Trying to update more often than I had before, so instead of long entries, I'm just doing short, concise entries.  Gives you something to read every now and again even though they're not all long and in depth.

This weekend, we planned on going to Putuoshan, an island in the Pacific off the coast of China, but we missed the last boat out of NingBo on Friday.  Instead of trying to rush there in the morning, we just decided to cut our losses and stay in Hangzhou for the weekend.  It turned out to be a good decision.  A friend from Shanghai came down for the weekend, so we all hung out together and saw some new places in Hangzhou.  The weather has been great the last few days, so we've just been heading down to West Lake and finding different places to hangout.

Right now, I'm writing an essay for my literature class at this really nice sidewalk cafe we found this weekend.  It has salads, pasta, sandwiches, etc. so it was quite a find.  They also have good coffee and fruit juices, so we're all kind of excited to find this place.  It's also next door to a youth hostel, so there are always Westerners walking in and out, which is really strange.  It's been a long time since I've seen more than 2 or 3 Westerners at a single time, so it's just odd to have big groups walking around.

Anyway, I'm going to go back to writing my essay.  Hopefully will update again soon.  Plans for next weekend are to head to Shanghai Thursday night since we have a 3 day weekend.  It's May Day on Friday which is the big party to celebrate Communism...I think it commemorates the May 5th Revolution in Russia, but I'm not entirely sure.  Anyway, we're heading to Shanghai on Thursday night and coming back Sunday.  Our friend is throwing a housewarming party Saturday night, so we'll probably head there and maybe eat on The Bund one night.  I've heard good things about the restaurants along the river.  Looking forward to it.