Seattle.Sky.PandoraPlant.

Asobi Seksu

Morning Sky

Bah, Humbug!

Weird Light

Nice Day

Today has been a pretty nice day. I put another layer of tung oil on the old project guitar (which has like 5 bazillion coats on it so far), and read some fun books. I also started my completely serious and awesome art noise project. Although Anal Fistula and Orphling are band names in the running I am up for some suggestions. At some point I will start some super cool website or just use one off of facebook or something. Right now Emily and I are dealing with our continuing internet issues by camping out at the local sbux and hijacking their free wifi. This is the sky we saw after dinner. Nice, huh? Also, be on the lookout for a new Greensboro band called Treebeard. The guys in the band are nice, but are always walking around in elf cloaks even when it is really hot out.

Guitar Build Pt. 5

So here is the fifth coat of tung oil on the guitar. Not looking too bad. I plan on finishing the can and then getting into the electronics.

This week has been pretty awesome. I saw my friend Owen perform his new project on Saturday and it was awesome. I also got to check out the Brand New Life at Tate St. Fest. It was fun! Plus we had a chance to have dinner with Jed. I am about to head out to school and take my first Music Theory exam. I'm slightly nervous, but I have studied the heck out of our materials, so I think I will be okay.

Guitar Build Pt. 3 (and 4)

So I have added two more coats to the guitar. This pic is after the third coat of tung oil.

And this one is after the fourth coat.

I planned on adding a coat a day, but I got behind doing other more fun things (hanging out with my friend Matt and having dinner with Ma). The guitar is starting to look way more finished in person. The crap cell phone photos don't really do the gradual gradations in hue any justice.

In other news, this looks to be a really exciting week/weekend. Tomorrow I am hanging out with Jed and going to Tate St. Festival and then going to the Green Bean to see my buddy Owen's release party. I work tomorrow and will be highly caffeinated for these two events. Also, the Wall is being shown at the Carolina theater Thursday, so I'm looking forward to that. And I have an exam next week. It seems exciting when I think about it, but writing it out just make Sat. and Thur. sound fun. I'm sure I will enjoy all of it though.

Guitar Build Pt. 2

So today I invested in some gloves from the dollar store to hopefully prevent having the stickiest hands ever like I unfortunately had yesterday. It worked moderately well. The first coat was a barely noticeable difference from the bare wood, but today's coat was a little help. I will be honest and say that this angle makes it appear a deeper hue than it really is. I would be happy if this is how it ends up. I plan on adding coats until at least this batch of tung oil is gone. It is a relatively easy process, if a little time consuming. I'm hoping for a nice natural satin look that seems almost vintage (think Garcia's Alligator guitar). Tomorrow or Wed. I plan on starting on some of the wiring. I am still debating just using the stock bits or creating my own pickguard, sticking on the Mariposa pickups I have, and wiring in new pots and a decent 5 way switch (or even going crazy and sticking a fancy Brian May inspired switching system). I will honestly probably go for the stock setup, but it never hurts to dream a little!

ZOMBIESSSSS!!!

ZOMBIES!!!

From the Mall

Pretty sky

Guitar Build Pt. 1

Okay, so here are the first pics of the build. I didn't take any of the unassembled guitar because I was lazy, and these are just some really blurry pics from my cell phone. I think that I am going to leave the neck alone and just leave it as unstained wood. It feels really smooth and comfortable. I attached the tuning keys on the headstock (yay). I sanded the body down with progressively finer grit sandpaper and then used some canned air and a cloth to get all the dust off. I put on the first coat of tung oil and buffed it this afternoon. I plan on having the guitar look really natural, but will put at least 4 or 5 coats of oil on it. Hopefully that will darken it up a little bit. The body is super light and is made of paulonia (no clue what kind of wood it is). It feels like balsa. There were some dents and scratches in it from the factory. I tried to sand out some of the smaller little dents and big swathes of wood came away. Oops. This is just a cheap little build so I'm not very worried, but I still would like it to look at least halfway decent :)

I will apply another coat tomorrow and possibly fiddle with some of the electronics (although I don't really have any confidence there!). I am thinking about trying to make a different pickguard but the drop in easiness of the pre assembled one will probably appeal more to my lazy nature.

