I'm baaaaaaack!!!

Holy cow....

It's been way too long since I've touched this thing.

So many things in my life have changed since my last post.  Instead of writing about life, I've been living it.  I really wish I could write about all of it right now...sometimes it's much more interesting to do that.  But I find myself so busy these days...much busier than being back at Maple Leaf, that's for sure.

You're wondering where I am.  I'm back in my native Vancouver.  That's right...I'm no longer an expat.  All those times are just memories now.  It was an amazing three years abroad. I have no regrets in leaving Canada for that amount of time.  I traveled to some great places and have met some great friends that I'll never ever forget.

But my real struggles start now.  Expatriation was surprisingly easy for me. It might seem like a struggle for some.  I think it gets easier over time. Some even come to love it.  I suppose it all depends on how you go about living life and traveling out there.  Only now in retrospect, in the comfort of my home, do I have a deep appreciation of what has happened to me in the last 3 years.  I miss being abroad, and I realize now how brave expats really are.  Maybe one day, I'll go back out there...

I have found, and as many expats have found, repatriation is hard.  I'd go so far to say that it is the most difficult part of being an expat.  My first few months back home...well...let's just say I'll be writing about that later...a lot about that later...

And now for catch-up blogging!  I gotta finish off my stories from my final year abroad...

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I'm too lazy to actually put pictures up of Yangshuo, so I'll just make a bullet list of some interesting things that led up to Spring Festival 2013...I'll do Yangshuo later.

• Another Shanghai bachelor party.  Trained it to Nanjing then to Shanghai.  Highlights: a colleague throwing a large McDonald's drink at a taxi that almost ran us over, seeing Chinese youth dance to Indian beats in a Nanjing nightclub, eating a delicious Teppanyaki  feast, and then replacing beer with a bottle of scotch because I wasn't getting drunk fast enough.  Needless to say, that last one was foolish of me. I was the first one to drop that night.  Apparently, I did tough guy shots again, but I don't seem to remember.  My colleague Joe had to drag my sorry ass back to the hotel. What a great guy. The next day, I had lunch with Hedy near Hongqiao Airport. We had one of our shared favorites  - American BBQ ribs. Coming from Wuhan where that doesn't exist, it was pretty effing sweet.
• I "fought" a student during Sports Day.  Muay Thai Boran vs. North Korean Tae Kwon Do. Highlight (accident) of the fight: I took a full on flying kick to the face which stunned the crowd.  In the end, I was "killed."  Students loved seeing me dead, and my victorious opponent was deemed "the most dangerous student at Maple Leaf."
• Cathy left Maple Leaf in January for a seemingly better job.  Seemingly.  Yes it is a lot calmer and less bothersome than being a Maple Leaf counselor, but it is also quite isolated and the pay was initially not as much.  However, we think it was a good move and she's "moving up." Now she's getting better pay for a less stressful job.  Cathy also moved in with me just before the end of her time at Maple Leaf.
• A swanky bar at the Royal Grace Hotel opened up near Wanke Cheng Shi Hua Yuan (Wanke Garden City), an apartment complex where most of the teachers lived.  I'm not much of a mixed drink guy, but my new favorite mixed drink is hands down the Singapore Sling.

Pahk the Cah in Hahvahd Yahd! Part 3

No images for this one...I'm on my old laptop which don't have my Boston pics.

Okay, according to a friend, I've fallen behind in my postings on here big time.  I guess I was just waiting for someone to say something in order to get my ass into gear.  I'm still writing about my trip to Boston which happened 3 months ago.  I haven't even began to talk about my second trip to Seoul, or my latest vacation to Yangshuo with Cathy and my friends Hedy and Alex.  They'll get here.  Just you wait...

Cape Cod, a quiet fishing village, was our next area to explore.  We rented bikes a few miles out of the town and biked around the area.  Needless to say, the place was stunningly gorgeous - crisp clean air, white sandy beaches, small piers filled with multicolored sailboats, and a hell of a lot of greenery.

