China - Day 272

Reflections and Resolutions. These are words commonly heard around this time of year, for *they* (whoever "they" may be...) say the New Year is a time to look back on what you've done and what you're proud of. (And, well, let's face it - what you're not so proud of...). It's also a time to look forward to what you hope to change and accomplish in your life - at least in the coming 365 days...

Over the past year, while I've been in China, I've been (not so) regularly updating my blog and sharing my experiences with you all, so I guess it's not necessary to recap every event 2008 held for me. But I will fill you in on what's happened since my last pre-birthday post.

In the past couple of months I've done and seen a lot... I traveled to the hot springs in Huizhou for the weekend of my birthday and had a wonderful time there. The hot spring resort we stayed at was like nothing I've ever seen. It had probably near 100 different spring pools, all in different shapes and themes. Some even had special herbal remedies mixed in, and one had a mixture of Chinese wine and beer - apparently good for the skin. After returning to GZ after a relaxing two days, I went out for a birthday dinner at a local Turkish BBQ restaurant with 20 good friends and then on to a nearby bar for some drinks with about half of them. It was a blast! Thanks guys for making it one of my most memorable birthdays!!!

More recently though I took a week-long vacation to Thailand to celebrate the Christmas holiday with Amy and my brother, Graham, who met up with us in Bangkok. We spent two days in Bangkok where we went shopping at a huge night market, tasted some local cuisine (as well as some Western cuisine unavailable in China - like Auntie Ann's Pretzels - so good!), and saw a Cabaret (translation: Lady-Boy/tranny show). It was definitely interesting, but not exactly what I was expecting. It was definitely a PG-13 show, families were seated all around us, but it was still entertaining... After Bangkok we took an early morning flight out to Koh Samui, an island off the SW coast.

The airport in Koh Samui was pretty amazing, definitely introduces you to the island lifestyle immediately off the plane. (Take a look at my photos from the trip for a visual). Unfortunately though the skies were grey and cloudy, and much to our dismay stayed that way pretty much the entire four days we were there. Bad weather aside, our time in Koh Samui was enjoyable. We did a lot of different activities like getting massages on the beach, elephant trekking, renting motorbikes, watching Muay Thai boxing, and snorkeling off the shores of Koh Tao - another Thai island about an hour boat's ride away from Samui. Not to mention shopping on a daily basis. It was a packed holiday and it flew by way too quickly! I definitely want to return to Thailand again in the future, but definitely not during their rainy season!

The three of us, my brother included, arrived back to Guangzhou just in time for New Years (with a few days to spare). The first couple of days I showed my brother around the city, which was much colder but equally as rainy as Thailand. Then New Year's Eve I threw a big party at my house. I'm not entirely sure how many people showed up, but I think somewhere around 25-30. Always fun cramming that many people in a small space! Haha. It was cozy to say the least. But we had a great time and I'm truly happy to have had the chance to ring in the New Year with all of them. (Although I kinda regret buying those noise-makers LOL). The festivities continued well past midnight and the last of partiers left around 3:00, leaving me and a couple others to clean. Not my most favorite part of the night ;)

So that pretty much brings us up to today... My brother is still in town but is leaving in about 24 hours... I decided that no trip to China would be complete without a night of karaoke so I called up some friends and we had a KTV party at Music Box down the street from my apartment. Not exactly the cheapest of KTV bars but it was a lot of fun! We got there just after 5PM and left around midnight - definitely the longest night of karaoke of my life, but undeniably a blast! You never get that kind of experience back home...

And what pray-tell will the future hold? Well in about a month I'll be leaving China (kicking and screaming mind you) to head back to Canada for about a week to visit my family before flying off to Australia to go back to school. I can't believe how fast time is flying and how soon I'm going to have to take on the student role again. Not sure I'm ready for that! I'm excited and terrified in equal measures! I'm sure everything will be fine, but I can't stop the butterflies in my stomach from popping up every time I think about it~

Well I guess this was a bit more reflection-oriented than resolution, but I'm still working those out... They're in my head but I can't quite put them into words yet. And, well, even if I could I'm not sure that I would haha. That's all for now, I'll try to update more in the coming weeks!