The beginning of our Winter Holiday

We are traveling for three weeks…that’s a long time! I have never traveled for more than 10 days at a time, so this should be interesting. To start, I have to say that when we planned this trip I was very excited. I thought it would be a perfect way to spend our three week winter holiday. However, I didn’t think about how much Christmas mean to me, and how much I love being surrounded by family and friends during this time of year. What I was thinking about was how chaotic last Christmas was as we tried to drive between Detroit and Jackson numerous times. On top of that, we took a side trip for four days to San Antonio. It was so busy and not really restful. It was amazing to be with family though. I thought this trip was a great alternative. Well, when we got here I was a little mad at myself for choosing this over America. I even went as far as looking up flights back to Shanghai and then flights to Detroit. I’m a nut case…I fully admit it.

So anyway, back to our current trip. We arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand with no problems. The flights were quite quick and nice. The flight to Bangkok was on Thai Air. I absolutely recommend that airline! We had a five our flight and could watch lots of movies or TV shows. I was in heaven! I managed to watch Chicago and Step Up Revolution (don’t judge me, I was in the mood for movies with dancing) all the way through and then part of one of the Harry Potter movies. The second flight was only an hour and I began to read the latest Stephanie Plum book…still love how entertaining those books are. Oh, and for the record, I LOVED Step Up Revolution! Bring me Twitch and Sandy Cohen any day and I am happy!

Moving on…we arrived in Chiang Mai and took a taxi to our hotel. Immediately noticing green trees, fresh air, less craziness. We were happy to say the least. We were brought to our hotel, The Castle and noticed the photos online were perhaps enhanced a bit. The so-called pool was more like a giant-sized Jacuzzi tub and the rooms looked a little different. To be fair, we are only paying $35 a night, so I didn’t expect much. However, after traveling in Asia for almost three years, I also know that $35 can get you quite a lot! Any who, I was a little disappointed. Travis and I have a slightly completely different opinion when it comes to hotels. I am not saying I have to have a 5 Star hotel experience every time (I would never turn one down), but I would like a hot shower, a sink that I can actually wash my face in without pouring water all over the floor and a bed that is not a rock. Do I exaggerate here…maybe a little. After all, we are in Asia, all beds are hard, but seriously as I type this, my butt is going numb!!! And I am not lying- the shower is not anywhere near hot.

We move to a new hotel today. I have high hopes for a fabulous bathroom, comfy bed and better location. I do know the latter is a for-sure. I will keep you updated, so don’t lose any sleep wondering if my new hotel is good enough for me.

Once I was done complaining to Travis and whining about as many things as I could (of course there were tears too), we began to plan the rest of our time in Chiang Mai. Here is what we are looking at- going to temples, a cooking school, spa day, visiting Waterfalls and Mountains, going to an elephant farm and petting tigers, oh and shopping and eating a lot! I wanted to go to the snake farm, but Travis was not up for it. Ha! Totally joking, neither of us would ever go to that. So, as you can see, I sometimes always over react to things. I am happy to be here now and am looking forward to it all.

Side note- next year we will definitely spend Christmas in America. I am already looking forward to it.

Merry Christmas from Thailand!

C & T

Christmas Party 2012

It began and ended in the same dramatic way…someone being carried in or out by four people. Yes, in true SCIS fashion, it was a night to be remembered...well hopefully remembered, I guess it depends on how much wine was consumed.

Last night was our annual staff Christmas Party. Each year has a different theme to encourage us to be creative and to feel inspired. Year one was “Wild West”, last year was “James Bond” and this year was …Ollywood. Nope, not a typo, that’s what it was. They wanted us to decide whatever we wanted, such as Hollywood, Bollywood or anything else that ended in ollywood. It was a fantastic theme and I really loved seeing everyone dressed to the nines in their own personal ways! Check out these amazing dresses and tuxedos.

 The sign that greeted us :)

 Is this Bri and Matt or Audry and Humphrey?

 Aren't we cute?

 Lovely ladies!

 More lovely ladies...it was a bit like posing for prom pictures!

 Christmas colors!

 Some good looking men!

 I loved the Bollywood!

 And then these two show up! I love it!

So sweet!

