Great Wall: I planned a 2-day hiking/camping excursion to the Great Wall. I was particular about how I went about it because I didn’t want to be on a part of the Wall filled with tourists. The hike and camping couldn’t have gone any better. Myself, roommate James, and two friends Tom and Clare started with a two-hour van ride out of Beijing towards the Wall. After we arrived at the Wall we had a two-hour hike to our campsite. We found out that the part of the Wall we were at isn’t open to the public. Fortunately our guide knew the route and paid the proper people. We got to the spot to park and found out we needed to take two extra bags with our sleeping bags and tents in it. We didn’t know we would have to carry them ourselves and all had our own bags already. However, I was able to strap my bag on back of the tent bag, and Tom did similar. The hike was quite intense with two bags on my back but made for a great workout. The night spent on the Wall was phenomenal and a life memory. We were able to see the sunset and sunrise, which was stunning. Sitting on a wall that is the world’s largest grave and thinking that those slave workers sat in the same spots. Knowing they saw the sun crest over the same mountains was humbling. The sheer size and difficulty of building the wall isn’t realized till you are up close.

Bird’s Nest (Olympic Stadium): Horribly grey and dirty. When an event comes up they clean the whole thing spotless to make an impression. However, when there isn’t it just looks like a giant hunk of metal carved into a stadium. FYI Target Field blows it out of the water.

All else is well with me. My roommate James and I have founded “Erie Entertainment” as our sub-name for putting on comedy shows here. We have a “Around the world in 80 minutes” themed show set up for late June, which is based on Jules Vern’s book. I am meeting with the owner of an Irish pub on Tuesday to discuss reserving his place to throw the event. We already have comedians lined up as well. Also, I spoke with Heineken and they are keen to sponsor us with two free kegs. The venue/pub can hold about 100 people. I have to get a look at the stage though because it will be a comedic play with props and characters as much as it is about the 8 comedians who will fit their stand up into it. We will be using the props and characters to help transition each comedian in. The 8 will be from each place in the world where they are from (India, England, US, Germany, etc). Pretty excited. James is working on an epic flier in Photoshop, which we will be hanging up at bars, hostels, and other touch points around Beijing as well as utilizing the Internet. Basically, James is writing the show and I am the organizer, advertiser, and face of Erie. He takes care of the comedy side and I master the business side. It is an ideal set up between our skills. We will charge 30RMB (~$5) and all proceeds will go to a charity here that gives money to shelters for one-child policy kids. I am working to get Guinness and Redbull on board for sponsors too. Should be a really great event here and a solid success. At least, all looks very positive now. We have a backup venue set up to if the Irish pub doesn’t fit our needs.

I have been knackered from the hike and vacation. 85 is predicted this whole with blue skies. I am excited. I am ready to have a nice mid-day beer outside somewhere. For now I am off to the gym then into center city. Xx

4:06 – Nothing. The road isn’t quiet. Roosters are cock-a-doodling; lizards scatter across the pavement under moonlight, insects chirp loudly, and a few stray dogs jog past. “No, I am not road-kill,” I say to them out loud. One gets a little too close, stops, then starts to bark. It’s obnoxious. All I want to do is sit here and wait for my transportation out of here in peace. I’m pissed off; I feel abused and lied to. I want nothing more to do with this place or the people living here. Every bark brings my blood another degree higher until it begins to boil. I jump up and chase the dog off all while shouting profanities at it. It skimppers off into the darkness and I sit down again. My heart thumps with a mixture of anger and spite.

4:12 – I begin to mellow out and the heavy blanket of the night lays my troubled mind to rest. I squint into the darkness to my right, aching to see any form of transportation. Nothing. I continue to stare; my mind is playing tricks on itself as minutes tick by. Eventually, I begin to see two eyes emerging into the dim moonlit road. These f**king dogs again, I swear to…wait, is that? No…yes! It’s Flea! His pointed black ears, small frame, coarse brown coat, and unique trot jog towards me. “AHHH Flea, my boy! How are you?” I ask while rubbing his ragged ears. In dog, he smiles back by wagging his tail. Flea calms down then sits next to me putting his head on my lap. He knows I’m at the bottom; he can sense it in my posture and hear it in my raspy voice. I have never been more confused, sad, disappointed, and miserable than this exact moment and Flea knows it.

This moment here, right now, is my worst. I think it, feel it, and know it. Nothing will ever be worse than now. I look around in the darkness then up at the moon. I feel small and unworthy, my eyes well up and tears stream down my face. Flea lets out a soft whimper and tucks his head in closer to my body. I put my arm around him holding him close.  I tell him thanks.

