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.

Books of 2010

So here is the reading list for 2010. It is a real tradition with me and has been infinitely useful to look back at these. Sort of like a photo album I can remember books by. Many warm feelings. Emily is out getting us some lunch and I am just puttering around here at the house. I seem to have already caught a bit of a bug in 2011, but hopefully that will clear up soon. The day is cold but sunny and I am basking in the sun and sipping some nice nescafe. This years list is pretty heavy on sequential author runs since this is the first year I have had a kindle. It is much easier to get fixated on one author and just keep feeding that hunger until you kind of burn out. I still have at least 76 pages of books loaded on the kindle and have already picked out the first few for 2011. It feels really weird to write that! So futuristic.

• All the Myriad Ways, by Larry Niven
  
• The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
  
• Limits, by Larry Niven
  
• Line War, by Neal Asher
• Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, by David Sedaris
  
• Polity Agent, by Neal Asher
• The Tank Lords, by David Drake
  
• Brass Man, by Neal Asher
• Understand Western Culture, by Pam Wadeson
• North American Folklore and Folk Customs, by Ellyn Sanna
• Popeye Vol. 2, by Bob Sagendorf
• Popeye Vol. 1, by Bob Sagendorg
• Unusual Tales, by Ken Methold and Clare Vickers
• Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, by Cory Doctorow
• Thirty Seconds, Thirty Days, by Asimov, Clarke, Sheckley, and Bradbury
• The Line of Polity, by Neal Asher
• A Place So Foreign and Eight More, by Cory Doctorow
• Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present, by Cory Doctorow
• Reflex, by Steven Gould
• Girlfriend In a Coma, by Douglas Coupland
• The Darwin Awards: Evolution In Action, by Wendy Northcutt
• Snuff, by Chuck Palahniuk
• Makers, by Cory Doctorow
• The Scarlet Plague, by Jack London
• The Gabble and Other Stories, by Neal Asher
• Mason's Rats and Bioship, by Neal Asher
• Shadow of The Scorpion, by Neal Asher
• Prador Moon, by Neal Asher
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
• Blind Waves, by Steven Gould
• Wildside, by Steven Gould
• Flying Finish, by Dick Francis
• The Danger, by Dick Francis
• Under Orders, by Dick Francis
• Come to Grief, by Dick Francis
• Whip Hand, by Dick Francis
• To the Hilt, by Dick Francis
• Break In, by Dick Francis
• Bolt, by Dick Francis
• Twice Shy, by Dick Francis
• The God Engines, by John Scalzi
• To Outlive Eternity, by Poul Anderson
• Hell To Pay, by George Pelecanos
• Dead Cert, by Dick Francis
• Life, by Keith Richards and James Fox
• Bonecrack, by Dick Francis
• Bolt, by Dick Francis
• The Jungle:The Uncensored Original Edition, by Upton Sinclair
• Hercule Poirot's Christmas, by Agatha Christie
• Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie
• The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Labours of Hercules, by Agatha Christie
• Poirot Investigates, by Agatha Christie
• Poirot's Early Cases, by Agatha Christie
• And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie
• The Casebook of Hercule Poirot, by Agatha Christie
• Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie
• Tortilla Flat, by John Steinbeck
• Pirate Latitudes, by Michael Crichton
• The Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac
• Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, ed. by John Joseph Adams
• A Hole in Space, by Larry Niven
• This Crowded Earth, by Robert Bloch
• The Shape of Space, by Larry Niven
• Solar, by Ian McEwan
• The Mammoth Book of Zombies, ed. by Stephan Jones
• The Reality Dysfunction, by Peter F. Hamilton
• Garcia: An American Life, by Blair Jackson
• Starliner, by David Drake
• Ship Breaker, by Paulo Bacigalupi
• Pump Six and Other Stories, by Paulo Bacigalupi
• Gridlinked, by Neal Asher
• Packing For Mars, by Mary Roach
• Ringworld's Children, by Larry Niven
• The Ringworld Throne, by Larry Niven
• The Ringworld Engineers, by Larry Niven
• Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson
• Zima Blue and Other Stories, by Alastair Reynolds
• Woman of Kleenex, Man of Steel, by Larry Niven
• The Windup Girl, by Paulo Bacigalupi
• Year's Best SF 15, ed. by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Tales of Known Space, by Larry Niven
• A Gift From Earth, by Larry Niven
• World of Ptavvs, by Larry Niven
• Ringworld, by Larry Niven
• Protector, by Larry Niven
• Red Shift, ed. by Al Sarrontonio
• Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers
• Africa Zero, by Neal Asher
