07-06-2016 - update

Hello! I have just gone through all my blog posts and tagged the food photos with a label so they are easy to find. You can access these posts here: 

http://squadala-im-off.blogspot.com/search/label/food

If there is another label that would be convenient to have, let me know and I can set it up. c:

Stay tuned for a post-return reflection or something (maybe)

07-05-2016

Home.

Thank you to everyone who kept up with my blog :) I may post a bit of an afterward/conclusion soon, so stay tuned for that~

07-04-2016

Flying home. There was ice on the window because of how cold it was outside. Going back, the plane flew north into Russia, then north of Alaska, into Canada and down into Detroit (same route going to China except reversed). I assume they went this way to stay above land as much as possible. We had entertainment screens on our seats and you could view the route of the plane as well as where we currently were. Also listed was the current outside temperature, and the lowest I saw was around -70℉, so I thought that was exciting

07-03-2016

Water show at Qiushui Square on my last night in Nanchang (and China)

07-02-2016

Burger King with friends (really, there's no way I could eat that all myself)

Probably the best fast food burger I had in China, but still not the same compared to American burgers (and by American burgers I do not mean American Burger King cause that place is nasty)

07-01-2016

苦瓜, one of the few Chinese foods I have disliked (it's really bitter)

06-30-2016

Sanqing Mountain 

三清山

Also this sign in the cable car made me laugh a lot

'In case of any thunder strike or storm, the cable car's advanced sensitive safety monitoring system will automatically stop the operation of the cable car as a bormal measure to secure the cable car and tourists. In this circumstance you should not panic but wait calmly while enjoying the beautiful scenery, in case of any discomfort of heal or other emergency the passenger may dial [number] for assistance'

06-29-2016

Wuyuan, Jiangxi

江西婺源

06-28-2016

Dinner and dessert! I don't exactly know how to refer to them, but basically I had a spicy clam soup and sweet rice cakes

06-22-2016

Mango ice cream before dinner (my friend introduced me to the place!) IT WAS SOO GOOD

06-23-2016

On my campus. The building in the background is the classroom building where I had all my academic classes

06-24-2016

I had KFC in China today for the first time huehue

06-25-2016

Finally went to the Nanchang Star, a ferris wheel closer to downtown!

06-26-2016

Went to Papa John's today! (I still refuse to eat it in the US, Cynthia and Elise)

06-27-2016

Went to Wanda Theme Park today!
(also no it wasn't raining, people have umbrellas out because it was somewhat sunny)

06-21-2016

I think this might post upside down, but a friend and I exchanged money from our home countries today! Now I have Euros even though I have never been to Europe 😀

06-20-2016

Dinner with friends :3

Fish, chicken, bamboo shoots, and 皮蛋 (I don't quite know how to explain it in English cause my translator app literally reads 'a kind of preserved egg', maybe I will try Googling it at some point)

06-19-2016

Went to the tallest building in Nanchang with my teacher and her son, her nephew, and her son's childhood friend. (Actually the outside of the building is a picture which is already on my blog! Just look for the post with a picture of a tall building, and it is that one.) The weather was stormy today but that made for some interesting pictures.

06-18-2016

Pizza Hut in China!

06-15-2016

Rainwater pouring like waterfalls

06-16-2016

I want seat pillows like this.

Seen in the parking lot after karaoke

06-14-2016

Cute kitty in Shanghai

06-17-2016

I ran into a friend because he was eating dinner with his friends at the same place I was. They were celebrating his birthday, and he asked where my friends were. I said they were out clubbing. He wished me well then returned to his friends and they went to buy drinks (beer). 

But he came up to me again with this mango juice and said, 'I figured you wouldn't like beer, so I bought you this instead.' I already had a drink (my Coca-Cola in the picture) but it was really nice of him.

06-13-2016

Because I didn't do anything today and this is very important.

I never knew there was a way to take green tea ice cream to the next level until I went to McDonald's in Shanghai. 

