Finally- China update

I absolutely LOVED China. I did not think I would say that. When I left Japan to go there on vacation, I was a little bit of a skeptic. I spent a vast majority of my time getting pampered, because your money goes so much further in China than it does in Japan. The other thing that made my trip so much fun, is my friend Casey has been teaching there for the last year, so it was great to hang out and have a tour guide.

Casey flew up and met me in Beijing. We stayed in a hostel on the "food street". It was a pretty nice hostel with a very nice staff. The front desk lady was very intense, yet very helpful. We swore she was nocturnal, she was always up at night and we never saw her in the day time. While in Beijing we ate A LOT!! It was a ton of fun. The only negative thing about Beijing was I got a bad sinus infection. The good thing is in China you can get medicines from about every corner pharmacy without going to the doctor.

Casey's friends and fellow teachers, Ruthann and Cort met up with us on Saturday and we did the Great Wall. It was absolutely phenomenal. It was a good workout, but nothing like Mt. Fuji. The Great Wall, was like a never ending stair stepper. To get down from the wall we did the toboggan run. It was so much fun, we paid again and did it twice.

On Sunday, we flew to Shanghai. We arrived to Casey's great apartment and to her friendly roommate Kay. I swear the theme of China was "EAT". That night we ordered in Pizza, the following nights, we ate Korean twice and great food throughout every day. I spent my days getting massages and shopping. I LOVED the market, bartering is so much fun. The massages, waxing, nails, and general pampering filled my days while everyone else worked. I got "cupping" twice. It is when they heat up glass dome things and stick them to your back to suck out the poisons. Below is a picture of the end result of cupping treatment #1.
Cupping was so relaxing. I did it twice dispute the large hickeys it left behind. As I told my co-workers, it felt so good, it is good thing I have never done hard drugs, because I would most likely have a problem. :)

On Thursday, we flew to central Chengu. It is the home of the largest panda reserve in the world. The panda's were so cute. It was a great experience. There we stayed in the Dragon House Hostel again it was really nice and in a historic alley district, with a Starbucks very near. :) Chengdu is in the Sichuan province famous for their spicy food. They were not messing around.

We got home from Chengdu late Saturday, Casey and I went straight to the massage place and I got my second cupping treatment.

The next morning, I got in a taxi at 7am and headed back to Japan.

I have been swamped with work since i got back.

I made a slideshow, but it is having issues load, I will try to post it tomorrow.




J

"Life is either a great adventure or nothing." ~Helen Keller