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A Cultural Conundrum

Monday, April 13th, 2009

Before I get into this, I have a wee bit of news to say. I have started blogging on a Chinese Expat blog site called Lost Lao Wai (Lao Wai = Chinese slang term for foreigner) as of a few minutes ago. I have just submitted my first post, which will be reposted here, for people too lazy to click on a different link.

So I present to you the first of (hopefully) many posted that was originally made on Lost Lao Wai!

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For those of you who have been in China know that “Hello! Where are you from?” is not an uncommon thing to hear from a complete stranger. However, last weekend, while I was on vacation in Qingdao, I was asked this in a rather uncommon way, that has got me thinking a rather uncommon thought.

I was enjoying my long Tomb Sweeping weekend in the breezy, quaint (by Chinese standards) city of Qingdao. It was my last day before I had to fly back to reality, so I was enjoying a nice stroll on the beach. The goal was to start at the May 4th Monument, and make my way down, past the Granite Mansion, and work my way back to the hostel that I stayed at.

On the second stop on the scenic walk, I came to a place called Music Square, which in reality is just a very large tent with a bunch of people singing, being lead by a group of very enthusiastic individuals in the middle. I walked along the outskirts, looking in, and having a smile. I have always enjoyed, and slightly envied, the Chinese outdoor singing and dancing that takes place frequently over here.

And that’s when I heard it.

“Hello! Where are you from?” a stranger panted to me.

It was a guy dressed in bright red from head to toe, including his microphone headset. Upon spotting me, he ran out of the centre to introduce himself. I told him where I’m from, and he asked me, with a host of spectators, if I would go and sing a song with them. I tried to duck it by saying that I didn’t know the words, and he assured me that it would be in English. Running out of excuses, I caved to the peer pressure, and agreed. In I went, dragging my Chinese travel companion in with me, whom he had somehow neglected to ask to join.

Now would be a good time to say one thing. My singing voice could be best described as the auditory love child of a growling badger and a dentist drill with a faulty motor.

As I stood in line with all of the other wannabe-pop-stars, the man who dragged me in said a few words in Chinese, all that I could clearly make out was “jia na da ren” and “ying wen” which translates to “Canadian” and “English”, clearly he was talking about me, but it must have been good because it was met with a rowdy ovation from the crowd. I was handed a microphone and my heart sank a bit.

A familiar tune struck, and I knew that I had heard it before, but where? A song from my youth? No. Something that I had heard in Scotland? I think so. As a few bars passed, I realized it. I had heard it sung very drunkenly every January 1st for as long as I can remember.

Like most people, I have heard Auld Lang Syne many times, but either myself, the singers, or all of the above, were far too inebriated to say the words properly. To my surprise the crowd started singing a Chinese version, leaving the English/Scots version to me.

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind.
Something, something, something, something, something, something, something.
Uhhh uhhh uhhh uhh hmmmmm hmmmm hmmm uhhh uhh uhhh uhhh uhh hmmmmmm
For auld lang syne my dear, for auld lang syne!

…and so on, and so forth.

As the audience clapped out the finish of the song, I felt my Scottish ancestors roll over in their grave.
After I left the song circle to more applause, and resumed my leisurely stroll, I got to thinking. One of the main reasons that I moved here to China was to be exposed to a different culture, and maybe learn a few things about this fascinating place, a goal which has been met with varying degrees of success over the past few months. But what parts of my culture and identity have I been able to show these people here?

Before anyone starts to clamour that I am some sort of a Western imperialist here to “civilize the hordes”, please hear me out. I am of the firm belief that no cultural interactions can ever be one sided. The countless stares that foreigners receive is imparting some view of Western culture onto the locals, whether it is the clothes, hair styles, or public comportment, we are making some sort of impression, right or wrong, on the people that we interact with. This means that my major cultural contributions have been zip-up hoodies, shaggy/receding hair, and giggling in public, I’m a regular Marco Polo alright.

Now, of course, the longer we stay in Asia the more we can see that Western culture is absolutely everywhere. So, perhaps any curious parties around here do not need any Westerner to teach them about their culture, since they have probably heard enough Western music, worn enough Western clothes, and celebrate enough Western holidays.

But surely there has to be more to Western culture than Nike and McDonald’s right? I think that it is our duty to try to pass on the less known, and dare I say more real aspects of our culture and traditions to anyone who is curious and interested, which judging by the stares and random questions, is probably a lot of people here.

Yet, here I was, with a chance to show of my Celtic tradition, by singing a very famous song written by the Scottish National Poet, and yet all I could fumble out was the first line and part of the chorus. I know that I could have easily sang more words of Ice, Ice Baby and Oops, I Did it Again, neither of which I’m very proud of.

So, with all of you blogees as my witness, I am going to make more of an effort to learn more about my real culture to be able to pass on to any interested parties on this side of the Pacific, because lord knows I’m interested in them.

However, I’m really at a bit of a loss as to where to start. I’ve tried to explain hockey, bilingualism, maple syrup, apologies, and other things Canadian, but as for my family’s British roots, I am a bit lost. So I am making a very public vow to talk to members of my family, and do some research on my traditional culture.

I am not certain if I will be taking to Highland Dancing, Irish Jigging, Burns recitals, or anything else of that sort, but surely I’ll be able to think of something. I think that Western Culture can offer a great deal to anyone who is interested, however, a number of us laoweis here seem to be stricken with a great deal of guilt and perceive ourselves as neo-imperialists, and are paralyzed to share none of our rich histories or traditions with many people who may be interested in learning about them. As such, we are leaving the impression that there is little more to the West than Britney Spears and Wall-mart, and if we don’t do something to show people otherwise, then they may just be right.

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Safe journeys,

G

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Posted in Random Tales, Traveling Tales | No Comments »

Suzhou: At Least We’re Not Lagos

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

Followers of this blog will notice that I have not made any real comment about Suzhou since moving here. To be honest, I haven’t felt fully qualified to comment on the city since I know that I haven’t experienced enough of it in the past few months to make a fully informative comment, and frankly, I haven’t been all that inspired to talk about Suzhou for a variety of reasons. However, today I finally found a bit of a Suzhouese muse.

The above title, is my new suggestion for motto of the fair town that I live in. Tourism ministry, it is all yours. This is coming from an article that I just saw in Business Week, which profiled the 20 worst places to work in the world, and good ol’ Suzhou ranked 14th.

Just to give it a bit of context, the article researched 55 cities outside of Canada, the US, and Western Europe, omitting any obvious places like Baghdad, Kabul, or Khartoum. They took into account a variety of factors including “levels of pollution, disease, political violence, and availability of goods and services”.

The worst offender as you would probably guess from my title was Lagos which is classed as a “Very High Risk Location” due to a lack of infrastructure, a high risk of violence, high pollution, disease, lack of medical facilities, and a low availability of goods and services.

However, I certainly was surprised to see Suzhou rank 13 spots lower as a “High Risk Location”, the report classes pollution and a lack of culture and recreation facilities as “Major Problems”, while levels of disease, sub-par medical and education facilities, and a low availability of goods and services as “Other Problems”.

Suzhou was one of five Chinese cities (joining Guangzhou, Tianjin, Qingdao, and Shenzhen) and was ranked in the middle of the five. All of these cities faced similar problems, with “pollution” being a major problem for all of them.

So the obvious quesiton is, how accurate is the report?

To be honest, I don’t really know, as I have only lived in one of the cities on the list, and I have only traveled to a handful of the others (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City), however I feel that they have certainly hit some very good points about Suzhou.

