danio

Non-Absence

2009-09-18T21:31:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,

I am so sorry that this weblo has been inactive for so long.
I haven't been able to use this weblo, for technical reasons, and regret it greatly.
Please use email to keep in touch with me.

You are always in my heart, and I pray God may lift your spirit through all the challenges you may face, so yours may be a life of joy and felicity.

danio

Embrace

2009-04-06T04:39:00.002-05:00

A central theme in my life for a long time has been embracing paradoxes, specifically that of time. Everything you've ever experienced was all preparing you for this moment, what you do in this moment will affect the rest of your life, while all there is is here and now. The play I've written for my theater students at the French School of Shanghai, while based on the ideas and stories they created themselves, tells a story of how one embraces the paradox of time.

And now Aeryn's awake.

Aeryn Turns 6 Months Old!

2009-03-22T08:03:00.002-05:00

From Family Favorites

Well, Aeryn's growth and happiness are the most important, but I'll also mention that Lillian's mom has moved in with us, as of last month, and her cousin and her mom have moved into an apartment in the same complex, and we've been having large dinners all together - not to mention picnics (photos not yet uploaded).

I've recently joined a local theater group, called Grass Stage, which has been great, not to mention that my weekly middle school after-school theater activity is progressing, as we recently finished our script.

We've started values workshop in our neighborhood, originally developed by my sis Charlotte. It's for mothers and their babies together. We're making new friends and learning lots!

Life with Aeryn

2008-12-20T10:01:00.000-05:00

Oh, my friends! If only I could share it all with you - the joy, the wonder, the laughter, the contemplations...
May these picture go their meager way to approach a representation of a life with Aeryn.

That said, going through my life in Martinique and in the US has been fascinating: my parents shipped all of my stuff here to Shanghai when they moved here in the summer, and I've been very slowly going through it. How shall I incorporate all of the learning of my life into cohesive action both

here

and

now

?

2008-11-21T20:02:00.001-05:00

The family is reunited now, the five of us having moved into a 3-bedroom apartment. At the same time that Lillian and Aeryn came back home and the move, I changed jobs, now a classroom teacher in kindergarten for a bilingual class. I'm teaching half the week in English, partner teaching in French.

With my family here, the order of the universe is restored.

Still Struggling

2008-10-14T07:52:00.000-05:00

I'm having a horrible time away from my wife and baby. Actually, every day is a beautiful gift, and many things are going great, with progress on almost every front, including with Aeryn and Lillian, as we navigate the new sea we have attained together. It's just so torturous to rise to face the day without laying my eyes on the most precious gifts I have.
I pray for strength and peace, which God alone in Her grace and bounty can provide. She truly can turn night into day, and a gnat like myself into an eagle. Through Her assistance, I can continue to be a support and resource to Aeryn and Lillian, as we continue to talk every day, encouraging each other and planning our promising future. I also continue to sing prayers to Aeryn every day on Lillian's speaker-phone.

Thanks again to the friends who have sent emails (I'm way backed up again), SMS messages, phone calls and gifts. They are always appreciated.

These pictures are from when Aeryn's first few days (the last was taken a day or two before). I broke down in tears today when writing in an email, "Aeryn is coming up on her first month in this world", thinking at how I haven't been physically with her for most of it. Our souls are forever connected, though, and she fills my heart with joy, even from afar. We will be reunited on November 2 or 3, and I will cling to her with all my energies, praying to be made channel for God's infinite and all-encompassing love.

I'm back in Shanghai bis

2008-09-21T04:08:00.001-05:00

I'm back in Shanghai, alone :(But my heart is filled with the joy and excitement of Aeryn's birth. Her coming to this world, nine months in the making, is the greatest and most significant event of my life, and I'm trying my best to fully appreciate it and step up to the responsibility that is now mine of becoming a better and better husband and dad.

The stats:Aeryn Leigh / 李思齐Born at 20:04September 17, 2008,or the 18th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar,or the 10th day of 'Izzat (Might), 165 of the Badi calendarweighing 3kg and measuring 50cm
Our growing family sends all our loves to our family and friends, who have been so supportive.

I'm Back in Shanghai!

2008-09-01T18:46:00.002-05:00

Sorry, friends, for the long delay since my last post...

Today is my birthday!

My parents and I have been in Shanghai for a little over a week now, and we're settling in pretty well. My mom starts class today. She's teaching the English portion of a bilingual French-English kindergarten class. I have another two weeks before English classes start, and this year I'm only teaching grade 1, instead of K-5.

The most important, of course, is Aeryn! Lillian's doctor said the baby is basically ready, and labor could start any day!

More later.

Thanks again to all our friends who have sent the encouraging messages, and don't hesitate to call either (ask for my number in your next email to me).

