For Christmas Erin, Lauren, Matt, Jon, Ross, Landy, David, Amy, and Erin's aunt spent the holiday together. We each had bought one gift and did a grab bag exchange where everyone picks a number and you get to choose your presents in the order of that number. I ended up getting Lauren's gift which was a dartboard, a puzzle game and a miniture pool table. We had breakfast together and dinner as well which we all pitched in on the cooking. Then we sang Christmas songs after dinner. It sure wasnt the same as being at home with family but it was still nice to be around people who appreciate this holiday and we spread the joy among each other. Here are the pics. Btw..this all took place at Erin's apt.

In my classes I taught the students about secret santa and had them all choose names to bring in a gift. My students also gave me gifts which was really sweet. On the day we exchanged gifts I also let them watch the movie Elf for Christmas. They had a lot of fun. It was also really cute if a boy happened to have picked a girl's name or vice versa because of course the class ooooed and ahhhhed when they gave the gifts to each other. My students are so cute.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we invited all the people from Shijiazhuang to come down and spend it with us. We held it at the school and made a ton of food. In the end we invited some students as well and they loved eating American Thanksgiving food. You have to realize this was probably the first time they ever experienced something like this. I know my students loved it and had a really great time. The school even came and took pictures of all of us and the food we made. It was sad that we couldnt spend it with our families but it was nice to be able to spend it with our second families that we have created here in China.