Guitar Project

I will be starting my guitar project soon. It is a strat kit that Ems got me for my birthday. I have assembled most of the supplies/items/tools I think that I need and will begin construction this week (hopefully). I hope to document the build in this blog with photos and some commentary. School is going well, with Music Theory being my fave class. I look forward to our trip to Seattle soon. We have spent some quality time dining on coupons and raiding the free bin at Ed McKays.

Birthday

Wow. I'm old.

Sbux and More

So it has been a hectic little period getting back into the groove of work/usa/general life junk. I have managed to start my coffee master re certification, go to a great show featuring my friend Owen's band Eszett (sp?), and I have plans for another show and a movie coming up! It is looking good. The apartment people are being really slow about actually fixing anything so it is a little rough in the old homestead at the moment. Hopefully next week will be the big "get everything done" point. Emily got another job to supplement her work at HPU which is awesome because it is really close to the house (she could walk or bike in 5-10 minutes to it). We are visiting Cornbread, doing some laundry, drinking all of ma's soda, and getting some more of our junk in Asheboro today before we go back home to see a screening of Monster Squad! Awesome! That's it for now.

New Computer

So I'm typing this on my NEW COMPUTER! Whoo hoo! It's super cool and I really enjoy having a computer that stays on for more than 10 minutes at a time. I have started back to work at the bucks and it is going pretty well. I managed to pick up an extra shift this week which is good since Emily considers herself a "kept" woman now. We had the chance to go visit the niece and nephew this week and had a great time feeding Rody apple drink and enjoying our own beverages of lemonade for Emily and "poopie" drink for me. Delish! Our local cat is crying at me outside our window and I have to work a long shift tomorrow so that's it for now.

Back in the USA

Emily and I are back in the US! We got home on July 1st and have been incredibly busy. We have a new/old apartment, I will be starting back at Starbucks tomorrow, Emily had a job interview, and tons of other little odds and ends that take up loads of time. Things will hopefully start settling down soon, as I am kind of tired! I had some semi-scary medical stuff come up that looks like it will be okay, and I have a new best dog friend. The highlight of our return has got to be seeing friends and family that we missed so much while we were abroad. My niece and nephew are absolutely incredible and beyond adorable. Spending time with them has been amazing. Hopefully we will be seeing a lot of them. Emily and I were extremely grateful to live for two weeks (+,-) with my mom. She was so helpful and it was a real treat to be able to have homecooked American food! My best friend Jed had a fantastic fourth of July party that featured a knockout fireworks display and really made us feel absurdly patriotic. That's all I have to say for now, so I am going to bed.

Disillusioned

Emily is out buying glasses, and I'm supposed to be packing. But I'm not. I slept until 12, and then read a bit, and now I'm playing on the interwebs. Most of my stuff is packed, but I will admit to a little bit of panic when I think about the whole ordeal of flying home. I will admit it. I don't travel well. I would love to say that I enjoy the process of traveling, reveling in the sights and sounds of cabs, planes, trains, etc. I would love to say that I treat each and every travel experience as a new way of relaxing and seeing the sights. But I don't. Usually I just tense up, get grumpy, and bull my way through it. Once I reach the destination I am usually okay. Sigh. It is disappointing how little one's self image matches reality.

Change of Plans

Today Emily and I were subjected to the mind numbing horror that is inputting grades. The foreign affairs office has worked hard to develop and perfect the most infuriating and inefficient method of doing so. After 4 hours of frustration and tedium we were told we would have to return tomorrow! AAACKKKK!

The good news is that when they heard we would have to be driven to Shanghai at 3AM to make our plane, the school finally acquiesced to driving us up there on Thursday! Hurray! We made sure that they knew we needed a big car/van/semi to carry all the crap we have to take home with us. Hopefully it all will work out and the hotel will have an airport shuttle. It will make like (hopefully) much easier. We are almost done packing and are busy just finishing up with last minute visits, trips to buy Emily some new glasses, inputting grades, and cleaning up the apartment. It is going to be so great to be home!

I already have the first few days back in America planned out and first on that list is meeting my new nephew!