Google

2008-07-22T07:25:00.002-05:00

Here are some Google products I use and that I would strongly recommend!

* Google Search: obviously

* Gmail: I have tested more than 40 different free web-based email services, and while I found that fastmail.fm was better than all the rest, Gmail far surpasses even the latter!

* Picasa: an excellent picture editor I used to keep the visual records of my life organized. User-friendly, posts albums to the internet, etc.

* Google Reader: my trick to keeping up with all my friends' weblos! I can read all their new entries just as I would read an email, plus I can take it offline!

* Google Earth: The best way to explore the Earth. The number of features recently added to Shanghai is great - go visit my current home!

* Google Talk: my favorite instant messaging service

* Google Documents: I've used this at work to coordinate student lists with the English teachers team. You can put text documents, spreadsheets, etc. online, and people you invite can edit it.

* Google Calendar: There a Chinese holidays calendar, my work calendar, my activities calendar, my theatre group's calendar, all of which can be turned on or off for ease of reference and quick browsing.

* Google Sketch-Up: a 3D modeling software I'm using to design the interior of the condo we recently bought. I've put up all the walls, doors, balcony, and have started to put in some furniture.

* Google Sets: works like a search engine - you put in a few words and it creates a longer list. I used once, for instance, when trying to buy healthy, good quality shoes. I knew the names of a few good brands, plugged them in, and Google Sets expanded the list so I could look up others on the web. I used it once for teaching English. My theme was the ranch, so I put some ranch-related words, and it gave me a bunch more!

* Hello: only used it a couple of times, but really fun - you can use it to have a dialog exchange of photos with a friend.

Yay! Google updater is cool too, and I used Google Desktop for a while, but it slowed down my computer too much. When we get a new one in a couple years I might use it again.

My Family & Friends

2008-07-15T07:13:00.002-05:00

I'm so moved right now because of the immense loved I have received from my family and friends in Korla. Here, by marrying Lillian, I have been included in a circle of love and unity that I could never have imagined. I was expressing that to my parents-in-law today, and through my perspective, they gained new insight into the beauty of their friendships here.

My mother-in-law July, has three younger sisters.
* One of them who comes over every day is always bringing things for us, like a humidifying/cooling unit, her juicer, almonds, etc.
* Another treated us to the best lamb kabob! (some of you may not yet know that I've been less strict about my vegetarianism: I eat fish and sometimes lamb, mostly because it's a local specialty, and criminal to pass up on, not to mention it's free-roaming!)
* The other aunt who lives here (the second eldest lives in Shanghai) opened her home and her fridge to us anytime we want to use the internet (I've mostly been coming to this internet cafe with a privet room for 3RMB/min)
* Our cousin on my father-in-law's side offered to pick up my folks from the airport as soon as he learned of their coming (most of the family has no car)
* The midwife and caretaker for our baby, and head of the maternity dpt at the hospital is a friend of the family, and is following Lillian's progress closely (we're not really supposed to know if the baby's a boy or a girl, actually...)
* Her husband is teaching me the basics of Chinese medicine - I'm visiting him for a few hours at his doctor's office three times a week
* Another common friend just offered to give me a wooden human bust with holes at the acupoints for me to practice acupuncture's!
* The head of the boxing company my parents-in-law work with (they kind of freelance as Xinjiang fruit distributors around China) took us out to lunch

and we've only been here for two weeks!

Our baby is a girl! 我们的宝贝是一个女的！

2008-07-15T06:31:00.002-05:00

We just found out today, so I thought I'd let you know!
我们今天才知道，就想告诉你们！

I didn't realize how much find out would bring me joy!

We're focusing on Lillian and the growing life within.

Leadership

2008-07-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

It's been great getting opportunities for leadership:

- Coordinator for the primary school English teacher team
- At the forefront of theatrical activities for the German and French Schools of Shanghai and their collaboration
- Meeting with the Director of the French school to further the progress of the school, its internal workings and relationships with partner schools
- And I might be offering a teacher training at a local school here in Korla this summer!

Below are some pictures from a theatre workshop I lead during the Rencontres Theatrales d'Asie:

森林公园

2008-07-06T07:04:00.000-05:00

我这几天在学汉字！
其实我两年前开始了。但是我学得不快。
我们上个月去森林公园了。太美丽了！你自己看吧：

Summer

2008-07-04T00:04:00.003-05:00

Starting our seventh month of pregnancy. Everything is all about the baby - for now, and forever!

