Share

We  arrived at about 4 something in the morning, managed to get to a total gnarly run down looking hostel, I think it was like $3 a night? I slept on a cushion on the floor, and guys with dreads met us with smiles.



Tuk-tuks are a major form of transportation here.

Red light district.

We actually only came to Bangkok because the flight was cheaper than directly into Cambodia. Here we are crossing the border on foot / avoiding the visa scam many tourists fall into.

At one of the bus rest stops we encountered this scene, a church group leaving and kids saying goodbye. I asked, and a man said they had just built a cafeteria for the kids over the past month and were now going home.


We made it to Siem Reap, Cambodia, home of Angkor Wat.














The next day, we hired the same tuk-tuk driver to take us to the Floating Village, along one of the bumpiest roads ever. Along the way we passed this herd of cattle, as well as a gas station that uses glass bottles of fuel to fill up motorcycles/tuk-tuk’s.









Stumbled upon this scene on the way back to our hostel. This kid has a chain locked around his ankle and a bloody nose, with a crowd of locals gathered nearby, including a police officer. Nobody had any idea what happened, and the kid wasn’t talking, maybe in shock, not sure. They took him to a darker corner to avoid a scene, and I felt compelled so I went and bought a water and gave it to him. Wish I could have helped more.



Bed-prison AKA night-bus to Phnom Penh, on more of the bumpiest roads ever.

The Killing Fields in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.



Left is the memorial with skulls stacked a few stories high, on the right is the “Magic Tree” where a loudspeaker was hung to help drown out the noise of people moaning from being murdered.

Mass grave holes.

After the capital of Cambodia and waiting on a visa for Vietnam, we entered Ho Chi Minh.

It reminded me more of China, in terms of infrastructure, at least, just with a bunch more motorcycles. Cambodia had little to no infrastructure.


My first time seeing a dragonfruit whole plant.



Then on to the lovely beach town of Nha Trang, where we were pleasantly stuck for a few days, being Lunar New Year and everyone in the entire region trying to travel at once, so the price of everything was very high. We waited it out a bit and enjoyed the relaxing town.

One of those days we hired two motorcycle drivers to take us to a nearby waterfall and show us around some. In a word, their driving is ‘exciting’.





Street food, legit.

Food in restaurant, also legit.


Boom.

They do know how to use fireworks ’round these parts.



A much more comfortable bed-prison northward to Hanoi.



A few decades ago, a sight like this would have been a much more serious thing in this area.

Lots of traditional activities happen on Lunar New Year.




Finally it was time to head back to China.

Along the way, the van stopped on the side of the road several times to see if we could cram anyone else in.

and then, it was over.

Share

Just in case you need to buy an Angry Birds or Hello Kitty balloon late at night.

I already bought a hookah online, but we found some in a shop in Beijing.

Near Sanlitun, these tents house many a street food vendor.

Shaokao (烧烤) – barbeque, yum.

Natalie and I visited one of her friends who lived in the area. Here’s a photo of her puppy!

One of the real Apple stores here. There’s a fake one on every other corner.

We decided to have lunch with one of the guys we shared our hostel room with, I had spotted a Mexican food place the night before, and lo and behold, they also served Vietnamese, he had just come back from there. Win/win.

Nachos!

Burrito!

Quesadilla!

Sanlitun Village

Sanlitun Street, kind of like Austin’s 6th Street.

Had an early Christmas dinner at Daria’s place, here’s a photo I took on the way. Back to my long exposure roots! Time to get a tripod, though. This shot made possible by a trash can.

Cheers!

One of Weifang’s many bridges.

Every time you eat at a restaurant here, there are these on the table. Shrink-wrapped porcelain plate, bowl, cup, glass cup and chopsticks. I guess it’s to signify it’s clean?

Hotpot below DaFen’s new bar.

Cheers!

Here are how most public toilets look here. Not just the men’s restroom, either. Thankfully, I haven’t had to do “#2″ in one of them yet, and really hoping to keep it that way, lol.

Went to a hot spring with Santalia and one of her friends.

On the way back, we stopped in the neighboring village, found a small church, Santalia played piano for a bit and we chatted with the friendly men inside.

I asked if I could take his photo, he said okay. I like how you can see the shadow from the cross on the wall behind him.

Here are how many days look like here. F(s)moggy.

