Devon (England)...
After Sweden, I headed to Devon the Southwest of England (of Devon cream tea and clotted cream fame). It's a really beautiful part of England, with lots of green fields, and huge hedges that grow so tall you can't see anything while driving the one lane roads in the countryside. Got to spend a bit of time too seeing some other villages, and the seaside resort town of Dawlish before heading to London to visit another friend from China and fly back to Canada.
I was there visiting my friend Kim who taught in the same city as me in China. So, of course, one of the things we had to do was make 'jiaozi' (Chinese dumplings) with pork and green onion. Surprisingly, or not, they actually turned out really well and tasted like the ones we had in China!

Bonnie Scotland...
It's been a while since I've updated my blog, but a lot has happened since I left Paris. I travelled to Glasgow/Prestwick with my family. We rented a car to drive around, since it was cheaper than taking trains/buses for four people. The first adventure was my Dad driving on the other side of the road (KEEP LEFT!!!!). We visited many relatives -some we'd seen recently, some a long time ago, and others we'd never met- all over Scotland. Everyone was incredibly welcoming, and we were all stuffed full of tea, cakes, and cookies. Not even mentioning all the amazing meals we had.
Instead of trying to write about the past two weeks, I thought I'd show them briefly in a few photos.
A view of Edinburgh











Stirling Castle











Loch Ness











Whisky distillery











Family pub/music night










Eilean Donan Castle










Fishing











Gaelic/English sign in Uig
Isle of Lewis











Isle of Lewis











Isle of Lewis











Calanais standing stones (older than Stonehenge)
Stornaway harbour











Scottish thistle

A Paris...
C'est encore la Semaine de langue (Language Week), quand on devrait essayer de blogger dans une langue autre que d`habitude. Alors, comme je suis à Paris encore une fois, je vais blogger un peu en français.
Après mon voyage au Maroc, je suis venu à Paris (très tard, alors j'ai passé la nuit au sol de l'aéroport) rendre visite à ma soeur. Je suis à Paris pendant trois ou quatres jours, avant d'aller en Ecosse avec toute la famille.

Paris, Lille, London...
I took an expensive TGV ride from Geneva to Paris, where I met up with Marie at Starbucks. I know it's sad we went to Starbucks in Paris, but it was a bit of a China tradition (Marie taught French in Baoding). It was nice to catch up, pass along hellos and bonjours, and remember the so-so old times in Baoding.
The next day I headed out of Paris to visit Marie closer to her home town. We had an amazing lunch on a terrace, wandered around the Monet gardens at Giverny, and visited some of her friends in the evening. We decided that I should pretend not to understand/speak any French when she introduced me, just to see how they would react. It was quite funny for me, understanding everything, and them trying to make small talk with their high school English. By the end of the evening I couldn't help just bursting into French, which shocked them all. Lots of compliments on my French though, and one girl even said "he speaks more properly than me!"
The next day I just wandered around Paris visiting all the familiar sights, and I finally got to see the outside of the Centre Pompidou. I don't know how many times I've been to Paris -I honestly don't- but I've never actually seen the Pompidou.
Then it was off to Lille, where I used to live and teach English in 2003/2004 (you can read through the archives if you want). I only spent 23.5 hours there, which was just enough to see the city and remember some of the good, bad, and funny things. I had my favourite snack (croustillons, like fresh TimBits), ate at my favourite restaurant (Aux Moules), had coffee in my favourite cafe (Notting Hill), and went though my favourite stores (i.e. Le Furet du nord). I'm glad that I got to re-visit the city. It was almost the way I remembered it (cold, windy, rainy), but there was less dog poo because they had street cleaners with huge vacuums cleaning it up!
The next day I took the Chunnel to London, where I saw my parents for the first time in 11 months (and 1 day, according to my mom). It was great to see them for a few days before I had to head back home, and they headed on to Barcelona.

Europe 2007...
I'll be hitting the books pretty hard this September, so I thought it would be good to take a break/vacation while I still have the chance, time, and money before law school starts. So I took off for a bit to visit some friends and see some new and old places along the way.
I started my Euro 2007 tour in London staying with Sonja and Martin, family friends, for a few days. The last time I was in London was about 3 years ago when I came as a chaperon for a field trip with the French school where I was working. Needless to say I didn't see to much, so it was nice this time to see more of the city.

One of the first things that I wanted to see in London was the Tower of London. It's one of those places that has so much history and myth surrounding it that they can charge a fortune for entry and people will still pay it (£16, or about $35CDN!) It was more than worth it though as it has a bit of everything -crown jewels, castle, prison, history, torture, intrigue, etc. It was originally built as a fortification/castle for William the Conqueror, but was left by the royalty later on for more modern castles. That's when it became a prison for famous prisoners.

Two interesting side-notes. The first being that the famous red/gold uniforms that the Beefeaters (Yeomen of the guard) wear cost something like £12,000 each, which is why they only wear them on special occasions (i.e. not for my visit, I guess they didn't know I was coming). The second note is that the yeomen actually live at the Tower of London with their families, a doctor, and a minister and that they have a pub on site which opens after the tourists go home.
There are of course a few other places that I've wanted to see in London, such as Buckingham Palace. I have to admit that it looks more grand and a lot larger seeing it on TV. Having heard mixed reviews about the inside of the palace, and my budget being blown out of the water by the cost of things (especially food) in London I decided not to go in.
Also high on my list of must-see-London was the British Museum which houses some amazing artifacts such as the Rosetta Stone and a statue from Easter Island. I was told by a friend that there was a large white marble Buddha statue from the 6th century taken from a village near Baoding. So I went looking for it and actually found it in the stairwell, 2 stories tall. Quite weird to see something from where I lived in China in the British Museum.
I met up with James, who had taught law in Baoding, for a day. We took the boat from London out to Greenwich. It was amazingly sunny for London. Greenwich is a nice little area, with some cool pubs and old naval stuff.


I also spent a day out in Oxford, which is not too far from London. It's one of those places you hear about, but is still really cool to actually see. All the famous colleges, cools buildings, and even some punters on the river. It seems to make Harry Potter a bit more believable.

Back from England...
I got back from England last night. I was glad to have spent some time there, but I didn't really get to see much. I spent a lot of time chasing around 61 French kids, and translating, since only two (including me) of the five accompanying teachers understood/spoke English.
I'll write more about loosing 30 kids in Madame Tussauds Wax Museum later, after I'm not so frustrated.
I didn't actually see much of London, since the "tour" (if you can call it that), was done in a bus. I didn't even see Buckingham Palace :(

Going to England...
I'm going to England! Yay! And the school is paying for it! Double Yay!
The only thing is that I have to baby sit kids while I'm over there. But that shouldn't be as bad as it sounds, because we're put into homestays (so that we can improve our English!), so I don't have to chase them through the halls of a hotel. Not only that, but most of the students who are going are in the European classes, meaning that they are more interested in English, because they've chosen to take an extra 2 hours of English a week at school.
In any case, we're leaving early tomorrow morning, and taking the ferry crossing from Calais to Dover (Douvres in French). We'll then stop at Hastings for a picnic lunch, and in Brighton to take a look at the Royal Pavilion. The next day (Thursday), we're going to Winchester, to take a look at some sites, and do some shopping. The final day, we're going to London to hit up the main tourist sites. We'll then go to Mme Toussaud's Wax Gallery (I'm not overly thrilled, but most of the pupils are), then we're going to take a tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre before heading back to Lille on Friday evening.
Yay, I'm going to England!