One Week

Only one more week until we are winging our way home to the good old USA. It seems like this year has flown by, with tons of wonderful experiences and some very interesting times. I will admit to being a little nervous about the next step that Emily and I are taking in life. Moving to China was such a freeing experience, getting rid of almost all of our stuff and starting new in another country. But we are REALLY ready to be home. And now (having gotten rid of all our junk) we are really starting over. The plan right now is to move in with Ma for a few weeks until we figure out where we will live and job stuff. I will be going back to Starbucks for a while and will be attending GTCC's school of music this fall. I have a pretty good class schedule and Starbucks has always been great about working with me time-wise. Emily will be looking around for library type jobs that are semi-close to NC. We are so excited to go home and spend time with friends and family. I have a new nephew I haven't even met! Being away for so long makes you realize how much we took closeness and family for granted. I have lots of big plans when I get home and can't wait to see everyone!

Tidings

So it is almost time for us to come home! We are very excited and incredibly busy getting exams and grades ready. But the big news is...OWEN!!! My "little" nephew was born last week and we couldn't be more excited. Emily and I cannot wait to get home to see him! I have regaled all my students with his size (converted to kilograms). Most of them don't believe me! Today marks six years that Emily and I have been together. It seems like such a short amount of time. We have done so much and look forward to a great future of even more excitement! I had to miss the final Pumpkin concert as it was delayed until today and we didn't want to spend 3pm-10pm of our six year anniversary at a overheated concert hall. But I have gotten a chance to go and play with the band a few times at their many different practice spaces. I've been reading a lot in my downtime, not playing guitar enough, trying to memorize all the countries of the world (I realized my geography was atrocious!), and listening to a lot of Afropop (my recent faves are Prince Nico Mbarga, Amadou and Mariam, and the Soweto Gospel Choir). Emily has been knitting toys for Audrey and Owen, watching some fun movies (Bill and Ted!) and cooking lots of delicious foods. Her tom kha is awesome! We can't wait to come home and try out some recipes on friends and family. We will be home so soon!!!

One More Month!

One more month until we come home! We are pretty ready to get back to the states, especially since my new nephew is coming early! I am sad that I won't be home when he is born, but super excited to meet him when I get there. I'm 99% sure I will be able to go back to starbucks, my classes are all registered, and we already shipped most of our presents home. My obsession with afropop/highlife/benga music had a sad day today when I found out that we just missed superstars Amadou and Mariam in Shanghai last week! Oh well. Hopefully I will have a chance to see them in the future. I added afropop worldwide to my link list and encourage everyone to check it out. They have some great programs. My recent listening has been predominantly Hugh Tracey field recordings and King Sunny Ade. I just finished my book on Alan Lomax that was pretty interesting. He really did lot more than his father ever did, but I mostly just knew of his father's accomplishments. It was a fun (but longish) read. Unless I get overly ambitious I plan on reading a few simpler books in the next few days. I had to start reading more serious books after I realized how many YA books were featured at the top of the list. Now that there is more non-fiction and "adult" lit on the top I can go back to guilty pleasures. :)

Busy Day

Emily has put up some of the photos on her blog from the talent/speech show that we judged the other day.

Today I was very busy. We loaded up almost all the gifts we have bought people and some clothes and junk that we wanted to take home but didn't have room to pack and lugged it all to the post office. Well, two post offices. The first one just sent us to the central post office. It ended up being three big ass boxes and cost us more than I would have liked to spend, but was still cheaper than it could have been. I think they had mercy on us because we looked so pathetic and lost.

After the post office fun, we went to Starbucks with our friend Maggie and chowed down on chocolate covered espresso beans and iced coffees. Delicious! It almost makes me excited about going back to Starbucks when I get back just to chug down all those delicious free drinks. After coffee, we wandered through Tianyi and I bought even more presents (this time for my soon to be born nephew-and of course more stuff for my niece). So far this trip I have set out to buy gifts for certain people and end up with stuff for Audrey. I go to buy something for Ma or Anna, and BAM! Audrey has two new presents. I suppose she will be happy to see me even if no one else is!

After shopping we visited the local DVD store (all bootleg, but very nicely done) and I bought my last film for my film class-DRAG ME TO HELL!!! BWA HA HA! They have no idea what they are in for. :)
Maggie took us to a nice cultural revolution themed restaurant where we had the best tofu I have ever had, some nice fish with peppers and bean sprouts, eggplant and green beans, cucumber (or as Maggie calls them "concubines") and soybeans. Yum! Easily one of the better meals I have had in China, although I doubt that many people in the themed era ate that well. I managed to spill tofu and pepper juice all over my shorts, so it looked like I had a very unfortunate accident. Luckily we took a taxi home.

