China! Since our huge National Day celebration last month, China has been in the news more then Tiger Woods getting a smack down from his wife for fooling around with a party girl, ala Elliot Spitzer. Everyday we are reading all about China impacting the world; From ethnic up [View Full Entry]

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A few weeks ago for a class lesson on the importance of taking notes, I put together a Powerpoint presentation of the Seven Most Popular Theme Parks in the World. Needless to say, my students paid extra attention, especially when the "Disney-esque" theme park in Beijing was mentioned. Not only did I have some updated shots of Minnie and Mickey (they look JUST like Disney's Minnie and Micket...hmmmmm), I also had to explain the theme parks slogan: Disney is too far away, come here!...naturally a conversation about copyright and infringement followed but it's just standard business practice over [View Full Entry]

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Chinese National Day Our students were giddy and down right rambunctious last week as our school, and the entire nation, prepared to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China on October 1st. Our kids knew the facts (the PRC won the revolution and the losers limped over to Taiwan and started their own government there), knew the reason (Mao is very much a hero over here much to the chagrin of anyone who knows history and how many people he killed with his insanity), and also knew they were getting an unprecedented vacation from school - eight days [View Full Entry]

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Still Humming About Tibet Hey! everyday the power of the internet and blogs continues to amaze me. After my blogs on Tibet I received comments and messages from people all over the world expressing their gratitude (you are welcome, Becky), and their outrage (most were Chinese and not well-informed). Anyway, thank you everyone for your heartfelt messages and if I did not comment on your comment, rest assured it's not because I've been too busy, it's because my ethics, morality, and good old sense of right and wrong will not be compromised, and the Delete key is soooo close. : [View Full Entry]

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Saying Goodbye to Tibet After a late night filled with fiery political discussions and warm beer, our week of exploring Lhasa and Mt. Everest was technically coming to a close. All but three of us are leaving in the morning so the evening was filled with hearing what others enjoyed or hated about our adventure, swapping emails, passionate ideas on why the European Union will never work, all while enjoying some of the best late-night views of Barkhor Square on the rooftop bar at Mak Ye Ame. Along with Jenny and I, the wildly successful travel writer from India whose name [View Full Entry]

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Mt. Everest Base Camp, Day 3 We ended up getting to our hotel late last night, about 10:30, after a decent meal in Shigatse, Tibet. Even though we didn't get to see Mt. Everest up close yesterday, on our way back to the closest town we did get to spend about forty minutes watching the top 1/3 of the mountain appear and then fade away, and then appear again as cloud formations slowly passed over the mountain range. She is a spectacular sight indeed. This morning Jenny and I are up early, but groggy and grumpy, as we both ended up [View Full Entry]

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Mt. Everest Base Camp Adventure: Day One We get up early, finish packing and drop off our backpacks with the hotel front desk then walk into our little Cool Yak dining room to grab a bite eat. As our group slowly ambles in it’s clear we are excited about the upcoming journey. Seeing Lhasa has been an incredible experience but we are all in this group because we chose to pay for an 8-day tour that includes three full days driving and trekking up to the base camp of Mt. Everest. I’m not much of a mountain climber, but the thought [View Full Entry]

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This morning we are up at 5am and leave at 6:15am. We seem to be making good time as the road is fairly smooth and the views keep us entertained. Yak, horses, sheep, goats, the locals - it's all post-card beautiful. Everybody is in a fairly chipper mood because we are excited about seeing Mt. Everest but honestly no one is looking forward to the rough riding we know is coming. We drive all morning, take a break at 10:15pm to stretch, find a rock, etc. The girls have it much rougher than us guys simply because there are few bathrooms, [View Full Entry]

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We wake up to our third day in this amazing city, Lhasa. We both got to sleep in from our night of singing and partying at Music Bar, and push ourselves to stumble over for breakfast at 9:30am! The whole group eventually lumbers in, groggy but happy, we laugh about last night’s fun and eat a Chinglish breakfast. There are fruit and snacks stands right outside our hotel so we pick some up, and water, lots of water our guide reminds us. Then all twenty-two of us hop on a bus and drive the fifteen minute drive to the most recognizable [View Full Entry]

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Got up and out at 8:30am to have a light Chinese breakfast with some western flair such as pancakes, pan-grilled spam, and strong, black coffee. For our first day we skip over just a block to one of Tibet’s most memorable experiences, the Jokhang Temple. Founded in 639AD, it was built to protect an image of the Buddha brought as dowry by the Nepali Princess Bhrikuti on her marriage to King Songsten Gampo. Check out all the pics from today's adventure at my new account on Flickr, just click here. [View Full Entry]

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