We've been in Korla, Xinjiang for a few days,

View Larger Map
and I'll be here until the end of August. Lillian will stay until the delivery some time around the end of September, at which point I will be back here to be with the family again. In the meantime, I will have started my second year teaching English at the French School of Shanghai, which has been absolutely fabulous so far. My mom will also start teaching there this Fall, so my parents will both move in with me/us.

My spiritual brother Robbie's getting married in September.

so I'm really excited about that too.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T07:35:00.001-05:00

Fun stuff:

And this is from NewBeat, where I used to teach - Shout out to Jackie, Christina and Jessy (one of my old students!):

Eminem, Britney Spears, Integrity and Dignity

2008-05-07T08:01:00.003-05:00

So I just want to say I love Eminem and Britney Spears (among others) for their strength and courage in facing the masses of self-righteous backbiters and slanderers. (I just heard "Piece of Me" - thanks cousin for putting the track on your MySpace profile!) I don't know who came up with the idea that disagreement with someone's music is best expressed through slander... Have you noticed it boosts their popularity? I would totally sit with either or both of them for a drink of white tea... I need a refill on this cup.

Mommies

2008-05-07T07:37:00.003-05:00

Not the first time I post about mommies...

So Lillian is almost half-way through her pregnancy, and it's so exciting and so amazing. The intensity of having life born of love growing in this beautiful sanctuary of the womb is shockingly delightful! Prayers appreciated.

My own mommy just went through knee replacement surgery. It was successful. It's been a most intense year for her. Lots of challenges, more downs than ups... I really hope she gets the job she's applying for at my school so we can hang out and so she can be around for her grandbaby. Prayers appreciated.

Lillian's mom, Zhu Li Li, has been living with us for almost two months, taking care of us by keeping us company, cooking and looking after our affairs in the traditional Chinese family way. I love having her around, and her cooking is fantastic!

Stephanie Dornbrook has been a motherly figure in my life since my 1997 move to the US, and her recent passing has brought us closer. I always try to live so that my appreciation of this world trumps the saying "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone", but it's a work in progress. I've spent more time with her from a world apart than I had recently when we were both in this one. She's always been so good to me...

Lillian and I have really loved seeing babies in our friends lives - particularly pictures! Thanks a million to Liza for all the weblo posts and pics. Shout out to Jerome and Demie who are expecting, Liesel who's in her last months, Mara and Liam, Joleen recent mother, and many others... So many beautiful mothers! And wishing for Javad and Li An's July marriage to be quickly followed by baby production so our kids can visit each other in their gorgeous home towns of Lijiang and Guilin!!!

*Sigh*

PS: Listening to Stereophonics. A band I like is Song of Water

Home

2008-05-07T07:24:00.002-05:00

Lillian, her mother and I spent ten days of relentless efforts to find a beautiful home for our family - and we found one!

Trip to Tonglu

2008-04-18T21:31:00.000-05:00

I traveled with a class to Tonglu. Click link for more pictures

My friends will be happy

2008-04-03T20:13:00.001-05:00

to know that Lillian, her mom and I have started watching the TV show Firefly, which said friends have been recommending to me for years...

Grover, Grouch, Green Eggs and Ham

2008-03-31T07:59:00.003-05:00

It's amazing what parts of me I've been able to trace back to books I read early in my childhood:

Reading about Grover's visit to the museum, I learned that you cannot easily categorize any object, and that nomenclature has its limits in defining things. Is a carrot a vegetable or a fruit? I also learned that life gets overwhelming, that there is much to learn about how to get through an experience, that we learn from past mistakes, and that the world is the most amazing of all museums.

Reading about the life of Oscar the Grouch, I learned that just because everybody else dislikes somethings doesn't mean I should dislike it too. In fact, it can be fun and identity-defining to like things that others don't - is it because of the Grouch that I have always loved rainy days?

Dr. Seuss has taught me much. What more simple and life-long serving lesson could you find than a willingness to try something new, however unappealing it may seem, especially when suggested by a friend? Interesting how I learned this without necessarily learning to give in to insistence - which would be a very bad thing. I guess the balance and completion of these lessons came in the virtues and qualities with which my parents inculcated me (note here the use of "inculcate" without its negative connotations).

I Love Shanghai

2008-03-24T07:06:00.002-05:00

I've been really feeling these last few days the glory of living in Shanghai.

What a mythical place to call home for a few years!

How many the thoughts, feelings, memories, dreams, opinions and hopes associated with it!

And here I am, just living my life in the middle of it...

We've got Chinese names for a son or a daughter, and still thinking of English names.

