From Jamie's Philippines Pics

We have also had the opportunity to travel to some amazing places in China, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Bali. We have archived all of our travels and living experiences abroad; and if you wish, you can read about our adventures by finding the archives on the right of this page and by checking our Photo Album.

We appreciate all of our family and friends who have stayed in touch and emailed us with encouraging words throughout the year. We hope you will continue to keep us in your thoughts as we continue our adventure of living abroad teaching at an international school. For those who have stumbled upon our site, check out the "About Eric and Jamie" section on the right for more information.

Thanks for checking us out!

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."
- Mark Twain

"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends."
- Maya Angelou

Eric
School: ebrown@isgdh.org

Home: ebrown2324@gmail.com

Jamie

School: jbrown@isgdh.org

Home: jkwbrown@gmail.com

Skype: "ericandjamie"


PICASA PHOTO ALBUM

MESSAGE BOARD


Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Shekou to Beijing

On Monday, we had to leave early to catch our flight to Beijing. After rushing to the airport by cab, the flight was delayed almost an hour. We didn't arrive to our hostel in Beijing until about 3:00, about and hour and a half after we had planned. We are staying in the Downtown Backpacker Hostel in Beijing. It is a great place so far. We have a 6 bed room with private bath and everything is very clean and the staff is very helpful and nice.

We took a stroll through the famous Hutongs and then to eat at a famous restaurant for Beijing Duck. This place was cool because it had Chinese performances including some magic, long spout pourers, and the world renowned Beijing Opera Face Changer. The duck was great and we had some other dishes to complete the meal.
From Dad's Pics


We were pretty tired despite the fairly slow day, but traveling does that to you some time.

Today was our first full day in Beijing and included the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, and the LaoSha Tea house for some evening tea. Jamie and I had already seen these, but we enjoyed seeing them in the summer time with everything blooming. Mom, Dad, and Samantha was shocked at the shear size of Forbidden City. We were all pretty exhausted, so the afternoon was spent relaxing a bit at the hostel before hitting the town again at night.

I have uploaded Samantha, Dad, and Jamie's pictures they have taken. Samantha has enjoyed taking pictures and has accumulated over almost 300 pictures so far. Check out our Picasa Photo Album for all of these.

Tomorrow is the Great Wall at the Mutianyu section, the Summer Palace, and a brief stop at the Olympic Village to see the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. Let's hope for clear weather!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Hong Kong/Macau/Shekou

From Hong Kong


Blogspot is blocked here in China, so I'm having to go through a proxy to post this. I won't be able to post any pictures, but you can always go to our photo album and see the pictures. I took ones mainly from Hong Kong including some pretty incredible shots from Hong Kong at night atop Victoria Peak. We have had a great time so far in Hong Kong, Macau, and Shekou. Because our Internet has been down in the apartment, we have to go to Starbucks to post. No big deal, but somewhat inconvenient. Such is the life living abroad I guess.

On Wednesday, after leaving our little small Dragon Hostel, we had a fully day touring Hong Kong as we drank tea at the Intercontinental Hotel, took the famous Star Ferry across Victoria Bay to ride up Soho's mid-level escalators, and we ate lunch at a little Spanish restaurant called Rico's. We then took walked and took the trolley to Pacific Place Mall and saw Ice Age 3 in 3D at one of my favorite movie theaters in Hong Kong. After the movie, we took the MTR to Victoria Park for a quick stroll before heading up to Victoria Peak to eat at Bubba Gump's Shrimp and then see the stunning view from the peak overlooking Hong Kong. It was an amazingly clear night and I was able to take some great pictures.

On Thursday, after buying Dad a new backpack in Hong Kong, we took the ferry to Macau where we checked into our hotel, the Metropark Macau. We then bought some tickets for Mom, Dad, and Samantha to see the Cirque de Soliel show Zaia at the Venetian Hotel and Casino. The show didn't start until 8:00, so we all ate at Fatburger at the Venetian. They all loved the performance, but we were all dead tired afterward. Jamie and I actually fell asleep waiting for the show to end.

