Rafting in China

I went rafting today about an hour outside of Xiamen. It was actually pretty nice.

We took a bus out there and then paid for the rafting at a big building where we were able to change clothes and put all our stuff in lockers. Then we got on another small bus that took us to the drop off point. There they gave us all helmets and life jackets and did a brief explanation of how to sit in the boat and use the "paddle". I am glad I have done this before because I couldn't understand anything he was saying.. which is weird.. i usually at least catch half of stuff.

5 of us went... and these were all two person rafts.. so I ended up with a random Chinese guy. Hebe and Daisy  got one together and then Alice and Libby were in one together.

It was a pretty nice run.... they had it set up like a little course... blocking off different sections with some nicely lined up rocks with a pipe through them.. .. and other parts were like little tunnels (with no ceilings) they just had a lot of the river blocked off and forced it down between two concrete walls so that you got to fly down it really fast... and then other parts were very call and you just kinda sat there and enjoyed the peacefulness for awhile.

Paddling was rather difficult at first.. but I got used to it... because we didn't exactly get a paddle.... we just got a bamboo stick.... which works..... but not all that well... its better for just pushing yourself off or rocks.

it took a little over two hours to make it down the river... Alice and Libby got sunburned... but my tan didn't even get any darker... hehe...

sadly i have no pictures.... i didn't take a camera... and ya.. mines not exactly water proof anyways

My vacation home

It was a good trip back home... being here for a month was nice... possibly a little long... and possibly too short.

I did a lot of visiting and more visiting and yes more visiting...

but i also did a lot of biking...... most parts of columbia are definitely bikable... as long as you have a little bit of time and some good leg muscles ..... and might even be easier if you only had one testicle.... but i'm not willing to test that theory!

Also did some skydiving with Kalayna and Michelle.....

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzgwMTU2MTI0.html

and sailed in most of the Easter Regatta.....

Its been a lot of fun... but now its time to go back and continue teaching!

Headed home!

I'm a little late on posting this... but i'm headed home next week..... YAY.... a month at home.. and then back to China for about 6 months.

Pictures from vacation

Posting picture in blogger is slow and a little annoying... so they are all on facebook..... the folders are public so even if you don't have a facebook account you can look at them.

This are the Gulangyu Island pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100604495802487.2666548.12634980&type=1

And Shanghai Pictures

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100604481765617.2666546.12634980&type=1

Alice really likes to have her picture taken.... so she pops in pretty much all of them.

First week of Cam's visit.

Sunday Night:

-Cam's flight is an hour late.

-We meet up with Alice and have a very late (9:30) dinner.

Monday:

-Gym.

-Quick Burger King lunch.

-Go to Zhong Shan Road for some shopping.

-Run into random Australian guy on the street and start talking, invite him to 1801 bar that night.

-Have dinner near a few of my teachers, but its the shy teachers so very little conversation.

-Teach one class.

-Go to Rain's house and meet up with a bunch of teachers.

-Head to 1801 bar.

-The bar wants us to spend at least 500 yuan to get a table, but we don't really plan on drinking that much.

-Meet up with the random Australian surfer guy, his friend already got a bottle of whiskey, so they have a table. Join him. (he was there with 2 guys, me and cam walked in with 6 girls)

-We dance the night away, and Alice gets a crush on the Australian surfer that leaves two days later.

- 2am leave the club for some food, then head home.

Tuesday:

-Gym

-Lunch with teachers.

-Do hour and a half of teacher training (we just played assassin)

- Cam went to play basketball, I went home to sleep.

- at night see a the new Sherlock Holmes movie.

Wednesday:

- Stupid work meeting. 4 hours of trying to figure out what the boss was saying in Chinese (I can have a conversation, but a business meeting.. thats totally different)

- Trip to Gulangyu island. Take a million pictures for Alice and a few for Cam.

- Got a massage.

- Met back up with Rain and Eky and went to a KTV till way to early in the morning.

Thursday:

-Woke up late

-Went to lunch with Chris.

- Cam went to play basketball, I took Alice to the bus station.

- Got our plane tickets to shanghai with David's help.

- Waited in line for awhile at the train station and got all our train tickets back from shanghai.

- Met up with Rebecca for dinner and then hit a few small bars, met up with more people along the way.

- Again went to 1801, but only stayed about an hour and went home.

Friday:

- woke up a little late, and took a taxi to the other side of the island (Really should have used the BRT)

- Got a boat over to Jinmen Island (island of Taiwan)

- On the boat talked to a bunch of people, one was an Australian girl that we eventually found out was only 16... oops....o well her dad was pretty interesting to talk to as well.

- Ate some good Taiwan beef noodles.

- Met 3 American girls in 7/11 , talked briefly

- Ran into the American girls again as we were buying our boat tickets to go home.

- Talked to them for awhile on the boat, they all work for Disney English.

- Went to meet up with the Couch Surfing group for dinner (one of the American girls joined us)

- There were 30+ people there.

- Met a couple from Florida that had a really cool girl from Slovakia staying on their couch.

- Hit a small bar after dinner, we played some fooseball with the American girl and Slovakian girl.

- Met a Chinese girl that is from the south but grew up in the north. So me, cam, slovakian girl, and chinese girl all just switched to chinese for about an hour. It was kinda refreshing, i don't do that often anymore.

- Left most of the people at the bar and went again to 1801 with the Florida couple, Slovakian girl, American girl, Chinese girl, and who other girls (still not sure who that are)

- Danced the night away.

- Went to Haiwan park for some BBQ (basically food on sticks cooked on a grill)

- exchanged a lot of phone number and emails and went home.

Saturday:

-Cam and Chris went to the gym, i stayed at home and played video games.

- Rebecca came back with them and we left for the hotsprings.

- spents the whole day at the hotsprings... just soaking in random flavored tubs. (place was like a resort... it was pretty awesome)

- Came back and got a late dinner with Alice (she came home from Libby's parents house).

- Went out to SoulBar..... free drinks (wasn't drinking).. and the music sucked... we left

- Went to Louis One club.... music was pretty good, not to crowded.

-Danced the night away (little bit of hoop dancing) and went home.

Sunday:

-Played video games,

- Lunch with Alice.

- More video games and packing

- Leave for shanghai at 7

Pictures coming soon!

Christmas with my teachers

I didn't bring my camera.. so there arn't many pictures... but these are from Niki's phone.
I ordered a turkey and stuff to go with it from a local restaurant that does foreign food... and this was a one day special.... . they only had turkey on Christmas Eve.

This was the first time most of the teachers had turkey. And we had a nice little lunch at school.. it was fun.

Sign Language

This will be a short post... mostly just a video. Libby started to teach us how to sing a song in sign language the other day. When she got up and showed us it was really cool and i'm glad someone recorded it... its really pretty.

Edit: ok... i spent a few hours learning to actually use the video editing tools i have.. and have fixed the bad video.... mostly... there are random spots were she jumps or just disappears for awhile because... well the camera didn't record anything to go in there... so its missing. Her actions at least fit the music now though.