the holiday season in china

Yes the holidays are upon us, and china celebrates christmas too, but in a very chinese way. i will post some pictures i took in the past week around Huizhou of the holiday spirit they try to put out. it just dont feel like the holiday season with the warmer weather, the lack of backing, no real christmas spirit and the non existence of all holiday factors. its almost like they are afraid of christmas here, the decorations are about dollar store clearance quality and there is no winter smell in the air. well take a look at the pictures and mind you these are the best decorations in the city.....

HONG KONG BABY!!

So Lisa and I headed down to the utopia of Hong Kong, on November 17 and came back on the 19. it was a great trip and really easy from Huizhou. we stayed at a great little hostel in causeway bay on the Island. we just really explored around the area, we had lunch near the escalators on central in a Mexican style place and it was great, then went to Mang Kong and ended up in the ladies market, which reminded me of the san lorenzo markets in Florence. then found an H and M in a nice shopping complex and had great coffee and muffin there. then went back to central and had a fantastic dinner at an Italian place called Vino a must try. then we found a jazz club doing a little Monday night jam session so we grabbed a bottle of wine and enjoyed the music. we took a boat tour of Victoria Harbor and watched the light show, it was a great show with music. all in all Hong Kong is maybe my new favorite city and i could see myself there.

Mt. Lofu

So today was our big trip to mount Lofu, that the Chinese staff lovingly put together for us. it was going to be a great trip, but it was poring rain when we left and when we got there, so we went to the temple, and the rain cleared up a little so we started to trek to a little pagoda on a peak. on the way it started to rain really hard so we turned back and went back down and took cover under anything we could, then the weather broke up and we went through the little Japanese vs Chinese war memorial. then had some lunch at a little local restaurant, the food was nice, nothing crazy just the lovely little snails. we came home to have papa johns 10 yuan mini pizzas for dinner and watched some movies. it was a surprisingly tiring day.

update on life...

hey all, i am just getting home from a pretty good day at work. as i was leaving i saw two of my students on a scooter with there mom, it made my day. then i went by the local fruit shop and saw the fruit man sitting in a an empty crate smoking his cigarette, it made me laugh. it sure beats last nights events that included the killing of a live goat on the street and some bbq. we also just had our halloween celebration here for the kids last tuesday, yes our day off, but only in great chinese style. we built all the class rooms up then had about 120 kids come through then tore it all down to have a normal week of classes. Well halloween is huge here and they are having a great big party tommorrow night, so we are all going to dress up and head to that. hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

yes the Big 23

and a few photos of the night...




so i just had the best birthday ever, it all started with all you can eat Japanese food and beer, yes unlimited beer. we took advantage of that part. in traditional Chinese fashion i was given a bouquet of flowers. it was weird i felt like i won a metal or some competition. ohh well just another great story, well we ended up going to bi la men, its a dance club here in Huizhou. it was a great birthday and i love the smell of flowers in my room. well i had a good time and am not feeling very great today, but it was once a year.

here is a video of the bi la men club

Birthday

Hey all i wanted to let you know the address to post mail:


Thames School of Languages
c/o JESS CHEYNE
1st Floor Block C Binjiang Gardens
16 Huishadi Road
Xiapu
Huizhou 516001
Guangdong
China

Birthday list:

-money send to the mom and dad to deposit in my account
-wine nothing too nice just cheaper stuff so if they take it
-family pictures
-penalton whiskey
thats all i can think of for now i will post more when i think about it.

Yangshou, national holiday!!!

I just got back from the national holiday here in China it was from October 1 to the 7th. It was amazingly beautiful, so beautiful its hard to even describe i will add some pics but they cant do justice. Lisa, Vicki and I all stayed at Monkey Janes hostel, it was a great place. we had western style food the whole week....which was amazing. the fajitas were great, either because they were made well or i have been on straight Chinese food for the past month and a half, anyway they were very good, better then the pizza and the spaghetti. Ynagshou the town was great it was very touristy and swarms of western people, all the menus were in English and we had bacon and real proper breakfasts. we did many trips and i will post them under different entries, this one i am just going to talk about the town and the people we met. we met Vicki's good friend Gabrel, he is a tour guide and had a tour in Yangshou he took us all biking one day. but he was really nice and liked to be around people his own age. he showed us some great places in Yangshou. the main street, west street has all the cafes and bars on it along with all the knock off goods that china is known for. its a nice city that is small and good for tourists, but a great location to be able to get out into the country. i will update more later.