On my mind:

My baby!
My magical married life
Our many goals and dreams for today, this week, this year, this life, this generation, this world.
The condominium we're going to buy in one month
The pleasure and challenges of my English classes
My sister's current family challenges
My friends
Stephanie Dornbrook, who recently passed away
Liam, Brent and Liza's new baby
Javad and Lily's upcoming marriage
Our goal to get a master each in the US within the next few years
Radiohead's album, "In Rainbows"

Out of Sight Out of Mind

2008-03-05T06:23:00.002-05:00

My computer has been down for a couple of weeks :(
Lillian is close to hitting the three-month mark with our child, so her symptoms are multiple and intense, and the organs and limbs are almost complete... I think - then after that he mostly grows bigger.

So I've fallen behind in my emails again, and I'm so sorry for the souls that inspire me, who have received no worldly communications from me. But know that my thoughts and prayers are always with you.

My friends Liza and Brent have recently had a baby, so congratulations to them!

A couple of friends' marriages have been going through a hard time, so that's been trying.

Lillian's mom arrives by train tomorrow. She'll be living with us until the birth of our baby, and for some time after as well. She retired last September, so she's going to be a huge help!

Many many more things... I am always thinking of my friends, who have given me love and strength over the years, and though we may not hear from each other, we are always together.

Love,

danio

New Life

2008-02-08T00:35:00.000-05:00

What's the best news I could possibly give you?
Well that's the news.
All is full of love.

Ecstasy

2008-01-29T07:46:00.000-05:00

Life is good.
It's beautiful and snowy in Shanghai.
My life in China is a world of wonder and mystery surrounding me, and it's morphing me into almost unrecognizable shapes.

Some more pics from the family gathering in Xinjiang in December

Family Gathering

2008-01-11T07:58:00.001-05:00

The Habeggers came to Xinjiang and met the 李 and 朱 families. Lillian and I are inviting our families to build a bridge between the East and West.

One World, One Dream

2008-01-11T06:37:00.000-05:00

It's so great to see how rich the culture here is, and how China has been orienting itself towards a world-embracing vision. The Olympic Games theme, "One World, One Dream" is being broad casted everywhere, and the message of peace echoes through the air. For the last few years, the principal word accompanying goals and statements has been harmony.

I've been hearing some public advertising, sneaking, even slaloming in between cosmetics and cars, encouraging "small improvements, day by day." In one of these ads, a mom talks about her son coming home worried from school, because he's not as good as some of the other kids for some reason or another. This mom explains how she encourages him to only worry about his own improvement, day by day, in stead of comparing himself to others. There are other cool ads with this theme.

On the train, as people sit for hours on end (in our case 44 between Shanghai and Urumqi), there's an audio program throughout the day. At times, they describe the history, population or economy of a city on its trajectory, at others, they encourage the passengers to take advantage of this time together to chat together and make new friends. In the morning, a very enthusiastic clerk may walk through and urge everyone to get up and follow the motions of the broad casted exercise routines - "Get up people! GET UP and move around! MOVE MOVE!"

There was a radio program this evening about a new law coming into effect in June, requiring stores to charge money for every single plastic bag! Ikea has been doing that in Shanghai since they opened here, and I love it!

The warm diplomatic relationships with other countries; the focus on a harmonious society; the research done about other countries, cultures and religions; the efforts made to tackle environmental problems - all of these are so encouraging to me! There are of course many areas with great shortcomings (like the Darfur controversy), but my prayers are with China and the Chinese people, and I'm so happy and proud to be here right now. Plus Lillian and I can proudly say that we've already been saving plastic bags by bring our own cloth bag when we go shopping. Most people have never witnessed this before, actually. Oh the stares! (We also bike to the market, only turn on the heat for 2-3 hours at night, take short showers together, recycle, etc. - habits that are very very new to most Chinese people! - although being resourceful and saving resources is something most have got down packed already)

One World, One Dream

2008

2008-01-01T23:35:00.000-05:00

I think I can say I have had the best vacation, maybe the best time of my life. There's nothing like being in the middle of two families, one from the US, one from China, coming together in unity and joy to learn about each other and plan for a shared harmonious future.

Lillian and I are getting on the train tonight from Urumqi to Shanghai. Pictures soon to come.

Weblos

2007-12-09T08:50:00.000-05:00

So I'm due for a post, and I'm giving full credit to Orion for these few words, to whom I said I'd post yesterday...

- One more week 'til vacation
- The whole family is preparing for what may be the biggest event of my life so far: Lillian and I will bring our families together for a celebration in Korla, Xing Jiang, China!
- Four of my classes performed shows completely in English (videos posted on my youtube page)
- My friend Shawn started working at the French school last week, so an old buddy will be my co-worker!
- I'm now coordinator for the English teaching team
- A friend's baby in Beijing is due for release this week
- Lillian and I will have to survive without NBC's "Heroes", but we'll soon be able to turn to ABC's "Lost"!
- I still love riding my bike to work each day
- Don't ask me to sing "Jingle Bells" again once this week is over

Pain & Nightmares

2007-11-05T02:45:00.000-05:00

If I understand correctly, people are more likely to have nightmares in case of a fever. I've always considered nightmares as beneficial - an experience we learn from. I generally analyze a nightmare more closely than other dreams, since they are so powerful and memorable.

