Blast from the Past: Newfoundland

So I was looking through some of my old photos, and I was surprised to find some photos I took when I was 14 which don't look half as bad as I would expect them to look. So....here we go, a blast from the past: 
 
Once upon a time, a long long long time ago, my choir, High Park Choirs of Toronto (yes...I'm forever a choir girl) went to St. John's, Newfoundland for a music festival (Festival 500).  It was 2007, and it was my first long-ish trip away from home (apart from summer camp). We had a ridiculously fun couple of weeks meeting choirs from around the world and causing a ruckus at Memorial University.  We were introduced to some amazing adult and children's choirs such as the professional group Anuna and the Australian Children's Chorus (I think the only reason they stand out in my mind was because I couldn't get enough of their accents...).  We sang almost every day attending workshops and performing for the other choirs. 

The trip was great because we had some time to travel around Newfoundland and look at the sights (even though it rained 80% of the trip and I don't think I appreciated it as much as I should have seeing as I was 14/15).  We went whale watching, saw some of the landmarks, and visited a couple of the museums. And no, those aren't penguins...I know, I was disappointed too - I half expected them to break out into song and dance like in Happy Feet but ya....they're Puffins.
 

And there it is, I'm extremely proud of past me for taking scenic photos, rather than just photos of people doing dumb things which is literally the only thing I did from age 15 - 17.   The photos I took from our choir trip to Germany is a perfect example of this & therefore un-bloggable....*sigh*

-M

Shanghai

Last post from my China trip!  Thank goodness I recorded everything, so much happened I'm starting to confuse the day and event!  

Today we drove from Hangzhou to Shanghai for our last day of the tour.  Our family decided to stay in Shanghai for one extra night, so for us there's no goodbyes quite yet.  First - shout out to our driver, I mean he drove us from Nanjing to Shanghai in crazy China traffic and it turns out he starts another tour again tomorrow!  What a stressful sounding job :/ 

The first thing we did when we got here was visit another jade factory (figures...we're all becoming Jade experts).  This one was kinda amusing - they had the representative announce he would give us a 90% off discount, and then one of his assistants would say "BUT SIR! 90%? THAT'S TOO MUCH!".  It was hilarious!  Completely acted and totally unconvincing.  Anyways, we had lunch before being taken to a Chinese medical pharmacy where they gave us free foot massages and tried to sell us products - the usual.  Afterwards we were taken to a market - a real market this time, where we had the chance to buy some souvenirs and wander around before dinner.  After dinner we went on a boat cruise (on a bigger boat, not the small ones like yesterday) and we saw Shanghai as the sun was setting, as well as the night scene with all the building lights on.  It was gorgeous and pretty laid back, afterwards we walked around an older neighbourhood which has been transformed to a trendy restaurant district....and that pretty much concluded our tour.  Oh! I should also mention, that night on TV they aired "China's got Talent", "The Voice of China" and "Chinese Idol" all in one night.  I literally had the time of my life flipping between shows xD

Jade Figure....I got bored and took pictures of things

Busy Market

One of the buildings in the market

Boat Cruise!

Shanghai by night

So exciting xD

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So today, many of the families on the tour left Shanghai to go to other places within China (after all, you've already come halfway across the world, might as well make the most of it).  We had a lot planned for our day, but we ended up only going window shopping.  I have to say, Shanghai is really nice, I feel like I'm in the fashion district 24/7 in this entire city.  The men are in suits, the women in dresses and more people are fluent in english which is a plus. My sister and I went to the H&M outside our hotel, and it's really nice - the clothes are smaller, and their styles are more suited towards the warm weather.  I think it's more expensive, but the sale section is a lot better than what I've seen in Toronto ;)  After our little clothes shopping adventure we got day passes on the subway and headed out to pedestrian mall.  We ended up spending almost four hours there which knocked out most of our day.  Turns out the security check here in the Shanghai subway isn't as intense as in Beijing - they're still here but usually they just let us through without checking.  After the pedestrian mall we went out for dinner, and intended to see part of the Shanghai night scene before we remembered the subway closes at 10:30 and we made a run for it catching one of the last trains.  

