changchun trip

me with our new pupppy merv - on the way to changchun

a sign i saw in a shop window - the same name as my blog!

me trying out a massage chair in changchun

a changchun street at night

andy and i in the van

merv on my lap

july 1st and 2nd '07

we went to changchun a few days ago. changchun is one of the biggest cities in our province, jilin. it was nice to get out of songyuan for a couple of days and experience some excitement. it took about 2 hours to get there by van. the canadians came with us because they needed to see a vet about getting their two dogs back to canada. they're leaving for canada this sunday. unfortunately, the smallest dog, merv (pictured with me) is too young to fly 13 hours back to canada. apparently it's in danger of dying after 5 hours on the plane. so, andy and i are going to adopt it from sheila! it's the most adorable dog we've ever seen. the pictures really don't do him justice. we think it's a pug crossed with something else. it's so cute when it walks - it wobbles from side to side. in fact, it's cute when it does just about anything. i can't wait to adopt him come the end of the week!

as for the slightly older dog, go ro (which translates to dog meat in chinese), is a chihuahua crossed with something else. he can fly, however, tanya needs to get some special papers for the dog, which will only be ready after their departure date. so, she either has to bribe someone (which is going to be difficult cos she's low on money) or leave the dog in china. a difficult situation. hopefully go ro will go to a good home if he can't go back to canada.

while the canadians went to changchun to sort out their dog business, we went to find a second-hand car. our car hunt was unsuccessful though.

we also went to pizza hut in changchun. we saw quite a few foreigners there, which was strange to see, because songyuan hasn't got many. very weird to see new white faces after hardly seeing any for the last 3 months. pizza hut was so damn yummy. we ordered three pizzas and garlic bread and it was heaven. except andy left our left-over pizza at the restaurant when he got distracted talking to the new foreigners. such a shame.

after pizza hut we went for a wander around town. it rained for about 5 or 6 hours straight. we all got soaked. the canadians had no umbrellas, so they just wandered around like wet rats. my shoes were soaking wet. yet it was still quite fun to go shopping in the rain.

on sunday night we went to a club called the mayflower. we bought a bottle of chivas regal beforehand. it was the first western liquor we've had for 3 months. so nice and smooth, compared to baijiu. the club was kind of like FLS, but much bigger. it also had a cozy back bar where they played hip hop. there were a lot of foreign faces in there. andy really pissed off one of the bartenders because he was trying to bargain down the price of our drinks. later in the night tanya and i were dancing in the hip hop room and andy went to the bathroom. he didn't come back for about half an hour so we went looking for him. we found him sitting slumped at the front bar by himself, with a glass of water in front of him and a cigarette in one hand. 10 minutes later we were thrown out of the club for him being too drunk.

when we got back to our hotel early on monday morning, andy passed out at the bottom of the stairwell and vomited. tanya and i had a hard time trying to carry him up 3 flights of stairs. once we got him to our hotel room, he vomited all over the bed too and on the floor. i spent about an hour and a half nursing him and taking photos of his sorry state. but i won't disgust you with the photos. they're pretty horrific.

we slept until about 10:30 am that morning. then we went to mcdonalds. the first maccas in about 3 months too. i was so hungover and i ate possibly the best big mac i've ever tasted. it was so awesome.

then andy stocked up on some butter, cheese and tuna from a western supermarket (these aren't available in songyuan). and we drove back to our home city.

so that was our weekend! i hope all's well back home! i miss everyone. take care x