Thank You

Thank you: UC Davis Summer Abroad, John Boe, and Stephanie Whiiiite ye-uh; Hatun, Birgul, Aydin, and the other Coskuns; Rice, Mom, King Kong, Sun ShuShu, Tien, Alan, and the "boss"; and my Mom, Dad, uh...brother, family and friends! Thank you for making this trip possible!

Last Night in China

Chinese fast food is supposed to be "western"...in this case it's chicken curry - as far west as India!

In the candy aisle of the grocery store.

Eating Korean BBQ on my last night in China - Rice tricked me into thinking we were going to the dog and donkey meat restaurant!

Cooking!


Pretending to play Rice's instrument - she can tear it up!


King Kong! In da house!

Rice's Dad told me I could "just" call him King Kong! He's pretty hip - his favorite English phrase is "in da house"!

With Rice's parents...Thank you so much!!


I love you guys!

some random things I forgot about...

In London...My roommate knows this to be true!

When Gerry and I came back from York, we stayed in this janky hostel that didn't give us towels! I asked the guy at the front desk if the hostel sold towels, and he said yes, but they didn't open until 8 the next morning. So, I decided that I would buy a towel (at 11:30pm)! Gerry and I were walking down the street trying to figure where to go when I saw this older woman walking toward us. I stopped her and asked where I could buy a towel - she asked why - I told her because the janky hostel didn't give/sell us any - and she (Margaret) said she would lend me a towel!!! So, we walk across the street to her house and a few minutes later I am walking back to the janky hostel with a huge blue towel!

Dear Margaret,
I love you and your towels.
Love,
Amanda

Our other adventure at the hostel was figuring out how to lock the door to our room...

At the Grand Bazaar in Turkey.

This little girl would not stop looking at me...so I took her picture...and then she got mad.


Man peeing on the statue.


Hang Zhou


Hang Zhou

WuXi - Slightly Sacrilegious

WuXi - Buddha Statue

WuXi

On our way to see the tallest statue of Buddha.


This is how big his hand is!!

Getting closer.

Leaning tower over a king's tomb

Sun ShuShu!!

"The Administrator's Garden"

And, we got a flat tire on the way home!

So, Tien's mom has this old friend from high school who lives in WuXi. I don't know about the others but I thought that we would just meet up with him and give him the gift that Tien's mom gave us to give him and split. Instead I got a good taste of Chinese hospitality. The man picked us up from the train station in a rented minibus, took us to a posh hotel, and then picked us up at 6:30 the next morning for a full day of site seeing. He paid for everything (hotel, car, meals, admission) for all five of us!