Travelling Dragon

serendipity

pamelinachang — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:50:37 +0000

It’s been a good but weird day. We stood in line for almost an hour to have breakfast at a local hotspot called Mama’s, the food and the staff were great. It was different because when you entered the restaurant they had you stand in front of the cooking area and order your food and pay before seating you. It worked out better because people didn’t waste time deciding what they wanted and the food got out quickly. I had two poached eggs over a bed of black beans with homemade salsa and soft tortillas. We than slowly made our way down to fishermen warf but not before stopping over at a few shops to pick up a few necessities. Once there we hopped on a San Francisco trolley that took us all over the city. We got to go inside Golden Gate Park, see the street and house where Full House was based in, see Union Square and the Golden Gate Bridge. Initially, we were only suppose stay at the bridge for 20 minutes but my friend accidently gave the gift shop cashier $200 instead of $100 because the bills were stuck together. Unfortunately when we went back to tell the cashier what happened he couldn’t do anything about it until he cashed in his till. We left our phone numbers and hoped that they would return the $100. When we were leaving the store we saw our trolley bus leaving and we were stuck for an hour waiting for the next trolley. Lucky we were left behind because the cashier called and said his till was $100 over so he returned the money and we got to meet another Canadian travelling in San Francisco too. Afterwards we landed back at Fishermen’s Warf and we did some shopping! We saw a local boutique shop and we both got dresses.

We also ended up going to La Mar for dinner, the restaurant suggested to us by the Canadian couple we ran into the night before. The food was amazing. Most of the food was authentic Peruvian or Peruvian inspired dishes. We shared two appetizers, a sashimi like dish with Mahi Mahi fish and special sauce and a salad with awesome dressing and pickled carrots. My friend had a beef tenderloin dish and I had a seafood dish with shrimp, squid, octopus, mussels and clams over rice. The atmosphere and servers were great.
We had some issues getting back to our hostel because everyone is out in full force celebrating St. Patrick’s day and it took us forever to find a taxi to get back but we eventually found one standing in front of the Hyatt Hotel and got back in one piece.

Why I Love Canadians

pamelinachang — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:20:33 +0000

So in the interest of full disclosure I am Canadian, I love Canada, I grew up in Canada and Canada will always be home to me but that is not why I love Canadians.

While at dinner at L’Osteria del fonno, we ran into an older couple from Abbotsford, BC. The lady noticed my Canadian Olympic red mitts and struck up a conversation with us about the Olympics. She and her husband had just spent a week in San Francisco and were leaving the next morning. We asked them about what they did and if they had any suggestions about where to go. They started talking about visiting different places and biking across the Golden Gate Bridge. They suddenly whipped out these coupon books and gave them to us. The coupons were essentially 9 day bus passes for any public transit in the city, free tickets to the Academy of Science, 15% off coupons for Bloomingdale’s and other stuff.

They were so kind and generous to us and even though we’ve never met and well probably never meet again, the fact we were Canadian was enough to bond us. They embody the reasons why I love Canadians

In San Francisco

pamelinachang — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 02:21:44 +0000

Hello people who don’t read this blog.

Took a ferry from Victoria to Vancouver, drove to Bellingham International Airport, hopped on a plane, took a shuttle to the train, took the train to city, took a cab to the hostel =

San Francisco!

It’s the first trip I’ve taken since moving to a new school in August so I’m excited. It’s been raining most of the time I’ve been here but that didn’t make visiting Alcatraz any less amazing. Going through the jail house and listening to the audio tour (narrated by former guards and inmates) was amazing and walking through the halls was also really cool.

My friend and I found pedicures for only $17 and we made appointments for Sunday!

We also found a really sweet hat shop and the shop keeper directed us to a little Italian restaurant in little Italy so I have high expectations for dinner tonight.

May (I’m not so sure)

pamelinachang — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:25:59 +0000

It’s so easy to lose track of time here. There are so many things on the go and the people I meet and the place I work isn’t big on being on time (except for deadlines). I’m just not sure what time it is or what day it is either. Quite a big change from having a regular timetable at home.
Also the sun rises and sets really early here. The sun is usually up by 5am and sets at around 6pm.
One other odd thing, I sleep a lot here. At home I’m use to 5-6 hours of sleep a night. Here I sleep almost 8-9 hours every night! I have no idea whats going on.