While I am no scientist, I certainly feel that I can’t accurately comment on the pollution level, however back in January I had to miss four days of work with a chest infection, which could certainly say something about the risk of diseases. However, I was given first class medical treatment at a local clinic, which is an antecdotal strike against the “Medical Facilities” concern.

Also, as someone who works in one of the “educational facilities”, I certainly take a bit of offense to that one. There are a few western schools here (including mine) which seem to be every bit as good as are available in other major cities.

The major one to me though is the “culture and recreational facilities”. To be honest, there is a part of me that wants to agree wholeheartedily, and a part of me that wants to flat our disagree. See Suzhou is dividied into three distinct areas, there is the Old Town, which has canals and old gardens, Suzhou Industrial Park, a newer area where I live, and Suzhou New Development, which is on the other side of the city and I do not know too much about to be honest.

The Old Town is simply a great place for culture. The gardens, vibrant shopping district, and museums can great for culture vultures. However, it can be quite the challenge to access the Old Town from other parts of the city, as traffic can be dreadful.

Suzhou Industrial Park is a much newer area, which by definition, makes it lower on culture. However, there are some new and exciting developments that increase the culture and recreation in the area. A few years ago the Suzhou Science & Culture Arts Centre (SSCAC) opened up, and it plays English movies, Chinese ballet and operas, and a variety of other concerts and events, including one that I talked about once before. Also, there is a new area of nice restaurants and classy cafes that is still being developed called Li Gong Di, that should up the culture in the surrounding area.

Also, and more importantly, is the development of a subway line that links the three regions of Suzhou together. It is scheduled to be open in 2010, and should go a long way to opening up the Old Town, and thus improving everyone’s culture and recreational activities.

So while, I do find myself bored or unstimulated here on occasion, I think that there is help in the future. It seems to me that Suzhou, like so many other cities in China, just expanded far too fast in recent years and the developers did not take recreation into account. However, they seem to be trying to fix that, so I would expect they city to drop a bit if Business Week wants to do another survey based on this fact alone.

Who knows, we may even rank better than Kiev or Santo Domingo?

Now about tackling that pollution thing….

Safe Journeys,

G

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Posted in Rants, Suzhou Stories | 3 Comments »

20 Meaningful Albums

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

After the wild success of the “25 Random Things” on Facebook, it seemed destined that music geeks around the world would find something to combat this meme. Thankfully, there was indeed something to come out. I was tagged of this one the Book, and decided that it would be better served as a blog post as well. Feel free to copy this idea (since I clearly did) and post it yourself, and if you are writing this on Facebook, please tag 20 (or so) people who you would like to know about their musical tastes.

The rules for this are simple, find 20 albums that mean the most to you and tell us why. These do not need to be in any particular order, and in no means should represent your thoughts on the 20 “best” albums, just ones that have a special meaning to you in some way, shape or form.

Sounds simple right? Well I thought it was going to be a simple exercise, but then I started writing, and I had a hard time stopping. It amazed me how much my history of musical tastes, is so interrelated to my own personal history, not only serving as a backdrop, but occasionally as a major player, developing a story of its own….enjoy!!!

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1. Arcade Fire — Funeral

I’ll always remember the moment that I acquired this album. I had just got off a bus stop when I noticed someone drop something. Desiring to be the good Samaritan, I rushed through the crowd to pick it up and return it, however, by the time that I fought my way over to what they had dropped, the very person had boarded the very bus that I just got off from and the doors closed, leaving me with a CD in my hand. After processing the events, I went home, and curiously put it into my stereo, and everything changed.

Alright, so I made that all up. My story of how I cam across the most meaningful piece of art is far less romantic than that, and to be honest, is a little bit sad.

Like most of my musical moments of my University days, they traced back to one man, Ryan McNutt. See McNutt (whose blog I have linked to on multiple occasions), is far more of a music geek than I have ever been, and has provided me with countless suggestions and insights into music at different points in time.

It was late in 2004, and I was discussing some record or another that should be the album of the year, and he interjected and told me that his pick was by a Montreal band called “The Arcade Fire”. I nodded and said that I would check it out. The next day, I went out and downloaded a few of their songs, and to be honest, I was not all that impressed. I thought that they were good, but far from great, and I paid them little attention for months.

Then one day, while I was more or less dissatisfied with my life, “Rebellion (Lies)” came on my iTunes shuffle, and I heard something different. Something resonated with me that wasn’t there before. I can’t place my finger on it, but it just sounded…better.

The next time I found myself in a record store, I knew that I needed to buy this album. While I had heard most of the songs on it before, I had yet to hear it that way before, and in that particular context. I was amazed at the symmetry of the album, and how beautifully all of the songs were put together (in particular “Haiti” and “Rebellion (Lies)”). I was spell bound at the art work on the cardboard case. I studied the lyrics and extracted meanings upon meanings.

My lack of income and fast internet connection had turned me into a downloader for most of my University days. I had forgotten the beauty in an album, the story it tells from it’s opening song, down to its aesthetics. Thankfully, along came Funeral and reminded me that an album really is more than a collection of songs, it can be something so much more.

While I could go on and on about my love for this album, I suppose that I have committed to talking about 19 others…

2. Nirvana — Unplugged in New York

Back in the mid-90s these new things called “CDs” came out. Apparently they were much more convenient and durable than tapes. Needless to say, my younger sister and I wanted them, badly. But we had quite the problem, no CD player. We asked Santa for one, but nothing came. We saw how great they were at friends house, and longer for one of our own, when finally our mother gave in and bought one for our house.

Since we obviously needed to expand our collection, my mother signed us up for one of those stupid record clubs that the internet has thankfully killed. For those of you who don’t remember, there were these companies that gave out deals were you could buy 12 CDs for 1 cent each, if you bought several other CDs for a vastly inflated price. It sounds like a good deal and all, but to be honest, the choices of CDs simply weren’t any good.

My mother told me that I could pick out as many of them from the list as I wanted, and I did not really liked any of them, so I ignored it. I am sure now that if I looked back I would find all sorts of hidden gems and CDs that I would absolutely adore, but that simply was not the case when I was 12.

I wanted what all pre-teens want more than anything, acceptance from their peers. I was always looking for some bands on this master list that I had heard of, and finally I noticed one that was not The Backstreet Boys. I was a little bit too young and dorky to get into Nirvana when it mattered, but I knew that I had heard a few of their songs on the radio and I did like them, so I jumped when I saw Unplugged in New York.

I discovered a host of other great CDs (including several other by Nirvana), and this one became largely forgotten. However, when I entered a more adult phase of my musical life I rediscovered how beautiful this live album is. When I listen to it now, I am amazed that my 12 year old self could appreciate something as mellow, raw, and nostalgic as this album, but somehow I did. I’d like to think that it was other reasons than just wanting to fit in, but that may be a little hard to say now.

3. Cake — Fashion Nugget

There are many advantages to having an older sibling, but one of the most tangible is an earlier parent free access to a car. Of course, one of the other advantages to this is that you get to listen to their much older (and usually better) musical tastes while they are driving.

While my older sister, has introduced me to a great deal of excellent bands (and I’d like to think that I have repaid her in recent years) one of the ones that really sticks out to me is Cake. They are a band that is not so big, so I can not really assume that I would have found them on my own, and certainly not so early. Either way, this would quickly become the sound track for car rides with my two sisters, and very much remains a band with a strong familial connection for me (and presumably the other two as well). Special mention to “Stickshifts and Safetybelts”, THE definitive road-tripping song.

4. Everclear — So Much for the Afterglow

Another album that has a special place in our family to me. The major exception being that my older sister and I arrived at this one independently of one another, and to no surprise, we both loved it.