Now, back to people being carried. After many of us took the big bus out to the Shanghai Art Center, we arrived at a very modern, unique venue. It was gorgeous. Christmas lights were strung all around, the wine was flowing, cameras were flashing in every corner and compliments were heard from all. But there was one important moment we were all waiting for...our Head of School was to make a grand entrance. Everyone gathered near the doors with cameras pointed, ready to shoot. The doors flung open and there he was…wearing his white themed Bollywood outfit, raised into the air on a platform and was being carried by four men. It was a moment we will never forget. See the pictures below for an idea.

 The Grand Entrance!

 Look at that headpiece!

The night went on, more pictures were taken, lots of dancing was happening, but most of all the wine was flowing. We were totally over-served as per the usual. The glasses of wine were more like bottles of wine. And as I stated at the beginning, someone was carried out, poor girl! Anyways, it was a fabulous night and we feel very lucky to work at a school that always provides such awesome parties. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Our next adventure is to Thailand and Laos for 3 weeks. We will keep you updated on that as we experience it all.

Merry Christmas!

The Klumps

So…Hanoi, Day 3…

After a fantastic first two days, we were expecting much of the same for our third day.  We booked a City Tour and were excited to see all of the sites that Hanoi offered.  I’ll have to back track a bit to our first day in order to tell this whole story.

Arriving in Hanoi we were anticipating a similar experience to Ho Chi Minh.  While we were there we walked around and found our own way to multiple destinations for a complete city tour.  In Hanoi, we found endless tour companies selling trips all over, offering a variety of different tours.  While walking, we stumbled across a sign advertising a City Tour for roughly half the price of anywhere else.  We ventured in expecting to walk right back out after hearing about a crappy version of the City Tour.  Shockingly…we listened to the sales pitch and decided the company was legit.  Christy seems to think I had something to do with our decision because it was cheaper, but I’m convinced that we decided on this mutually (I’m not sure why she thinks I’m drawn to cheaper things). 

Regardless, we woke up on the morning of the tour in time for breakfast and arrived at the lobby in time for our pickup.  We waited…and waited…and waited!  The hotel staff approached us numerous times to confirm that we actually had a tour.  I began sweating.  Somehow I knew that this was going to be my fault.  I began hoping that the company would arrive and watched with bated breath as every van or bus passed our hotel.  It didn’t pay off!

After over 40 minutes of waiting a guy on a bike pulled up and let us know that he was here for us.  I, obviously celebrated…Christy on the other hand began to question him.  Through the questioning, it was determined that things were not going well.  The guy seemed to have no clue about what was going on.  We eventually went back to the place we booked the tour with the tour guide and decided the best option was to go as planned. 

We ended up leaving with our “Tour Guide” almost an hour after the planned time.  Our first stop was the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.  We were quickly notified that we were not going to be able to see Uncle Ho because he was shipped off to Russia for his yearly exhuming and touch ups.  That disappointment was just the beginning!

 Outside of the Museum.

Regardless of not seeing Uncle Ho, we were allowed into the Museum.  There we were surrounded by lots of quality notes, letters, pictures, and information.  Unfortunately, most of the information was illegible.  What was translated, was written in small manuscript and extremely time consuming.  As we were trying to decode everything we were notified that the exhibit would be closing soon and we needed to hurry (obviously because we were late).  We were only through a quarter of one of the three floors at this point!  We then decided to start asking more questions of our guide.  Hopefully that would speed things up so we wouldn’t have to do some much reading.  Not the case!

As we began asking questions we quickly found out that we know more about Vietnam History than our quality “Tour Guide’ did (and that isn’t saying a lot).  We ended up rushing through and not really getting much out of it. 

After, we were walking to the houses of Ho Chi Minh, and we were quickly lost.  Our tour guide was calling people on his phone and making wrong turns.  After a bit of questioning the locals, we headed in the right direction.  However, we were stopped after a short walk so our “Tour Guide” could find his girl friend, who joined us.  What do you do?...We continued…Not the best choice!

During the next part of the tour, Christy noticed a sign that stated where Uncle Ho’s house was.  She asked about it and was told that the sign was wrong.  We check our pamphlet and went back to the sign and questioned our lovely tour guide and his response was, “Maybe I’m wrong…Yes, I’m probably wrong.”  Things continued like this for most of the day. 