View from the hotel room...Nicolas Cage

H&M

Across the street from the hotel

Shanghai Buns nommmyyy

Taken during our run to the subway

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Our last day in Shanghai was spent packing and chillen in the VIP lounge in the airport (Toronto's was better though....not that I'll have a chance to be in these business class lounges for a while...).  The flight home was smooth, and really fast compared to our trip to China.  I can't get over the pods, they fully recline into a bed...I mean how cool is that!?

Now we're getting over the jetlag and dealing with more power outages due to Toronto's freak weather.  Somehow it's worked out that the weather here in Toronto is similar to the weather we left behind in China...how is this a thing?  Overall, the trip was amazing - I really liked Hong Kong, and the tour was fantastic giving us a glimpse of different parts of China.  Compared to China, Toronto seems pretty boring...but I don't think I'd be able to live there (mainly the heat...I'm SO bad with heat), visits are enough for me. Now I have to recover from this trip ASAP and get ready for New Brunswick/Japan!  I'm so glad I'm not working this entire summer (for once), this is hands down the most exciting couple of months I've had in a while!

-M

Wuzhen/Hangzhou (Jacco Tours)

Today we got up bright and early and drove straight from Suzhou to Wuzhen where we hung around for a bit. The first thing we did was visit an old classical Watertown where the houses were built on the water (although we were told the houses have obviously been ungraded and now have running water, toilets and air conditioning).  We were given a tour of the area by boat before taking a look at the Bed museum and cultural museum within the town.  The bed museum was actually very interesting - some of the beds were built for the emperor to hold up to six people (I'm assuming six women....) in it!  Then we went to lunch before driving to Hangzhou where we took another cruise on the famous Westlake as our tour guide told us the legends associated with the lake (all of them animal+love+tragedy related).   Afterwards we went to a green tea plantation which was very interesting.  The representative from the plantation told us she majored in Tea in university, but I'm convinced she must have majored in marketing - she had a killer sales pitch!  Admittedly green tea has amazing health benefits and our tour group didn't leave empty handed!  Finally we went to dinner followed by a visit to an area called the Su causeway where we watched an amazing show depicting legends from the area.  The Su causeway was set up a bit like a theme park, and the show was fantastic - a hundred times better than the kung fu show with brilliant costumes, set, music etc.  The set was beyond words - it opened up in the front and moved parts of the audience back and forth.  At one point a waterfall was depicted by flooding the stage with real water, and as a Canadian I have to admit the fake snow looked pretty good!  The one thing which surprised me was the lack of applause.  After the show ended the crowd got up and left without clapping or cheering which was super odd as I'm 100% sure the performers would have gotten a standing ovation and an encore in Toronto!
 

Boat ride in the Watertown

Boat!

Houses in the water

Crazy bed! Some of them had a bathroom in their bed!

Boat cruise of West Lake

Green Tea field

This is how the dry the leaves

So I liked the show a lot...a LOT lot.  I'm a huge fan of theatre so this was a massive bonus for me.  These next pictures are of the show :)

-M

Wu Xi to Suzhou (Jacco Tours)

This morning we started off by going to a pearl factory where they showed us the different uses for pearls (including different facial products).  The pearls were gorgeous, and my sister actually bought a bracelet while we were there (successful sales tactics!).  Next we headed over to a look out point overlooking the lake and city of Wu Xi where we took some photos before heading to lunch.  After lunch we drove a couple hours to Suzhou, a wealthy city in China known for their economic success and beautiful women.  They say the women in Suzhou are beautiful for their complexion and their beautiful dialect - even when the women yell at you their tone sounds delicate.  In Suzhou we visited the Lingering Garden before heading to get a glimpse of the longest LED canopy in the world followed by dinner.  We got to the hotel early-ish which gave us time to explore the mall next to our hotel.  We seem to have really bad luck with hotels - at this hotel the air conditioning didn't work in the room my sister and I were sharing, so at 11pm (6am wake up call o.O) they finally moved us to another room where we didn't boil to death. 

Pearls :O

Off to Suzhou!

Apparently there's lots of motor bikes in Suzhou - actually the transportation here is apparently almost free; transit is about .30 cents (less if you're a local, they get 60% off) & bike rentals are free

I want a garden like this....

Best way clean a pond...in a garden

Longest LED canopy in the world

Times Square across the street

Fun times at the market

-M