I met up with Stephen to attend another photography meet. Turns out, the one I went to previously, his friend is the organizer of it.

Turns out there was a big event going on for the gym across the street from where I live, performances and such, guess the photo-group organizer figured it would make for some interesting photos. Well, he was right!

Someone else’s flash went off & made this photo more interesting.

xD

Inside DaFen’s new bar, before.

Inside DaFen’s bar, after.

Sounds like something you’d see in Texas, right? This is one of the many English signs/decorations put up in the place.

Julie went and bought everyone KFC. Lots of KFC!

Lots of alcohol.

Lots of organized alcohol!

Putting up Christmas decor.

The bar opened on Christmas Eve, a grand party it was!

Happy Birthday, Jesus! Haha.

Using my phone as a fill light. Love this dance move.

At school we also had some Christmas festivities! Here are some photos of such.

Over the past few months, we’ve been giving the kids fake money for being good, having right answers, etc. Today they could finally use them to buy some little things, drinks, snacks, little toys, etc. Here’s a transaction happening!

No clue.

A popular pose among the boys. I guess it’s from some show? Haha.

Nick putting a kid in a head-lock. All in good fun!

Of course, some learning still must be done, even on Christmas.

1, 2, 3, paper airplanes!

=O

Check out the backpack.

Here are my Christmas presents! One apple from my employer, two apples from students, a Christmas card from Natalie, and a pop-up Naruto (anime)… thing.

Money!

Peter invited me over for another lovely dinner. His Korean neighbors also came, and I brought Santalia.

Peter was to my left trying to make his youngest daughter smile, out of the several shots, I thought this was the best, with the mom and other daughter looking at her, aw.

I totally had a 1 hour 20 minute Skype video call with Emily, Brad & Amanda! I made sure they saw all my webcam software’s silly filters.

Share

Lily recommended me a hostel that her & Mike had stayed in, and because of it’s proximity, I chose it also. Very nice place, here’s a shot of the bar area and where I had breakfast the day I left. I stayed in a shared room, and I’m glad I did! Met a couple cool people with neat stories, both coincidentally had been to Tibet. I need to go!

This shot is for Erica. Look! Haha. Yay consumerism.

Not sure what’s happening here, but I snapped a photo anyway.  This was at Tian’anmen Square, which is big, and open, and full of tourists.

I wish the sign on the left hadn’t been there and that this guard had been in the exact middle of the bridge, would have added to the symmetry, but I guess this is close enough. I was trying to creatively hide Mao’s portrait.

Framing.

People were touching these door things. Having seen people touch many things in many places, I’ll assume here what was true for the rest; it’s good luck of some sort.

Here’s a 180° panorama from right outside the Forbidden City.

These guys were college students who needed to interview an English speaker, on video. I had time, and I remembered what it was like to try and do assignments like this, so I obliged, then took a photo.

Inside the Forbidden City.

“It’s like abstract, or something.” – me, to which Lily laughed

Anatomically correct tree?

Forbidden Kitty!

The next day, and after much fumbling around trying to research and plan, we headed off toward the Great Wall. Along the way, we came across a man’s card, who drives people to the wall. We negotiated a price, and started heading that way. He began telling Lily (who then later translated) that some land near the Simatai part of the Great Wall, which is currently closed for reconstruction, or something, had been sold to a company, who was building a resort on it. The catch was, that land had a village on it, but that obviously didn’t matter, as I’m sure profit is king here just as anywhere else. The driver pulled the car over on an overpass to show us this scene below, in the photo above, several people are on their hands and knees mourning, you can see a photo in a frame, presumably of the deceased. Here is an article I found about the situation, from last year.

In the bottom left corner, you can see the scene from the previous photo, as well as the village,  the resort being constructed behind it, and behind that, way in the distance, on top of the mountain, the Simatai part of the Great Wall.

A closer view of the village, the resort being constructed, and the Simatai section of The Great Wall, note all the watchtowers on the mountain top.

We only saw a handful of people while hiking the wall.

There were guards in some of the towers, here’s a nice woman we talked to for a moment.

Yeah, that’s snow/ice. It was pretty cold up there, and on some of the places not facing the sun, snow was still present.