• The Ghost Brigades, by John Scalzi
• Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
• The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
• Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
• Live Without a Net, ed. by Lou Anders
• Break In, by Dick Francis
• Typee, by Herman Melville
• Orsinian Tales, by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Longshot, by Dick Francis
• Odds Against, by Dick Francis
• Thirteen Moons, by Charles Frazier
• Wild Horses, by Dick Francis
• Field of Thirteen, by Dick Francis
• Infinity Beach, by Jack McDevitt
• Star Trek Omnibus Volume 1, by IDW
• World War Z, by Max Brooks
• The Dragons of Springplace, by Robert Reed
• To the Hilt, by Dick Francis
• Confessions of An Economic Hitman, by John Perkins
• The Member of the Wedding, by Carson McCullers
• Our Band Could Be Your Life, by Michael Azerrad
• Get Fuzzy: Groovitude, by Darby Conley
• Knockdown, by Dick Francis
• Still a Few Bugs in the System, by G.B. Trudeau
• Young Zaphond Plays It Safe, by Douglas Adams
• The Californios, by Louis L'Amour
• The Steampunk Trilogy, by Paul Di Filippo
• Bill & Ted's Most Excellent Adventures, Vol. 1, by Evan Dorkin
• Star Trek Enterprise: The First Adventure, by Vonda N. McIntyre
• Rose, by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess
• Showcase Presents: Booster Gold, Vol. 1, by Dan Jurgens and John Byrne
• The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction: New Generation Far-Future SF, ed. by Mike Ashley
• The Steampunk Trilogy, by Paul Di Filippo
• Star Trek 1, by James Blish
• The Golden Apples of the Sun, by Ray Bradbury
• Extraordinary Engines: The Definitive Steampunk Anthology, ed. by Nick Gevers
• Miles Davis: Jazz Master, Pamela Dell
• Coelura, Anne McCaffrey
• The Game of Empire, by Poul Anderson
• A Talent For War, by Jack McDevitt
• The Story of Jazz Bop and Beyond, by Franck Bergerot and Arnaud Merlin
• Space Stations, ed. by Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers
• The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht
• Dark Star Safari, by Paul Theroux
• Prey, by Micheal Crichton
• The City Who Fought, by Anne McCaffrey and S.M. Stirling
• Deepsix, by Jack McDevitt
• X-Men: Age of Apocalypse Vol. 2-4, by Various
• It's About That Time: Miles Davis On and Off Record, by Richard Cook
• Batman Chronicles, Vol. 6, by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson
• Essential Dr. Strange, Vol. 1, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
• Fagin the Jew, by Will Eisner
• Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever, by Farah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington
• Isis and Osiris: To the Ends of the Earth, by Jeff Limke aand David Witt
• Batman Illustrated: Vol. 1, by Neal Addams
• Partnership, by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball
• Legion of Super-Heroes: Enemy Manifest, by Jim Shooter, Francis Manapul, and Livesay
• Federations, ed. by John Joseph Adams
• Miles Davis: A Biography, by Ian Carr
• Microcosmic Tales, ed. by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph Olander
• The Rebel Worlds, by Poul Anderson
• Batman: Ego and Other Tails, by Darwyn Cooke
• Kingdom Come, by Mark Waid and Alex Ross
• The Adventures of Daniel Boom and Loud Boy: Game On, by D.J. Steinberg and Brian Smith
• The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara
• A Graphic Biography of Che, by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon
• Nylon Road, by Parsua Bashi
• It's Not About the Bike, by Lance Armstrong
• Off The Record: An Oral History of Popular Music, by Joe Smith
• The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemmingway
• Wonder Woman: Love and Murder, by Jodi Picoult
• Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, by Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos, and Annie Di Donna
• Maus II, by Art Spiegelman
• Maus I, by Art Spiegelman
• Only You Can Save Mankind, by Terry Pratchett
• Wings, by Terry Pratchett
• Diggers, by Terry Pratchett
• Truckers, by Terry Pratchett
• The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett
• Rainbow's End, by Vernor Vinge
• Smile When You're Lying, by Chuck Thompson
• Kinship With The Stars, Poul Anderson
• The Ship Who Searched, by Anne McCaffrey & Mercedes Lackey
• Nation, by Terry Pratchett
• Norwood, by Charles Portis
• The Book of Exodus: The Making and Meaning of Bob Marley and the Wailers' Album of the Century, by Vivien Goldman
• The Show I'll Never Forget, ed. by Sean Manning
• The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Vol. 3, ed. by Jonathan Strahan