To say the least, it wasn’t a great day.  However, it was a very entertaining day.  I think we came to the realization during this experience that if something is soooooo bad, it can actually become funny.  At the end of the day and the horrible experience that our Day Trip was, we were laughing on the side of the road.  All in all, we got to see everything that we set out to see, and we ended up being entertained by a horrible guide in the process.  We’ve laughed about it multiple times since including today while writing this.  Oh, the adventures and experiences of traveling abroad! 

Pagoda that was closed :)

Hanoi Day 2- Hoa Lu & Tam Coc

Day 2 started with a long bus/big van ride. Today we were heading out to Hoa Lu and then Tam Coc. Hoa Lu is south of Hanoi and was the capital city of Vietnam between 968 and 1009. Here we just visited what remained of the city. It was interesting, but a little smaller than we expected after a 3 hour bus ride!

After a brief tour of that, we headed over to Tam Coc. This was an additional 15 minutes in the van! When we arrived to this destination we were served a mediocre Vietnamese buffet lunch. It was nothing special, but we were pretty hungry so it did the trick. We were then shuffled across the road to get on a boat. Now, this boat was really small and I was told I would have to be on it for an hour! I was not all that excited at this point…sitting in van for 3 hours and now sitting on a small boat for another hour. However, the view on the Boi River was quite amazing. The towering limestone peaks all around were something we had never seen! It was a great preview for Halong Bay. We snapped several pictures on this peaceful trip. We were really amazed by the man who was rowing the boat. Instead of using hands, he used his feet! I was impressed. There were many boats out, but it was so quiet. It was a nice change of pace from Hanoi.

The final thing we did out here was go for a bike ride. Yes, I Christy, went on a small boat and a bike ride! I know! I am so proud of myself. The bike ride was something indescribable. Just to be surrounded by nature was fantastic! We only cycled for about 30 minutes or so, but it was really nice to see another side of Vietnam. There were only four of us on this part and it felt like we were the only ones around…until you came across the billy goats and then the water buffalo…

It ended up being quite a day. It was a lot fun, but a lot of traveling. Another highlight from the day was dinner. I know, shocking. We do love to eat! Today we tried an Indian restaurant (I know we are in Vietnam, but we love our Indian food the most!). It was the best Indian food we ever had. The owner came out and talked to us and made some suggestions for us for the next night, when we would return again for dinner…

Day 3 was a bit different. I think I will let Travis tell that story!

Hanoi Part I

Our third October Holiday while living in Shanghai…it really is hard to believe that! This is our first without the Watt Family, and it’s just not quite the same. Greg is not falling into parked motorbikes, Di is not becoming best friends with the locals and Alysha and I are not eating street pancakes. Nonetheless, it’s still pretty awesome so far!

Things started off on Saturday morning quite well. We left our apartment and got to the city airport in about 10 minutes! The line for China Southern was speedy, customs was quick, all was well. Our first flight was to Guangzhou, one of my least favorite airports. The flight was much shorter than anticipated and it was a quick stay in the Guang. Our next flight was straight to Hanoi, another short distance. We landed and were off to get our Visas on arrival. Of course we didn’t bring US dollars for this, which we were told was the only form of currency they would take. We only had RMB, and although I think we paid more than others, they took it and it was time to find our driver to the hotel.

It was another 45 minute ride to the Meracus Hotel, making our trip now about 10 hours since the time we left our apartment in Shanghai. However, when we arrived, I saw one of the most amazing sights…SHOES! Shoes were EVERYWHERE!!! Our hotel is on the street of shoe shops. I couldn’t believe our luck. Travis was not expressing his enthusiasm, but I am sure he felt the same. It was such a beautiful sight! Oh, and our hotel was great too. The bed had pretty flower petals on it and the sink was full of water with floating flowers. Cute little touches that made it an inviting sight. It’s not a big room, mind you nothing is really big in Vietnam, but it is clean, has a great shower, comfy bed and fantastic location (remember the shoes?). There are also tons of other shops and plenty of bars and restaurants near us. We couldn’t ask for more.

Shoes!

Our Hotel 

Our first night we ate some delicious Vietnamese dinner at a restaurant near our hotel and then went to another restaurant to sip some beer from a second floor balcony and do some people watching. To say the traffic here is nuts, is an understatement. For example, when we checked into our hotel, they gave us a map and a paper titled “Travelling Advice in Hanoi”, number 1- How to cross roads. Yep. Pretty dicey, but they say to be relaxed and confident and you should survive…so far so good.