As the day rolled on, Rob and I became increasingly competitive on the bikes.  We needed to race against each other.  Eventually, and unfortunately, our sibling rivalry reached a point where we more or less ditched Adrienne for racing towards the village proper.  Adrienne opted for sitting and swimming at a nearby beach without us.  Sorry Adrienne.  It's a Parungao thing.  It's bound to happen in the future again, so you might as well get used to it!

And as suspected, I won.  Okay, I have to give Rob a bit of credit.  He overtook me in the last mile, but I still managed to squeeze out a victory.  After returning the bikes, we had dinner at a small dockside restaurant serving up the local fare: lahbstah boil, clams, oystahs and Samual Adams Beah.  Gahd, I love the Bahstun accent!

The next day was our last one together, but I didn't have to get to the airport until the mid afternoon.  After checking out, we decided to check out the Samual Adams Brewery.  It was awesome, and made me really miss my wine-making (brewing and wine-making share some similarities).  We got to do a beer tasting and kept the glass in the end!  Our guide was really cool, and very knowledgeable about the brewing methods used at the brewery.  It also happened to be her last day on the job, so she shotgunned a pint with her colleague in front of the crowd.  Too fun!

In general, I must say I was very impressed by Boston.  It's such a livable city.  Definitely one of USA's best.  I'd go back in a heartbeat if I had the chance.  Flying out East for a 5 day vacation with Rob and Adrienne was great fun and well-deserved.  I don't know when's the next time I will see them, but I sure hope to see them again when I go back to Canada next year.

Cathy in Canada!

In July, Cathy came to Canada with the Maple Leaf Vancouver/ Victoria summer camp as a supervisor.  Unless financially wealthy to Chinese standards, getting to visit Canada as a Mainlander on an individual tourist visa doesn't really happen.  Cathy was able to come on a "group tour" visa, which is easier to get for Mainlanders because the financial prerequisites aren't as demanding.  Being one of the supervising adults on the tour, having a responsible colleague to take care of the kids (thanks go out to Ms. Rosa Du from Tianjin), and staying at an accommodating home-stay were the major reasons why Cathy was able to hang out with me quite a bit away from the students.  She even got to visit with some of my friends and family, and catch up with old friends too.

This summer, Cathy visited my native Vancouver!

I went along with Cathy, Ms. Du, and the Maple Leaf students  to tour around Vancouver.  We went to Gastown, Chinatown, Canada Place, and Robson Street all on Cathy's first day in Canada.

Cathy and I got away from the kids and visited with my high school buddy Henry and my Toastmasters friend Puja. 

It was kind of funny being on a tour with Maple Leafers while on summer break.  It was as if I never really got away from them. Some of the kids were from Wuhan and knew who I was.  They weren't really surprised to see me.  I think they expected me to show up because Cathy was leading their tour group...

In the evening on Cathy's first day, my friends Henry and Puja came downtown to meet Cathy.  Fun conversation ensued at the expense of my dignity.  For example...

Cathy: So what was Paul like when you met him, Puja?

Puja: He wasn't always like this.  Actually, when he first walked into Toastmasters, he was a 'lil bitch...

Paul: WTF!? That's a lie! That's total BS!

Henry: Hahaha! Before learning how to speak up, Paul was a 'lil bitch! I totally see that!

Cathy: [uncontrolled laughter]

Puja: Yeah, he was kind of a 'lil bitch! But he learned fast.

This is some good proof that the Toastmasters method works...

Cathy braving the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

 The next day, the tour group went up Grouse Mountain.  I was supposed to meet them up there via the Grouse Grind, but the tour group left earlier than I expected, so I didn't get to hike.  Instead, I met them at the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

Cathy admiring the natural environment.

Cathy admired the enormous trees and fresh air. Sadly, Wuhan is pretty much devoid of these things. I took them for granted for such a long time while in Canada throughout my childhood. I now see that I should have done a lot more hiking in my youth. Seeing Cathy admire such things made me cherish Vancity's accessibility to natural environments.

