Big plans this year! Including Turkey, Germany, Korea, and Ireland. This is going to be FUN, more later. On the right: send me a message or Subscribe Thanks for reading, -Brian
These photos are from an epic hike through The Tiger Leaping Gorge (TLG), Yunnan. That was definately one of the best hikes I did. I have thousands of photos just from those few days. Along the route are hostels that cost less than $2. The later part of this set is from BaiShuiTai. These are natural terraces just a few hours by bus from TLG.... read more
I have finally taken the time to sort through the thousands of photos from my last few weeks in China. These are some of the first ones I pulled from staying with a friend near BaoShan, Yunnan. Her family is from a small village in the hills. It was amazing to see how family life goes on there. There are a few photos from Shanghai before I flew out. I am preparing for my next trip to Turkey and decided I should post the photos I still have from China before I go. Many more photos to come, dont worry.... read more
I feel like I need to clarify what my classes are like. I always get the same questions. My classes were taught in Chinese. Most of my classmates and teachers can not speak English. The university has a Chinese program taught in English, I did not chose that program, I didn't go to China for that. I arrived in Xi'an without having taken any Chinese and in one year reached HSK level 3 (lower Intermediate) in Mandarin proficiency. My friends in America are amazed I can speak Chinese. They treat it like I have been through the NASA training program and just came back from space. Learning Chinese is just like any other language, it takes time. I took 20 hours/week at the university, 6 hours at another school and twice a week met with a ... read more
I went with a friend to a Cosplay fair. I was not sure what to expect. I do not watch much Japanese anime, it would probably be more interesting if I did. Cosplay is short for costume play and that's exactly what it is. Avid anime fans buy the costume along with any accessories, or weapons and probably a wig so they can dress up as their favorite charter. From what I saw the whole fair was an opportunity to sell truck loads of fan merchandise. The fair was in a huge conference center packed with stales selling all of the costume merchandise along with key chains, posters, and hand bags. Another huge room was full of arcade games. It was not very entertaining for me but it is interesting to see the magnitude of this ... read more
I'm adding several photos that do not fit into one category. I have got a couple from a classmates birthday party, several around Xi'an, when my classmate straightened my hair, fireworks, and a nightclub. I'm trying to post the good photos before I forget about them. ... read more
A few shots of construction that is being done on the back side of our campus. The teachers at our university all live on campus. The university has housing just for teachers and they bring their whole family to live there, three even four generations. They must be able to live here the rest of their lives. An entire apartment block located within the university walls houses at least 500 people. Those old buildings are gradually being torn down and rebuilt as towering apartment complexes. Each university here is its own small city with supermarkets and elementary schools. The last few shots are some random photos I took around the same time. ... read more
The second half of expo highlights :) The expo park is very large and takes a whole day to see everything. We were there at the opening week, so a few things we still being sorted. A large section is separated into gardens devoted to various locations. Almost every province in China had an individual garden featuring something special about the province. The Taiwan exhibit was enormous including a waterfall. Then the International section displayed gardens from various countries including; Germany, India, Mexico, The Philippines, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Russia. Each country has a garden and a connecting building with a locals from the country and souvenirs for sale. I walked into the building for Pakistan and one of the Pakistani representatives appeared so happy to see me and started a conversation immediately. I guess he ... read more
The Xi'an Expo official website has more details about the event http://en.expo2011.cn/# It goes on for six months so you still have time to visit. These photos were from the same day I was in the performance; see "The Big Show." I just have taken a really long time to go through all of the photos. We got in for the day of the performance which was in the morning. We had the afternoon free so we could walk around the expo the rest of the day. I will make two posts this one is mostly flowers. Being a horticulture expo flowers were everywhere. The second part is a charming little ceramics workshop that I ran into around the back of the expo park. You can make your own ceramic art, admire the small art gallery ... read more
You HAVE to see these pictures! This turned out to be much more epic than I had expected. A group of international students were selected to be part of a performance at the Xi'an Expo. I was chosen for my hair. Nothing was ever fully explained but I went along with it anyway. We only practiced for a couple of weeks. Our part was very small. The Chinese dancers were from a dance studio or a University for the arts, and GORGEOUS. They were amazing and had obviously been preparing for much longer before we started. They loved chatting with us. We had to miss classes to make the practice but I enjoyed the chance to practice speaking with them. The performance as it turned out was at the opening ceremony of the of the Expo ... read more
A friend sent me photos from the race at the university sports day! The 1500m had about 15 people in my group and another group also with about 15 people. The other group had one guy who was a serious runner. Pity we were not in the same race. The other 28 people just play basketball twice a week. The other guy actually ran a faster time, but the crowd was fixed on me. The tall foreigner with red hair and silly shoes. At this university they don't know how to handle a track meet. I guess it's the only one they have all year. Two or three times during the race someone from the infield stepped out in front of me. Most of the turn on the track was lined with people holding cameras and ... read more