The songs of a broken family held a special resonance with me at a particularly challenging time in my teenage life. The song “I Will Buy You a New Life” was particularly poignant for me in my summer before I was about to move to Nova Scotia, and start a new life of my own. Whenever I hear this CD I am taken to a bit of a hard place, but am relieved to know that I made it out fine enough.

5. Eminem — The Slim Shady LP
6. Eminem — The Marshall Mathers LP

Eminem’s major label debut was another musical gift from my older sister, as she had heard it just before it really broke through. I fell in love with his witty and relevant lyrics, violence and anger aside. It is worth noting that this was shortly after I moved to Nova Scotia, and I remember being mocked for my choice in “scary death music”, but that just led to me listening to this amazing album on my own.

Of course, after a year and a bit, “The Real Slim Shady” became a huge single, and helped propel everyone to rush to the store and go for The Marshall Mathers LP.

Needless to say, I was able to listen to that one in whatever company I wanted.

7. Matthew Good Band — Beautiful Midnight

Not all of my musical energies were being devoted to angry but intelligent rap at the time. There was still a rock starved side to my soul that was drowning in the sea of Brittney-pop that was the late 90s/early 00s.

Thankfully, I found an outlet with this aptly titled, beautiful album.

I think that this is legitimately one of the best put together albums I have ever heard. The track listing here is near perfect. Instead of just going with the traditional track number, each song was given an hour of the night, and each song matched the mood of that particular time. My favourite of course being “Let’s Get it On” for midnight.

8. New Radicals — Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too

I have a bit of a strange story to acquiring this album (and a real one). See when the single “You Get What You Give” came out in 1999, I was not particularly impressed with it. I mean, it was catchy, but I just didn’t seem to get it. My younger sister when out and bought the CD, and seemed to listen primarily to the single, which quickly reached one hit wonder status. I did not think too much about it and moved on.

Fast forward a few years, and I was dragged to some god-awful movie with Mandi Moore (A Walk To Remember maybe? I really don’t remember, someone please help me out with this one) and it used the song “Someday We’ll Know” from this CD, which I instantly recognized from the CD. Somehow, when I heard it in that theatre, I got it.

That summer when I went home, I borrowed it from my sister and listened to the CD front to back a number of times, and fell in love with it. From the stellar opening “Mother We Just Can’t Get Enough” to the depressing “Crying Like a Church on a Monday” finisher, this CD has it all. It chronicles an amazing romantic journey with highs, lows, twists and turns.

Thankfully she let me keep the album from then on, and I can fully appreciate it all the time.

9. Hawksley Workman — Lover/Fighter

Like a lot of Canadians, I grew to like both “Striptease” and “Jealous of Your Cigarette” by Hawksley Workman, mostly for their perverted connotations. I decided to purchase Lover/Fighter on a bit of a whim, and have never lived to regret it. Like the last few albums I have listed, this is amazingly put together as the character in the songs alternates between a lover and a fighter from song to song. Also, this started my backwards journey of Mr. Workman, which has led to some of my absolute favourite and personal of songs on my playlists.

10. Green Day — American Idiot
11. Franz Ferdinand — Franz Ferdinand
12. The Killers — Hot Fuss

From the fall of 2004 to the spring of 2005, I worked as a Recruitment Officer for Acadia University. One of my major responsibilities was to drive around to different high schools all over the Maritime Provinces. Needless to say, this involved a lot of time alone in a car, so a good CD collection was an absolute must. I bought (and made) several CDs over the course of that year, but these three stand out as the best purchases to soundtrack the open road. Whenever I listen to any of these now, I am taken back to stunning East coast scenery and some deep and personal thoughts.

13. Arctic Monkeys — Whatever People Say, That’s What I’m Not

After a year working for “The Man”, I moved to Scotland for a year. While there I got to experience a bunch of excellent British bands the way they were meant to be experienced, fervently. However, the biggest explosion came in January of 2006, when The Arctic Monkeys released their debut album. Records were shattered, people were amazed, and great musicians earned their place in the spotlight. Not only is this a fantastic album, but it really helped me understand that depth and scope for the British passion for great music.

14. Broken Social Scene — You Forgot It In People
15. Wilco — Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

These two fantastic albums came into my life a little late, but were still incredibly appreciated. For a variety of reasons, these two would soundtrack any late night lesson planning or marking I was doing in either Teacher’s College or during my first year of teaching. If you ever need any music to play while you are questioning your career motivations, these two albums get my highest recommendation.

16. Sufjan Stevens — Seven Swans

While I will fully acknowledge that either the Michigan or Illinois albums are far superior to this Sufjan release, this one still holds a very special place in my heart. I first got into this album at a point that seems like a life time ago. I was really falling for this very special girl, who shall remain nameless for a variety of reasons. I would often play this very mellow and reflective album when I was alone and thinking about her. Now her and I did not work out, for another variety of reasons, but this album and I worked out just fine. Whenever her and I were together we would often listen to different music, so I never formed a direct connection between her and this album, instead these tracks became connected with the feeling of love to me. Whenever I listen to these songs (especially “The Dress Looks Nice on You” and “To Be Alone With You”) I can’t help but feel like I am falling in love again, even if it is just with the gentle melodies.

17. Sigur Ros — ( )

Last year, I was in a state of flux, starting a new career, with a very busy and demanding schedule. As a result, I had difficulties fully slowing down at the end of the day, and I would find myself tossing and turning for hours at a time before falling asleep. Thankfully, this album came along to help me. The volumes that are spoken in this album are simply astounding, despite the absence of any real language. The album seems like it was designed for someone to fall asleep to, as it starts out a little restless, but eventually clams down, only to softly stir later on.

18. Stars — Nightsongs
19. Kanye West — Graduation

Before I start let me get two important things out of the way: Firstly, I realize that this is an incredibly bizarre album pairing, and secondly, I am also fully aware that both of these albums pale in comparison to some of the other works by the band and artist. Last year, while living in Oakville (the suburbs of Toronto) I got to become something that I had never really been before, a semi-regular concert goer. I went to as many concerts as I could, and thoroughly enjoyed them all, however two really stand out to me, Stars in November, and Kanye West in May. Both shows were fantastic, but the most memorable moments of each show came when they played songs from the albums listed above, “On Peak Hill” and “Flashing Lights” respectively. So whenever I hear any songs of either album, I am taken back to some special moments experiencing music the way it is supposed to, in the ringing of the ears and shaking of the chest.

20. Arcade Fire — Neon Bible

It ends how it begins.

After having such a fantastic experience with their debut album, I had lofty ambitions for their follow up, and I was not at all disappointed. When I first heard this album I was simply amazed. More than Funeral I felt that this album was made for me. “Ocean of Noise” described my previous relationship, “My Body is a Cage” described the one I was in at the time, and I feared that my future would be written in the “Neon Bible”. I listened to this album almost obsessively, even sneaking to my computer to hear it during my lunch breaks at school, and every time I found something else that was somehow, someway connected to my life at the time.

Had they written it just for me?

Obviously, I can only assume that they did not, but it felt like it at the time, and looking back I feel it still. While Funeral reunited my love for music, and reminded me of what it was capable of, Neon Bible took it a whole different level for me, and made it personal. It reminded me that music can mean a different thing to everyone in this world, and that is what makes it so special, the fact that you can genuinely feel like an artist is making something for you.

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So there we have it, a lot longer than I anticipated, but done none the less. Hopefully you’ll share your lists too, fair is fair after all!!!

