time flies like an arrow...

my family knows the rest to this saying :) 

 

   I CANNOT believe it! My adventure is almost over. I have learned so much, seen amazing places, and met even more amazing people. God is good. 

Road trip!

DVDs….check!
Snacks….check
Cooler with CocaCola beverages…check!

     Girls weekend to the beach! I went to one class with Angela on Friday—Heath class. It was one the 8th floor, no elevators. I felt like I was back in high school, even though she is in her Junior year of college. The teacher turned on music before class began. Angela and I are similar in that we are both note takers. Once class began, she was writing away—I loved to watch her pen move so quickly and accurately drawing the Chinese characters. During the 15 min bathroom break, I got to meet one of her fellow classmates who is from the city in Shandong I was in for a semester four years ago. When class resumed, the boy sitting behind me began passing notes with us and asking me to give him an English name. Zhang Qingbao is now Zachary.
       After grabbing a quick lunch, Sabrina and the driver picked up outside her apartment/dorm building. With our snacks, drinks, and DVDs we were off! Three hours later we were in the beautiful Sanya! Sabrina went to stay with her in laws and Angela and I changed into our swimsuits and headed straight for the beach! White, white sand and clear water. Then we swam laps in the pool, before calling it a night after relaxing in the hot tub.
      The next day, we stayed at the beach from sun up to sun down and it was amazing! Relaxing, people watching, played volleyball once in the morning and once in the afternoon. We were the only girls getting out to play, and we were pretty good if I don’t say so myself—I think the guys thought we would be an easy win, but with one guy on our team, we beat the three other guys with no problem. Angela is a great volleyball player. I was the only “wai guo ren” (foreigner) on the court, so my Chinese counting and “sports talk” got a little better after all that playing! ☺
      Yummy Western style dinner last night. Angela and I realized that this is only the second time we have ever eaten Western food together. Once was in Beijing when we went to a taco place. I really enjoy most Chinese food, and the whole lazy susan everyone sharing concept-- but I have to say it was a relief to get to order my own plate and eat it with a fork! I helped Angela order pasta, this is only the second time she has had it before. Cute shot of her eating her spaghetti:

signage

my guess is the fire extinguisher is behind here?:

uh...maybe I have been passing out too many BOG's here?? I just haven't gotten why a restaurant serving fusion food is using cows to promote it. But then again, the Chinese people have a hard time when I try to tell them what the cfa cows message stands for.

  Or are they promoting the cows ability to share responsibility in holding the sign?

when I was staying here:

in Koh Samui (I can't believe it was almost three weeks ago-time goes by so quickly!)

    I read the book "The Kitchen God's Wife" by Amy Tan. It was a great book to read before going to Shanghai because parts of it took place in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution. There was a quote that said "why do some memories live only on your tongue or in your nose?"

   I experienced that today at lunch when we went to a "Dong Bei" restaurant. "Dong Bei" is the part of China Angela is from. She was very excited for me to try her "home town" dishes. 

   The dishes we ordered were similar to what I often ate 4 years ago in Shandong. The garlic sauce for the jaozi, the eggplant dish, and the caramelized sweet potatoes all brought back such vivid memories of my time in Shandong. Interesting to me that food can do that. 

gotta love the sideways peace sign.

coke family

CocaCola girls:

I am 13 . 2 Fanta cans tall in case you cant tell:

Shout out to the ATL :

how to eat this crazy fruit

1st, be careful of the spikes:

and don't eat the seed:

 

yea for new fruits :)

reunited

look what she has on her desk:

I don't know if you still read this evan, but you had her at "Bei-Bei"

hospitality at its best

being from the south, i feel i have a pretty good grip on hospitality. i need to rephrase that: I thought I had a good grip on hospitality--the ladies of Hainan have a lesson or two for southerners! They picked me up at the airport, got me checked in, left a basket of local fruits, stocked me up with cocacola products, and filled my tummy with some local dishes:

Many thanks!

Live from Pudong Airport

My flight to Hainan has been delayed, so I am waiting here in the airport. The people at the gate gave us our meals since it is lunch time. Here is lunch for me :)

 

Guess it could be worse, here is a picture I took at a street stand in Bangkok: 

oh asia. 

going to hainan

hopefully the recent outbreak of cholera will not affect me ??? : ) : )

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-11/03/content_7169407.htm

another fun sign :)

around town

around town you can see the historical temples next to high rise office buildings. What a contrast. 

Great day with more meetings and a fun tour of the Shanghai Google offices:

has anyone been to a Google office before? I hear the ones in the states are pretty fun as well!

election countdown...

   So, the last presidential election I had to absentee vote because I was here in China for the fall semester of 2004. I remember watching it on the TV here and the days after when things were not totally decided for a while. 

  Early voting worked out great for me this year because I was able to vote before embarking on my adventures. But, I just realized in my attempt to schedule my flights around the election day (making sure I was not flying on the 4th), I made a mistake because on Nov 5 in China I will be in an airplane on the way from Shanghai to Hainan. Well, Nov 5 is the 4th for the States, when the results are supposed to be announced. So, guess I will be a little late in comparison to the world on knowing the results of this election. I can only imagine how much the election talk is in the news there, because it seems to be all around here!

wordpress

   oh my goodness. so i just was catching up on some blogs and stopped and realized: I can look at wordpress blogs! I didn't know wether to be excited or frustrated. Here is the deal, I started out with a wordpress blog and got so used to navigating it, and how easy it was to upload things and organize on it. When I was in Beijing this summer, I could not open my wordpress account OR look at any wordpress blogs. (I think this had to do with Olympic security).

   SO, when I started my adventure back over to Asia, I grudgingly decided to put up with continuing on the blogspot one I had to create out of necessity this summer. I knew that the latter part of my trip would bring me to China again, so I have been putting up with blogspot this whole time. When I realized tonight I was reading someone's wordpress account and I was in China! I was shocked, so I quickly tried to sign onto my wordpress account. It still WOULDN'T go. I don't understand. Anyway, I AM thankful I am able to read you guys blogs out there that are hosted by wordpress :) and look forward to finding a solution to my blogging preferences. 

Spring

    I met Spring in Thailand, she also did the cleansing program on Koh Samui. She has a fresh juice shop here in Shanghai. She invited me over for a healthy lunch and then to go see her shop, 'Summer Crush'. It was right near Yu Garden, so we got to walk around and see the sights.

 

   More good networking accomplished this evening, and another tutoring session. I have a full day lined up for tomorrow as well! Life in this big city is pretty fast paced! 

big city life

about 19 million people here in Shanghai. And I was strolling around with them in People's Square, on the subway, and at the Shanghai Art Museum today. 

   My tutor, Ding Jiayin (Jingle), invited me to lunch at a restaurant right near People's Square that has a lot of history. Originally opened in 1922. It was beautiful. Hui Wei (Hamily), Jingle and myself at lunch: 

 Then we walked across the street to stand in line in the rain for the Shanghai Art Museum:

A great day in the big city!

last years halloween...

Ash and I call it our eco-friendly Halloween because we ran to the store to get the pumpkin carving kit.

The night turned into a pumpkin guts fight:
  

And ended with me being a piece of bubblegum stuck to a shoe :)