If you’re Facebook friends with me, check out my page for a video I posted. It was my friend Will’s birthday, and I thought a funny and unique gift would be to take a ‘birthday shot’ for him on the Great Wall and record a video of it. Here’s a photo of me with some baijiu.

At this point, I was kicking myself for not coming to the Wall the day before, when there was inexplicable gorgeous blue sky, in a city I’ve been told is so polluted it’s not often seen. I think my photos would have been a thousand times better had I gone when there was blue sky, but, hopefully I’ll be able to try again one day.

Balancing my camera precariously on the wall for a group shot.

Here’s a full 360° panorama. It’s not perfect, but you can click for a larger view.

Share

Who needs a brick when you’ve got a sweet looking branch?

There were just tons of photographers out on the streets having photoshoots, from wedding couples to kids to people just taking photos of the leaves changing colors. The weather was nice, so I can see why they were seizing the moment.

When Jane’s photographer was finished with her, I took some shots also. We both realized we didn’t have many pose ideas, haha.

This pose was natural. Often the best kind!

The photoshooting continued down by one of the beaches, here’s a shot I took while waiting.

Drew my name in Chinese characters in the sand while I was waiting, too.

I then took some photos of her and her friend together.

We had dinner at a Korean restaurant, I believe it was my first time having Korean food, and it was pretty good.

Yes, that’s purple rice!

After dinner she took me to the hostel near her University she was nice enough to book for me. Much cheaper than the previous hostel I stayed in, and rightfully so, as the bathroom was a shared one, but you really can’t beat $7 a night. Here’s a shot from the rooftop at night, overlooking the Qingdao University of Science and Technology, with part of the Laoshan mountain range in the distance.

Same view the next morning at 6:42 am.

We took a bus to what looked like the right area, then began our trek. Here’s a kid with his grandfather in their garden.

At first there was a road through some residential areas, but as we got higher, the houses became fewer.

The clearest water I’ve seen here so far.

An unfinished building. I wonder why they built it, then left it. Budget issues?

This was the last residence we saw.

Jane and her 3 friends whose names currently escape me. The two girls in the middle were lighting fast climbing the mountain.

This lets you know you’re going the right way.

So did arrows. “Forever” probably means something different here, but to me I think it might mean how long it feels like climbing is taking you when you’re doing it, ha.

The weather said 20% chance of rain, and damn if we weren’t in that margin. The weather became cloudier and eventually began to rain when we were about an hour from the peak. The day started off pretty nice. If we had climbed a little earlier, we likely could have avoided the weather. There’s always next time, though. I don’t think my photos suffered too badly.

The red ribbons are like wishes.

Taoism, yayuh.

View from the top! Took us around 4 and a half hours, but we probably stopped a total of 45 minutes, so, yeah.

a 180°~ panorama from the peak, which isn’t truly the actual peak, as that peak, a few hundred meters to the right and up, is occupied by some military installation of some kind. Dangit.

Precariously balancing my camera on one of the concrete posts so we could have a true group shot.

The way down was arguably more beautiful than the way up. Lots of awesome leaf colors.

We didn’t climb all the way down though, thankfully. We took a different route where a bus station was, about an hours’ descent. The bus was almost leaving, too, as we arrived. Luckily the driver waited.

We then headed back to the Korean restaurant as it is one of Jane’s favorite places, and it just so happened to be her birthday (technically the next day, but she was celebrating it this day.) We took off our shoes and went upstairs and played cards and waited for her other friends to arrive. Here’s a photo of everyone, with all the food present.

I showed the nice lady who owned the place how to take a photo, so I could also be in this shot, of everyone “cheers” – “ganbei” – ing.

Here’s Jane about to blow out the candles on the special cake her friends got her. Happy 21st!

After a very filling dinner, most of us went to KTV, as per my idea. It seemed like the right kind of suggestion for a group this size, and it being someone’s birthday. Luckily there is a KTV on her college campus, so that’s where we went. We didn’t get too crazy though, as the college dorms have some pretty strict rules, such as you’ve gotta be inside the dorm by a certain time (I forget when, 10?) or you’ll be locked out, also the electricity is cut off at 11pm, then restored at 6am. Rough! I borrowed a towel from Jane as I realized I would need one of those if I wanted to use the hostel’s communal shower, which I very much did, having been sweating for 5 hours climbing a mountain and such.
I left the next day, but not before meeting an interesting character on the bus, whom I had a very nice discussion with and received some good advice from, such as “do what you love” and that serving/helping others is one of the greatest/most rewarding things. I’ve heard this advice before, and I’m starting to think there must be something to it.