The world of dreams is a mysterious one, and challenges science to think beyond the superficial relationship between our daily life and our nighttime working mind. Some dreams are premonitory, they can help us make decisions, they give us glimpses of other lives, of other places. Some people can meet each other in their dream. It's a place where our spirit is connected to other souls, spirits and worlds.

After my nightmare last night, I've been thinking a lot. Fever is associated with pain. Through the physical experience of pain, is it not possible that our soul opens up to the spiritual world of pain? Do our nightmares at times of suffering teach us something specific? My nightmare was one of the holocaust, and upon awakening, I realized I might have witnessed an actual experience, perhaps shared by a soul or souls, who latched on to my receptivity. Isn't empathizing with the horrors of victims of the holocaust a precious gift? Isn't the strength that can come from it one that might help eradicate these events in the future of the world?

Treasure your nightmares.

Service & Family

2007-10-17T06:07:00.000-05:00

I have entered entered a phase of my life where I am developing a new understanding of service, especially with respect to family. Lillian and I are really looking forward to meeting with all of the parents together in December. My parents are making a big effort and sacrificing a lot of resources to make it out to Xin Jiang.
My sister might come and stay at our apartment for a couple of months next year!
Down the road a little, Lillian and I are seriously considering (almost firmly decided on) inviting her parents to move in with us after they retire, and stay a few months every year in the meanwhile. They are really worried about being a burden, but I think it will be so good, especially for our children to always have their grandparents around. What a blessing! I remember when I was growing up in Martinique and my grandmother stayed with us for some two years. That was so special.

Parents

2007-10-04T18:38:00.000-05:00

Some memories about my parents:

When I was two years old, I walked with my parents into the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar (Baha'i House of Worship) in Wilmette (near Chicago). As I looked up to the ceiling, my mother explained to me the meaning of "The Greatest Name" ("O Glory of the All-Glorious")

At four years old, I got sick one afternoon, and fell asleep after taking some medicine. I woke up crying in the middle of the night. My dad immediately came to me and gave me some dinner that my family had put aside for when I woke up. I was utterly comforted.

Around the same age, as I was walking with my mom near the Savane park in downtown Fort-de-France, I fell on the ground hurt my hand and got some gravel under my skin. I remember being completely reassured by my mother's love and care.

I have a handful of memories like this, of simple things that happened to me when I was a child. These events are proof of the love of my parents, and a source of strength to this day. No one can plan these moments. There were surely many others when they exerted much greater effort for my safety and happiness, but they can't choose which I remember. It's both empowering and daunting to know this: our smallest efforts can have the greatest effect; our slightest thoughtless act may truly let someone down.

Profile: Suzanne Allmart

2007-09-26T08:01:00.000-05:00

Profile: Suzanne Allmart

Beauty & Strength:

Suzanne is a River. He spirit flows simultaneously in multiple realms of grandeur, a bird of light soaring through a sky of majesty. The world around her is colored with her glow. She evokes peace and understanding. She is a superb mother, dedicated to her family, and determined to play her role in (re)establishing the beauty and importance of pregnancy and motherhood in the world.

Connection:

She is a most simple person, actually, and simplicity is the feeling I had when I met her in the beginning of 2003, when I moved to Champaign-Urbana. She was one of a host of friends I made during my short stay there, and has over the years remained a most dear and beloved companion. She and her husband Husayn are a big inspiration for the marriage Lillian and I have begun, and their parenthood will likely help to guide ours. I love to look at their weblos, especially as they recount their adventures in raising Amia.

Service:

Suzanne has reached out through many talents to help this darkened world. She has been trained as a dula, she provides exemplary service to her family and community, and likes to dance (and play oboe still?)

Vision:

Suzanne will continue to give strength and vision to those around her through both her incredible insights into life, so eloquently and softly spoken, and her actions as a mother now, and in other venues later.

Token Couplet:

A river flows and feeds its blessed banks,
To her and to its Source they offer thanks.

Justice

2007-09-12T08:07:00.000-05:00

Lillian and I faced some troubles during our travels. A sad thing about tourism spreading to the remoter areas of China is the impact it has on people's perception of money, business, and social structure.