My obsession with African music continues, and I have been really enjoying soukous, music from Tanzania, and some strange desert blues. I also have become quite enamored of the photographer Hasisi Park. She took a beautiful beach/sunset/ocean picture that I really loved and a little research on the magical internet turned up her tumblr which I have added to my links list. SOme of her work is a little risque (although that is mostly work she was in, not photos she personally took). But I think that her Hawaii series (that she is working on now) and the photos from Korea are spectacular. It really makes me wish we had money to travel more, but I shouldn't be greedy (after all, we DID spend a month touring Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam!).

Home Sooon!

Finished It!

So I finally finished the Cobain Journals and have some mixed feelings. I love Kurt (or at least I loved his music) but I feel that he would have benefited from a little more education. I don't want to pass judgement and I won't argue with ideas, but the spelling errors alone just bugged me. Superficial, I know. Tonight Emily and I judged a talent/speech/forum contest at the "Eagle's Nest" here on campus. It was unbelievably hot. I will put some photos on facebook where you can see how red Emily was and how sweaty I was. We went with one of our students, Kina, who we teach IELTs crap for oral and written English. She is really funny and REALLY crazy. I also have fallen in love with a band who is not new, but was new to me. The Very Best. I only have the Warm Heart of Africa album (how sad is it that I still don't know how to underline on blogspot and still feel a twinge of guilt when typing some titles? I guess I could italicize it, but that just seems like too much work. Click this, move that, blah blah...what was I saying?)...

Still Struggling

So internet is still not 100% (or even 50%). It pretty much sucks. Yesterday after I finished my blog it cut off for about 6 hours. Sigh. Other junk:
Looks like I may finish up the Cobain notebooks in a day or two. Finally stopped feeling guilty when I looked ahead at last page which reads, "Don't read my diary when I'm gone." But directly below that it says, "Ok, I'm going to work now, when you wake up this morning, please read my diary. Look through my things and figure me out." While I still had reservations, I will admit that most of the material is just drivel. It is impossible to judge though, because if people go through my notebooks when I die they will find all sorts of embarrassing vitriol and crap that I wouldn't want people to see. On the other hand if (for some bizarre reason) I'm famous and Emily wants to make a quick buck by selling it, then I suppose I would forgive her. It wouldn't embarrass me too badly since I would be dead. I am also reading a book about Alan Lomax that is really intriguing. It sparked many conversations between EM's and I about how China seems to be not so much building their own modern musical culture (esp. compared to countries like Jamaica or Kenya). Speaking of Kenya, I have been on the BIGGEST benga kick ever, but it is really hard to find many of the artists since I can't seem to get itunes to work and the internet is still very sporadic. Thank goodness for all the Rough Guides and Putumayo cds that I got from the library before I came. Two books that I read recently which I would highly recommend are A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, which just goes to show that near future speculative fiction (influenced by Sterling, Gibson, Stephenson) is now mainstream, just under a different heading. I loved the book, and found the ending just superb. The kid's devices and the people's credibility as value reminded my of the Sterling short story Maneki Neko (I think that was its name anyway...) The other book is Just Kids by Patti Smith. I really enjoyed it and it even inspired a few vivid dreams. Nice. That's it for now, still ready to come home and be amazingly active. It is really surprising all the crap you just take for granted (I know I REALLY did). I start school in the fall and until then will be all full up time-wise playing music with friends, reconnecting with all my old friends (esp. Jed and Danny), eating fresh salads (drooollll...), shopping without buying (just to enjoy it!), junk stores, and especially hanging out with my family (and my new nephew, who is still on pre-order). I have put up a bunch of new photos on facebook of some of my students, so check those out.
Bye!