About Time!

Here's Emily with my new uke, Emus. She looks pretty doesn't she?


This is our Christmas pig!

Our friend Maggie and Emily at Heyi Plaza

Heyi Plaza, Emily's fave place to shop.

The snow starting in Ningbo on our campus.

So it has been another long wait between blogs, but this time it was really just because I was lazy. I played another show here in China. It was pretty fun. It seems that their shows are a lot like the old rock shows they had in America, where a bunch of bands would come out and play 2-4 songs and not really a whole set. I played two songs, one on guitar and one on my uke. Emily and her sister got it in Shanghai for me. It is pretty fun and I hooked a piezo pickup in a plastic candy box to it so I can plug it in. The crowd seemed to enjoy it, but they mostly enjoy anybody singing. Abby is leaving for America tomorrow and Emily is pretty sad about it. She is over at Abby's house now to spend the night and spend some extra sister time with her. We haven't really been up to too much. The weather has been really cold, and it snowed which was exciting. The thing that we realized is that in Ningbo it is not as cold temp wise as Greensboro, but hardly anywhere has heat. Once you leave the house in the morning there will usually not be any heat in the buildings. So your classes, the bus, and just walking around in the cold all the time make it seem a lot colder. I enjoy the cold, but Em's hates it. She tends to just want to hibernate, while I want to go take a walk and take some pictures.
++couldn't find camera card, and so I just waited until the next day to finish this blog++
I've been listening to a bunch of old sci fi radio programs (namely Dimension X) on archive.org, and it is really awesome to hear the old radio programs on my nifty laptop in China! They have a lot of old shows available for download or streaming and they are pretty small files if you download them. We are not sure what we will be doing for the coming break. Initially we planned on going to Thailand, but have recently been invited to go with one of our friends on a trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. I would like to go to Thailand, but I am not sure if we will have the time. Emily and I are about to go and visit one of our friends Larkry (pronounced Lucky) that we met at our usual restaurant. She didn't go to college, but speaks pretty good english and likes to visit/practice with us. We are going to meet her at Starbucks as soon as I get off my lazy butt and get going. Not much else to report for now, but will try and think of something interesting later!

Sooooo Long

Well it's been a long bit between posts, but I have been pretty busy. I played a Halloween festival here and added some pics from that. Their band is named Pumpkin and I wrote some lyrics for their song and played with them some. A lot of other bands played and were pretty good. It was called Halloween Rock Eve, but we just called it Pumpinfest. The TV tried to interview me but we ran off before they got around to me. It was really fun, and there were about 400 or so people there. I got sick for a bit but it seems to have cleared up. You can just buy antibiotics over the counter here. Not so great, but useful. We went to Hangzhou and had some adventures around West Lake, and we went to a Ningbo Conference and had lots of food and speakers. They invited me to play there but it was only 20 minutes of a tea break that they already had hired musicians for. Since I don't know any traditional Chinese music I sadly declined. I've been playing some with a band on Campus, but they are pretty terrible. Emily and I are thinking of trying to learn some traditional Chinese instrument and maybe get lessons. I went with Emily to see the new Harry Potter, didn't like it. We have been sneaking off to Starbucks for toffee nut lattes and chicken ceaser wraps. I am supposed to be judging a speech contest next month and Emily and I have both been assigned new classes to teach next week. I haven't been online much, and I have been practicing my guitar a lot. Emily and I are talking about all the stuff we want to do when we get home and we sure do miss everyone. Will try to put up some more later.