That evening, I went out with Cathy to go shopping on Robson Street, then drove to West 4th Ave to hang out with my buddy Anthony.  Cathy met him when he visited me in China last year.  We walked to the local Safeway, where Cathy wanted to buy typical North American snack food for her family.  After that, we went down W 4th Ave to watch the sunset on the Granville Street Bridge.

When we got back to the hotel, Cathy and I stopped a female student trying to leave the hotel dressed like a hooker - oodles and boodles of make up, gravity-defying short dress, and an attitude problem when we told her to get back.  Where the f*** was a foreign 15 year old girl to go?  Granville Street nightclubs?  Downtown Eastside?  She didn't even know the city's layout.  She should have thanked us for doing her a favor, lest she wanted to get preggers via date rape. Cathy told me a story that another counselor back in China told her as a warning to be vigilant on supervision while abroad...

A few summers ago, on another summer camp, some kids escaped the hotel and got piss-ass drunk.  They made a ruckus and began to scare locals.  They even threw a girl at a car...so the story goes. Luckily, no one got hurt, although the police got involved and it was quite an embarrassing fiasco.

Sigh. The bad tomatoes of Maple Leaf...what will they think of next?

Cathy and her crew left for Victoria the next morning.  3 days later, I went to visit her when she was available.  The kids were busy with their own home-stays.  We went out with Ms. Du and a Cantonese girl at Cathy's home-stay named Arlene.  Arlene was a student in Victoria.  She brought us to a dim sum restaurant, claiming it was better than dim sum than her native Guangzhou.  It was Cathy's first time to try Cantonese dim sum.  Needless to say, she liked it a lot.  [Cough] Probably because it's Chinese [cough].

Arlene, Ms. Du, and Cathy at a dim sum restaurant in Victoria's Chinatown.

After dim sum, we went to Roger's Chocolate and Roots to buy some gifts for Ms. Du and Cathy's relatives.

The next day, I went back to Victoria to hang out with just Cathy for another day trip.  We started by going to an Irish pub, where Cathy and I shared Shepard's pie, calamari, and an Scottish beer called Innis and Gunn.  It was delicious.  The premise around Innis and Gunn is that it's brewed in old Scotch Whisky barrels, giving it a distinct flavor. We both liked it.

Cathy knocking back an Innis and Gunn at the Irish Times Pub

From there, we walked around Victoria's downtown for a while taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful scenery.  We jumped on a bus to go to the Cragdarroch Castle, which proved to be a very interesting experience.  The history of the Dunsmuir family is pretty messed up.

The Empress Hotel.  Plans to eat at its restaurant were disrupted by the fact that it's so damn expensive.

In front of the BC Legislative Assembly 

Cathy "playing" the piano at Cragdarroch Castle

 A few days later, my parents came back to Vancouver from their vacation in Florida, NYC, Washington DC, and Ottawa.  We immediately got onto a BC Ferry with my Grand-Aunt Peggy to Victoria.  Cathy was working, so we visited the butterfly museum and one of the many wineries in Saanich while waiting for her to get off work.  We all went out for dinner at a great restaurant called Pagliacci's after we picked her up. It was highly recommended by my mom's friend, and it wasn't hard to see why.

Mom and I are the family wine connesseurs.  We did a tasting of
Church and State Winery while Aunt Peg and Dad watched us.

Our awesome dinner at Pagliacci's in Victoria.  Probably the best
Italian pasta and cheesecake you'll ever eat can be tried here.  The company made it even better. 

After dinner, we drove Cathy back to her home stay in Saanich.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  Her home-stay was a behemoth of a pastoral house.  It was also very clean and beautiful, surrounded by a stunning garden and very big grass lawn.  I was glad that Cathy got to experience that sort of life for once.  Bloody hell, she deserved it for how much work she puts in back at the school in Wuhan.

On Cathy's last day, she and her group relocated back to Vancouver.  My good friend and old colleague Hedy came out to visit Cathy and myself at Richmond Center.  She used to work with us in Wuhan, but relocated after her first year.  And despite our visit being a typical mall walk, we enjoyed each other's company and caught up quite a bit.  Thanks Hedy.