Specifically, many people we meet seem to be completely focused on abusing any given situation for the sole purpose of making more money, to the detriment of travelers, who are perceived as being more affluent, wasteful, and perhaps undeserving of their wealth. One example is our forray down to a dock, where we were hoping to cross the river by ferry, to visit the famed and gorgeous Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. We walked a long time, and the picture on the right shows the plateau across the river, which was our destination. You might notice in the bottom-right and small building, where the people who man the ferry hang out when there aren't passengers.
We walked through some neat paths!
On the way to the ferry, a local guy told us that it costs 10RMB ($1.50 US)to get across, but when we got there, the two men said it was 15! We said the price we had been told, and they claimed it had gone up. We refused to pay it, and they refused to change their mind, claiming that if we still wanted to get across later, they would have to charge more still, because they'd come just for us - whereas at the moment, there were others traveling, who had probably paid 5 or less, since they're locals...

We tried to find another way across, but there was none - which is why they assumed they could charge whatever price they wanted to. We may be the first people that ever turned around because of their price, and as we made our way back up to the plateau, we saw the two men get on the boat and start it from the other side. There was no one else. They were coming for us. But we didn't look back.

I hope my readers will find opportunities in their lives to practice and demonstrate justice, by perhaps sacrificing a little to stand for the right thing. Lillian and I completely changed our travel itinerary. The journey to the ferry had taken several hours. The rest of the journey was of course magnificent (check out our picture site - link at the top). Life is good.

Babies!

2007-08-31T22:03:00.000-05:00

Lillian and I have been harrassed a few times about making babies quickly. We have our mission laid out clearly.

Meanwhile, traveling in Yunnan, we saw how common it is for women there to use baby carriers. The one in the picture is the most common type, but others are popular too - including another back version and the side sling.

Here in Shanghai, babies are usually with their grandparents, as many (most?) people consider that young parents should focus on their careers and making money for the future of the family. So the babies stay with their grandparents, usually throughout the day until mommy and daddy get off tired from work, but often away from them in another city for upwards of 3-4 years. It was relieving to see that in this part of China, the normalcy of parents bringing up their own children has not been disturbed. In fact, I frequently saw fathers carrying their children, sometimes in baby carriers! Yay!

Lillian and I bought two baby carriers - we mailed one to the US for my sister Charlotte, and kept one for our firstborn.

The Civilized Sounds of Nature

2007-08-30T02:32:00.000-05:00

In both her music and her lyrics, Bjork captures best the correspondences between the sounds of nature and those of modern (city) life. The Modern Things and the Overture for "Selmasongs: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack Dancer in the Dark" are some good examples.

Traveling in beautiful areas of Yunnan, somewhat removed from civilization, I discovered that water, wind and creatures created sounds that I had previously heard only through modern technology. The sound of water bouncing from a large rock sounded just like an airplane when I stepped on my tiptoes; that of the wind through the trees in one area like flicking a ruler; and that of one bug like a typewriter. (Okay, one of those is made up...)

It reminds me of the unity of all things in Creation.

Vacation

2007-08-08T00:35:00.000-05:00

Plan A: Visit the US - no go no visa
Plan B: Visit family in Canada - no go no time for all the forms
Plan C: Trip to Tibet - no go because quota for number of foreign visitors already met for August
Plan D: Party in Xinjiang - no go because Lillian's parents are busy, no time to prepare a wedding party there, so we'll have to go back in Feb anyway
Plan E: vacation to Yunnan

AND WE LEAVE TONIGHT!

Normal Life Post

2007-07-24T01:47:00.000-05:00

It's been the most fascinating year!

* April 29/May 1: danio and Lillian get married
This was the biggest single event of my life, eclipsing turning 15 in 1995, moving to the US in 1997, producing "The Peach" in 2002, and moving to China in 2006 (excluding maybe being conceived).

* June 1: Shanghai Wedding reception
Some 60+ family members and friends came and celebrated on a boat

Mark visited Lillian and I in Shanghai a couple weeks ago, and he and I had a great conversation about how getting married makes a man... As Shawn would say - "that'll put some hair on your chest!"

I spent whole school semester teaching Chinese primary school children through my work at NewBeat Jazz English Training Institute. I was the first teacher to hold a regular position teaching kids outside of kindergarten. It was a pioneering post, and the biggest job challenge of my life, even affecting my personality. I learned a lot really fast, through the sheer amount of mistakes I made. I am stronger for it, but this position, along with some other events, lead me to decide to leave NewBeat before the elapse of my second contract, which would have lasted until January 2008.

