Hotel Chu is Open for Business

I know we are seriously behind on updating this blog but to all our friends abroad just to let you know we have landed safely in China and are now open for business. =)

I am having difficulties uploading the photos both here and via email so let me describe the settings of the new Hotel Chu...

2 Bedroom/ 2 Bathroom/ Living Room/ Kitchen and small study (with a futon)

It's 120 sq meters.... well Chinese sq meters so a bit smaller than that. While a bit of a walk to the tube and CEIBS (but only at 14 RMB cab) it is a block away from our current favorite place in Pudong.. Carrefour! Carrefour here is huge and has EVERYTHING, my new favorite is a Taiwanese shabu shabu place which is delicious and only 37RMB pp or 3.7 GBP or c.$6. And there's a Taiwanese chain, Yong He King which has do jiang you tiao (fresh soy milk with Chinese Donut) and hong shao niu ruo mien (beef noodle soup) oh and mai tsai ko ruo (sorry don't know the translation)

So far we've had a chance to meet some folks, one of Eugene's classmates and a friend from LBS and his friends, which has been nice. And I'm just starting the job search so wish me luck!

Miss you all and start planning on visiting, we wouldn't want this great place to go to waste!!

London Outings during the eye of the storm

In my infinite genius, and occasions of over ambitiousness, I've painted myself into quite the pretty corner. With 5 electives (2 being rather weekly work heavy) and 2 projects my days are quite busy... not to mention I have now signed up to go to Ghana right after the term ends for two weeks, meaning there's no wiggle room for finishing all my work any time after the term ends. Couple that with Vicky and Ed coming to play that last week of the term, even more motivation to wrap everything up before then.

Add to this my plan my life 9 months in advance personality... Eugene and I are going to start travelling on the weekends again soon too.

But to my point, this last Saturday, my last without my hubby, was quite a fun event out on the town.

Met up with several girls near London Bridge to attend this treasure hunt meets dinner mystery theatre called Accomplice. Ximena, Carolina, Darice and I grabbed some Raclette first... can't pass by Borough Market without it, and then we met up with Ania, Mandy, Kristin and Ines for the start of the "show". It's quite fun because the actors are really in character, and interact with us in quite a fun way. Kristin stole the hearts of the OCD cleaner and speech impediment Schwarmacist. We all got funny little nicknames ... Bag, Burlesque, Giggles, Scarf, Blonde, Blue, etc. and all in all a good time. The best part was after we solved the ending we got to watch the next group try to figure out the final puzzle (which we figured out in a jiffy) making us feel good about our problem solving abilities. Although sense of direction was not strong with us, getting distracted from one puzzle to another by some arrows on the ground which led us to the Rose Museum.

After a couple of drinks and chatting with the girls I made my way down to my next event... A real Chinese New Year's celebration. We (Tak, Mei, Miwa, Nick, Rheza, Jonas, Monica, Beng-fai, Yuki, Zeynep, Kelvin, Kim, Sachin R) met up at Ran (Korean BBQ in London... yea me!) and headed down to the private room where we had amazing Korean food (thanks for ordering Mei!) and good company. But the real fun began when we moved from Plum Wine and Beer to Cucumber Soju and then just Soju. That really loosened up the vocal chords as we sang a compilation of good oldies, newbies, japanese and korean songs. Good times!