Until next time,

G

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Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Monday, February 23rd, 2009
They say that breaking up is hard to do, and well they sure are right.
With a heavy heart, I would like to inform you that this blog is breaking up. I know that this may come as a surprise to a lot of you on the outside, but trust me, it has been a long time coming. The differences between this blog’s rant and rave, nerdy opinions style, and the more personalized travel focus and description of my adventures, has just become too much to bear. As such, from here on out, those two sides shall never meet again.
The opinionated side of the blog won the real estate in the settlement, as such Getting Glenergized will remain focused on my personalized opinions and pursuit of life’s nerdy passions, with particular focus on politics, music, sports, and wrestling. While my travel adventures have fittingly moved to a new location, called Reflections of a Backpacker’s Soul. The new site has already imported any old travel stories, and has been setting up a nice bit of space. Both sides agree to stay friends, and are going to provide links and feeds to one another, to show no ill will.
More than anything, neither side wants to put you, our readers, in the middle, so please try to make time for both blogs. We understand that you may have less time for either of us, and we don’t want to get too needy, but we do love keeping you around, so please stick stay in touch, we’d hate to loose you.
Until next time,
G
and:
Safe Journeys,

Posted in Cruising on the Information Superhighway, Glen News | No Comments »

A Series of Unfortunate Events — Christmas 2008 Edition

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Prelude – The Best Laid Plans

The following is a special joint blog from Glen and Elvina outlining some of the perils and pitfalls of their travel to Vietnam and Cambodia over Christmas. Before reading, be clear of one thing. Despite the number of setbacks along the way, this has been an excellent trip so far, and both of us would fully recommend a trip like this to anyone.

Glen’s Song: “Nowhere With You” – Joel Plaskett
Elvina’s Song: “Imitosis” – Andrew Bird

Glen: The plan was simple enough. Fly from Shanghai to Shenzhen, take a ferry to Macau, and overnight there. Afterwards, wake up very early and catch a cheap Viva Macau flight to Ho Chi Minh City. Hang out in Southern Vietnam for a few days before taking a riverboat up to Phnom Penh, Cambodia on the 24th, and spend the rest of the Christmas holidays in Cambodia.

John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens when you are making other plans”, and let me tell you, we were in for a dose of life.

Elvina: Where oh where to begin? The few weeks leading up to holiday have been busy, busy, busy – as I moved into another apartment, wrote 18 student reports and pre-planned for our trip. The geek at heart still managed to find time to draft a chronological itinerary of our plans in a spreadsheet. With all the stress at home and at work, it was comforting to know that a great time was waiting as the light at the end of the tunnel.

Early on, we decided that since we’d be let out of school at noon on Friday the 19th, we’d like to spend the night in Shanghai and fly out the next morning. We looked carefully at the Shanghai subway map and compared it to the addresses of hostels. We found and chose one that was within walking distance to the metro line that was two stops away from the Maglev to Shanghai Pudong airport, on the east side of the city.

Chapter 1 – The First of Many

Glen’ Song: “Escape is at Hand for the Traveling Man” – The Tragically Hip
Elvina’s Song: “Leaving On A Jet Plane” – Chantal Kreviazuk

Glen: It is worth noting at this point that we rejected a hostel that looked ideal, great rooms, good price, but it was in the wrong location. It was on the West Side of the city, and closer to Hongqiao airport. Yes, a city the size of a small country has two fairly large airports. Don’t forget that part.

Our night in Shanghai went without incident or omens. Nice dinner and drinks with good friends, many of who were heading across the Pacific Ocean for Christmas. We woke up the next morning and began making our way to Pudong Airport.

As we were crammed into the very congested Shanghai subway cars, a sudden realization came over me. I had forgotten my alarm clock in the hostel. I mentioned this, thinking that I would leave it. Really, I didn’t want to abandon my clock, since it was very handy to travel with, and I knew that we would need to wake up early the next morning to catch our flight out of Macau.

Looking at my watch, we decided that we had time to make a 10 minute backtrack to fetch my clock, while Elvina wait at the Maglev station to catch the super 430 km/h train to the Pudong airport.

Elvina: We were plenty good on time, so I wasn’t worried at all. We got off the very crowded train, crossed over and caught a similarly crowded train back to where we started. We decided I would stay on the platform with all of our bags while Glen make a quick run back to the hostel and fetch the alarm clock. There I waited, noting that the trains were coming every 5 minutes or so.

Glen comes back about 15 minutes later, explaining that getting the alarm clock was no problem at all but got held up trying to pay for the subway. Like most automated machines, the ones that sell tickets in the Shanghai metro prefer coins or near perfect bills. So Glen spent some time unsuccessfully feeding his non-perfect monetary note into several machines before someone eventually helped him out. And now we were on our way!

Glen: I’m sure at this point you may be getting bored of this, and wondering just what we are going to start complaining about. Well keep reading, because the first calamity occurred right after we got to Pudong.

We got to the airport with barely enough time. We knew that we had to hurry, so we quickly ran around the busy terminal and made our way to the Shezhen Airlines check in counter. We thought it odd that our flight was not listed, but thought little of it, and got in the line for a different flight offered by the airline, and assumed that they could sort us out.

After making our way to the front of the line, which is never an easy task in China, we presented our e-ticket to the woman behind the counter, and she looked very confused.

She spoke some incomprehensible words to Elvina. Clearly, my Chinese lessons were not progressing at light speed. I was more thankful than ever to be traveling with a fluent Mandarin speaker.

Elvina looked at me, laughed a bit and said, “We went to the wrong airport.”

I told you to not forget about the two airports. Clearly, I hadn’t given that same advice to myself.

Lucky for us, (Despite everything that we told you and are about to tell you, I am amazed at how many times that I start a sentence with that particular fragment) there were several flights a day to Shenzhen, and it only cost us around $40 each to change our flight to a later one. To help kill the time, we also had an hour-long bus ride to the other airport.

For the next several hours, both waiting in the airport, and en route, we would repeatedly laugh and say “We went to the wrong airport”, followed by “Rookie mistake!” Both Elvina and I have traveled a fair amount, and really should have known better.

We agreed that it was just a bit of overconfidence, and we would not make a careless oversight like that again for the rest of the trip. We were half right, but unfortunately, not the right half.

Elvina: We found this episode very funny, and our excitement was in no way deflated. We got on the bus to the correct airport and got all checked in once we were there. Waiting in line to go through security, we were fairly excited, being at the beginning of a great trip. I went through first, and as usual, made the metal detector go off. So while I’m standing up on the platform getting wanded, I notice Glen having some trouble at the desk where the security guard is sitting. I try to find out what’s going on but security just says he has to go back for something. Glen waves that everything is okay and he’ll meet me inside. Off I go, unclear of whether I should wait right there or go to the boarding gate. After some dilly-dallying and noticing that there are two security check points, I figure it’s best to go to the boarding gate. And yay, we found each other. Apparently part of his boarding pass had fallen off and he just had to go back for a new one. So we sit down with a big sigh of relief and Glen says to me that since these little bloopers happened to us early on, we were probably in for smooth sailing the rest of the trip.

Chapter 2 – Macanese Nights

Glen’s Song: “Pure Morning” – Placebo
Elvina’s Song: “Bottom of the Barrel” – Amos Lee

Glen: So, I was wrong about the smooth sailing bit, dead wrong.

Before I realized this, we got to Macau in need of a good nights sleep. Since, it was a Saturday, and the “Vegas of the East” is a bumping place on the weekends, it was hard to find a cheap place to stay. After doing a bit of research, we settled on what appeared to be a lovely and cheap place, pictured here.

Go ahead, take a few minutes to be captivated by the nice website. Don’t the rooms look great? Nice rooms, prime location, and cheap rates. What more could a traveler possibly ask for?

The truth.

