Teaching English

I really enjoy teaching english. It's satisfying:). I'm starting to get my own possie of Chinese friends here in Jinghong. I can't remember their Chinese names and give them all English Nicknames, which probably sounds horrible, but Li and Jung are easy names...it get's really complicated afterwards. A few nights ago we went partying at KTV. We rented a room with 8 people and sang Kareoke, then we could go downstairs and dance in a Club. There, I met some other foreigners travelling here. I met this dude named Laurent and we met up yesterday for a date. It was really romantic actually, we walked around town and then when we were on the bridge at night, over looking the Mekong river, fireworks errupted in the sky and shared the night and the reflection on the river with the full moon. We had our first kiss while watching the fireworks and then each had an hour massage on the river side by this lady that had a bed set up:) and it only cost 10yuan! (7.5yuan=1dollar.) It's official, I have a weakness for frenchies. Laurent is from a french colony of France in the Carribean sea. His dad grew up on Reunion island off the South-East coast of Africa and his mom is black and originated from an island in the Carribean. It's so cute though, he has light skin and curly red hair that feels rough like black people's hair. Yesterday I also met a couple of Americans Sarah from Arkansas and Kirsten from Alabama, who are studying here in Jinghong. Right now though they're going travelling since it's Spring Festival, or Chinese New Years. We'll meet up in March when they're back:).

Jinghong

I hit Jinghong on my way to Laos and liked the place. Now, I'm here again on my way back to the rest of China, but I decided to stay here. I was soo sad to leave Lao for China again, but on my first night back in China Sunny, a local student, invited me to stay in her dorms. Her friend Jung said that he has work for me in half a month after Spring Festival, and amazingly one of the girls in Sunny's dorms is going home for Spring Festival and so her and Vicky said that I could live with them and sleep in the empty bed for free. Woot! I like it here because it's hot for one, the people laze around like it's a small place like Courtenay, not the 1 million that live here and not the 4 million in hazy Chengdu. The Mekong River runs through the East side of town and I was sitting in the shade on the sandy-red banks watching some locals on the other side washing their clothes. I feel a bit lonely being back in China without Anna, and it seems that Romain and I were just a thing of the moment, a NEw Years bliss which sucks. It's good though, the streets here are lined with palm trees and I am carving my way into the town. Tomorrow I'll make posters advertising for teaching english, and find some private schools in the phonebook. I tried to get work at the college that I'm staying at but told the administration that I was leaving in 3 months and am kicking myself, should have just lied and then gotten a job. Ohh well. The pay here is less than in Chengdu, Shanghai or Beijing, but I love the pace of this city, the sunny weather and the locals are so sweet. Plus, I can eat 3 meals a day for 1$ and have free accomodation for now. Today I bought some running shoes and went for a run in this lovely botanical garden accross from the college, I think I'll start going for a run every day:) it's so nice to have a way to be active. Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up early and see if the locals do Tai Chi here. The minority culture is DAi here and I don't know much about them. This region has an incredible amount of parks and one of them has wild elephants in it. There are also many small villages around so maybe I'll go visit some when I get things sorted out.

LAO

LAO is peaceful, laid back, fun and beautiful.




I have been here since the 3rd and am heading back to China in a few days. Lao reminds me of my childhood growing up on the island. Slow lazy summers spend laying by the river with Sylvie and Erica. Double biking with Erica, Alex and neighbourhood kids. Kayaking trips with my family. The kids here are so happy playing by the clear river water, swimming, padelling local made canoes, running laughing and biking around; they make me never want to grow up.

A couple days ago Ran(a cute Israeli boy) and myself bought a local canoe for $40Us and took off on our epic trip from Mong Gnoi to Nong Kiaow down the Nam Ou river. We padelled for 2 days but yesterday we hit some big rapids and hit a rock, putting a hole in the canoe which cut our trip short by 3days. It was really a lot of fun and Ran is a funny guy, the scenery both him and the landscape were great:). I knew what to do from our family kayak trips and Ran asked me if I had been in the army the way that I knew what we needed to do. It made me happy and It makes me wonder if being a guide is the job for me. Ran took off today and I was sad to see him go. I sang. "ALL by myself" and held back my tears.