* August 2008: a new life
I got a dream job, teaching English at the Ecole Francaise de Shanghai (French School of Shanghai). Bonuses include:
- I can actually speak the children's mother tongue
- I will be given a curriculum - rather than having to make up everything myself
- The class size remain below 20 students
- The students are arranged in classes according to their level of English, with certain periods in the year where they learn other students of their own grade.
- Higher salary
- Free French/European lunch
- All weekends off
- Lots of vacation time
Lillian and I got a new apartment, into which we will move in some ten days. From this place, I can bike to EFS in 15 minutes, and Lillian will work four days per week instead of six, giving her more time to work on her degree (she got a three-year degree in tourism, and is working on acquiring the BA/four-year equivalent).

"WHY WAS THE VISA DENIED?!?"

2007-07-24T01:35:00.000-05:00

Thanks for all the loving thoughts from our friends - Lillian and I are very moved by your support and encouragement. We will not visit the US this summer, and we're working on the next plan.

Some reasons the US Embassy officer mentioned for not granting the visa:

(Note: the main things they're trying to determine during the tourist visa application is whether or not the applicant is likely to overstay her visa.)

- Lillian was born in Xingjiang, studied in Guilin, and now works in Shanghai, respectively the far Northwest, the far South and the far East of China - so there's every reason to believe she would have any difficulty moving to yet another place, namely the US.

- Lillian and I have been married less than three months, which is the typical scenario of an American who wants to bring his Chinese wife back with him to the US.

- Lillian did not present an official letter of invitation from me. None out of all the websites through which I browsed mentioned that I was supposed to supply this.

Lillian and I send all our love our love to our family and friends, and remind you that we are always with you in spirit.

The Golden Rule Challenge

2007-07-18T22:34:00.000-05:00

"Do unto others..." we always say. There are different versions, but in short, if I wish something for myself, I should also wish it for others. (This rule may exclude the weird things we wish for, like wishing for more awkward pauses, for spiders to welcome you home, or for Fantastic Four 3 to come out.)

How well do we really follow this rule? I challenge you, reader, to amp up your observance of the Golden rule!

A few years ago, when I played hours on end of combat video games (mostly Tekken and Capcom vs. SNK), I found myself only having fun half the time, while the other half was spent complaining that my controller didn't function properly. Then it dawned on me that it should be perpetually fun, so I started watching what attacks and move my opponent was performing. In general, if I lost, it was by virtue of good, commendable play on his part. So I would praise him, "Whoa! nice move! you got me good!" I was wishing for him what I wished for myself.

I was job-searching recently, when my friend's sister said to me that her friend in Britain was looking for a job here in Shanghai. I wished for her what I wished for myself, and gave her the contact information for the schools I was applying for, knowing that her degree in education gave her a better chance to get the position than I had. (Incidentally, I got a dream job starting next month, teaching English to French primary school students who reside in Shanghai!)

Imagine watching a soccer game, where you don't choose sides, but enjoy the game and cheer for both teams. Imagine playing on a team, and being as excited when the opposing team gets a goal as you would if you scored yourself!

Imagine if everyone started to understand the golden rule on a deeper level. What would this life be like?

Competition is a vicious beast, which is not necessary, as you may think. The world, or part of it, is moving towards becoming more civilized, more powerful, evolving. Be a part of the change - take the Golden Rule Challenge!

Four Long Days

2007-07-08T06:14:00.000-05:00

For the first time since we've been married, Lillian and I had to be a long time away from each other: 4 grueling days :(

The good news is that I got to spend those days with nine kids, keep them safe, and help them practice some English

Lillian and I also had the immense pleasure of seeing Eric Jensen and Mark Eghrari, who both came through Shanghai around the same time - but somehow missed each other. It's so great to see good friends and share joy and news with them!

Your Potential

2007-06-22T07:08:00.000-05:00

I have only made little steps here and there in terms of advancing my mission of saving the world through my unique understanding of the role performance must and will play in the advancement of world civilization: collaborations here and there that have ended in me teaching a class to some acting students in a university, setting up but never finishing a co-production of an original play, and a short original performance with a few friends in front of a small audience. These don't at all meet the hopes I had for what I might be doing by now in China.

So I was listening to some Saul Williams, and I just started going crazy, feeling so intensely that I need to make bigger steps in reaching my goals and liberating my dormant potential. This really worried Lillian, because when I came home that evening, I did a really poor job at explaining my state of mind, and she worried that I was getting depressed and feeling down - which was not the case! I just felt a greater sense of urgency.

Sometimes, this world and my life seem to redirect my steps in an unexpected direction, where it becomes harder to envision the correct path to service and greatness. But then I think of the lives of great people - particularly 'Abdu'l-Baha, Who spent most of His life in prison, aiding those who were near Him, and changing the lives of a few, whom He could directly assist and support (ok, maybe more than "a few"...). Not until later in life was He able to travel abroad and speak to large audiences of various countries and walks of life - until His loving words and encouragement deeply touched the hearts of millions!