After arriving at the place, we were shocked at what we saw on the website compared to what we saw in real life. Dirty is a word that gets thrown around so much that it tends to lose its meaning.

This place was freaking-filthy. The place looked like it belonged in a horror film. The narrow, I just imagined some hapless victim trying to run down the narrow and darkened stairs. A smell came over me, which I assumed was a cross between clogged sewage and dust from the 1960s. Brown water and tiny bugs came out of the tap when you turned it on, so needless to say, showering was out of the question.

Elvina: It was fairly easy to get from the Macau airport into the city. Taxis were waiting for us, without the need to haggle prices, as they ran the meter. The car doors were even automatic, the driver would push a button and the door would open for us. Armed with the address and directions that the hotel emailed us, and wanting to flex some Cantonese muscle, I showed/told the driver where we wanted to go. He was brought us where we needed to be and pointed into an alley that we’d need to walk into. He was funny, said he would take HK dollar, US dollar, Chinese Yuan, anything… so long as it was real.

We head into this alley and find the place up a narrow flight of stairs. I often judge things too soon, and have been working on that. So I told myself that it was an old building and would be better once we got there. We get the “front desk” and there is just an old man who only speaks Cantonese, none of the polite, English speaking staff that we had been in email contact with. He wants a printout of our booking, which I don’t have, and he proceeds to lecture me about not bringing it. He takes out a ratty old notebook marked in Chinese, numbers and letters. We see a GL and point at it, as our reservation. He keeps lecturing us, that without the printout, he really shouldn’t be giving us a room but since he has vacancies tonight, he will.

So he gives us a key and directs us to a room right near the desk. We unlock this room and just laugh. The walls don’t touch the ceiling so you are basically in a big cubicle. There is a sink in the corner of the room that looks as if it only dispenses rusty water, a fan, and some furniture from a yard sale.

We put our stuff down and go for a walk, trying to make the most of the Macau night. We had a nice stroll, after all. We get back to the hotel, knowing we have to leave at 4:30 anyway. I am scared of what I might catch in the bed, so I sleep in the clothes I’m wearing, not wanting to come in contact with much else. The alarm goes off and we get out of there pretty much right after.

Chapter 3 – Access Denied

Glen’s Song: “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” – The Clash
Elvina’s Song: “Help!” – The Beatles

Glen: We got to Ho Chi Minh City, and everything seemed to be going to plan. Our hotel was easy to find, and quite nice. We saw some museums, crawled in some tunnels, did some shopping and had a great time. But alas, this is a post about things not going well; so let me skip ahead to December 24th.

After seeing some of the Mekong Delta, and staying at the border city of Chau Doc, the plan was to take a boat up the Mekong River into Cambodia. We even met this great other couple and discussed the possibility of going out for a Christmas dinner in Phnom Penh, and possibly exchanging some tacky presents with one another. It seemed like the recipe for a Merry Christmas, a good thing for a Grinch like me.

So there we were, sitting on a boat, approaching the Cambodian border. The tour guide came around to collect everyone’s passports, in order to arrange visas for all. He takes mine, looks at it, and returns it with no problems.

Then, he takes Elvina’s and things start to go down hill.

Elvina: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so nice time in Ho Chi Minh City. Now, all of that seems a blur of tourist sites and being hassled by peddlers on the street. But fast forward to sitting on the “fast boat” to the Vietnam/Cambodia border. Glen has already set the stage.

The tour guide flips through my passport and I can see on his face something is not quite right. He looks at me and says, “You don’t have any more pages.” I flip to the blank pages but he points at where it says “Amendments and Endorsements.” A lot of gesturing to those pages and being gestured at other pages which say “Visas” up at the top.

Blur.

“You can’t cross the border.”

Blur.

My first instinct was to cry. My second instinct was to negotiate. My first lucid thought was that I was holding Glen back from going into Cambodia.

After gathering enough composure to ask the tour guide what to do next, we learned that I had to go back to Ho Chi Minh City to get more pages from the US consulate. It just took forever and a day to get here and we were going back?? So we get dropped off at the dock, where we eat lunch. Shortly after, we head back on the same boat, then a six hour bus ride back to HCMC. The night we arrive, Vietnam had just beat Thailand in a soccer match. The streets were insane – motorbikes everywhere, people clanging on pot lids and noisemakers and waving the Vietnamese flag. We got stuck in the kind of traffic that I would never be able to drive myself out of. I felt amused by this, but mixed in with annoyance and anger at myself.

There we were, dumped off at the main backpackers’ drag and found a hotel to stay at within a few minutes. I don’t remember what happened next, I just wanted to go to bed and wake up with the problems solved.

Glen: Yeah, I didn’t leave her and go to Cambodia by myself, as tempting as that may have been.

Chapter 4 – The Ghost of Christmas Plans

Glen’s Song: “Plans” – Bloc Party
Elvina’s Song: “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!” — Sufjan Stevens

Elvina: (ed note: please do not make implications from this song title, as this was NOT the worst Christmas ever.) I woke up on Christmas morning, but it turns out, the aforementioned incident was not a bad dream. We started strategizing and decided we would go to the consulate tomorrow and treat ourselves a nice Christmas. We spent the day wandering around the streets of HCMC, booked a flight to Siem Reap the next day, shopped for touristy stuff, found a vegetarian restaurant (actually found a bunch so we actually had choices) and then Glen got a haircut while I got a very strange pedicure for between $1-2. We had a traditional Christmas dinner: vegetarian Indian. The restaurant even had a Christmas tree outside. The waiter asked Glen if he would like it spicy. Glen answered yes and would regret this later.

We went back to the hotel to Skype our families to say Merry Christmas. First, we decided to call the US consulate so that I could be well-prepared in the event that they required any documents or information. I went to their web site, which we had just checked the day before. It said on the calendar of federal holidays that it was closed on Thursday, December 25 for Christmas. Sure, straightforward enough. Well, okay, tonight, looking on the page for their 24-hour serviced phone number, it had a special note saying that the consulate was closed also on Friday, December 26. That meant, given the weekend, we couldn’t get to the consulate until Monday.

Glen: Yeah, we really should have read that note about it being closed on the 26th, but I guess we figured that our luck was due to turn around by then.

So yet again, we were forced to make a plan in a hurry. In planning for this trip, we looked into a number of places, particularly in Vietnam, to go to, but did not think that we had enough time. Well, apparently we had a few more days to kill in Vietnam, so no point in standing still! We decided to go to Hoi Ann, since it seems like such a cool old place to go. But we had a few things to take care of first, namely the flight to Siem Reap booked for later that day.

We went to one of the many travel agents doting the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, and were able to change our flight to the 29th with relatively little hassle. Now, we just wanted to find a way to Hoi Ann. We figured a bus or train would be the best alternative, but we forgot one of the cardinal rules of traveling in Asia, distances can be deceiving.

While Hoi Ann looks close to Ho Chi Minh City on a map, Asian road and rail networks are nowhere near as developed as their Western counterparts, and it would take over 12 hours by train, and around 20 hours by bus to get there. This really would not have given us enough time to see the city at all.

So we did something that I you would never be able to do in the West. We went to the travel agent, and asked about flights to Danang (the nearest airport to Hoi Ann) that were leaving that day. He said that there was a flight going at 3:30pm. We looked at our watches, and noted that it was in fact noon. Surely, they could not sell a plan ticket to a foreigner with such little time, could they?

There was little time to ask them about the security concerns, so we said that we would take it. However, the only seats left were in Business Class. Sure it increased the cost, but it was still not that expensive, given that it was a forty-minute flight.

