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Arrival in Taiwan

July 12th, 2010

Last night I finally arrived in Taoyuan, Taiwan. But only two days beforehand I was sincerely worried that I wouldn’t make it so smoothly. I guess that’s just how things work in China; nothing is definite, no matter how much you try to make it.

It all started with getting my visa, which will allow me to come back to China after my month-long stint in Taiwan. I was able to get all my papers in order for that, or so I thought, but when I went to my visa appointment I was told that my new school, Xi’an International University (XAIU) was unable to get my Foreign Expert Card on time, so it would be submitted late. This led to my visa maybe being ready by Friday (the day that I leave), well that just leaves one other thing until the last minute.

I still need to be paid by SUST, desposit that money in the bank, submit my grade sheets, make sure everything is moved out of my apartment, move a good portion of my stuff to XAIU, leave a few things in my colleague’s apartment, and finally say good bye to quite a few people before going to the airport. It all sounded easily doable, but when the visa office, and the financial office at SUST decide to delay until Friday afternoon, things start to get a bit stressful.

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One School Year, Gone

July 4th, 2010

The end of this week, July 9th 2010 specifically, will mark the end of my English teaching position with Shaanxi University of Science & Technology. I’m a little sad to be leaving, I had a hard time telling my students because I felt bad, and I didn’t want to make them feel bad about it. I’m also feeling a little nervous about what’s in store for the future because I’ve gotten quite comfortable here. I know the foods I like to eat, the people who make the food usually know what I want, I know a lot of students, I know where and how to get things done, I don’t get lost around here anymore… I could go on and on. I would be lying if I said everything was sugar and spice and everything nice. But really, other than a few small problems, most everything else is just fine.

So why am I leaving? Where am I going?

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Adventures in Seoul

June 25th, 2010

Yeah, I’ve been back in Xi’an for two weeks already and having written about Seoul, so I figured I should get around to that.IMG_1624

 

I never realized how hard it would be to meet up with people without having mobile phones. Upon arriving in Seoul I couldn’t contact anyone unless I found a wifi  hotspot. No phone service and no one to call. Fortunately, my travel buddies and I are rather tech savvy, and carry smartphones around with us, allowing us to email each other or leave messages on Google Voice. That made meeting up in the airport extremely easy.

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Enroute to SoKo

June 3rd, 2010

Arrived at PEK last night at about 11:10 PM and found out that apparently no one eats after 11 PM. After wandering for a good 30 minutesPEK3 I finally found a 24 hour McDonald’s, thank god. I was so hungry after missing dinner and getting a miniature snack on the plane. I may have slept about 3 hours last night, but hopefully I can sleep more on this flight from PEK to ICN . I’ll be meeting up with my high school friends Cody and Dan in Seoul for, what I can only predict as, an “interesting” weekend. Check back soon.

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Hong Kong

March 4th, 2010

An early morning in Shenzhen, some dumplings for breakfast, and a taxi to the ferry station began our trip to Hong Kong. IMG_0742Upon setting foot on the ferry, I reminded Tyler, “you’re leaving China for a long time man”. “But isn’t Hong Kong part of China?” he responded. Well, yeah, it’s “part” of China, but in reality, it’s nothing like China. An hour later on a fairly empty ferry and we were waiting in line to get our passports stamped, granting us entry into Hong Kong.

After getting into Hong Kong, we left the ferry station, into the attached building, which turned out to be a mall. That was convenient I guess, we found an ATM machine so that we could get some Hong Kong dollars, since they don’t even use the same money as mainland China does. We had two options to get to the place we were staying, take a taxi or take the metro. The only difficulty was we weren’t exactly sure where we were, and couldn’t find any sign of a metro station nearby. So we eventually conceded to taking a taxi. It took a few tries, but finally we found a driver who knew where we wanted to go. It wasn’t easily noticeable at first, but oh shit, these guys drive on the other side of the road! Clearly Britain had been here before. The driver happily took across the harbor to Kowloon (a section of HK) and the place we were staying. Chung King Mansion, was the name of the place. Sounds pretty swanky right? Hardly. It’s actually a huge converted “project” building that has more than a dozen “guesthouses” some licensed, some not. As soon as we got out of the taxi there were quite a few middle eastern and Indian guys trying to help us with our bags, and get us into their guesthouses. We declined and walked through the lines of restaurants, net bars, and people selling random crap, this place seemed pretty shady, and on first sight, scared me a little that we were even staying here. Finally we managed to find the only one, out of 12 or so elevators that went where we needed it to. Upon arriving on the 12th floor and getting our tiny and expensive room, I actually felt rather comfortable. Looking online the night before, I had read many good reviews, saying that this guesthouse was pretty respectable and not too expensive compared to some of the others in the building.

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Guangzhou & Shenzhen

March 2nd, 2010

Note: These posts are a little late, as I’m already back from my trip and started school again earlier this week. They’re late because didn’t have nearly as much time as I thought I would to post them while traveling. Now you know.

Guangzhou was the first stop on our tour of southern China. Getting off the airplane was nice, I didn’t need to wear my coat, and what’s this?IMG_1367 There was actually green vegetation outside! Something Tyler nor I had seen for at least a couple months. Since we were only in Guangzhou for about a day, we simply roamed around, checked out the Pearl River, sampled some of the good local foods (Egg McMuffins are nothing compared to the egg biscuit I had!) and in the evening went tor a night ferry ride on the Pearl, to see the beautifully lit up buildings and bridges.

The next day, about an hour train ride later and we were in Shenzhen, mere kilometers from the border to Hong Kong. We didn’t do a lot in Shenzhen because it’s mostly just a border city and shopping haven for those coming from Hong Kong to buy cheap goods. Not to mention, so much of the shopping and eateries were still closed for the Chinese New Year “golden week” (what they call their week long national holiday). Thus there wasn’t a lot to do in the city, but it was alright, we relaxed and had some really spicy noodles as well as some local beer while we planned on how to get to Hong Kong, as well as what we’d do when we arrived.

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