In conclusion, Cathy's visit to Vancouver/ Victoria was a really great experience for her.  She really enjoyed herself visiting my friends and family while successfully taking care of a group of Maple Leafers.  She saw my homeland and hopefully likes what she saw.

Our good friend Hedy came to visit us at Richmond Center on Cathy's last day.

Koh Phi Phi

On the way to Koh Phi Phi from Phuket, we sat on the top floor
of the boat and soaked up the sun.

Cathy loved the sea breeze while approaching the Phi Phi archipelago.

Cathy's lunch. I suggested she got an Aussie steak because the steaks
in China are straight up god-awful. This one was juicy and flavorful!

We shared a beer for lunch because everyone around us was
drinking. It wasn't even noon.

The town on Koh Phi Phi Don was beautiful and relaxing.
Despite the heaps of people, it was still gorgeous.

The cave for harvesting bird nests for bird nest soup.

The Beach from The Beach - Maya Beach.

We went snorkeling and kayaking at various points around the archipelago.
Cathy got help from the captain of the ship, but she really needs to work on her
swimming before we go to Sabah, Malaysia which is next on our agenda for
National Week 2013. I swam through schools of small fish,
and even saw a few jellyfish and eels.

The sunset was picture-perfect, but it finished too quickly.

Leaving Koh Phi Phi Ley

Stopping for a drink on the way back to the hotel.

We hiked to a lookout point the next morning. What a stunning view!

A small crowd of people were staring at this cat while we
walked by it. I guess they were drunk or something...

The port where we left for Phuket. We went to Phuket Town to shop for
Thai food and drinks (we shared a mojito and apple martini) before heading back to Bangkok late that night.

Such a great view from the top! One of the nicest I've ever seen.
Not too many people travel up there either, which is surprising
for Koh Phi Phi!

That concludes my 5 week adventure for 2012! To recap, I went to Cathy's hometown for CNY, Seoul to visit my friend Sue and her boyfriend, and Thailand with my girlfriend. I realized in Jingzhou during Chinese New Year that no one can beat the Chinese when it comes to firework displays.  I also have come to view Seoul as my favorite city in all of Asia.  Finally, I fell in love with Thailand.  I liked it so much that I decided to go back alone a few months later...

Up next, my solo mission to Bangkok to learn Muay Thai!

Elephants!

The next day we did the tourist must-do...go see ELEPHANTS!

Elephant Nature Park is an elephant sanctuary for retired and rescued Thai elephants that have suffered some sort of abuse. One stepped on a land mine and was left for dead.  Another elephant's mom was killed, and became a starving orphan before being brought to the park.  A few of them were retired logging elephants who had oppressive masters.  Cathy and I chose this place over other elephant sanctuaries after some research back in Jingzhou about ethical treatment of animals at tourist spots.  If interested, here's a link (Elephant Nature Park).

Cathy and I with a senior. It had a pretty hard life before getting rescued.

Elephants eat large portions of fruit. This guy was a bit greedy for food.
 Cathy had to constantly feed him.

Another activity at ENP was elephant washing.

Learning about the abuse some of these elephants went through
was pretty saddening, but then one of them kisses you and
puts a giant smile on your face.

...and a whole lot of thick, stinky slobber.  I wonder if this guy
didn't like my breath as much as I didn't like his. The story behind
this guy is really sad.  He was found traumatized by serving in some
circus before getting purchased by ENP. I think he thought he was
still in the circus performing tricks.

Elephants like to put mud all over themselves.
Not sure why...maybe for sunblock?

A "family shot."  They aren't really related because they come from
various oppressive experiences, but elephants have different
personalities, and make family groups regardless. We saw a
male teenager getting blocked by his acting "grandma" because he
wanted to get with a female elephant of a different "family."
He tried to dart across the field to "get with her", but grannie
stopped him. He's probably feeling REALLY oppressed now!

We had a great time at Elephant Nature Park.  There was no riding of elephants there, but I'm okay with that.  The objective of the woman who set ENP was to allow people to see elephants in their most natural state, rather than being some sort of tourist ride.