The travel agent, then called us a cab, and before you could say “Random Security Screening” we were in the Business Class lounge at the Saigon Airport.

Elvina: It all seems like a blur but in the course of one day (probably an extremely busy day at malls back home) we had changed a plane ticket, bought a new one, had lunch, and flew to another city for dinner. Speaking of dinner, we walked into a hole-in-the-wall place simply because it advertised vegetarian dishes. Upon sitting down, we quickly realized the lack of menus, save for a little piece of paper stuck the wall with less than 10 items. We used our limited Vietnamese menu knowledge to figure out what was what. We pointed, and got food. Pretty simple.

Walking around Danang was not much to write about. Yes, it was night time by then, but it is a dark and quiet little town, without much going on. We just slept off the surreal day and woke up early to go to Hoi An. It took a bit of searching to find the bus station. In the end, we never found it but some locals told us to just wait by the side of the road and they’d show us which bus to flag down. So we ended up paying way more than any locals, sitting in the back row of this very sketchy city bus, which we thought we’d fall out of every time the back door opened. The saving grace was meeting a nice Estonian guy who was traveling to Hoi An as well.

Glen: It should be worth noting at this point, that Elvina got sick. Nothing major, just the side effects of moving around crowded Asia so much. But we did have to make a quick (and painless) trip to the doctors. I mention this for one reason: had this been on any other trip, this would have been the biggest concern and downer, but not us.

Anyway, after getting very lost, we eventually found a guesthouse and enjoyed Hoi Ann. Really, it is a fabulous city, and well worth a visit for anyone who plans on going through Vietnam. After a great two days there, we hopped back on a flight and returned to Ho Chi Minh City, once more.

Chapter 5 – Panic on the Streets of Saigon

Glen’s Song: “I Predict a Riot” – Kaiser Chiefs
Elvina’s Song: “Bang” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Glen: Remember back in Chapter 2, Elvina said that the streets were crazy after Vietnam defeated Thailand in soccer? Well the night that we landed in Ho Chi Minh once more, they won again, moving them one step closer to the World Cup. So the streets were even more insane.

No, scratch that, the streets were absolutely bonkers with excitement.

As we hopped in a cab and drove to our hotel, people everywhere were cheering, flags were being hung from the many (MANY) motorcycles going all around us. Every intersection was like a mosh pit, as people everywhere were reveling in nationalistic fervour. Say what you will about how much athletes get paid, and how the purity of sports has been lost somewhere between all of the Coca-Cola Sponsors, but there is little that has the power to get people together more than a good sporting event.

After about 40 minutes of slow rides, and fast riots, things started to kick up a notch. We got to one of the main roundabouts in the city, and there was a whole mob of sports fans there. Flags were being waved all over the place. When people noticed me (the token white guy) in the car, they started to cheer at me and give me the thumbs up, all well and good I thought. Then things got a bit more out of control.

First people started pounding on the car in some sort of a game. Then, someone jumped on the back of the taxi to wave his flag from a higher point; a few people jumping on the hood of the car to cheer followed this. While I found the joy enticing at first, I was starting to get a little scared at this point.

To his credit, our driver calmly opened the door, and got the guys off of the hood. A few voices of reason emerged from the cheering masses, as some total strangers helped escort our car out of the crowd and on to safety.

We got to our hotel, and probably paid too much for too little, but at that point we did not care. We certainly had no plans to go outside, and all we needed to do was get to the Consulate the next morning, and be on our merry way.

Elvina: I really loved Hoi An, and considered it a bonus at this point. I might even like to go back at some point. But, Glen summarized all of it quite well so I’ll leave it at that and just move on to the good stuff.

Chapter 5 – Lucky at Last

Glen’s Song: “Lucky Day in Hell” – The Eels
Elvina’s Song: “Beautiful Day” – U2

Elvina: I woke up on Monday morning rarin’ to go. I remember we both said, “Today is the day!” That is actually quite funny because I woke up on the Friday we began the trip thinking the same thought. We got out of the hotel, with the only priority of finding a bite to eat before we were onwards to the consulate.

We found the consulate without any problems, but Glen couldn’t go inside since he didn’t bring his passport. He headed to a coffee shop type place across the street. As I entered through security, I felt a strange sense of relief, as cliché as it sounds. The whole experience was oddly American-centric but also very Asian as well.

Upon entry, you are greeted by a sign that points immigrants, visitors, etc, to the left or right. American Citizens, it says in bold letters go straight ahead to a big scary iron gate.

I go up to take a number, as the sign says to do. I see that blank forms are along the back wall so I pick up the appropriate one and complete it. Just as I finish and look up to see how far they are away from my number, I see a sign that says:

Go directly to window 3 for any of the following:

  1. Additional visa pages in your passport.

I didn’t need to read any further. I went immediately, as directed. No one was there and I tried to make my presence a bit more known. A woman came by and I asked if I was at the right place to submit this form, which I held up. She looked at the form, my passport, and disappeared. I waited. Another woman came over and asked if she could help me. I told her that I was waiting for my passport from the previous woman. She said, “Oh it will take about…” In my mind, I heard her say “… two week.” In reality, she said, “… half an hour.” Gleefully surprised and relieved, I asked her if I’d need a receipt to claim my passport later. Oddly enough, there wasn’t. And, there was no charge for this service. I go across the street to join Glen for a glass of fruit juice. Soon, I have my new thick passport in hand! We go back to the hotel to get our stuff and we are on the bus to the airport we know so well.

Glen: We finally made it into Cambodia, and it was fantastic. Angkor is completely mind blowing, and Phnom Penh is completely soul sapping. Just what we were after.

Things in Cambodia were fantastic, as our luck really got turned around. I guess we had to go through a bit of karmic overdraft, but things worked out in the end.

So I guess if we could impart some advice to anyone out there it would be the following three things:

  1. Carefully read all plane tickets

  2. Know how many pages you have left in your passport at all times

  3. Never, and I mean NEVER travel in a country when they are playing important soccer games.

Hopefully you can learn from our mistakes!

Until next time,

G

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The Red Detachment of Women

Saturday, November 29th, 2008

Last week, I had the opportunity for a unique cultural experience, I got to go to my first Chinese Ballet. It was an important and very popular number called The Red Detachment of Women. After I saw the production, I wanted to run right home and right a blog all about it, but for one of the few times in my life, I was absolutely speechless. It is only now, after some reflection, that I am able to properly explain what I witnessed.

Allow me to provide a bit of context and history first. The Red Detachment of Women, was the ballet shown to Richard Nixon during his visit to China in 1972, and it is one of the “eight model plays” which were the only operas or ballets allowed during China during the Cultural Revolution. Therefore, it is very, very pro-communist. Do not believe me? Well here is a scene from the film version of the movie. Pay extra attention to the oh-so-subtle Party overtones at around the one minute mark.


If you had trouble reading between the lines, understand one thing: she loves communism, and communism loves her.

The basic plot synopsis, is that the main character, Wu Qinghua, escapes from being a slave by an evil lord. She stumbles upon the Red Army (and in particular their female detachment) and joins them. They strike back against the lord, save the day, and continue to march on to victory.

Moral of the story: Workers of the world always unite.

At first viewing, myself and my friends were absolutely blown away by the shear blatancy of the Red-love-in. However, after doing some thought, we came to an important conclusion. It is not that different than most American films, especially from that time frame.

So many Western movies, even today, are centred around the idea of Freedom, and Democracy. The villains are Russian, Chinese, Arabic, or Latino, and the good guy comes in to free the day, and allow America to prosper over all.

Don’t believe me? Watch Saving Private Ryan or any John Wayne movie.

