Monday, May 23, 2011
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. :)
Friday, May 20, 2011
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!
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!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
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?)...
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
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).
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