After an 11 hour night sleep (apparently we were exhausted from the first month and a half of school), we headed to our breakfast. It was great! One of my favorite things here in Vietnam is the amazing coffee with condensed milk. It’s a perfect way to start the day (and then drink later in the day as well)! We decided today would be a day of shopping, eating, drinking coffee and drinking beer near our hotel. It is now mid afternoon and we are beat! I think it is now siesta time…

Some sights from today:

 Street vendor taking a break.

 Think this would pass American codes???

 Mobile store...

Travis and some new friends!

Tomorrow we are going on a day trip to a nearby city, Hoa Lu- Tam Coc. It should be interesting. Fill you in more after that.

C

The Start of Year 3…

It’s hard to believe that we are in our third year here in Shanghai! It always makes me laugh when I think of our first year here…hit by a car in the first 6 days, scared to go anywhere alone after that, arguing with anyone who told me I would stay more than 2 years... I was SO sure that two years would be it…no way was I staying more than that. I wanted to go home and I didn’t care what people said, I wasn’t changing my mind. I think it’s safe to say I was wrong, really wrong (for the first time EVER! :). As much as we miss our family, friends and the amazing state of Michigan, we just aren’t ready to go back. We don’t know when we will make it back to the mitten state for good, but for now, we are loving our life and don’t want to change it! 

Ok, enough babbling…here is a quick update of what we have been up to over the last month and a half.

As usual, we love our happy hour time with other teachers. Lucky for us, a new restaurant and bar has opened right on our street. It's a big American bar that is just a little too convenient to get to! We have already spent numerous evenings...and nights there. Here is a photo from our first big Happy Hour that I organized for the entire school. It was so much fun!

This is me with Krystle and Anne. I missed them both so much this summer!

Then, of course, I have had a few girls' nights. One was a nice little movie night to watch "Magic Mike". There were a lot of laughs that night! A couple weeks later some of us girls had a longer night. It started with a hair washing and style. This is one of my favorite things here in China and I don't do it enough! The massage is my favorite part. Here is a photo of Krystle and Jocelyn enjoying the washing.

After we got our hair done, we all got braids, we headed to one of my VERY favorite restaurants here in Shanghai, Lost Heaven. The food is from the Hunan province and it is simply amazing! The taste is unbeatable and so unique! Here is a photo of Jocelyn, Krystle, Cheyanne, and me. 

The night continued with a wet walk down the Bund to the trendy and expensive Glamour Bar right on the Bund. Mel met up with us and we had a couple drinks there. I think the best part of the night was watching the crazy Australian Bachelorette party! They were having such a good time and it was great entertainment! 

We have also celebrated a few birthdays this fall. I have been really bad with taking photos this year and don't have much to show for it. Here is a photo from Bri's birthday celebration. It was a weekend long event, but this is from Eddie's, that famous American bar down the road!

This is Adriana, me and Bri. I don't know what I would do without all the amazing women in my life here!

The next day we went to the 7th annual Chili Cook Off. This was our third one, and the best one! We had such a blast. Basically it is a contest for the best chili. Travis was a judge and the rest of us just went to taste the chili, drink beer and margaritas! We met some interesting people this year. Here are a few photos.

This was one of the interesting people we met. We called him Franck! He was a fun person!

As for school, things are going well. Travis is adjusting to fourth grade and I am loving that I have returned to second grade. The beginning of the year is always stressful and a lot of work, but overall things are good. We are super excited for October Holiday next week. We are going to Hanoi and Halong Bay in Vietnam. It should be a nice relaxing time for the two of us. I will post updates on that soon. We leave on Saturday Sept. 29. While we are in Halong Bay we will be on a boat for 2 days...should be interesting!

That's all for now. I will try my best to update often.

Love,

C & T

What a difference a year makes!

I just finished reading my friend Amanda's blog post about sitting in first class on an international flight. It reminded me of the amazing journey we had last summer heading back to Shanghai. Last August I felt like the luckiest person ever to fly on a 14 hour flight! Because of our Silver Status with United, we were upgraded to first class on our flight from New York to Shanghai. This is not supposed to happen, but they had to change planes, thus forcing some economy passengers to bump up to first class. That was us. I cried. I do that a lot! But, you can only imagine how exciting it was for us! We had everything you could imagine...lots of delicious food, wine, mixed drinks, a very comfy down comforter, a little bag of goodies and a seat that went flat! Yup, I actually was able to lay on my stomach and woke up drooling! By the time the plane landed, Travis and I did not want to get off. It was THE BEST flight EVER!