July 24th - Samantha's Birthday. On Friday, we headed out for Coloanna, a small island just south of Macau and one of still a great deal of Portuguese influence in the architecture and small churches. We ate at the famous Lord Stowe's Bakery and had their Portuguese egg tarts - they are always so delicious. Afterwards, we took the bus back to Senada Square in Macau to see the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral, the oldest known cathedral built in Southeast Asia. We ate a Macanese restaurant, which is a blend of Chinese, Portuguese, and African flavors. We then took a ferry back to Shekou and settled in for the night. Our favorite restaurant here in Shekou, Red Lantern, is back open, so Jamie and I have been excited to eat there. They had moved, however, so we couldn't find it. We settled on some Pizza Hut because everyone was so hungry and not too adventurous for Chinese cuisine just yet.

Saturday. Jamie and I took everyone to see our classrooms at the middle school and the main campus and we had breakfast at our favorite little bakery. The ladies in there genuinely seemed excited to see us (probably because 50% of their profits come from us). Next was a quick trip to Wal-Mart and then a bus ride to our favorite sushi restaurant at Coastal City mall. We relaxed around the apartment for the afternoon before going to "6," the restaurant I've mentioned several times where the entire family can eat for $4. We had so much food left over we boxed it up to give to the homeless on the street. Dessert consisted of KFC chocolate sundaes where I forced Mom, Dad, and Samantha to order it themselves while Griffey and I waited outside.

Speaking of Griffey, he is fine but he had scratched himself too hard, so he has a nasty cut which became infected. The vet gave me to antibiotics to put on it as well as some pills, so Griffey should be good to go soon, except for a little shave around his sore.

Overall, great trip so far. We have the day here in Shekou to relax again, but we have a trip to the preschool as well as finally eating at our favorite restaurant, Red Lantern.

Not sure I'll be able to post until we settled in Beijing. I uploaded some pictures of Hong Kong. Dad mainly took the ones on Macau and Shekou. If he lets me, I'll post them here too.

Check out the PHOTO ALBUM, which I could link if I could...

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Back in China

Jamie and I left at 6:00 am on Monday morning and arrived in Hong Kong via Toronto at 12:30 pm on Tuesday. We took a quick trip in Shekou to settle things at our apartment before coming back into Hong Kong to meet my parents and niece at the airport at about 11:00 pm. They had left Atlanta on Monday morning at 6:50 and arrived in Tuesday at 11:00 pm via Chicago and Tokyo.

We are seeing some of the sites of Hong Kong today. We are staying in a rather small little hostel here in Hong Kong. Cheap accommodations for the 5 of us, but we had a nice clean place to stay.

Will post some pictures later...

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Only 2 days left in US

Jamie and I have had a rather busy 2 weeks. We have been in Cartersville the last week with her parents and attending to some appointments, shopping for clothes and other items we can't readily find and get in China, and catching up on seeing some friends with lunches or, like above, the Braves game in Atlanta. We also squeezed in a Rome Braves game, meals at our favorite restaurants, and suffered through a loss of passport scare. Don't worry, we found it.

Other than packing, we are ready to go back to China. We really do wish we had another couple of weeks here in the US, but we have an amazing trip planned around China and then in the Philippines. Starting today, we won't stay in one place longer than 4 days.