Share

My cousin Daria, my co-worker Natalie, and Julie on our way to the technical market, the entrance to which can be seen on the left side of the photo, to find me some speakers so I could listen to music properly. Julie was able to haggle the price down as she had bought the same speakers earlier.

A worker on the street cutting a pipe that they had dug up the road to replace.

The books I use in class, though because of some attendance issues, I don’t use any of the Cambridge books, just the Beeline Plus books. I teach three Beeline 4 classes, and one of each of the others.

Here’s a 180° panorama from the 31st floor of the building I live in, facing north. The street seen on the far left side of the photo is one I walk very often, as it is where a few good grocery stores are, the river, the park along the river, etc.

Here’s one of the bridges that spans the main river in town, lit up at night. All of the bridges have some kind of light on them at night, I should make a point to photograph them. First I’ll get a tripod. This was taken from a footbridge that crosses the river.

This is part of the newly completed square next to the river, just a few hundred meters from where the photo above was taken. Seen here is the floor, but it’s see-through, as it is also the ceiling to the shopping center below. There’s a large LCD screen that often plays movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Dark Knight.

The house band for a bar called M-box. Lots of foreigners go to this bar. I’ve only been a handful of times because it’s expensive.

Another shot from the top floor of my building, facing west. In the distance a small mountain range is visible.

Here’s the footbridge I mentioned earlier, and all the construction behind it. My cousin lived in the building in the middle, but when she began renting the place not too long ago, none of these buildings were being built yet, and the noise from the construction wasn’t present either. The view was great, but because of the noise, she relocated.

I was delighted the first time I happened upon some bridal photography going on in the park next to the river, and since have seen it almost every time I go to the park on a relatively nice day. I more often see non-white dresses than white.

Natalie and I have handed out fliers to kids coming out of their regular schools to try and advertise the school we teach at, which is a private school on weekends only. These hours counted, so I didn’t mind.

My birthday was quite fun and here’s a blurry ‘shot’ to simulate that. I have a video of when they brought me on stage at midnight and the entire bar/club sang me Happy Birthday. A little embarrassing but worthwhile for the humor.

She’s famous everywhere!

Blurry photo courtesy of Natalie.

Me on stage not knowing what to do as the whole place sang me Happy Birthday.

Dafan asked if I wanted to see his Jesus impression, so I said yes.

It was fun trying to tell whoever took this photo that they needed to hold it very still, while using my HTC Evo’s flashlight app as the light source, as I had left my external flash at my apartment.

Here’s part of the room where I teach in, which is essentially two large apartment rooms across from each other, down the hall from my apartment. Getting to work has never been so easy!

Here’s the classroom I use. Most of the time, the kids are huddles around this desk on stools.

The other side of the room where I teach.

As we were coming back from handing out fliers, I was taking a photo of this dog, and the woman jumped in to try and block the shot (thus making it even better.) Natalie asked why she didn’t want a photo of her dog taken, the woman replied “Why take a photo of my dog?” Natalie said “because it’s beautiful?” “Oh! because it’s beautiful!” we had already walked away at that point. People are funny.

New vs. old

A little pagoda (?) thing across from one of the many footbridges that span the river in this part of town.

I did a juice fast for a week straight, meaning I ate nothing and drank only water and fresh apple, orange, carrot, peach, tomato, celery, spinach, lettuce and other fruit and vegetable juice. It was easier than I thought it would be, but the taste was a bit boring, but I think that was my fault because I often juiced a lot of different things at once, when I should have just done two or three. I’m still juicing every now and then, in fact my lunch today was apple / carrot.

This was about what I drank in one day.

Wal-Mart is everywhere. There’s a movie theater in there, and a bunch of other shops, it’s more like a mall, with a Wal-Mart underground. They definitely know how to make use of space here.

Natalie and Santalia and I went to the theme park in town. It was about as fun as theme parks usually are. Tons of lines.

Some girls that were dancing were passing out something to the crowd.

The view from atop the ferris wheel, one of the only rides that had a line that didn’t look like a nightmare.

Natalie & Santalia in ferris wheel.. thing.