My point is that proganda pervades entertainment in any culture, at any time, however it is always easiest to see it in different places and different times. So obviously, the question must remain, what exactly are people trying to get us to think right now?

I have some ideas, but I have a feeling that future generations will have a much clearer picture. Until then, I think that I’ll continue criticizing these happy soliders.

Until next time,

G

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Logging My Journey…

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

Well hello there everyone, it’s official, I’m back in business!!! Welcome one and all to the season premiere of Getting Glenergized, coming to you live and direct from the People’s Republic of China!

For my first post of the season, I decided to do a live log of my Trans-Pacific Flight, since well I was pretty darned bored. Here is the journey of my flight, taking place on August 20-21st….enjoy!!!

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Current Time: 1:26PM EDT
Current Mood: Excited
Current Soundtrack: The Arcade Fire – Keep the Car Running

The captain has turned off the seat belt light, and I have moved my way back to a free row, where I now sit. I’m bunking in seat 40D for the next 14 hours or so of my life. The take off was smooth, but is now a little bit bumpy, I can’t help but feel that is some sort of an omen.

I have spent the last several days, if not months, preparing for this trip. I got my passport renewed, my visa sorted out, said all of my goodbyes, and now here I am way thirty thousand feet above the country I have called home for most of my life, and there is no turning back. Since I left my school back in June, I have been saying goodbye, and quite frankly, I am a little sick of it. While it has been nice to bid everyone farewell, and given me a great deal of closure, this time has been long overdo.

Every goodbye, from my friends to my students to my parents, carries with it a certain amount of emotion, and dare I say, a hint of regret. Did I say all that I need to? Did I do everything with this person that I wanted to? How much of my time did I waste that I could have spent with this person? In the end, it doesn’t matter, because what’s done is done, and nothing can be changed. There are all sorts of people that I will miss greatly over the next year or two (or more?) but such is life, especially the life of a nomad like me.

Anyway, I am going to be off to find some way to entertain myself for the next little while, I’ll be back to post whenever that bores me.

Current Time: 2:37PM EDT
Current Mood: Schemy
Current Soundtrack: Wolf Parade – Grounds For Divorce

After playing a bit of Civilization III, I decided to watch an episode of “Kenny vs. Spenny” on the enRoute TV, and it got me thinking. Why don’t I have horrifying challenges with friends of mine? I think that I am equal parts diabolical Kenny and neurotic Spenny. It would be pretty hilarious. Anyone out there in the blogosphere want to engage in some sort of maniacal and humiliating challenge? The possibilities have endless hilarious outcomes.

Alright time to go, off to scheme.

Current Time: 3:35PM EDT
Current Mood: Accomplished
Current Soundtrack: Tegan and Sara – Call it Off

I played a bit more Civizilation and I got a pretty easy (and dare I say) impressive Domination Victory as the Persians. I am pretty proud of myself for that one, so I think that I’m going to either erect a statue to my greatness, or maybe just start a new game soon enough.

Sadly, all of the windows are closed, and the on screen map is not working, so I really have no idea where the heck I am, but I would guess that I am probably leaving Ontario shortly (if I haven’t already) which actually means that I have crossed the first of the 11 time zones that I will pass today. For simplicities sake, I’ll keep writing in Eastern (Toronto) time, no point in trying to wrap my head around that one, although it could be kind of funny, especially when daylight savings are taken into account of it all. What a crazy world we live in.

I have the entire three rows to myself, and I have yet to try putting my feet up, as I have left my computer bag on the middle seat next to me, I guess I want to make it as comfortable as possible when I try to lie down and have a nap, which may just be soon.

I just took a second to peruse the movie choice, and I think that I am going to give 21 a try. Partly because I heard it’s awesome, partly because it’s about math geeks like me, and partly because Troy says one of the guys reminds him of me, I want to see how right he is.

Current Time: 5:51PM EDT
Current Mood: Enthusiastic
Current Soundtrack: Rebelution – Safe and Sound

21 kicks ass, make a point to watch it. Also of note, it has one of the greatest soundtracks for any movie I have seen in a while, from Peter Bjorn & John to LCD Soundsystem to the sweet Rolling Stones remix at the end, it was a tour de rock.

For the record, the main character is a touch Glenish, but not quite as much as Troy let me believe. Mostly because I don’t think that I could land a gal as gorgeous as he did. (Note to the Future: If a significant other of mine is reading this somewhere down the line, I was clearly wrong on that one)

Still not really sure where I am, but I think that I am somewhere over the Pacific Ocean right now, and lord only knows what time zone it is, it is probably best not to ask such questions for it will only make me feel small. A lot of people are sleeping on the plane right now, and I’m not really sure if I should try or not, I feel tired, but only because it is dark in here, and there isn’t much else to do. However, Shanghai is waking up now, so I feel a certain sense of energy and enthusiasm at this point. I think that I will celebrate by making a second case for world domination.

Current Time: 6:54PM EDT
Current Mood: Reflective
Current Soundtrack: Jeremy Fisher – Left Behind

“You’re always dreaming so far ahead, I feel a little left behind. We’ll never find each other my love in the same place, at the same time“

That’s a quote from the above mentioned song. It seems appropriate considering how far away I’m going and for how long.

Here’s hoping those lyrics ring true for someone special out there.

Current Time: 7:47PM
Current Mood: Confused
Current Soundtrack: Hawksley Workman – Jealous of Your Cigarette

I think that it’s dinner time, or maybe it’s breakfast. I’m not really certain. Either way, they are serving me food, so I guess it is time to eat.

Note to Future Travellers: Request a special meal on the plane, you’ll get served way before anyone else. Score another point for veganism, take that omnis.

I noticed that I have a chance to watch Batman Begins. While I have seen it before, I think that I will love it even more now that I have seen Dark Knight three times, in theatres. For the record, I would like to nominate that film for an Academy Award for Best Movie EVER MADE.
Maybe I’ll try and get some sleep soon, although Batman gets me really excited so it may be a bit of a challenge, ahh well, I shall do my best.

Current Time: 10:09PM EDT
Current Mood: Inspired
Current Soundtrack: Neil Young – Keep on Rocking in the Free World (Live Acoustic)

Three simple words: Batman Kicks Ass

I forgot how fantastic the first installment in the Nolan Reboot actually is. Granted it isn’t half the movie that Dark Knight, but I don’t think that much really is.

A few hours ago, I wanted to have humiliation contests with my friends, now I want to be come a ninja and fight crime. I guess I should start putting “Impressionable” as my mood from here on out. I chose this song to listen to because of that desire to help out, and also for cheeringly ironic reasons, considering my destination.

Watching Batman, and listening to Neil, I can’t help but wonder exactly what I can do to make the world a better, more just place. I chose to become a teacher to be a guiding light, and good influence on others, and I like to think that I have the power to accomplish that, but I wonder, is it enough? The world is a massive place, full of some very bad people, surely a good person such as myself can do something to help, can’t I? I guess I have to figure out some way to save the world. As I re-read that last sentence I can’t help but wonder, maybe that is the meaning of life and everyone’s grand purpose, saving the world from itself.

Or maybe my purpose now is to try and get some sleep, only five hours left to go.

Current Time: 12:00AM EDT
Current Mood: Restless
Current Soundtrack: Sigur Ros – Starlafur

I’ve been on this plane just short of 11 hours and have yet to get a wink of sleep…uggh.
I really have nobody to blame for this at all, the other passengers have been reasonably quiet and I have three seats all to myself. I guess I’m just anxious. Perhaps I should title this blog post “Confessions of a Travelling Insomniac”, or maybe not, that is kind of lame.

