Sabbath - Word Pictures

The Complex

There are so many buildings around here that each day as I commute I seem to see new ones. They are globs found off of the main arteries that the buses filled with bodies are found. The building I am in now I have walked within a 1/8 mile of many times but I never saw it despite it being 16 stories tall. It was masked by other buildings of equal or greater height. I'm in just residing in one cell of nearly 2,000 in this dense cluster. On average those 2,000 other cells have between around 4 life forms inside. That's nearly 8,000 people. Well that's if the numbers are right anyway. Even if they're only half right, it's still a large number. And this is just one complex located away from the heart of the city. And I'm just one of the ones living here.

Opportunity Strikes - again

I just finished talking with my brother on skype. Well I wasn't actually finished, but he had to be in order to go to work. We were talking about words and how they can take average people to above average places. Words are powerful - they can change how you feel and certainly help one decide what actions they will take. I remember back in high school reading Shad Helmstetter's book about self-talk and I got into a conviction that the power of words was where it was all at. Then I backed down as I tried to be realistic - after all saying "I have a million dollars in the bank" doesn't create that money instantly. Well, I probably should have been more inquisitive at that time, because as it turns out saying something like "I will work hard to get an 'A' on my test - I can already tell my hard work is paying off" can really help get you motivated to figure out what ACTIONS need to be taken to fulfill the dream. People have told me "it's hard to be a vegetarian in China", I don't know how they fared, but I told myself "this is a great place to be a vegetarian" and I've found quite a bit of delicious cuisine. You know I think it is a principle that God put into the world - that if we use positive words we can discover positive emotions, positive solutions, positive energy, positive perspectives. This is something that the I believe the whole world needs more of. Wouldn't it just be fabulous to see people giving out affirmations freely and smiling at the sunrise. You can.

English

Why is English such a valuable language. I know it's valuable because people will give a lot for their children to have the opportunity to soak up this beautiful language. Off the top of my head I can think of several reasons why English is important. The common language of business is English, the language of the Aircraft industry is English, computer code and the internet is based around English, from what I understand the medical industry especially for doctors and other highly educated positions need to know English and Latin, and of course English makes it easy to travel and live in some of the wealthiest and freest nations on the earth.

September 2012

Tomorrow marks the beginning of a new routine for me. I will be taking Chinese classes in the morning from 8-12. I'm excited to start soaking in more of this lovely language...it will do wonders in helping me really communicate with everyone around me. In the afternoons I will be on several missions: I will be teaching English at Huamei school again, except this year only for 9 periods and no administrative duties. Also in the afternoons I will be spending time with my buddy Ryan as we plan the launch of our kindergarten and Summer program. I am extremely fortunate to have an "adopted" family who I also get to hang out with and go swimming with and eat with throughout the week. I'll be staying at their home part time and part time in my new apartment.

It has been a great summer. I've gone places I never thought I would go and went to others I thought I wouldn't see for a few more years. Isn't life great - it's full of surprises and is always exciting.

Today a new teacher at our school commented that I'm "bubbling with optimism" - I was struck by that and thought about why I come across that way. It's true that over the last two years I have made it a point to be moving forward and purposefully trying to make myself a meaningful person and resource to organisations, and I guess that shows. However I definitely did not feel real optimistic many days and weeks this last year...I wondered what's next. All I knew is it was something new and different. Then the pieces started falling in place. Other people with the entrepreneurial spirit. Mentors and nay-sayers. Then some big goals starting forming, then bite size steps started forming. The key was when I said "yes this is where I'm going to have a blast, work my tail off, and enjoy life" my optimism started to rise again.

Thoughts:
-It takes the same energy to set a small goal as it does a large goal
-People saying it's tough, are really saying there is opportunity - if you can navigate your way
-Honesty and transparency really pay off - that doesn't mean sharing every thought, but keeping 100% integrity when you do
-Words are your greatest tool - when thought and spoken they set the course for your actions - being conscious about what you hear and see and choosing the best will add even more leverage
-Never stop reading and learning - decide what you want to learn and take action...be it a language, how to interact with people, how to manage money, or how to raise a child (even if you don't have any)

"I'm from France"

"You'll find Swiss Cheese here"

"Italy's floating city"

Europe Trip - synopsis

Well the summer is running its course. I am back in Guangzhou after an intensive Europe visit. Four countries and many cities in about sixteen days. We didn't stay in any city for more than two nights except for Paris where we stayed four nights. We went from Italy, to Switzerland, to Austria, and then to France.