The view from atop another ride which looked like hot air balloons, again, with a line that wasn’t daunting.

Daria led Natalie Santalia and I to the wetlands park about 4 miles south of town. I have since gone there many times, it’s about as close to nature as I can get without traveling very far. It’s very nice there, for being man made, very secluded, and huge.

One of the main structures in the wetland park.

Funny translation is a constant source of mirth.

Natalie’s friend took us all north of the city to a man-made beach area, and treated us to some yummy seafood.

There were sand sculptures here for some reason.

Crabs!

He then took us on a tour of the factory where he works. Rattled off a lot of stats which sounded to me like bad facts about pollution, but what are you gonna do, it’s China.

We then stopped along the side of the road to buy some fruit from a vendor.

Tons and tons of corn was being dried, shucked, and whatever else you can do with corn, on the side of the road as we took back roads back to the main highway.

Did I mention there was a whole hell of a lot of corn?

I live on the 6th floor of the building on the left, seen here from the park across the street. ICBC, the bank I use, is the smaller curved building more to the right.

One of the many bridges I go under on the way to the wetland park.

Daria made some delicious Czech-inspired open-faced sandwiches, which tasted very similar to how I remember them tasting. A delicious meal it was, even the Wal-Mart chicken.

Weifang University celebrated it’s 60th Anniversary and it was a big deal apparently. I guess I’m immune to big deals, I only thought it was a deal. Seen here are some fireworks going off from behind the gate which I was behind because they weren’t letting people in, and then decided to jump over because others were doing it, and I knew my photos would suffer if I didn’t get inside.
Once inside, here’s what the crowd looked like.

I then made my way to the stage and pretended to look like I knew what I was doing, even though I was wearing shorts and it was somewhat cold. What came next were several acts, singers, performers, speeches, all of which weren’t really for me, but it was cool getting to document an event like I’m so familiar with doing back at home.

The crowd right in front of the stage.

Oh, Communism.

This guy was alright. He had the sense of mind to actually move around the stage and, you know, perform, whereas most of the others stayed on the corner opposite from me, planted in front of the China TV camera.

In this series you can see him flinching from the fireworks going off somewhat close to him, but he took it like a champ.

Probably the best shot I got that night. Yay bubbles!

Some dude wanted his photo with me, which I initially didn’t understand and just kept repeating “I don’t understand” as he was speaking to me, until someone overheard and translated. I’ve been making it a point to get a photo with everyone who wants a photo with me, just for hilarity’s sake.

I decided to go to Qingdao by myself, and here’s a little wreck I saw while in the taxi on the way to the train station.

Here’s what my room in the hostel looked like (this is 4 photos put together.) It was way nicer than I imagined any hostel ever being.

I set my stuff down, took out my camera and immediately went out walking. Here are some people picking up shells and things along one of the piers in the old town area.

This little pagoda (?) thing is at the end of the pier.

Here’s about a 270° panorama from the pier of part of the city skyline.

Some temple (?) thing I came across.

I believe these are wishes, put on the tree.

A place to burn candles and incense. I’m sure there’s a lot more to it, but as I had no guide and no real way to Google, your guess is as good as mine.

I walked along the coast as that seemed like a good idea. Here’s one of the many beaches of Qingdao.

He posed so I took a shot. I was later told this has something to do with one of the characters from a Chinese traditional story.

Various sea items being sold along the beach.

The Tsingtao beer brewery, China’s most famous beer, as the bottle says. They can thank the Germans for that, who settled (?) this town in the early 1900′s.

Fruit & vegetable market.

Here’s what many of the residential buildings look like here.

When I was done exploring the city the first day, I came back to the hostel early to rest my feet (I had walked about 6 miles) and have dinner. While waiting for the food, I read all of the guestbooks they had available to sign, write and draw in. I found some cool things, like this art seen here.

Also several “philosophical musings” and other emotional type entries. I think it might have had something to do with the bar’s selection of slow music like Lily Allen and etc.
The next day, after much consulting of maps, I decided on where to go and how to get there. Here’s one of the Christian churches, and about 30 couples were having their portraits taken here.

I couldn’t help but laugh at some of the interesting poses that were going on, though. To each their own!

Here’s a full 360° panorama of the Christian church and the surrounding areas. It’s worth noting that down the road, on the left side of the photo, is a KFC and a McDonald’s. They’re everywhere!

