I'm coming back on the 9th! Can't wait. I miss everything.

Things I like about China & HK:

-abundance of shopping: Shanghai for clothes, HK for jewellery and nice expensive clothes, Shenzhen for bags, purses, luggage, fake jewellery

-good cheap food (esp. in China)

-vibrant nightlife

-cheap taxis in China (expensive in HK and Shenzhen)

-excellent snack foods and Chinese junk food!

-yummy street food

Things I don't like about China & HK:

-POLLUTION!!!!!!  (except for CUHK, love that school!!!!!!)

-People with poor manners, self-centred, spitting everywhere

-washrooms that are smelly, and squating toilets

-people smoking EVERYWHERE. I smell like smoke when I get back to the hotel

-poorly built/designed infrastructure in Shanghai (They just keep on building, but they don't care how). HK is pretty good and Hangzhou too.

-discrimination between Chinese people. They treat you better if they know you can speak English.

-you can easily get food poisoning. All the Canadians who went to HK and China that I know of have gotten poisoned. My grandfather had diarrhea for 5 days after eating at a good restuarant in Shanghai

-corrupt local officials/police who think "they are all that and a bag of potato chips"

-beggars who fake it

Wow, I really miss home, there are so many more things I don't like about China.

Me party animal???  Nah...well not yet but HK is starting to convert me.

In Toronto, clubbing never really appealed to me that much. I always thought - what's the point? I'm not there to hook up with anyone.

But here, as Keith would testify, clubbing or even going to bars is really fun! They have ladies nights on Wednesdays and Thursdays, meaning no cover and free drinks! Most places play really good music, with lots of variety so you are not always dancing to the same old R&B or reggae that is so popular in Toronto. Best of all they play songs that everyone knows. Once it a while the whole club would burst out singing ABBA together.

Another great feat about HK clubs is the international mix of people - tons of people from Western countries and locals all mixed together. What's more people are really friendly and want to meet you and dance with you. Most of them just want to have fun and not necessary aim to take someone home with them at the end of the night.

Well I have to point out that these views are from memories gathered by a somewhat muddled and drunk mind.

OH! One really funny thing I have to mention that happened the last time I went partying. We went swimming after arriving back in campus at around 4:30am in a closed pool (water wasn't even clean or had clorine yet). Mind you it was really hot and most people were drunk or pretty out of it. Well I didn't get in the water cause if I did I would have drowned. But I think that I was one of my favourite memories here.

After a very long wait my pictures from Guilin, Hangzhou, and the Farewell dinner are posted at http://shirley7734.fotopic.net

I didn't post all the pictures that I took which was around 400, cause I think I have already filled my quota.

For you Nat:

Three names you go by
1) Shirley
2) Shirls
3) LeiLei (family)

Three part of your heritage
1) Chinese (Mandarin)
2) Canadian
3) Shanghai?

Three things you like about yourself
1) practical
2) easy going - I dont' get fixated on a problem
3) my feet (haha! I thought for a long time about this last one)

Three things you dislike about yourself

1) Too trusting and gullible
2) I try to please too many people at once (very conflicted)
3) I can't stand up to my mom

Three things that scare you
1) Having the people I care about get hurt
2) Getting married (the fact that I have to bring my whole family together)
3) Never getting the chance to say what you really feel and mean

Three of your every day essentials
1) Washing my face and brushing my teeth
2) e-mail
3) Talking to Terence (if possible) or someone I'm close to

Three things that you are wearing right now
1) glasses
2) pjs
3) flip flops

Three things you need in a relationship
1) mutual respect and admiration for each other
2) understanding and tolerance
3) being able to do and say anything to each other - complete honesty and comfort

Two truth and a lie
1) My cousin and I still shower together (whenever we meet)
2) Sometimes I make myself scared my imaging ghosts and gory accidents
3) Once I didn't wear any underwear while wearing a skirt. (This is not when I was a toddler or a baby or too young to control what I wear)

Three physical things about the opposite sex that appeal to you
1) toned arms
2) abs
3) hair

*More importantly - NICE MANNERS!

Three of your favorite hobbies
1) watching movies - classics, romance, comedy
2) pigging out with friends!!!! Those are the best times!
3) Curling up in bed with a romance novel - especially when I am stressed

Three things you want to do badly
1) See Europe!!!! (Irene I'm with you on this one!)
2) Show Terence China and Southeast Asia
3) Earn enough money to do something really great for my grandparents before its too late and take care of my parents

Three places you want to go to
1) Europe
2) California
3) Explore more of western China - Inner Mongolia, Jiuzhaigou, Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, etc.

Three things you want to do before you die
1) Have a baby (or two)
2) Let all the people I love/care about know
3) See Europe

Three ways that you are stereotypically a Girl/Guy
1) I am a wuss. I get scared easily and I cry easily
2) I love chilvalry and having the guy take initiative or being dominant 
3) I am starting to really love shoes!

Three things that annoy you
1) Self-centred, inconsiderate, and rude people
2) Poor manners
3) Squating toilets (all over China) and pollution!

Three bloggers I would like to see fill this out
All my friends!

I know this is a little early to bring up, but I was procrastinating and bored.

Let's go to Stratford to see a play this summer!!!!!!

I was checking out the plays they are doing this summer and I am particularly interested in:

1. London Assurance: (Scottish-French playwright Dion Boucicault - 19th century)

" Elopements, duels, disguise, deception -- it all adds up to an utterly delicious romp.

Aging roué Sir Harcourt Courtly seeks to marry 18-year old heiress Grace Harkaway, little realizing he has a rival in his own son, Charles. Riotous comedy ensues as Charles and his accomplice, Dazzle, enlist Grace’s cousin, the high-spirited Lady Gay Spanker, to help them in an elaborate game of deception. " 2. Twelfth Night (Shakespeare) "Viola and her twin brother, Sebastian, are castaways in Illyria, each believing the other drowned. Disguising herself as a man and entering the service of the lovesick Duke Orsino, Viola becomes part of an unusual romantic triangle – made even more complicated by the arrival on the scene of her unwitting twin."

(Btw, has anyone seen She's the Man?? The trailer looked good.)

More stuff here: http://www.stratfordfestival.ca