People

Day 26
Heaven in China. In other words, Hangzhou. We arrived to Hangzhou to a beautiful day. It was sunny out and it was actually quite warm; the temperature was a pleasant 8°C. I have seen many things in my life. I remember a good amount of my time in China 4 years ago. The sites always seem to stay the same. 4 years ago, I bet most of the buildings in Hangzhou were the same. The lake was probably cleaner and maybe the buildings were more colorful. The streets, the stones, the grass, the trees, and all of the things that most people love to take pictures of are all probably the same and will probably remain the same. It is difficult to be original when everyone is taking the same pictures of a certain temple or lake or statue or art piece. Don’t get me wrong, I love temples and art pieces. They represent the culture of China, the meaning and the history of China; but I love being original with my photos. While all of those things remain the same, there is one thing that is forever changing…the people. Most of the pictures that I will put up will be something “original” in my mind. There will occasionally be the sunset or the building, but many of my pictures will be of people. People are always changing. And these pictures will not be posed, nor forced. These are candid pictures at their best. One benefit of walking around with non-asian westerners is that everyone stares. Eyes are key, and I always have people’s eyes when walking with my friends. Now you might be asking yourself just how exactly I accomplish these pictures. I have a Nikon D40 SLR Digital camera, in other words I can’t see the picture I’m going to take without looking into the viewfinder. So most of these pictures are taken with the camera hanging around my neck and I am holding the camera to my chest on top of my camera bag (which is like a giant fanny pack, http://products.lowepro.com/catalog/Sling-bags,4.htm) and I direct the camera with my hands and judge the angle of the lens and focus with my fingers. I don’t mean to brag, but it’s an art, and I’m awesome at it.


The first day in Hangzhou we went to a few temples and a strip of some street vendors. There we went to the top of two temples and viewed Hangzhou and the West Lake and it was very beautiful. We stopped for some tea, and I had trouble tasting them, but it felt good and that’s what tea is supposed to do. After touring the temples, we went to some HOT POT!!!! Hot pot was of course delicious, but like most meals in china, I can always eat more. After hot pot, we all felt like doing some KTV. We found a nice KTV and sang our hearts out for a good 2 hours, and then they felt like going to a club called G plus. I tagged along and just enjoyed their company. We got back home around 2am and immediately hit the sack. We woke up this morning around 10 and headed to West Lake. Today was much colder because there was no sunlight and we were also right next to the water. It was a cool scene to see all the boats in the water and to see the rock formations, but all I saw were models for me to take pictures of. I enjoy taking pictures of the extremes. Younger and older. I know I sound like a creeper and a stalker, but I don’t mean to make fun of people, patronize or put anyone down with these photos. We walked around a couple of islands and then they went into Starbucks (yuck). We took the train back home and that’s we I am now. It was a long a tiring day and so it’s now time to hit the hay. Enjoy the photos and there will be more to come.

Chinese New Year part 1

So here are some pictures of New Year Eve. i'll have more to report as the week goes on.

Blue skies

Day 22
Today’s forecast, cold, windy, but blue skies! You never appreciate the beauty of a blue sky until you live in an area where blue skies are a rarity. It was incredible to see buildings that I have never seen before. It was incredible to be able to look up and see BLUE! It was incredible to see the sun shining on buildings and make them look actually fake and too clean. It was incredible just to breathe clean air…that was until the bus rolled by and we sucked up it’s exhaust. So enjoy the beauties while you can, enjoy those things that you cherish; especially those little things which include blue skies.

Muse

Day 21
Why do people go to clubs? They go either to A: get drunk B: meet people of the opposite sex C: to dance D: all of the above.
Today was a typical work day, nothing to do, a few wins here in free cell and spider solitaire, but also a few losses as well (I was not pleased with myself about those losses). It’s amazing how difficult free cell can be and actually stressful; especially when the window blinks orange as a warning that says, “ HEY! YOU COULD LOSE SOON!....WATCH OUT, BE CAREFUL!” thanks free cell king. So I got to leave early from work because next week is the celebration of Chinese New Year. So that was awesome, and I had a great sleep on the bus, until some old lady bumped me, that jerk.
For dinner, one of the Next Step interns organized a dinner at a Japanese Hibachi grill. It was all you can eat and drink for 150RMB. It was AWESOME! I ate: salmon, some other kinda fish, pork, chicken, beef, steak, shrimp, oyster, ham, eggs, mushroom wrapped in bacon (I had to swallow it whole), white rice, fried rice, and probably some other things. So after they all got drunk from their Tsingtao beer and Sake drinking games, they wanted to go out on the town. So they decided we should go to this club called: Muse. It had these crazy walls made of wood that had circles cut out of them, these huge glass panels and mirrors that surrounded the bar overhead, crazy light shows, and some hip hoppin music (yeah right). So they kept drinking and I just people watched. It is so intruiging to me to witness people use their money to get totally wasted, and then try to pick each other up or act really cool to try to impress people. Maybe I have the wrong impression, but that’s how I see it, and I’m in no hurry to become part of it.
Why did I go to club “Muse”? Cuz I’m a “tag along”, and I had to look after my roommates. I know, I know, I’m a gentleman.

