Pre-Departure to Thailand!!!!

Ni Hao!! I'm really sorry for not blogging in so long! I have been nonstop for the past few days and on top of that my internet was not working in my room, but here I am! I don't even know where to begin... Well 2 weekends ago I went to Qingdao, which is a coastal city in China. It was beautiful! There was a beach and the city is known for beer. The local beer that we all love to drink here is called Tsingdao. Qingdao is home to the factory that produces the beer, so we got to visit the museum and factory where the beer was made. Only three of us went on this trip, so it was very calm and relaxing for the most part. It was our first trip without a Chinese student to help guide us, so it was quite an adventure, but most importantly a learning experience.

Last weekend was crazy! We went to Hong Kong and Macao! There are not enough words to describe either of the cities. Hong Kong is completely different from the rest of China and for the most part everyone speaks pretty good English. There was one downfall to the trip... we missed our connecting flight! Connecting flights in China is completely different than in America, and the airline staff are not very helpful to be honest. We had 25 minutes to get on our connecting plane, but they closed the gate and would not let us through, even though the plane was just sitting there! We had to spend the night in some small town in the middle of no where, since the next flight to Hong Kong was the next day. Missing a whole day in Hong Kong sucked, but by the end of the trip I forgot we missed a day because I had a blast. There were people from all around the world that we got to meet. Hong Kong is very busy and constantly going, it kind of reminded me of being back home! One night we took a ferry from Hong Kong to Macau which is considered the Las Vegas of China! It was a blast! We partied all night long and shopped and gambled the next day. Gambling was very successful for me because I won money! After a day in Macau we were back in Hong Kong for one last night. There were six of us and by the end of the night we got separated so we had to stay in 2 different hotels and didn't meet up again until the airport. Hong Kong was so much fun and I need to go back again before coming back to America!

I'm so stressed out lately because we leave for Thailand on Wednesday night! There is so much homework to do, projects to discuss with groups, laundry to get done, packing, making reservations, planning, quizzes, tests, and oh did I mention homework?! I know that I won't be sleeping much these next couple of days, but I know that if I just get through it I will be fine because Thailand is our vacation! We will be there for 10 days and we have so much planned to do! We are going to be all over Thailand, I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am! Bangkok, Ko Samui, Ko Phangan, Phuket, Surant Thani are a few of the main places we plan on visiting. I am just looking forward to sitting on the beach and soaking in the sun and relaxing. I mean I never thought I would be in China, let alone going on vacation from China to Thailand!! How crazy! I really need to get homework done now :-( All I want to do is blog more, so hopefully the internet stays working well so that I can blog more before I leave. I really apologize for the delay in blogging and the lack of organization, but I promise the next one will be better!