"Sweet Sarah's Page" hangzhoulover's Profile

Wow. It's been awhile. About a year since I've been on VT. Was just going through old e-mails and saw something from here. Life is insanely busy back in the USA and I am missing my leisurely life in Hangzhou. I have been continuing to teach since coming back home 3 years ago, and I can tell you that teaching in China and teaching in the US really is "a world apart." I miss my mostly quiet and attentive students from Hangzhou. But what I miss most isn't necessarily the quiet part. I miss their eagerness. Some of those kids worked really hard and were hungry for knowledge. Contrast that with some of my inner city kids here in Massachusetts swearing at me, sleeping in class, skipping to go smoke pot in the bathrooms, vandalizing school property, and refusing to do homework and stay for extra help after school and one could see why I miss China so much! For all you guys out there teaching abroad, enjoy it while you can and make the most out of your time immersed in another culture.

Wow! It's been a long time since the last update! Now with 2 kids, time is sparse. No longer in Hangzhou, but back in USA. Will try to get active again and get some more pics and tips up!

Wow, 2007 is rolling in....and with it are coming a new husband and new baby!!! Definately a year of major changes, but some things remain the same. I'm still living happily in Hangzhou and still teaching English (but now at a private kid's school). I've turned into a bit of a homebody with the hubby-to-be, so I go out a lot less (with a typical beer in Hangzhou costing above 20 RMB my wallet is thanking me!), but will still be adding Hangzhou nightlife updates in the months to come.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season!

Any VT members want to arrange a VT meeting in Hangzhou in May?

Welcome to my VT homepage. So, who is this girl with the really cheezy screenname, you ask? I was a student of Traditional Chinese Medicine in California, USA. It was very rewarding, learning a whole new (to me!) system of thinking about health and healing. But then I came to Hangzhou to study here for a month, and got hooked. I am now teaching English here. It was always my dream to teach English, but for various reasons decided not to do it in the USA. So now here, I am, living the dream, I guess, but in a way I had never imagined.

Chinese medicine has helped me through my own health struggles and I hope to be able to share what I have learned with other people, even though I have decided to follow a different career path. Many health problems that "my fellow Americans" suffer from can be prevented with proper diet, stress/emotion management, exercise, etc. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right? So I hope TCM continues to gain steam in the USA and elsewhere in the world, and that it continues to develop to be even more effective.

Not having a computer now means time online is limited, so some of my travel pages are not well developed. Here's a little preview of the pages I have spent more time on, so please check them out! :-)

Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China Page This is my most developed page (and Hangzhou one of my favorite places)
Hangzhou Travel Tips Recently updated, check out my new tips!! And please take a second to give them ratings! I put quite some time into them!
Hangzhou's Traditional Chinese Herb Musuem Lots of pics and narrative here
Travelogue on LouWaiLou Restaurant/Solitary Island Pics, but no narrative yet
"Old" Style Market in QingHeFang neighborhood) Some pics and narrative

Places I Have Called Home
Springfield, MA USA My Real Hometown. A couple pics and tips here.
Northampton, Massachusetts A few pics for anyone considering attending Smith College or who has been curious about this town called the "Lesbian capitol" of the US
Santa Cruz Where I lived before coming to China.

Back from May Holiday trip to Sichuan, hopefully will have some new pics of Chengdu up soon. Still having no computer is limiting, but limits are made to be overcome, right?
Life in China is crazy as usually, but good. I have been learning what really makes me happy, what is really important in my life, and what (and who) I need in my future. Sometimes you need the crazy times, the hectic pulling-out-ones-hair moments, the can't eat and can't sleep heartbreaking times to kick you in the pants and open your eyes.
That is what April and May have been about for me.
New photos posted here from a special KTV trip.

Well, it's that time of the year again. The New Year has come round to China once again. Welcome the year of the dog! I've always liked dogs, maybe this year will be lucky, haha. I've been living in a small city outside of Hangzhou for a month now, but have come back home to Hangzhou for the New Year. I spend last year celebrating with family in Fujian, in the countryside. The spectacle there was nothing like it was here in the city, with fireworks blowing off of the top floor of many hotels and tall buildings, on every street corner, and even in the middle of the roads! The random display went on a solid thirty minutes before the sky was clouded with debris and the fireworks hard to see. The smoke looked like thick fog covering the city, but that didn't stop those eager to ring in the new year with a bang. Mini-bombs were being launched all through the night, reminding us that on this most important holiday, sleep is futile!

End of the Year Update 12/29/05

Well, I am leaving America tomorrow after a whirlwind tour at home. I should be packing my bags now, but once a procrastinator.... It will be back to Hangzhou to celebrate New Year's Eve and Day. A bittersweet end to the year as the new year will see me leaving this wonderful place I've called home for the past year. I will be moving on to Shengzhou, which isn't that far away geographically, but is a world away from Hangzhou culturally. I'm sad to leave all my friends and the places I frequent. Can I go a couple weeks without Korean barbeque or Reggae Bar pizza? Or a month without midnight fishing at West Lake or a quiet Sunday at a teahouse with a good book? Ahh, Hangzhou, I will miss you.

November update
Life in Hangzhou is busy as ever, but still fun and rewarding. My stint teaching at Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics has come to an end, and it went extremely well. I loved teaching so much, I have decided to stay around for a while and do it some more. Now I have almost completed my 6th month at a small private school (doesn't come with all the benefits of a university job, hence, no computer now to update my VT pages!!!) working way too much. But I love my students.