We sit and I feel his heart beating, I am sure he can feel mine too. I don’t know how much time passes, I guess at this point I don’t care. We just wait together. Eventually, the corner becomes bright and a small van approaches. They stop and ask if I need a ride into the city. I pick up my backpack and stuff it in. I turn back and kneel; Flea jumps and puts his paws on my shoulders. We catch each other’s eyes and both are still. His pointy ears go soft and we stare. “Goodbye friend”

I mutter softy. He licks my chin, telling me that everything will be all right. I rub his head one last time and climb into the van.

I’ll never forget that dog.

Beijing, where to begin? I will start with the weather. The change in temperature, pollution, sunshine, and rain are as fickle as a 12-year old girl’s crush. It changes drastically each day. When I first arrived in January, the pollution was gnarly. It was thick and burnt your nostrils with a pungent smell that resembles burning tires. It is true that you literally cannot see more than 30m in front of you because of the heavy grey smog camping in the air. Fortunately, I live quite a bit north of the city center where pollution hits the hardest. Most days though I don’t have to wear a mask. I think in the last two months I have worn one just three times. The weather in general plays back and forth with a true Minnesotan fashion. In early February there were days hitting the low 60’s. Then two days ago it snowed 5 inches. The temperature drifts consistently between the 30’s and 50’s. Spring is supposed to be short here and I wait with low patience for warmth.

I suppose the weather leads me into my next segment.

“What have you seen?” (You)

“Not a whole lot” says I.

Spring hasn’t started here in the gist that everything is still a dismal shade of grey. I plan to have many busy travel days to the sights around Beijing, but right now I feel it to be pointless. Dead trees and grey skies don’t make for pretty backdrops. I have been to an art district called 798, which was cool. It was a massive warehouse district that was falling under. A group of artists/planners got together and turned the abandoned warehouses into massive galleries. Now the place is a tourist attraction in it’s own. Nearly all of the galleries are free as well making a great place for dates. However, this lone wolf tramped it on his own. The art was impressive, but I wasn’t able to snap a lot of photos inside the galleries.

Otherwise for sights, it has mostly been me getting off at a random subway stop and wandering. I stop in noodle shops, attempt to order, get a duck head, pick at it, then decide McDonalds is a better choice today. Better luck next time champ. I take pleasure in grabbing a coffee; sitting outside, watching people live their lives, and notice the little idiosyncrasies, which are typically overlooked in travel.

And now this brings me to food.

The food is errrrrr, ummmm, ahhhhh, good? It has taken me two months to sort out what is worth trying and what will give you the trots for the next three days. The little noodle shops are the best. They serve a variety of noodle dishes with/without meat, veggies, spice, and sauces. These places typically cost $1-$3USD. Damn cheap and filling. I have found my favorite local place where I now get the hook up. Lovely little family who appear to appreciate my heavily accented Chinese rambles. Eating out at proper restaurants can lean on the expensive side. Perhaps $6-$15USD. Western restaurants, which I have avoided like the plague, cost at least $10-$30USD a meal. I did splurge once on Indian food though. I don’t enjoy the big restaurants so much. I am keen to sit in a little noodle shop, chat with the family, play with their kids, laugh, and share a horrible Yanjin beer with the Dad. While I do eat out fairly often, I eat relatively well at home too. Groceries are mid-ranged for price because of what I buy. They aren’t all that much cheaper than the States. Certain items are oddly expensive, such as a can of tuna for $3. The flavors are just like other Asian countries. Strange Oreos, green tea and prawn chips, and all other sorts of flavored snacks are common. I guess that used to be so foreign and interesting to me, but now it is just simply another preference of taste I am learning to enjoy. The other day I was in the market in the meat/fish section. I was meandering trying to find lean pork when I heard a loud “SLAP, SLAP…SLAP”. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the sound was. I peered around to see a few workers just staring at the ground. I looked to see a massive carp had jumped out of its tank and was flopping about on the ground. Instantly I broke into laughter thinking how odd of a sight it was and in general just simply hilarious. The employees saw me laughing and took to more an interest in my interest in the flopping carp rather than the giant carp actually bopping about on the ground. After feeling their stares I shut it and waited to see what happened next. A man approached with a big net, scooped up the care, tossed it back into the tank, and life continued. I walked away smiling. *Please do look at the McDonalds pictures below.