Here’s the Catholic church. Less popular of a place as I had to pay about a dollar to enter the area.

I read up on where to get a good burger and headed straight there. It tasted like home! Delicious. Of course, I saw a handful of other foreigners eating there too.

A full 360° panorama of the May 4th Square and the downtown skyline near the sea.

I didn’t know anything relating to police could ever be cute.

I saw this on the map, was relatively in the area, so I decided to go to it.

Spider!

I pet a kitty.

I then noticed a hill nearby and decided to climb it. Here’s an elderly gentleman stretching looking out over the city.

Here’s a 270° panorama from the (almost) top of the hill, where I met a nice English speaking person and we had an hour long conversation atop this hill.

Her name is Jane. We then descended the hill and headed toward the beach.

Sunset from the jagged rocks in the sea.

We then headed to a small street off of Hong Kong street to get something to eat, after we found the restaurant she wanted to eat at was closed.

This is the little alley full of places to eat.

My bike! The seat is a little too low for me, even at it’s maximum, and so are the handlebars, but the price worked so I got it. I’ve ridden it a few times now and it’s fun.

I found a photographer event meet-up type thing online thanks to Google Translate, but when I got there it turned out to be a much bigger deal than I thought. Turns out the event that I found was a small sub-event based on this event. I thought 20 people would be in attendance. About 150 were. Canon ‘reps’ and all kinds of delicious gear was there.

Also, anyone who takes a photo of me (that I notice) I take one of them. This guy probably took 20 of me, haha.

We then split up into groups, I was in group “#1″ – the man who was leading the event told me. I also found some English speakers. I need to learn this language fast! Seen here is all the people in my group getting the same shot of this yoga girl, except it was facing the sun so I had no interest in getting a shot I knew wouldn’t be good, plus it was funnier to get this one.

They had models there for us to photograph. I asked before I took this photo. She’s a student at WFU.

Three of the people I met and spoke with (guy on the left, too.) It was really something, seeing a 50mm f/1.2 being handled the way it was here.

Take a photo of the laowai, go!

There’s an abundance of cute accessories here. I’ve never seen so many different kind of cute type pens for girls and crazy gun/knife pens for boys than I have in my classroom. All of which are great things to take away from them if they’re being bad.

I definitely didn’t tell her to pose like this. xD

This bird was actually freaking out and flapping all over the place in the cage, I’m lucky I got a shot of it seeming to be still. Old men carry around these kind of bird cages with birds in them, you see it often. They bring them to parks and hang them up in trees and sit in tiny little fold up chars (like 1 sq foot) and play some kind of game together.

I met a white guy while walking to my apartment (simply does not happen.) and turns out he knows my cousin Daria, knew my name already, he’s from Poland and he invited us over for dinner. Here’s Natalie reading to one of his daughters.

Here’s the other one! Aw-dorable, right?

We had a Halloween party! Seen here is almost everyone in attendance, minus two people who came after the photo was taken.

My Halloween costume was just a mask I picked up at a local grocery store, and it it was a popular item to try on.

The tiniest Jack-o-lantern I’ve ever carved, for sure.

Playing beer pong with paper cups was quite a fail. I think I knocked more cups off the table than I actually made.

We were too loud, it was a Monday night, after all, and so upon a notice from the landlord, we took the party down the road to Soho bar.

They wouldn’t let me bring my camera inside, despite everyone’s drunken pleas otherwise. So I took it back to Natalie’s and put it up. Odd, because I had brought it into the bar many times before. My birthday, etc. After the bar we went to Chinese BBQ at like 2:30 am, which I’m glad to know is open in case I ever want a really really late meal. Jimmy was a boss and paid for the whole thing. Too bad he’s going back to Australia! He’s one of the guys I met at the photo meet-up the other day.

If you made it this far, props. I think I’ll try to update after each ‘event’ from now on, or like bi-monthly or something (granted anything interesting occurs) — right now I’m trying to save for a planned trip to Cambodia during Chinese New Year, so to save money I won’t be travelling too far too often. Tai’Shan, yes, and I also believe I’m going to Tianjin in a few weeks to meet up with a friends’ ex-girlfriend I knew in Texas. From there, I think we might visit Beijing, which I still haven’t seen yet. If that happens, I’ll for sure update!