Crippled

Internet here has been sporadic at best, but last week it just stopped. I have spent many hours with the computer guy installing lots of fun invasive software on my computer. FUN! Now it seems to be working, but limits Skype calls to about 5 minutes, and also only occasionally lets me go to sites outside of wikipedia and yahoo. Oh well. I will admit to a large amount of internet withdrawal. I would like to be able to say that it taught me some important lesson about becoming to attached to the web, and how I broke those bonds; but instead I will just stay online for 10 straight hours, chainsmoke, and chug gallons of coffee, occasionally screaming "INTERNET!!! WHEEE!" and running in circles. Emily and I had a chance to go practice with our friends band Pumpkin who is having their farewell show in June. Luke (our friend, but also not his "real" name) asked me to sing a song or two. I must say that the band has gotten worse. It appears that every member they have had for the last 4 years will reunite (about 12-13 people) to play. Their set consists of pretty much the same set they have played at every concert with the addition of my original song (which I feel has been a little butchered) and "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. Sigh. That's all for now, just enjoying being connected to the rest of the world (somewhat anyway).

And Now a Word From My Students

In class the other day we were talking about poetry and lyrics. One thing I have found in China is that creativity is stifled in the extreme. People tend to be good at recitation or at imitation, but creation is sorely lacking. My assignment for them was to write a spontaneous, original poem. I left the spelling mistakes because it makes it more impressive when you see what all they wrote correctly. These are kids who usually have to use an electronic dictionary to spell "orange." I was very impressed and decided to share some of the more interesting submissions.

When I was child
I want to be a superman
when I am young
I want to be a totler
when I will old
I want to be a famous people
-Shelley
I thought this was nice. Shelley normally doesn't say anything, so her attempt at tenses (while not particularly successful) was ambitious.

When the sun is rising up
walk through
the lake is blue
Where swimming the goose
Do you remember your childhood
with happiness on you face
You never lost your wings
Please fly and believe you can do
On the cloud. Angles are smiling to you
Always...
-Joe
I liked that Joe attempted to rhyme! He's a really funny kid who tries REALLY hard.

Asleep, senseless of spring morning
I heard birds everywhere singing
the stormy night made so much noise
How many flowers dropped. Who knows?
-Vivian
Vivian is Joe's desk partner and they worked together on their poems.

"A List"
1. travel go abroad
2. appointment with star
3. to be a doctor
4. shoot a film
5. get married
6. fix a bike
7. invent a toy
8. dress designing
9. get the winning number in a band
10. cook sunrise with my family together
-Joy
I think I like Joy's the best. Her "poem" is a simple list of things she wants to do before she dies (maybe). I assume she means "breakfast" when she says "cook sunrise."

“Important People"
Oh, Mother! you looks like a flower
you bloom in every season
for world, you bring colur
for me, you bring the big love
I hope I can keep you company
forever!
You are not only my motherm but also my
idol.
-TiLa
I think Tila (creatively written TiLa) MAY have copied this, but I hope not because of the atrocious grammar.

“The Youth. The Life."
The youth like a poem.
It worths everyone to chant.
The life like a picture.
it worths everyone to paint.
In the spring, we can flying
idea. Launched a better future.
In the summer, we can
running, sweating.
In the fall, we can reading books
thinking more things about our life.
In the winter we can snowing.
Staying with the family.
-Jessica
Jessica is the resident writer in the class. It's always the job she most wants, even though she is studying to become a tour guide. She wrote me a story once in Chinese. I couldn't read it though :)

“The Distance of Smile"
I put down all my sadness and painful past
with shinning bravery and determined words
I give up the whole life of light sweet
In order to meet a butterfly and the laugh of her memories.

I have already suffered a long wait
Like rivers, lakes, seas and oceans.
And one day, I will cross a whole desert
Never left, with my young romance.

At last, under the mountains
I will find the softest wind, which belongs
To the most beautiful girl, then she smiles
To me, which distance is a mile.
-Wisdom
Wisdom is by far my best Tourism student. He is obsessed with philosophy and his hero is Gandhi. The ladies consider him quite a poet and singer in his native tongue.

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did!