The Chinese language. It isn’t all that bad. Work puts me up with four hours a week of lessons, which has done wonders. It is only one other person and myself in the lessons so it is pretty much 1:1. The structure of Chinese is like English (S+V+O) and learning the vocabulary isn’t overly difficult if you put in the time. What makes Chinese difficult is the tones. There are 4 main tones that can completely change a word. The same word that is “water” can also mean “who”, just with a different tone. “Beer” can also mean, “Piss” if you don’t pronounce it correctly. The tones are a huge pain in the butt to learn. I do my best and leave a little bit up to situation and context with hopes the person knows what I am saying. Over this year, I see no problem with me becoming strong conversationally fluent.

I got a haircut the other day. There is a barber who cuts hair on the sidewalk for 50 cents but I decided for what I wanted perhaps a real barber would be better suited. I went into a nice establishment. The whole inside was white. I was dumbfounded that anyone in his or her right mind would make a hair studio white, especially in a country where every person has black hair. After first explaining my haircut with a series of gestures and scissor hands I believed they knew what I wanted. First, they sat me down and washed my hair while massaging my body. Not a bad start I thought. Then I was brought over to the chair. I sat down and my haircut started. Just minutes in an employee came over with a cup filled with soda for me. I began to take my hand out from under the sheet when was instantly stopped. The man insisted I just open my mouth where he fed the straw to me, which I sipped. The haircut was brilliant. It took 45 minutes but wow, the guy made sure it was flawless. I doubt you can find a single hair on my head not cut perfectly. I got a second shampoo and massage before I was styled and out the door. The price for my hour and a half experience? $8.

All else is well though. This is about all I feel like writing now. My brain has drifted into today’s wonderings. Check out the pictures below.

A must-read, by assassinated Sri Lankan editor who wrote this letter knowing he might be murdered. An except from the piece – “Last Thursday, Lasantha Wickramatunga, who was fifty-two years old and the editor of a Sri Lankan newspaper called the Sunday Leader, was assassinated on his way to work by two gunmen riding motorcycles. The Leader’s investigative reporting had been fiercely critical of the government and of the conduct of its war against Tamil separatists; Wickramatunga had been attacked before. He knew that he was likely to be murdered and so he wrote an essay with instructions that it be published only after his own death. Some mutual friends in the region sent a copy to me today. Read it in full below. It is like nothing else you will read today, that I promise.”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/stevecoll/2009/01/letter-from-the.html

The flights were smooth and the drinks were cold. My first flight from Minneapolis to Seattle went well and I slept most of it. After a few hour lay-over I was ready to board my next flight. I decided to wait to board the flight at the last minute because if there were any open seats better than mine I could snag one. Well what do you know, winner winner chicken dinner! Walking through the isle I found three middle seats open! I threw my bag down  to claim one and sat in the other. The flight door closed and I was smitten! The flight was extremely easy being that I could lay down. I landed in Beijing at 11:40PM and by the time I got my bags and out of the airport it was about 12:30. Two people from the company picked me up and brought me to the apartment were I crashed for the night.

First impressions:

Apartment – HUGE. It’s a three bedroom so I have two roommates. The living room has a big L couch and flatscreen TV. The kitchen is separate and the bathroom is pretty big. My bedroom is about the size of my whole apartment in Korea. I have a nice wardrobe and big desk. Overall, I’m pleased.

China (Beijing) – Polluted and grey. However dismal that may sound, it really isn’t. From what I’ve seen thus far, which isn’t much, Beijing is an interesting mix of old and new. There are loads of run down buildings intermixed with new ones. I haven’t explored other districts yet. Mostly just been finding my bearings in the area and getting over a little jet lag.

Food – No comments yet. I’ve only had two real Chinese meals since being here. Since it has been the Chinese New Year this week nearly everything is closed. The grocery stores are similar to other Asian countries. I am pleased to say that China is way cheaper than Korea was for groceries!

Work- – I start training today.

I remember once staring out the window on a train from Amsterdam to Frankfurt with a numbed mind. The train had just stopped and was beginning to pick up speed again. My eyes were dry and burning, clearly I celebrated too hard. My heavy lids opened then squinted out the window to see two sparrows flying along side the train. The two were swopping parallel to me through the cool fall air. They danced from side to side with the sun setting behind over a rolling pasture. Shimmers of gold, red, and yellow leafs waved on the passing trees littering the pasture. I found myself thinking of the birds. I thought about how they let winter approach with its grace, how flight gives them freedom, and how that must harmonize their mind. The shades from the sun, the sparrows, and the hills were all fluid right then. My awareness of the moment rose and the chill in my body warmed with a lush pulse. A single moment took me captive. All the chatter inside calmed as the moment turned meditative. I sighed, rested my head against the window, and let the scene fade.