First New Years kiss:)

New Years we were in Lijiang. But more importantly was that we spent New Years with a crew of awesome ppl and I met someone special, ;). I won't tell this blog much except that I really like him and his name is Romain from France. The rest of the people we had met in Qiatou where we did Tiger Leaping Gorge, a hike up some mountains following the Yangtse river which formed one of the deepest Gorges in the world.


Tiger Leaping Gorge
The first day of the hike I met a couple of Canadians, Jade who I got along with really well, she's from the interior of BC, grew up on an orchard and has done tree planting and another girl from North Van. Also, we met this self-named guy named 'Slick' who's 30 from Britain who was not very impressed with my au-naturel legs and armpits and kept exclaiming rude remarks out of pure shock.
'There aren't many of your type left in Britain!! Look at those legs!!'







The next day we met our New Years Crew: Yanis, a tall unsure but gorgeous guy with enticing blue eyes from Latvia, Harro his confident funny and quirky friend from Estonia who studied with him in Latvia but is an exchange student in Hong Kong, Maple a Chinese-kareoke singing stereotype (sorry to say), MAthew a tall fun-loving gangly bright blonde guy from Britain, Marion a subdued but very cool girl from France and Minca the most out-going-flirty and fun South Korean girl I've ever met! Tada=best New YEars EVER!!!After the hike we all headed to Lijiang where we stayed for a couple days until the night of the YEAR.


Biking

NEW YEARS
PARTY + Good company + FEAST + Singing + Dancing + Countdown & kiss = JOY:)
New Years we all sang in the jungle the boys did the bass a wimbawee and the girls the aweeeeeawimbawee, french( Romain and Marion) and english, we sang Capoeria songs from Brazil (this guy named Victor from Germany), Maple sang us a cantonese song, Minca a Mandarin song, Harro and Yanis sang some Borat quotes and ANNa whipped out Amazing Grace and Lean on Me which me notoriously sing. I learned a new Chinese drinking game that involves numbers, turns and punishments which were of course giving out kisses.



The following day Jan. 1st I enjoyed doing a full day of biking around with Harro and Yanis, learning as much as I could about The Baltic countries. Yanis studies in Kazhakstan with Minca and is always singing Borat's national anthem for Kazhakstan and quoting lines from the movie. My geography is so off, I never knew that Latvia existed or where Estonia was. I think that in the future it would be really neat to travel Eastern Europe. why? because it exists! WOw! Plus the boys have done a good job introducing me to their respectable countries. The weather was hot, we all got some red colour on our faces and our chinese bicycles held out surprisingly since we were on red bumpy dirt roads cylcing through rural villages and then on the cobble stone streets of Lijiang.




LAOS
It was SUCH a rush to get to the Laos boarder, and I am surprised I made it, but incredibly relieved since my multiple chinese visa expired yesterday January the Third, requiring me to exit the country beore re-entering for another 60 days.

LAOS is absolutely the perfect thing for me! It's so relaxing, laid back and hot! I left Anna in China but met up with her again in the small village that we're in called Nam Tha. Today we biked all around the village to a small waterfall and then spent a few hours swimming and lounging with some locals on the side of a river while enjoying a Beer Laos. So far the travellers here have been a bit strange and incredibly snooty so again I'm happy that Anna and I are together. Tomorrow we head to Luang Prabang on an early bus and I'm sooooo excited to get there and do some hiking, beer drinking, laying in the sun and having a good time before heading back to Chengdu to settle and find work. On the other hand, Romain is close to Chengdu, and so I'll be really happy to see him again. I think I"ll be in Laos for only 10-12 days.:)