Getting back to Chiang Mai around dinner, I brought Cathy to Burger King because she's never experienced that before.  Needless to say, she enjoyed it quite a bit.

The next day, our flight to Phuket would leave late.  We had one last full day in Chiang Mai.  There were a number of options of what to do.  We could have done zip-lining.  However, Cathy was pretty scared of that, so we ruled it out.  I could have taken a Muay Thai lesson, but Cathy would have been bored for 6 hours, so that one was tossed too.  Instead, we treated ourselves to a really nice spa, then went to a part of city near the university that had interesting back lanes (called soi in Thai).

This is about as far as I'll go for having matching outfits
with my gf. I know I'm Asian, but I'm still North American!

In front of the spa. They had a pond as an entrance.

I had Thai Burmese curry for lunch.

Cathy exploring a Chinese art-deco store in a really fashionable soi. 
Notice the Chairman behind the left door.

Cathy reading about Phuket in the Lonely Planet: Thailand in an outdoor cafe.

My strawberry smoothie

I have to say that this certainly won't be my last time in Chiang Mai...I absolutely loved it there.  It's relaxing and full of adventure as well.  Like everywhere I travel, there was not enough time to look around and do everything that I wanted to do.  C'est la vie! Cathy and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and that's all that mattered.

On a final note, we were late getting back to the hotel to pick up our bags to get to the airport.  We showed our tuk-tuk driver our flight tickets, and all he said was "there's not enough time!" He then went pedal to the metal on his vehicle and got us to the airport in 10 minutes.  That was the most heart-thumping tuk-tuk ride we ever had.  I seriously thought we were gonna tip over when he made turns, but he proved to be a good driver who knew the road.

Stealing the Seoul of South Korea! Part 4

Alright. I'm back in Wuhan now.  Thailand with Cathy was a blast!  But just like my Japan trip last year, I've neglected my blog during my adventures.  Looks like I'll have update while the new school term begins.  Cathy is working right now and I don't go back until the 20th, so I have some time to write on this thing.  Okay, enough explanation of what's going on in Wuhan.

...Day 4, Seoul, South Korea...

Seoul Station. Sue, Kwangseok and I took public transit to the De-Militarized Zone.  We missed our train and had to sit around for an hour. Totally my bad...

The public transit route to the DMZ  had multiple passport and ticket checks.

Until Korean unification, this is the last stop going north.

A nice reminder to keep to the prescribed tourist areas of the DMZ, unless of course you want your legs to evaporate into red mist.

Kwangseok and I pose at the "camera line" that overlooks North Korea.  You cannot take photographs past the line or your camera gets taken away.

North Korea tried to dig an extensive tunneling system towards Seoul so they could easily invade it.  South Korea, upon uncovering this devious plot, turned the tunnels into a tourist attraction. Sue and I don the hardhats required to enter the tunnels.

A unification statue

Some sort of Kim Chi

We had lunch at a local restaurant in a small town.

Steamed egg

Sue bought some DMZ chocolates for Cathy.

The massive Seoul World Cup Stadium. 

Part of the stadium was converted into a supermarket.  Sue and her Kwangseok suggest to me various Korean foods and drinks to buy.

A wide variety of  makgeolli

The hill that we climbed near the stadium.  

The hill overlooked Seoul and the Han River. The view became very beautiful right at nightfall. 

A very prestigious Korean university that has some pretty good student nightlife surrounding it.  We stopped here to have dinner.

...but before that we got our appetites going. Kwangseok led the batting game while Sue and I tied for second.  It was really fun. A punching strength machine was outside as well. Apparently, some people like practicing their kicks on it.  My left hay-maker got second place.

To prevent your your jacket from getting a stinky and oily stench,  some restaurants provide a big plastic bag to put your jacket in to save it from offending people after your meal. Ingenious!

Luke warm noodle appie.

Animal's innards. I think Kwangseok and Sue were surprised that I liked this stuff.

Fried savory egg pancake?  I don't remember what it's called.

Soju. We had lots of it.

The restaurant had delicious food, but we left and walked around in search for a different taste.

BBQ pork and more soju.