Now, fast forward to this year...slightly different.

This trip sucked. I mean REALLY. SUCKED. I cried at a few points. Shocking, I know. But this year, for a much different reason. First off, we are dumb. I have learned to never cut the time that close. We wanted to spend as much time in America as possible. Our flight was supposed to land the night before we started school. That. was. stupid. Not sure what in the world we were thinking. 

Here is how it all panned out...we got to Chicago in style, first class, free bags, lovely short flight. (Unfortunately for me, I have grown custom to first class on domestic flights. I am sure to get a wake up call soon.) Next, we got on plane number two, destined for LA. Again, great flight, although it left a little late. We had exit row seats that were in line with the door to enter, so plenty of room. Then we got to LA and saw on the TV monitors that there was a typhoon right over Shanghai. We knew it was coming, but didn't realize it was there and that it was directly over the city. The past two years we have had typhoon warnings and nothing has happened. So we figured it would be fine. Once we saw the typhoon was actually hitting Shanghai, we prepared for a long delay. It never happened. The flight left on time (with two other teachers friends aboard). This was now our third flight.

It did not start like the other two. It was an older plane, and it really showed. We had our own TV screens (thank God), but could not control them much. Certain movies and TV shows were on only a few channels and they all started at the same time. I wanted to cry right then and there. (First small hissy fit happened here.) I decided to read and do other things for the beginning of the flight in protest. When I finally decided to try and watch Hunger Games, I realized my seat didn't have a working audio outlet. I lost it. (Second hissy fit, a little bigger this time.) I went nuts yelling at Travis and telling him that we should get our money back and blah, blah, blah. You can only imagine my hysterics. He was kind enough to ignore my rant (being as supportive as possible without calling me a lunatic) and offered his outlet since he wasn't using it. I was able to watch 2 movies and the flight was not too bad after all. We slept a bit too, but it was cold and a HUGE group of friends were together and they were quite annoying. At the beginning of the flight, they had a very difficult time finding seats, they all wanted to trade. Then they were told to sit down several times, before they finally did. They didn't bother me TOO much during flight until I was in a DEEP sleep and one friend decided to scream in his friend's face (sitting right next to me) to scare him. Needless to say, he wasn't the only one scared. GRRRRRRRR!

Twelve-ish hours have now gone on and I am thinking, "Sweet, we are going to land and be home soon!" I spoke too soon. As we got over Japan, one of the flight attendants walks past me and says, "Welcome to Osaka!" I thought it was a joke. He said they had just found out that they wouldn't be able to land because of the typhoon, so we had to go to Osaka. I think I cried then too. (I told you I cry a lot.) Once we land, (in another freakin country!!!! I don't know why we didn't just go to a different city in China) they tell us we will be leaving the next evening, EVENING, 24 hours away! Again, I think I cried. 

We deplane, get herded like cattle to immigration, get told about dinner, the hotel and the next day, get shoved on a bus and off to our hotel, a 1 hour drive. Ugh. We arrive to a beautiful hotel. Amen. Our room is nice, two twin beds, but whatev. We have a nice shower and a bidet!!! :) We were to tired and frustrated to eat, so we slept. The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, slept more, took the bus back to the airport and learned our flight was delayed an hour. Guess what I did? I didn't cry...yet, but I did complain! :) After standing in a line of 300 people trying to get new tickets for over an hour and a half, Travis realized we were able to go to the special line for Silver, Gold, and Platinum members. We quickly got our tickets in hand, checked our bags once again and headed to the gate for flight number 4.

As expected, we boarded the plane late and stayed on the tarmac for like an hour. At this point, I am beyond frustrated. Two hours later, I hear the joyous words, "Welcome to Shanghai!" I might have cried again, tears of great joy. All in all, we made it back to Shanghai, a whole day late and missed work. I was stressed, of course, and Travis was fine, as usual.

It amazes me to think of how different this flight was compared with last year's! Two things have come out of this 4 plane, 2 day ordeal. One, I will not come back so close to starting work. Two, I want a nonstop flight next year! I hope this brought a smile to your faces, thinking back, it kind of makes me laugh now!

Cheers!

C