There were several cities where I could have easily spent weeks: Paris and Rome being two of them. I was overwhelmed with all of the beautiful architecture across Europe. It was so refreshing - each building seemed to have so much thought and care put into it...this is in contrast to China where everything looks rather cheap and not well planned out (well okay, not everything, but that's the general feel).

Because of the group I was with I got to visit a lot of high end stores with Swiss watches and fancy handbags and almost priceless dresses. I personally didn't buy anything. Okay, I did buy some ice cream - and boy do they make awesome Gelato ice cream...delicious!

I'm glad to be "home" though...where I can get my cheap massages and hand pulled noodles.

Saturday Pics

Hi Reader,

Last Saturday I took several photos. They don't really have a great amount of rhyme or reason, but maybe you'll still find them interesting.

 My bedroom. It is a nice quite room. There is a computer desk in the corner, my bed and of course the closet. I am starting to learn guitar again!

 My fix to a broken backpack...the fix will last longer than the original pieces.

 Recently we acquired two little kittens at our home. They will have to grow a bit before they'll be able to take on the rat problem (since the rats are twice or thrice their size).

 The main road is always covered with trucks hauling stuff from factories to the ports I assume.

 A city of 15 million needs many lanes. They plan for growth, so even though these six lanes look a little barren now, look back in 5 years and you'll see plenty of traffic (or just look later in the day :).

 Unsuspecting shoppers. I shot this through a bus window. I want to take more photos of people's faces, but it always feels quite awkward.

 Colored light falling on the church floor.

 The source of the colored light is the sun + these panes of colored glass.

Random shot of the road near my home on the way to school.

2011-2012 Students and Staff

Here are a couple pictures showing our students this last year. Also you can see the American staff that I got to work with. Ryan, Lance, and I are going to miss these kids...they were great.

GIA 1st Grade

GIA 2nd Grade

GIA 3rd and 4th Grades

American Staff

Grandpas Birthday

Last night grandpa (referring to my Chinese family) turned 78. Pictured are: dad, grandpa, mom, mayor from Yangjiang, teacher Chen, and myself.

Reflection of Personal Life

Short reflection I had:

Earlier this year I applied for a bunch of contract jobs in Afghanistan. I never got any replies, but I'm very thankful for several reasons. Firstly, because Ryan and I have been looking at education opportunities in China that could provide a decent income - and this is more fun and innocent income. Secondly, my older brother got back to his base after an R&R trip he had, to discover his base had been hit by a massive semi-truck bomb. Luckily the bomb didn't get placed where Al-qaeda wanted it, otherwise it would have destroyed the whole base and killed hundreds if not more - as it ended up, two men died. My brother found the door to his lodging bashed in just from the repercussion of the bomb and the roof fell in at the building he worked at. Life is to short as it is, so I am looking towards just running a business and staying out of war zones.

I moved in with a Chinese family recently. They own a large plastics company here in Guangzhou. Nice family. They have a couple young children that I sort of tutor, but in a much more relaxed way. Tomorrow I'll be starting some Chinese classes. I can have a very simple conversation with people, as long as I get to guide it. I'm looking forward to learning a lot more! It is very fortunate that I will get to travel to Europe for three weeks this summer. The family I'm staying with asked me to come along with them - so it is a subsidized trip and may not be the kind I would plan, but I have absolutely no regrets.

My grandmother passed away about a month ago. She was 92 years old. I knew her time was running out, but you just never know when. I was thinking about going to the states this summer to see both of my grandmothers, but it would have been to late anyhow. A cousin got married and my younger brother and his wife are going to have a baby (boy). There were a handful of graduations in my family, 8th grade, high school, and college. My sister just got back to the USA and moved into her new home. My parents seem to be doing fine.

And life goes on. I have enjoyed my time in Asia and I look forward to many more years in this part of the world. At the right time I look forward to meeting a nice girl. Delayed gratification is the name of the game. Speaking of that, as of a couple months ago I am officially debt free. I didn't expect to get to that point that quickly, but I'm so happy I did. And my savings is already at a healthy level. I just feel blessed...on such a skimpy salary, great things can happen...of course it helps that I'm living in China, land of cheap everything.

