A Wild Weekend

This is Keith Curran, the man who is partially responsible for me being in China....He started Journey East.














What a great guy!!
He called me up this evening and told me he was going to be in Changxing tonight and wanted David and myself to meet him and a few other people for dinner.


I have never met Keith before and only talked with him on the phone and exchanged e-mail with him prior to tonight.
On the phone he seems like your average little poindexter...But in reality he is a very professional well traveled globe trekker.

We met up at a restaurant that I have never been to before. A really nice place!
When we got there I saw my old friends Bill and Jeff from the Rainbow school (Bills School) and a few other familiar faces.

There were a few Chinese guy there that had some very lagre schools in Changxing and they all seemed very anxious to have me teach at their schools. Maybe in the future?

Another great meal...


The meal was out of this world. The usual fish, head and all. And some great oyster type dish that I just can't begin to describe how wonderful it was.

And more things that can't be translated into English.



During dinner Friday night, Keith invited Jeff and myself to come to Houzhou (pronounced; Who-Joe) for the day on Saturday.

Well I've been in China for 1 month now and haven't left Changxing. I was looking forward to gettin out and seeing some of the surrounding cities.

Houzhou has a population of about 3.5 million people...A much bigger city than Changxings 620,000.

And you could feel the difference. Big malls and jam packed sidewalks.

Poor Keith was always on his cell phone taking care of business.

Hot day in Houzhou...

This is a shot taken on one of the back streets..

Lots of little sidewalk vendors and games.

Jeff had a blast...Can you tell?

View from my room...15th floor.
In America this room would cost easily $200 in China...$47.

A huge bridge on the way to Porkys restaurant...it just looks like Porkys.

We met up with some other guys that were teaching in a city a few hours away.
Three Americans and an Aussie...Funny bloke.

We all took a break and them went out to a restaurant that was on a boat on the water.

It reminded me of the place in the movie"Porky s".

This is Matt...He's from New York...He seems to have taken a liking to

chicken feet.
That or he was trying to gross us all out! His friend James isn't quite sure if he could eat one himself.

NOT ME...OK I've eaten a lot of strange things here in China...But I gotta' pass on some things!

This is James from New York also. He's not as brave as Matt.

Maybe he's just smarter?

Matt's not sure about what Jenny is eating?

That's Kyle on the right...He's from Michigan.

We've both skied on the same mountains in Travers City.

Jenny liked the duck...Head and all! Can you see it there?

This is Adam from Australia...Funny guy!

He loved the fish soup.

This is Lilly. She works with Journey East...

She is working with the summer class and these American clowns.

Little shrimp...I think?

Deep fried sticky rice...Looked like fried cheese sticks...Very good...Very sweet! Like deep fried marshmallows.

Bellies full we were about to hit the disco...

At the DISCO...

These kids were having a blast.

This girl worked at the disco...Her job was to play drinking games with the guests and get them to drink more...I think it backfired...Keith was good!!


















After the disco we went to a quiet (until we got there) little bar called Jacks Bar.

The Aussie bought a bottle of Jack Daniels and we stayed out till 3 am.

I didn't drink the JD...I learned my lesson years ago!

The next day Keith took Adam and myself for the Chinese massage. Some of the people giving the massages were blind men...

It was BRUTAL...As I sit here typing this my muscles are killing me.

I almost cried during the whole thing...Every now and then Adam would whimper out..."MOMMY".

Keith thought we were wimps...He's been doing this for years so he's used to it.

Afterwards me and Adam met up with Jeff and caught a taxi back to Changxing.

We met up with Jenny and the rest of the gang in Changxing...At the massage place...They were getting their beating too.

Well, after that I showed them the fear factor II market...They hadn't seen anything like that in their lives..I remember my first time...LOL.

Then we exchanged e-mail addys and said our good-byes.

I had a class at 6:00 and needed a nap.

A long nap!!!

Here's to new friends...You guys ROCK!!