#34 - Spring in Hangzhou

It rained for like 50 days straight. Not kidding. And with that rain it was usually about 0 degrees out. Celsius, but still, cold.... and rainy. But with any struggles and tough times, good times are usually around the corner. For us in Hangzhou, that means spring. Its finally beautiful and warm here and... NOT RAINING!

Hangzhou is a special city in China. Its HUGE! Somewhere between 5-9 million people. But... you can take about a 2-10 minute bike ride, depending on where you live in the city and get to hills and tea fields and lakes. Its sooooo nice. Such a relief to the crowded streets and the honking horns (well you can never really escape those) and being couped up in the house for the last 4 months.

Sunday we went for a bike ride up the hills to a cliff we found great for rock climbing. Today I went with another friend down to the big river in Hangzhou and back. On the way there we went through the tea fields. On the way back we went up by West Lake. Check out the picture bellow to see how many wedding photo ops were going on... on a Monday afternoon at 2:15! (That was all I could fit into that picture, there were another 6 or more within view).

Here are a few picks from yesterday and today. (sorry if the quality is low - older iphone snaps)

Great to be in the outdoors and studying. Clears the mind!

On his way back down

Belay on

Is that a leprachaun ahead on the path or Schwartz?
Either way, we are just happy the weather is nice.



Beautiful Hangzhou countryside with tea fields and hills.



My bike in the distance. One of my best purchases ever!



Count the wedding photo shoots.

#33 - Things You Don't Expect to Hear in China yet aren't Surprised to Hear #1

Text message I received today:

"Century mart is on fire. so avoid it today."

(Century mart is a store similar to wal-mart, but a little bigger and more foreign foods!)

#32 - Things You Don't Expect to Hear in China #1

I live closer now to 1) a McDonald's 2) a WalMart 3) a Starbucks than I ever have before.

This is the truth. Oh, and McDonald's delivers for free 24 hours a day. I haven't taken advantage of that yet though.

This isn't your same old school China anymore boy and girls.

#31 - Things You Only Hear in China #1

"Meet me by Mao at 5"


(And no, the weather is not this nice now. It is raining and freezing. This picture is from my first week here.)

#30 - Friends around Asia - Japan edition

I just got back from travels to Thailand, the Philippines and Hong Kong. I'll be sharing stories and pics soon. Until then check out my friend Jesse Hieb and his blog about his doings in Japan. He was a social worker in Milwaukee and has moved to Japan where he grew up to help with some relief work from the Tsunami last year.

http://opportunityinadversity.blogspot.com/


This is Jesse.

#29 - Fresh Food

I just got back from a day trip to another town and from a busy holiday weekend. I hope to post soon. In the meantime I thought I would begin to highlight some blogs of friends. You can see a ton of them to the right. This one comes from a friend I work with here in Hangzhou. This delicious post shows talks about our tradition in Hangzhou of preparing chickens for visitors.

http://hangzhouliving.wordpress.com/2011/09/17/a-little-celebration/

Warning: If you get easily squeamish at things having to do with animals or food or do not want to know what is involved with how you get your chicken sandwiches or McNuggets, then don't look at the pictures.