That moment lasted only seconds and seems punitive in the grand scheme of seconds in our lives. Still, however brief, I’ve thought about that moment hundreds of times in the last 3 years. I think about how peaceful, complacent, and unique it was. I wonder now, did anyone else around me see and feel it too? Did anyone else feel as content as I did in those moments? For me, that moment was poignant and one I suspect happens very few times in life. A moment where you feel everything is perfect. Something happened then, something I struggle to explain but cannot forget.

—

If you didn’t know, I left PEC. Basically, I felt the area was not fit for students. There were serious safety issues with the area that concerned me. Also, I held disagreements with my partner. I found out he follows a very different set of moral codes and ethics than myself. In the end I didn’t feel comfortable ever putting students in a situation that could be potentially dangerous. I got rid of my share and left in December.

Funny, now I am going to wind up quoting myself from my interview with Matador, “Starting a business is like strapping into a roller coaster that’s being finished just feet in front of you. You’re never quite sure if you might derail, or reach the high of another peak.” Although the business was a success in the terms of student enrollment  a partnership, and function, the track verged and I ended up going a different direction. I could blabber on about the business lessons I learned but those aren’t the pertinent for this post. What I learned is nothing any class could ever teach.

Yes, I did lose some things. I lost pride and got a slap in the face that every entrepreneur needs. I lost my naïve attitude and innocent view of the way the world spins. I trusted too much and ignored my heart. I thought too much and felt too little. Two life lessons I will never forget.

Being in the US has been a blessing. Since being here I’ve been able to capture many blissful moments. Seeing old friends, creating new ones, celebrating Christmas with my family, and holding my newborn nephew. Even the notion of these makes me feel nostalgic.

So what’s up now? Well, I strapped back in and the vagabond continues! Another adventure commences and again I ponder…

Is this the end or just the beginning in disguise?

China, here I come.

I soar on this plane
To escape the snow
I leave this old town
And all that I know

The engines do slow
Then I’m in a different place
Where the moonlight glows
Shines on my tired face

There’s much sorting to do
And places to find
But what I need most
Is somewhere to rest my mind

In the morning I will wake
The sun will shine through
To fill my lungs with sweetness
And thoughts of you

It’s a traveler’s dilemma
I’m so far away
With thoughts of regret
But my decision was made

My eyes are heavy 
And this breeze is cold
My mind starts to wander
And feels alone

But then I remember
I’m no longer alone
I have these foreign faces
To make me feel home

Baguio: A cool place, literally and figuratively. The first place in the Philippines where I had to wear a fleece and jeans! It was a much needed from the heat of Puraran. Baguio is north of Manila on a night bus. We arrived super early in the morning so we had breakfast and hot coffee at a little local place. It was so nice having hot coffee in the cool air. Our group consisted of myself, Bryna, and two of her PC friends. While there we saw the well-known strawberry fields, which were bunk being it was off season. After that we explored around where Trevor (a PC friend) knew about a place we could eat dog. After a brief search we found it and headed in. It was a small Mom and Pop type of joint. We ate in the sketchy cement basement. No we did not see any dogs lingering around waiting to be ate. After a few Red Horses our courage was strong so we dove right in. First we tried little cups of soup. Really, there was hardly in meat in there so it didn’t really taste like much. Then they brought out the main dish. The meat was surprisingly delicious  It was the consistency of pulled pork or perhaps wild bore. Sort of a stringy texture. It was prepared on a skillet with a nice sauce. The locals there were quite surprised to see 4 foreigners in there mobbing dog meat. In the end they wanted a picture. (see below) After Baguio we headed to Sagada.

Sagada: Wow, what a beautiful place. Below are the highlights…

-Hanging Coffins

-Thanksgiving

-Caving

Buscalan:

The road of death:

-Gin and Brian’s Birthday Blowout

CHECK OUT THE WHOLE PHOTO ALBUM HERE!

It appears that there is a load of work to do but really it isn’t bad. Mostly it is cleaning, painting, and a little construction. We have to build the bunk beds, and dressers…other than that we have most of the bed supplies, mirrors, and other stuff all ready to go. We are just waiting till after the Korean company comes to visit. We want to see how it goes with potentially sharing renovation costs and what they are looking for in each room for the students.