Congratulations!!!

Day 18
Well first things first, Congratulations to the Shull clan for they have added another member to their family. Cooper Elijah, welcome! We all can’t wait to see how you’ll grow into one of the best wrestlers of all time.
Well, the past few days haven’t been that exciting. Yesterday was work, which consisted of a little 3d modeling on Sketchup, a little meal and now Chinese lessons with Terry and Hou. A very awkward moment happened between me and the rest of the crew. One of the older ladies asked me if I had a girlfriend because she was thinking of introducing me to someone she knows, and then Terry asked if she had yellow hair. I said my first one did, and they all went,” ooooooooo!!!!” The older lady then asked me how many girlfriends I have had, and I said, “Two”. She looks at me in shock and then smiles and says that I should have had at least 10. She’s so nice, but I think I’m too young for her. Ultimate Frisbee was awesome except for the fact that I had no idea of how to get to the stadium. I new the metro stop and a general idea of where it was… about six blocks north from the subway station. So like Forest Gump, I just ran. And ran. And ran. And ran, stopped to catch my breath. And ran, and then called someone. I passed it.
Today was an exciting day at work because I was introduced to a new phenomenon called: Spider Solitaire. This is perhaps one of the most challenging but awesomeness game I’ve played on a computer for some time. I lost, I admit it, but then the fireworks were blazing (fireworks happen when you win) and I was the MAN! I was so worked up... I fell asleep on the bus. Luckily I awoke in time for my stop and stumbled off the bus and started preparing for Chinese lessons. Today’s lesson was probably my worst. I didn’t remember anything and I was just too hungry to do anything. So afterwards Anna and I ventured off to a local restaurant and we ordered some Xiao Long Bao (dumplings). We ordered 5 steamers full of dumplings. I expected it to cost at least 30 RMB….15 RMB= $2.35. I win cuz I’ll be eating there a lot.

Home

Day 16 Today was just another normal day. Chinese lesson with Cindy, which is awesome, a little shopping for some clothing stuff and then had a dinner with the rest of the interns. It was cool to meet and talk with the other people and to just hang out and of course have a great meal. It’s crazy to me to even think that I’m here and that I’m not back home in Connecticut or in Cincinnati. It has definitely hit me that I’m here in Shanghai, but it also hasn’t. I think because I’m in such a groove and I feel totally more comfortable here now, Shanghai just feels like home the same way the Cincinnati or Greenwich does. I guess that’s just the way I am. I think I am able to get some kinda groove or get comfortable enough to consider anyplace my home. Or at least it has been that way for the last three places I’ve lived. Even just saying that I’m living in Shanghai is weird to me. Just one month ago I was still in Cincinnati and getting ready to drive home to Connecticut. It’s amazing what can happen in one month, and I’m excited to see what happens in the next 5.

p.s. You ever eat jellyfish? It was gross…

Ultimate

Day 15
Today was a pretty awesome day. As many as you know I am an avid ultimate player and was very excited to see that Shanghai does indeed at Ultimate. So today was the first of many times to come for ultimate in shanghai. I met up with a guy name Nads, who took me to the fields via Metro, which is in fact pretty crazy and very crowded. I met up with some other ultimate people who are all basically Caucasian. It was awesome and just cool to be playing in Shanghai and to be with people that can speak great English. I am out of shape. My right hip hurts, I had cramps in both my calves while running for a disc, I knocked people over, was sucking wind…but that’s ultimate and I love it.
My third and final apartment mate arrived around 10am, but I didn’t get to meet her until later in the day. Like Caitlin and I, Anna just slept for the better part of the day. Anna is from Spain and she just graduated from law school. Cool stuff. We went into Xuijiahui to buy her a phone so she could use a sim card, and it was really cool to kinda talk with the sellers. I didn’t really understand them that well, but I had a new confidence in myself because of the lessons and just that I’m way more comfortable here now. We all went to this restaurant called: Little Sheep. They’re specialty: Hot Pot. If you never have had hot pot, you need to find a place that has it and go. It is basically like a Japanese Hibachi, but also kinda not. There is a large bowl of broth that is cooking in the middle of the table. And you order different types of raw meat and vegetables. We got beef, duck, bok choy, pork dumplings and sweet potato. You drop items into the broth, let the stuff cook in the broth and then dig in! It is probably entirely very unsantitary, but that’s China! It was delicious, but also very hot. The price was also great. It came to a total of 165.5 Yuan…=$24.26 for three people. Talk about a deal and a meal.