Here is a quick run down of where we will be in the next few weeks starting on Monday, July 20:

Leave Atlanta
Arrive in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong/Macau
Macau - ferry to Shekou
Shekou
Shekou
Leave Shekou for Beijing
Beijing
Beijing
Leave Beijing for Xi'an
Xi'an
Leave Xi'an for Guilin
Guilin
Guilin/Yangshuo
Yangshuo
Yangshuo/Guilin/Shekou (late flight)
Shekou
Take ferry to Hong Kong airport/Manila Philippines
Manila
Manila/Batangas
Manila/Busuanga/Coron Island
Coron Island
Coron Island
Coron Island
Coron Island/Busuanga/Manila/Caticlan
Boracay
Boracay
Caticlan/Cebu
Cebu/Tagbiliran/Panglao Island
Panglao Island
Panglao Island/Bohol
Panglao Island/Tagbiliran/Manila/Hong Kong

As always, I'll be blogging about our trips and doing so pretty much every day starting on July 21. Be sure to check back and also check out the photos and videos I post. Hope everyone is having as good of a summer as we are.
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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Wrapping up Tennessee

Jamie and I are in Tennessee for the last day, then we'll go to Cartersville, GA for the last week of our trip home in the US. We have enjoyed our stay here visiting with family and friends. I regret not being able to go see others in Middle Tennessee, but our stay this summer had to be cut short, so we decided to spend time with mostly family.

It appears my parents and niece are all set for their trip to China. They have bought new clothes, shoes, and travel items and are excited about the trip. Just about a week remaining until we all leave. I'll post the details of the trip later, but we've planned a pretty busy and exciting trip for them.

We are enjoying the food and will continue to do so until we leave. Once we get back to China, we'll be traveling and introducing my parents and niece to the Chinese cuisine, so we'll jump right back into it.

For those around Cartersville area, let us know if you want to meet for lunch or dinner. We have some time and would love to see

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

New Photo Albums

From Summer 2009


From Summer 2009


I've added a couple of new photo albums. Nothing huge, but some really cool pics like the ones above of a storm that blew through Shekou just 3 days before we left. These were taken off of our balcony. Other pictures include Panama City and our other travels visiting family.

You can view them HERE - PICASA PHOTO ALBUM

For those new to the site, you can check out our archives and read of the beginning of us living in China from last August as well as some our trips we were able to go on throughout the year. Check out the photo album above for all of the pictures. If you have a question, feel free to email me.

Thanks!

Summer 2009 Continues

From Summer 2009


Above is Jamie catching up on some of her reading online.

Jamie and I have been in Calhoun, Tennessee visiting my family since July 3rd. I have stayed in contacted with people in China and Griffey is doing ok. I'm glad to hear this. The weeks are flying by and we are having a good time and eating some good food. Had some pinto beans and cornbread tonight with milk and an onion - Great stuff.

Played golf today with Dad and just missed my goal. I'm embarrassed to tell you what my goal was, but hopefully I'll get it lower when I play a few more times before we leave.

Friday, July 3, 2009

TENNESSEE!

From Bali 2009

Bathroom stall in Shenzhen International Airport. I found it the other day categorizing pictures and thought I would post it here.

Jamie and I made it to Calhoun, Tennessee this evening after driving from South Georgia. The visit with her dad and her family down there was great and relaxing. We are both finally better from whatever has ailed us, although Jamie sometimes does get sick after she eats. Not sure what is going on there. We have had the opportunity to eat some great food both in and out. Zaxby's - 3 times in 4 days, Chili's, and Mexican twice so far.

We'll be in Calhoun, for 9 days visiting here before we go back to Cartersville for 1 week, then back to China.

I am spoiled with the wireless features of Kindle. Buying a book takes about 1 minute and finding one is a breeze. You can even access wikipedia and google from it. I will certainly miss the wireless feature when we return to China.

I have finally merged my computer and Jamie's computer of all of the pictures and videos. Took me forever. While you can't see our videos, you can see just about all of our pictures in our Picasa photo album. For those new to the site, you can easily get to it HERE - PICASA PHOTO ALBUM. This link is also at the top of the page under our email addresses.

I have organized them by folders with the places we have visited. Lot of them have captions, but not all. If you want to know what something is, just ask.

Good to be in Tennessee with family. Anyone around us in Tennessee who wants to visit, feel free to let us know.

By the way, our US cell phone # for anyone who wants to call us is 678-848-3780. We have it around most of the time.

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