Mango?

I thought I ordered a mango drink. Guess I got up-sold. To comfort myself I ordered a passion fruit drink which vaguely reminds me of the Coco's drinks - which is a very good thing. Pictured is an unknown drink that I'm cared to taste.

Sabbath

Last Sabbath there were a lot of people in attendance. I was talking to my friend Enoch and he suggested the high attendance was the result of the Dragon Boat festival. That is a national holiday so many people didn't have to work on Sabbath. In America I would expect someone to ask for the Sabath off - I don't know, but I suspect a lot of people are worried about losin their precious source of income, but maybe they don't hold the same regard as I do.

Where do you place your boundaries?

HMIS

Where I work.
In battleship terms "B4" is my office.

Children's Day

No classes! Just award, shows, and games.

Hello?

Right now I'm sitting at a park along the Pearl River and all around me are buildings that house probably more than 100,000 people and in this park I've only seen two people, a father and his daughter on a bicycle. Where is everyone?

Tea

Tea and fresh juice.

Good morning blog

Hey guys. So what's up? This week I successfully spent hours sitting and wondering what in the world I was supposed to do. I also did some stuff. But alas, maybe most of you did the same.

I hung out with some friends in the evenings more than usual. I was accused of being a work-ahic, so I'm hoping this will start the mending to my reputation. There was an interview with a potential teacher for next year too. Hammering out what the contract says. Oh, and I ate a lot of rice, noodles, and steamed buns.

Good times. Keep ya posted.

Walking the neighborhood

Good news I'll be blogging more now that my iPhone has a VPN. I'm excited because his will make snapshots of my life much more accessible to inquiring minds.

In the first pic you can see a retaining wall that fell apart in some recent rains. I felt bad because I just saw the people working on this a couple weeks ago.

2nd pic is of a city / farm area on the edge of town. By edge I mean, just past these buildings you cant go anywhere. The government says stop so you stop. There are no roads or paths in the hillsides just beyond...

Muslim Place

His is one of the newest interns at the Muslim place I like to eat. For 10rmb I get delicious subtly spicy noodles with egg and some veggies. Did I mention they are fresh hand pulled noodles. I love it.

Living - exploration leads to inspiration

School was officially over January 9. My teachers were really free after Friday the 6th, but I had some "stuff" to wrap up...which I semi-successfully completed that by 10am on the 9th...After taking care of the necessities I ran to my apartment to grab my things and join up with Ryan for a trip to Li Jiang and Shangri La. Up till now, for a variety of reasons I hadn't done any research on either, other than asking Ryan for some basic details, like, "will I need shorts or Long Johns and jeans?" Indeed it was the latter that would be necessary.

We paid a few hundred US dollars to fly to Li Jiang. We booked an Inn through agoda.com in the old town.
When we arrived in old town...a place of small streets that have no logical order...we failed to find our Inn. So we booked another place. Of course in this freezing area of China there is no real insulation and absolutely no heating in any Inns. I suppose we were lucky to get one that had hot water and a normal toilet (Ryan refused to use a squat pot).

Day 2: was spent on a tour going to Jade Snow Mountain and visiting some locals who performed a very thought out show for us. They gave us these dispensable canisters of oxygen. It's true...at 4,500+ meters the air gets a little thin...and they are bringing up all sorts of people, young and old.

Day 3 & 4: was traveling to Shangri-La and seeing some Tibetan buildings and culture. We visited the large and very impressive Shangri-La temple sight. Most of the people on our bus opted to not see the temple...which is odd, because that was the main reason why we came, and it's the most interesting thing by far there. On the morning of day 4 we awoke at 6:30AM in order to catch our 7:00AM breakfast and 7:45AM departure...ya, well no one was awake. Alas at about 7:30AM we left to go walking and explore. We found some yummy breakfast burrito things. It's hard to describe in Chinese let along English, but basically it was a rice tortilla shell with some gluten inside and a variety of spices and oils.

Day 5: included a foot massage, further exploration of Old Town and a lovely brunch with fantastic French Toast (and that's saying something, because that kind of stuff isn't easy to find in Hot Pot country).