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811 days ago
I am home now. Things haven't changed much since I was here last year. All of my immediate family has returned to my hometown since my sister's family left town 7 or 8 years ago. But we are all back now and enjoying it. Give us a couple of months and that will change. I just got to visit some friends this past weekend in Oklahoma city and hope to see more friends soon. Of course I am looking for a job right now so if one of them comes through then I will be busy for a while so I won't be making the rounds. Hopefully I will keep up a little bit with my blog for a while. It always seems to be a matter of internet access. I should be able to get online most days now so I will try to delight you with whatever is on my mind. And hopefully I will snap a few photos sometime.
921 days ago
I just saw two close friends leave on May 19th. Cole and Wendy made their second visit to China after they enjoyed their first visit so much. They came in on May 2nd and stayed for 17 days of action and fun. We visited Beijing again as before but this time we focused on the city and sleeping. The jet-lag hit them a little harder than it did last time. We did get to see the new Olympic stadium for the 2008 games as well as a beautiful part of the Great Wall called Si Ma Tai. It was my first time to either of those and they were both pretty cool. After stopping back through my home town to teach a few classes and meet students and teammates we spent the next weekend in Weinan (pronounced "Wayne on". We stayed with friends there and had a wonderful time even though someone tried on the sly to get a tofu into the lasagna :) You may ask, "Why Weinan?" It is located just near the Terra Cotta Warriors. Xi'An actually claims the warriors but the city is ...
989 days ago
Before I get you into a deep philosophical thought process like my blogs usually do. I want to let you know that a largely populated country on this side of the world has taken steps to disallow access to a lot of online journals like this one you are currently reading. I just want you to be aware of this as my access to this site may be put on hold indefinitely in the near future. Four of the people here have already had their sites banished form the realm. I will always have email but my access to update this site may be stopped without notice. Not that any of you have been expecting prompt updates on the hour or anything. On to better things. Cambodia. After spending a few days in Siem Reap, where we tasted excellent Mexican food (in a city of 15,000 there was delicious Mexican food, it is hard to come by in my city of 10 million) met some North Koreans, and stepped in the footsteps of Angelina Jolie (a new mother of an adopted Vietnamese boy) we woke up at 5:30 in ...
995 days ago
We had a lot of fun. When we arrived in Cambodia we realized life wasn't as cheap there for a tourist as we had been told. We had to pay $20 to get a visa. Once outside the airport we found out that a van to city famous for its temples, Siem Reap, was going to cost $150. Wow! Luckily there were six of us for that part. We were expecting to spend a couple of dollars per meal but it ended up being at least 5. Apparently Cambodians eat really small portions. But if the locals were telling us the truth about their aga then Cambodians may naturally be some of the smallest people on earth. I met quite a few 12 and 13 year olds who were the same size as the six year old on my team in China. It made you wonder a lot. Then we paid $20 for a one day pass to the temples. $35 for a van to drive us around for the day. He may have covered about 20 miles but it was probably closer to 10. We did only pay $4 a night for our beds, four to a room. But then we had to pay another $25 to get ...
1017 days ago
After classes finished I headed off to Shanghai with Aaron. He is new to China so I accompanied him to Shanghai before his flight to Thailand for classes and then our annual conference. I did meet up with my old student and good friend, Fiona, for a couple of meals and some good English practice. (Her's not mine.) Aaron left the day after we arrived and since I didn't need to be in Thailand for another week I thought I would make my way south to China's most beautiful destination: Guilin. Who wouldn't want to go? It was only a short 28 hour train ride away. And since I just enjoyed my 13 hour ride from my hometown I couldn't see why not. Guilin is located in one of China's southern most provinces. It is probably visited by a few million people each year. I would definitely stay clear of it during either of the National holidays or the spring festival, which starts tomorrow so if you are there then get out. But the Chinese people all rate it as the second most ...
