I haven't bee up to much lately. The other weekend I took a little a trip to an older water town. It's not that far away from the center of Shanghai. There is a little bus center at the Shanghai Stadium that offers tours and excursions to the little towns. Zhuozhang was really small town. It would be such a nice place to walk around, but it is very touristy. There were so many tour groups and it made it so noisy. I would not want to live in that town if t...

Kristie, my friend from UCSD, found this place called Chinese Cooking Workshop. They offer lessons in making different types of dim sum and other Chinese dishes. She got a group of interns together from her program and we all got to learn how to make xiaolongbao and sago with coconut milk. We had a Dim Sum master teach us how to make the xiaolongbao, but she didn't speak any English so one of the other workers tried to walk around and translate for us. Even ...

So just a little update on my life here in Shanghai... The first company that I worked for did not work out very well. We had some major communication issues. They thought I spoke Chinese very well and then I thought they would have spoken better English. There just wasn't anything for me to do at their office from the hours of 8:30-5pm. So now I am currently working for an events and promotion company. They have me help out with events and also with updatin...

China was one of the lucky countries that got to experience this year's solar eclipse. Too bad Shanghai had to be all stormy and cloudy and block out the sun. We still tried to enjoy the experience. Some friends and I went to this restaurant/gallery called the Factory. It was a really trendy place. The owner gave use welder's glass because she didn't trust the glasses that they were selling around China. We really didn't need them though because of the storm...

Day Three (Last day in Beijing): Yonghegong (Lama Temple), Tiananmen Square. Yonghegong: The Lama Temple is a Buddhist Temple. It was so interesting to see all the people there to pray and watch them in their process. There were so many beautiful statues of golden Buddhas. I wish we had a tour guide or someone that knew about Buddhism with us because I would have really like to hear what the statues meant and the purpose of the rituals and praying process. T...