news and blues

Mostly news, not much blues this time. Been listening to a lot of Zappa recently, pretty inspiring and daunting on the guitar front. I managed to get a chance to hang out with Pumpkin and was invited to guest with them at their last show. I was there for the ceremonial hand off of the rehearsal space to the new freshman (Holiday). It was pretty touching. They asked me to write something for the show so I wrote a cheesy but catchy little ska number. They were pretty delighted and had never really heard of ska before. Funny. I read the whole Series of Unfortunate Events set of books and really enjoyed them, although it got a little tedious. It is really interesting to get immersed in young adult/or children's fiction sometimes . The author did a great job of making sense of some pretty complicated themes for a fairly young audience. Most enjoyable. I have been struggling lately to fight my way through three different books, the Cobain journals (which I feel dirty and bad for reading since the cover specifically asks me not to), Blink by malcolm gladwell, and Inherent Vice, by THomas pynchon. The Pynchon book is surprisingly boring at the 25% mark, and I hope that it gets better soon. The children's books had more compelling descriptions than an occasionally pot smoking detective so far. The reviews on this book said it was like the Big Lebowski, but so far there has been a lack of humor. Blink is pretty interesting and full of fun facts, but I keep getting sidetracked by a desire to finish the Cobain book (but then guilt when I read it), forcing myself to read pynchon (and guilt when I don't read it), and just enjoying BLink. Oh well. As difficult decisions go it ain't so bad. Emily has been sick and finally gave it to me. I had hoped to end the second half of the great Chinese residency illness free, but it is not to be. I missed about a week (not being able to talk=not teaching) but managed to finagle it so that I only have to make up 2 classes (yay!). REally not giving a crap so much about quality as we head into the homestretch. Forgive the typos but I'm lazy. Emily says to tell you that she saw some girls sexy dancing at the local electronic store. I just read in my journal that we saw dogs being slaughtered at the local "mutton" grill two months ago. The end.

Wasting TIme

Emily got sick and I've been whiling away the time surfing on ebay. It's tax return time and even though this year I have to save the money for settling in when we get home I still have been looking. Usually at this time of year I get ye olde tax money and blow it on a guitar or something fun as well as paying off the old credit card. But this year I have to save it. Not that I haven't almost pulled the trigger on a few guitars! I got back out my guitar book and am trying to force myself to realize that practicing means actually learning not just the usual endless noodling that I so enjoy. I spent time getting a guitar here and now I have to find a way to get rid of it. It is much easier to acquire guitars in China than it is to sell them! Oh well. Not a big problem if I do say so. I did have an awesome thing happen this week. I got to talk to JED!!! It was his birthday and we fought skype until it let me give him a call. Good times! Can't wait to get home...

Chocolate Cloud Groove

Another week under our belts. We just got assigned some more classes (ugh, night classes!) and were observed on Monday. I made a mean potato soup and Emily got all her hair chopped off. Emily has started to try to play guitar and is doing very well. She already knows 7 or 8 chords and can play through "Ripple" by Grateful Dead. It gives both of us something to do. I have been really slack lately, kind of in a rut. I am ready to come home and it just seems hard to invest in too much here. I plan on getting a little more motivated, maybe practicing guitar more and doing some exercises. Most of the time when I am not teaching or getting food, I just chill on the computer listening to music and reading comics or veg out with the kindle and my headphones. Lately I've read some pretty great books. I found a cool list of Nebula award winners and have been working my way haphazardly through it. Some I have read before or heard of but some are complete unknowns. I really enjoyed _The Speed of Dark_ by Elizabeth Moon and had only read some of her short stories in Asimov's or F&SF. I've done so much reading that I have been feeling a little inspired to try writing some, but we'll see how that goes. That's it for now!

Drag

VPN hasn't been working much so I have been incommunicado from here and facebook for a while. I can't honestly say I missed facebook that much, but I did miss adding to my book list on here. Classes are continuing to toodle along. Emily and I were both assigned an extra class this week, hopefully that will be all we have for the semester. It is a class with only 2 students, which is a far cry from the normal 40-45 we usually have in a class. We are just trying to keep busy and warm. Our hearts go out to everyone in Japan right now.

Cool

The first week of classes have ended and it all seems to be going pretty well. I am trying to be much better organized this semester, which is hard for me (as anyone who knows me will understand). I was really worried about my movie class but the kids seemed into it. Although I was worried I didn't have enough material in my first day notes, I only managed to get through half of them.

Here is a cool link for a parody of Goodnight Moon, based on Dune that is really awesome.
I sent it to Mitch and I think he may be the only person who knows me who would enjoy it. Also check out this cool article, that helps to give me some nice thoughts about raising children of my own.