May 2

pamelinachang — Mon, 04 May 2009 04:48:46 +0000

I spent the day shopping with my parents on Nanging road (i don’t think i spelt that right) It’s a pedestrian only shopping street and it was pack full of people.

On the side streets, there was a small fish shop that sold live frogs, eels, fish and other weird things. I got really grossed out when I saw a girl, about my age, kill a few eels for a guy who bought them for his dinner.

Later on I saw different shop keeper kill a duck and start to skin in.

Lets just say it was a interesting day for me…

My parents came to my flat today and cooked for me and my roommate David, which was nice. Then another volunteer Clare came over and we watched movies all night.

So in all, a pretty relaxed and chill day (minus the eel and duck killing)

May 2

pamelinachang — Sun, 03 May 2009 00:44:07 +0000

I spent the day with my parents again but this time we went on a tour to a smaller ‘village’ outside of Shanghai. (They call this place a village but its bigger then Edmonton and has a population of 5 million) So we visted a garden mansion, a water village, and a silk factory where I got a new traditional dress made of real silk!!

I also met some nice ozzys on the trip, one who is teaching in Hong Kong right now and her cousin who came to visit her, and another lady who has taught in Shanghai for 4 years and is now heading back to Australia. They were really nice and kept the tour pretty interesting.

I don’t have any really plans for Sunday beyond chilling before I start work on Monday.

Although my mom is coming over to my flat to teach me how to cook fish later!

Hope it all works out.

May 1st Labour day weekend!

pamelinachang — Fri, 01 May 2009 08:05:32 +0000

IT IS INSANE HERE!

My parents came to my flat today to check out where I was living and they took me shopping at the local mall. Big Mistake. Because it’s labour day weekend it was super crowed and people here don’t hesitate to push and shove and be in your face when they want to get somewhere.

On the bright side I got a new cell phone for really cheap:)

April 30

pamelinachang — Fri, 01 May 2009 08:03:11 +0000

Hey everyone!

I began the day a little early but I met up with my Project’s Abroad contact Jason, who is also Canadian, and he took me on an orientation of the area I’m living in. There are five supermarkets right beside where I live and a bunch of small little shops that sell everything from buns to fruits to clothes and haircuts.

I also discovered that Starbucks in also super saturated here with 5 within a walking distance of my place. (I’m jumping for joy inside cuz I can still get my coffee fix!)

I met some of the other volunteers here and so far they have all been very welcoming and great. I’m rooming with a German girl name Vicky, and sharing the apartment with three other guys Jamie, David and Ali, all from the states. Jamie left this morning and David will leave within the week. But they have been great.

For Jamie’s last night in Shanghai we went to Yau Ming’s restaurant called YeeHa, and is as Texas Western as you can get in Shanghai. Definitely a weird experience.

We also went to a ex-pat (foreigner) bat call Laris and it was pretty cool. For 13 bucks Canadian I got two Apple Martinis that were pretty good. It might sound a little expensive but Laris is located in one of the most expensive areas in Shanghai called the Bunds.

Taxis are super cheap and so far I feel really safe in my neibourhood with guards almost everywhere.

I haven’t started my internship yet but I’m looking forward to it on Monday.

Wish me luck!

Miss you all!

First Day/Night April 29

pamelinachang — Fri, 01 May 2009 07:51:28 +0000

Morning everyone! It’s about 6:30 in the morning here and I have been up since 5 because it’s about 4:30 in the afternoon at home so my body is a little confused on what time it is. I unfortunately woke up my roommate who is super-nice and we had a good half-hour long conversation about life here and everything. There is no Internet at the flat I’m living in so I have no idea how often I will get to write on my blog. I will most likely just keep writing on my laptop and post everything all at once a couple times a week. Anyways I put together a little video of what my parents and I had to go through to get here so I hope you like it. P.S the first thing I eat here was green tea flavour and mango Pocky!

On my way to China

pamelinachang — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:23:05 +0000

Heyhey

So I’m sitting at the Vancouver International airport right now waiting for my flight to Tokyo (which thankfully is only 8 hours )

I just checked my facebook and I wanted to say thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday!! (my parents, who are flying with me forgot)

Anyways flying over the Rockys is always cool, seeing the mountain peeks through the clouds will most likely be one of coolest sights a person will ever see in their lives.

I’ve got some pretty cool video of my trip so far so keep an eye out for it soon!

Lots of love
bye!