06-12-2016

Today I took the HSK Level 3 exam! This exam tests Chinese proficiency in the areas of listening, reading, and writing. There are 6 different levels.

I was the only person who showed up even though I'm pretty sure there was supposed to be at least one more. The exam went relatively well, but I think it's about 30 days until I receive my official results.

06-11-2016

Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station

06-10-2016

Entrance to our hotel in Shanghai! 

It was rated pretty terribly on Booking.com, but it doesn't seem that bad to me.

06-09-2016

Being a rebel at West Lake in Hangzhou! There's a sign on the bench which reads 'no lying down', in case you can't read it.

06-08-2016

Made it to Hangzhou!

I'm travelling with three friends and we will be here until Friday afternoon, after which we will go to Shanghai. We arrived quite late in the day and so didn't do anything noteworthy. Tomorrow we will begin sightseeing to more popular attractions.

06-07-2016

The studio! I was referred by another international student to do recording since her native language isn't English. I worked with a guy from Britain and we read dialogues which are going to be used to teach Chinese students English. I enjoyed it, and on the plus side, it was also good money - I earned more than American minimum wage, and all I had to do was read excerpts at a controlled speed.

06-06-2016

Relatively new tea place at the supermarket near school with cute decor. This is one of three teddy bears in the shop.

06-05-2016

Yummy!
Going on my future Instagram blog

06-04-2016

Saw this sign at Coco's today while I was waiting for a milk tea.

Needless to say, I will be back very soon...

..like I might have toyed with the idea of going back later to buy a second tea 

(but I also wouldn't know which one to pick, they all look so good ;~;)

05-31-2016

Took this picture while at Tengwang last week, and it makes me laugh.

06-03-2016

cheesin' while chinese'n

This was during my speaking class, and we were covering how to say various feelings. When the picture was taken, we were playing a game where another classmate had to say a feeling in Chinese and then I had to act it out. My teacher says that I am good at facial expressions.

06-02-2016

Went to a coffee shop to study with a friend because we are both taking the HSK (except she is taking level four and I am taking three) and we ordered this to share :3

06-01-2016

flood antics

05-30-2016

One of the various (incorrect) shirts I've seen like this. The original text is 'Love you nearly as much as Kanye loves himself'. I've even seen one shirt which spelled his name 'Canye'..

05-29-2016

It's hard to make out what exactly is going on at the moment in this picture. Yesterday while I was waiting for my teacher to pick me up for the concert, I saw some girls wearing graduation gowns who were taking pictures while holding sticks as if they were wands. I thought it was really cute.

This is just inside the main gate of my campus.

05-28-2016

My teacher invited me to a Chinese concert!

05-27-2016

I hate how awkward I look in this picture, but it's the only picture I have from today. This is a picture of the people that showed up to our speaking class today, along with the teacher.

05-26-2016

Picture of the karaoke place since we went again tonight

05-25-2016

~cute doge at Korean restaurant~

There is actually another one too, smaller and black. They are both cute. The owners seem to let them out when the lunch crowd dies down.

05-24-2016

Office asked me to come sign something and of course they are not in when I am not in class

05-23-2016

Finally went to Tengwang Pavilion today! It was a shame that the weather wasn't too great :(

05-22-2016

Since today was not productive, I thought I would upload a picture of my airline food from the Beijing trip

Not gonna lie, it was actually pretty good (but then again going to Beijing was breakfast food and we got served the most flavorless porridge I have ever tasted)

05-21-2016

hai der

05-20-2016

For speaking class today, we visited friends of our teacher who demonstrated proper tea preparation, drinking, and pouring techniques. The lady in the white and the lady behind my classmate on the left were the hostesses. The rest of the people are some of my classmates, all from Kazakhstan. My teacher is the one who took this picture.

05-19-2016

Inside a hallway of the building where my boss works. He had students in his office, so I waited for them to finish their discussion before I walked in and took this picture in the meantime.

05-18-2016

View from the soup place I ate at yesterday for lunch. If you continue walking down the road where the trees are, you will reach my dorm.