Day 8: visiting another ancient town but with new company!!!

Caiyun and Jiali joined us from Shanghai for a day. Arrivin last night, we managed to get the teachers from ZhengHua to get a discounted rate for the hotel that they are putting up in. Took them to eat @ 洋洋 restaurant which is featured in Lonely Planet. Ordered some of the delicious food that we ate a few days ago so that they can share our joy, lol.

Some of the food that we ate for the second time.

The 串虾　that were easy to peel, sweet and fresh.

Looks like puke right. actually it's crab meat and crab roe on top of steamed egg in orange skin. think chawanmushi. a combination sweet (crab), salty (roe) and sweet & sour (orange)

After dinner, we played guides to the ladies and brought them to 李公堤。so told them what 陶老师 told us when he brought us there the previous day. Walked about 1km along the path that was lined with restaurants and pubs before we 打的 (i.e. took a cab) back to our hotel. instead of turning in which was our original plan, SY and I stayed up to work on our slides for our sharing when we return. then called u (sorry, woke u up) before turning in.

Brought the gurls to buy breakfast from our usual spot. That's me in the mandarin collar shirt. need to stop hunching :(

The ride to ANOTHER ancient town was long and bumpy but it was worth it because were was a house that was different from ALL the houses that we have seen in the many towns. the archi change from eastern to western from one section to another. So finally, there was a breath of fresh air from the usual lily ponds, willow trees, black-white-grey houses.

the very reason why i am slogging my life away :P

another photo next to yet another lotus pond. That's SY (you can finally put a face to that name now)

called QM in the afternoon to send her a lifebouy (due to the physical distance, only can manage a bouy la) since she was searching for lifeboat. Good to hear that the camp is doing great and the kids are learning something and enjoying themselves. well, we will have to wait and see if they can deliver @ APSIRE and the other activities.

slept all the way enroute to suzhou but din drool (heh heh)

the night was spent bringing the gurls to 观前街 for dinner and sight-seeing before they return to our room to look at ALL the photos that we have taken since last Sunday. Oh ya, i ate my first dumpling in China, and it is not as delicous as I imagined it to be :(

more friends are coming to visit tmr morning and think that next week will really fly past since we are going to visit nanjing and shanghai in between my lessons. want to visit the nanking massacre museum after reading about it and watching the 50th anniversary film about it. since i had used this incident to talk about total defence in my CE lessons, i think it would be good if i have visuals to improve on the lesson for the subsequent batches.

With the TAGs, 6-1 and many many more in the past, present and future, things are def looking up and off to a good start :P