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me here, I can try to address them. Just be aware I may not see the Facebook comments immediately because my proxy is hit or miss.

As usual, all my photos can always be seen on my Flickr, some on my Facebook, and to a lesser extent, my DeviantArt.

Peace & Love.

Share

Share

photo by Eric

So some kinda big news, I’ve waited until now to announce to the general public because I felt like around the time I purchased my ticket would be as good as any. I’ll be heading to China around the end of  August to teach English for a year! I’m pretty stoked. I’ve been planning this for months, and thought about it for even longer. It definitely feels like a step in an interesting direction for me. I’m excited about the things I’ll see, learn & experience while there, immersed in a culture as rich as China’s.

I’ve told friends I’ve encountered face to face, and come across many of the same questions, which I’ll try to just answer simply and straightforwardly as possible;

Q: How can you teach English in China when you don’t know Chinese?
A: It was news to me when I found out too, but there are many schools devoted to just language learning, and there’s such a demand for teachers often times a white face and English as a native language is the only requirement. The kids I’ll be teaching already know English, actually, but they just need a lot of help practicing pronouncing it.

photo by Alice

Q: How much will you be making?
A: I can answer this in person, as it’s a private detail, but I can say I won’t be “making bank” at all, but I will be earning enough money to pay for myself and live comfortably, or close, and be able to afford to travel around and see, well, just imagine.

Q: Why China?
A: I’ve long known of teaching English in China as an option. A cousin of mine has been doing it for 7 years, and a good friend of mine for 3. I feel lucky to have them there to help me. Travel is in my blood, and this new adventure should provide plenty of that. I hope to also learn Mandarin well enough to come back and complete some language credits, which is basically all I need to get my bachelor’s degree. Two birds with one stone, ish. That and the incomparable experience I’ll be getting living in another culture so different from my own. I’ll learn a new understanding of things, appreciation for things, just an entire new perspective. There will be rough times too, no doubt. I’ll miss my friends and family for certain. But you people should join me for some Google+ hangouts or Skype video calls, and I think I’ll be able to get through it. I’m lucky to have you guys as my friends! I hope to take exceptional images, as well, and I’ll try my damnedest to do so! Not to mention I’ve always considered teaching an option for me, and I think I might really enjoy it as well.

photo by Tim

There’s a few more I planned to include but perhaps I can just answer questions as they come. In any case, I’m pretty excited. I installed Rosetta Stone and have been studying that.  Language will be the biggest barrier at first, so I’m going to try hard to learn Chinese, at least listening and speaking, I don’t plan on being able to read the traditional script anytime soon, lol. I’m fortunate that my cousin will be living in the same city as me, and she’s already introduced me to a few nice people who I’ll be interacting with while over there. It’s awesome to already have friends there!

I wish I could fill you guys in on all the interesting little tidbits I’ve researched over the past few months, trying to prepare myself as much as possible on this side of the ocean. Perhaps now is a time for some links. Read away, and remember the grains of salt*.

photo by Thomas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China

http://wikitravel.org/en/China

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/china

http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/cn

http://middlekingdomlife.com/guide/*

You might like to check out some of my recent Flickr favorites, much of which includes photos of China, or related things.

The city I’ll be living in is called Weifang, in Shandong provence. Additionally, here’s a photo of the building I’ll be living in! Isn’t The Internet just dandy? I’m not sure which of those 3 visible buildings, but one of them, yes. Above a Tesco, which is kind of like a Wal-Mart. Looks like I won’t have any grocery issues!

I hope the Google Map of the area doesn’t mess me up; the satellite image is not correctly aligned with the map layer, I’ve already reported this to Google, but who knows if they’ll fix it. Could all my friends be super awesome and “report bug” to Google about it? I’d give you a cookie. Actually, I’m not worried about it, I just wanted to point this out, lol.

So now’s your chance to come see me if you’ve been waiting for a reason! If not — see you in 2012!

More details soon. I plan to update this blog first and foremost, as well as upload photos to Flickr, Facebook, Google+ and DeviantART when possible.

Share

Kelly and Sam were married at Travis Park United Methodist Church in downtown San Antonio, Texas. My friend Stephen Masker helped me shoot this wedding. My favorites of both our shots below! Congrats Kelly and Sam! The wedding was a blast!

Share

Share