When I look at the time, it occurs to me that it is now August 21. However, I crossed the international date line awhile ago, so it has been the 21st for quite some time. Damn time zones, so hard to wrap your head around.

Well, hopefully this is the last post I make until I arrive at my pad in Suzhou. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Current Time: 1:57AM EDT
Current Mood: Exhausted
Current Soundtrack: The Killers – Read My Mind

I got about an hour and a half of sleep, and I think that will probably be it.

I was woken up a little while ago for breakfast, or lunch, or maybe it was a midnight snack, I really don’t know anymore. Ugh, tomorrow is going to be rough. Or rather, today is going to be rough. Either way, I’m pretty damn excited about it.

Descending time will start soon, the computer should get packed up soon. China, here I come!

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Current Day: August 24, 2008
Current Time: 4:05AM EDT
Current Mood: Serendipitous
Current Soundtrack: Children playing

I’m here now in Suzhou, as I have been since I finished the above post, and all is well. My apartment is fantastic, my colleagues are wonderful, and everything looks like it is going to work out just fine.

I will post back with new information soon as things start to settle down. If any of you out there are worried about me, please stop. All is well.

Until next time,

G

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Summer Sabbatical

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

Well it’s that time of year again, where I say goodbye for a little while. I head back up to Kodiak for a 6th summer tomorrow (I know, I know, I said that I wouldn’t, but here we are…), where I will stay for all of July. After that, my August is mostly going to be devoted to my family and packing up to move to China. So I doubt that I will be posting for a while.

I may make a post or two in August, but don’t hold out too much for it, just keep me on your RSS feed and something will pop back up when I arrive on the far side of the world. Until then, be sure to enjoy your summer, if you feel like dropping me a line I can be reached at this e-mail address for all of July.

Enjoy your summer!!!!

Maybe with some Ella Fitzgerald….

…or Sublime…

…or Brian Adams…

…or Modest Mouse (sorry this video is weird but it’s an awesome song)…

…or John Travolta and Olviia Newton-John portrayed by Lego characters….

…or Everclear…

…or Bananarama…

…or, well you get the idea….enjoy your summer no matter what!!!

Until next time,

G

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Reflections of a First Year Teacher

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

Well here it is, at a close yet again. Just yesterday, I taught my last class of the year, and today my Grade 8 class wrote their final exam, with my Grade 11s left to write on Friday. After that, I have some minuscule responsibilities around the house (and oh you know, report cards) and then I’m done my first year as an adult. Since I think that a lot of you out there reading this blog are teachers, I thought that a reflection (Gah! There is that word again!) may be in order.

I don’t have these in any particular order, just some thoughts and observations:

- As much as everyone talks about keeping a “professional distance”, I think that students appreciate someone who is genuine. They get a lot of teacher’s who they know are not being themselves around them, so if you act like yourself they will appreciate it.

- Always hold yourself to higher moral standards than you would hold them.

- It’s ok to get mad sometimes, but it’s wrong to stay mad.

- Sometimes the extra mile is not enough, but that doesn’t mean you should try it again next time.

- The best advice for professional development I ever got was to write a list of everything that you are good at, and look at it whenever you feel down. Then make a list of three (and only three) things that you are bad at, and never look at it again.

- I think that I am personally good at: Getting my students involved, making myself available for them, explaining things to them in a way they can understand, being funny, creatively thinking of different ways to explain things, and probably a lot more.

- Man that felt good to write down, try it…seriously…

- Marking sucks, but it is never worth stressing out over, it’ll get done.

- Be sure to tell students that they have made a difference to you. It will totally make their day.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The next two were added June 17th, 2008]

- It’s ok to get mad at a student, but it’s wrong to STAY mad at one

- I think that it’s natural to have favourites, but it’s wrong to play favourites.

Anyway, that’s about all that I can think of right now, I’m sure that I’ll add more as I think about it.

Until next time,

G

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Posted in Teachin' and Learnin' | 1 Comment »

Why I Love Star Wars

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

So I’m a little embarrassed to write this right now. I was just researching for a post on Hilary Clinton when my MSN pops up. It was my friend Ryan saying “Happy Star Wars Day!”. It sneaks up on me every year, dang it all! I couldn’t believe that I almost forgot.

As such, I’d like to apologize to everyone out there, I am hastily preparing this blog post, about my favourite of nerdy loves. I know that I won’t encapsulate everything that I love about Star Wars, but I hope that it suffices.


1. ” Jedi Masters don’t go crazy — they just get eccentric.” – Simply put, Jedis are awesome. They can wield light sabres with the best of them, play mind tricks on lesser beings, and be all around ass kickers. Best of all, they expect nothing in return at all, just knowing that they are doing the right thing.

They are like kung-fu-fighting Buddhist Monks, Knights of the Round Table, and the entire cast of Heroes rolled into one futuristic ass-kicking package. What’s not to love about them really?

2. “These are not the droids you’re looking for” – While they are sometimes obnoxious, C3PO and R2D2 add a great deal to the films. They are the closest thing that the series has to narrators.

Along with Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, they are the only two characters to be featured in all six movies. However, the other two changed drastically with one being covered in metal, and the other getting old and dying. The two droids do a great deal to provide a link between the two trilogies, especially with R2 having a memory of the whole ordeal.

3. “Don’t you call me a mindless philosopher you overweight glob of grease!” –

Is the fall and return of the Jedis an allegory for the fall of the church in our hectic modern life? Was the destruction of the Death Star (twice) meant to speak to the inevitable failures of the Soviet-American Arms Race? Is Palpatine’s Machiavellian scheme to seize power from the elected officials, eerie foreshadowing of Bush’s PATRIOT Act? Is the initially-incestuous relationship between Luke and Leia meant to echo Greek and Roman Mythology?

How the hell should I know? I’m not George Lucas! But all those sound totally plausible to me, especially if there is a solid argument behind any of them. My point, is that more than many other films, this has an amazing potential to be dug deep into, and create some pretty interesting connections with deep topics.

4. “Boba sure fooled the rest of us” — Boba Fett is EASILY the biggest bad ass to ever be portrayed on film. Don’t believe me? Well here is a thousand words to persuade you…


…thought so.

P.S. Eleventy Nerd Points for whoever knows where that quote is from (without Googling it)

5. “Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not such things.” — Well I sure do! And this series is able to deliver it in spades.

From the first shot of A New Hope when the droids are running away to the final scene in Revenge of the Sith, there is a definite feeling of adventure. While some of them (i.e. Phantom Menace) are not so good, there is always a feeling of adventure and excitement, that is hard not to get caught up in.

Whenever a light sabre begins to buzz, my heart starts to race as I know that something awesome is going to happen. Sure I’ve seen the battles before, but the sheer childish joy and reminiscence is hard not to get caught up in.

6. “Do or do not, there is no try” – So I mostly just wanted to use that, my favourite of Star Wars quotes to say something important about these movies. They are FULL of deep and very meaningful quotes that provide a tremendous amount of insight.

There are such amazing gems as “If money is all you love, then that’s what you’ll receive.”, and “All who gain power are afraid to lose it”. Impressive ones eh? There are a bunch more here, and many other places on the information hyperspace highway.

7. “If I told you half the things I’ve heard about this Jabba the Hutt, you’d probably short circuit.” — The opening scene in Return of the Jedi in Jabba’s palace is the greatest scene in the history of cinema. Really where else will you find psychic powers, the Leia bikini, an obnoxious laughing bat, a robot waiter, bantha battles, the Leia bikini, flame throwers, the Leia bikini, sand monsters, girl power, and the Leia bikini?

I may have forgotten to mention something…


How could I dare top that?

Until next time,

G

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