Emily and I are planning on having some Indian food tomorrow and working on writing out teaching plans. Not much else going on!
J

Teaching

Tomorrow Emily and I start teaching again for the spring semester. We are going back to Cixi on Mondays, which is not awesome but at least should be familiar. I have 3 oral English classes, 2 tourism classes, one IELTs speaking class, and a class on American cinema. I thought I would be excited about the cinema class, but it is such a pain to get movies with Chinese subtitles and the previous teacher had chosen some REALLY bad movies. I should get to bed, but I'm nervous about remembering all the names of my students tomorrow. Eeek! Emily and I have just been taking it easy since we got back from southeast Asia. Cooking, cleaning, watching tv on the internet, reading, and just general shenanigans. We are ready to come home and see family and hope this semester goes by just as quickly and easily as the first one. It looks like we won't be home until the beginning of July instead of mid to late June as we had hoped, but that's how the cards are dealt. Wish us luck for tomorrow!

Lazy

Since Emily and I have been back we have been REALLY lazy. It pretty much sucks coming back to cold old China after such a magical vacation. I watched the remake of True Grit and loved it, but Emily hasn't found a western that can hold her attention yet. She has been watching a lot of Simpsons and Friends, and we both loved watching some Modern Family. How exciting to be able to blog about our internet/tv viewing! There's just not much going on. We made a pact to cook most of our food at home because we felt soooo much healthier on our trip. We suspect that food quality/cleanliness is the culprit. It seemed like we were always ill in China, which made it unpleasant. My one funny from being sick so long is that I was recommended some antibiotics for my persistent chest thing/illness and was taking them dutifully. Emily got some sniffles/hacking gross sinus infection and I looked online to see if the antibiotics would work for her (she's allergic to most of them). I discovered that not only were they banned in America, they also caused major neurological damage to 25% of the people who took them! Hurray! I stopped takng thema nd has seeeemmed to sufffer no ill effects ajkal;g8lohy agh..........................................

Back In China

We made it back to China today. I have a big post planned, but tonight I'm just too dang tired. We had a great time and met some great people. Only 5 more months until we come home, and we are ready for it. I really miss my family and Greensboro. I'm not sure what the future holds or what we will do there but hopefully we will be able to come back for at least a little while. Everyone send us you best wishes and positive thoughts for Emily to get a good job near home.

So far

We have finished Cambodia and are now in Vietnam. This has been an awe inspiring and incredible adventure/vacation but road weariness is beginning to set in. Waiting 12 hours for a 6 hour train is probably making me more grumpy/tired than usual. Emily and I are ready to go back and finish up our teaching so we can see our family. I think it was easier for Emily when her sister was here but we both miss family so much. The next few days on a secluded Vietnam beach should cheere right up.

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Egypt

We are having such a great time, but we are riveted to and shocked by the violence in Cairo. The Chinese government are blocking almost all news about what is going on in Egypt. As so many journalists on the frontline said, "The world needs to see this." We came to Cambodia yesterday and met a couple last night who is also teaching in china. It was nice to be able to talk with someone who is in similar circumstances as us. A casual hello turned into an almost three hour conversation. Tomorrow we go to Angkor Wat.

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Just Chillin'

Today has been nice and slack. I woke up pretty late and watched some monkeys on the front porch. Then Emily went and had some breakfast with Jane and brought me some coffee. At about noon Emily and I went down and had lunch in town and visited some of the shops and walked out to the beach that is closest to us. We got home and Emily had some ice cream and we spent the rest of the afternoon reading on the porch and admiring the view. Unfortunately it seems Emily has caught a little cold. Tonight we plan on having a little supper in town and then more extra strenuous reading before an early bedtime so Emily can get some rest and hopefully get to feeling better.
J
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Phi Phi!

We made it to Phi Phi Island today and it is really beautiful. The boat ride over was pretty magical. We are staying in a cool little bungalow. We have wireless in the little open air cafe that doubles as the reception area. Tomorrow we may go to monkey beach or just go through all the cool little shops. I have had some amazing food and really love it here. Cambodia and Vietnam have a lot to live up to because Thailand is amazing!
J

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In Thailand!!!

So we have made it to Thailand! It took forever to get here but we
finally made it. I am not sure what kind of Internet we will have for
most of the trip although we have excellent wireless here. The food is
amazing and it rivals Jamaica for natural beauty so far. Emily and I
are keeping a notebook so when I get home I can do a monster post. Our
"computer" for the trip is my iPod so as long as there is wireless we
should be able to check emails etc.

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I'll Fly Away

The bags are packed, kindles and ipods loaded and charged, sunglasses and silly straw hat set by the door with care. Tomorrow we head out! I will be gone for about 25 days, exploring Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Emily and I are super excited about it, and it was one of our big dreams when we came to China to have a chance and travel. What's weird is that China doesn't even seem like a destination anymore, it is just where we are! I may try and grab some internet time on the trip, but neither of us are taking computers (packing light, or at least we are for us!). I will try to take lots of pictures and will make sure I have a nice time at the beach in memory of everyone who is cold and in the snow right now.
Love,
J

In Time

So it has been pretty slow around here. We put in our grades and were struck by just how inefficient everything is in China. I have been fighting off a little sick for a long time, but hopefully antibiotics will take care of it. Tomorrow is Emily's birthday and I think I am more excited than she is. It has been a wonderful trip with her. She has been my best friend, my support, and the absolute greatest thing that has ever happened to me. It really seems like yesterday that I met her at the movie theater. We are going to be headed out to Thailand next week and it really just seems magical. China has had some highs and lows, but I get so happy when I think of how awesome it is that we are here doing this! Being here, teaching, helping, getting to see cool stuff and get completely immersed in a whole different culture. I have learned so much here. Mostly about myself! Going to Thailand has been a dream for a long time and going with her makes it that much more special. I'm going to eat so much food there!!!
I've been reading a lot of stuff about society and our place in it, but not really sure if it will ever turn into anything solid in the terms of living. It is so easy to get inspired by speeches or by peoples words, but so hard to maintain that fire and drive when the book/pamphlet/webpage is done. Taking it beyond being read and turning it into something you try and live is a real task.

Student Trip

Hello everybody! So it has been a pretty busy weekend here in China. It was AWESOME! Emily and I were supposed to go to some ancient library at Moon Lake with a few of my students (who were to act as our tour guides). They didn't know where they were going so we just kind of bumbled around, but what fun it was! We ate candy covered oranges, took tons of photos, snuck into an all girls school (my students are adventurous), wondered through a cool old slum (finding a calendar from 1984 along the road was my fave part of this), wandered into the most unlikely and the most friendly temple of all time (seriously, these were some happy temple people. Even my students were astonished), and ate a delicious meal. At around 5 my students had to head home, so Emily and I went to the completely legal, but very cheap, and hmmm,-this-title-is-spelled-incorrectly, DVD store and I got ALL the Star Trek films. Emily's birthday is coming up so she got the three Back to the Future movies and the first 18 seasons of the Simpsons. Sunday Emily took our visa info to Jane (who we are going on our big trip with) and I napped, ate some delicious noodle thing, and watched the Simpsons all day. It was great.

Sick and Reading

So this weekend I was sick with some stupid bug that has me stuck in bed. I managed to read a lot and wanted to share some of that with ya! I just finished David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries, and while it was interesting it was not what I expected. Byrne is a great artist and I REALLY like Talking Heads and his later solo efforts (especially the collaborations with Eno). His efforts to bring outside art and music to main stream's attention is also admirable. But the book just didn't do it for me. It seemed more a bunch of notes taken in a college bull session about cities and development and society. Like people being impressed with books you read in high school. It just didn't jibe with what I was wanting him to say. I suppose that this very rant is exactly what I was talking about, but it's late, I'm sick, and I don't care! I will happily look forward to giving anything else he writes a chance, but will be prepared not to be too disappointed.
One thing I have absolutely LOVED doing this weekend is reading a blog by a girl Emily knew in college called Going Slowly. It is really fantastic. Tara and Tyler are two people who are off on a huge cross the world trek on bikes. It is really well written and their adventures are fascinating. Reading the blog is like being there with them and I can't recommend it highly enough. If they turned it into a book I would read the heck out of it and give it to all my family as a present!
Another thing I have enjoyed doing is checking out Thailand and looking forward to all the good food I will be eating in just a month's time. Our trip to Thailand and Cambodia is all planned out, and we just need to get our Vietnam visas for that to be tied up too! I'm super excited and it's pretty much one of the reasons I wanted to come to China. China is not really all I had hoped it would be, but it certainly has stretched our horizons and shown us just what we really want/need in our everyday lives. Emily is sleeping now and I'm bored so I will watch an episode of Twilight Zone and then go to sleep.