So I just need to remember to try the best I can, and God will give me the appropriate opportunities, according to the most perfect path for my life. Trust. Peace. Contentment. Wonderment.

Fish with frog's eyes: creation is perfect.

Robbie and I love and frequently recall the above quote from an almost obscure poem. Upon recalling this quote, Robbie might look like this:

Smoothies, Tea and Coffee

2007-06-14T19:26:00.000-05:00

I guess Lillian and I have it made now: bought a blender a few weeks ago, we've received plenty of great tea from friends, and just got a coffee maker a few days ago from a gift card we got at our wedding reception.

I adore all of those drinks, and so does my wife - specifically, we're both extreme fruit lovers.

Long Jing, or "Dragon Well", was my favorite tea since Jason and I had bought a can back during college winter vacation 2000. That was the time we got to wake up slow, peacefully walking around the woods of Alaska Pacific University... the time when he asked me mid-morning, in an unexplainable tortured voice, "Are we gonna eat today?"

Mr. Falconer said to me on the phone, in response to the news that we had bought a coffee maker, "Finally, someone with some sense!"

Otherwise, the wedding reception was great, although I barely got to visit with my friends... About 65 came, and our program included meeting people, listening to family speeches (including my parents' recorded voices), viewing our wedding pics from Guilin on a big screen, eating cake, singing, acting, etc. all on a big boat floating on the Huang Pu River in the middle of Shanghai's nighttime skyline.

You can check out the pictures from our trip to Hangzhou - my third time there! Lillian's parents will be in town until Monday, at which point we'll miss them a lot - especially mom's daily double-delicious drool-drawing delicacies (she's been cooking every meal for us, that is...)

PS: Cirque du Soleil is coming to Shanghai this month!

Family

2007-05-23T19:29:00.000-05:00

Lillian's parents are visiting for a couple of weeks! They're staying with us in the apartment, we're having a great time, and they are helping with preparing the wedding party scheduled to take place on a boat on the Huangpu river on Children's Day - June 1 - also my mom's b-day!

It's suddenly pouring cats and dogs today, which is awesome! Less than a month into our marriage, Lillian and I have had a rollercoaster of a life together, and I can honestly say I've never been so happy. To think I found my eternal partner...

We did submit the visa application, but there's a 39-day wait to get an interview. It's gonna be a tight schedule to organize visiting the US. Please pencil in a wedding reception in Richmond, Virginia around mid-August.

Here are some pictures of some friends - I miss them so. Robbie and I were one crazy unique pair, Christian and Mishkin another, and the four of us were unstoppable!

The danio is married!

2007-05-06T23:47:00.000-05:00

It was quite an amazing journey!
Day 1: Train to Guilin
Day 2: Take care of various documents for Lillian - passport, etc.; night bus to Nanning
Day 3: Get official marriage license from the Nanning government; train back to Guilin
Day 4: Marriage ceremony with a couple of friends (including Javad) around midnight; visiting town
Day 5: Wedding pictures in Guilin, Yang Shuo and in between
Day 6: A day of adventures in and around Yang Shuo
Day 7: More adventures, in Long Shen
Day 8: Train back

Let's Make Babies!!!

2007-04-22T09:01:00.000-05:00

There's hardly any bigger, better news in life than a new baby, especially one related to me!
Sophia is Charlotte's third baby, making me three-times-uncle!
Between this and adding Lillian's relatives, my family is growing
- and soon enough we'll have our own BABIES!!!
I wrote a poem!

Birth
I am born. It is done.
Love and life have begun.
I am born out of women who shine
Like melodious suns in your heart.
May your journey to these be inclined,
Who shed light on how life ends and starts.

Lillian was, is and remains the beginning of being.
But for her, we are not, and never know blindness from seeing.

Charlotte charts the progress within birthing
Leading hearts to prove that they are worthy.

Suzanne, channel of life for the pure,
Dreams, delivers the future a cure.

Some meanings:
Birth and death are great powers, and some women have had a great influence in my ability to absorb their signigicance. This poem was born today.

Lillian, fiance (wife next week!) is in many ways my center - as far as human beings are concerned, she plays the pivotal role of reifying existence.

Charlotte, my sister, has been researching the various facets of birthing for many years, and has just delivered her third child. She lives the kind of life that makes it hard for others to understand "how she can do it all" - and she does do it all, which requires negotiating the various changes and challenges of life - which for those who witness, is a lesson in living, and giving birth.

Suzanne is a great and mysterious inspiration to me. She has developed an afinity with birthing, through various aspects of her life - a mother herself, a doula, and a dreamer of many birthing dreams. She also has a great positive influence on the people in her life.

On another note, it is obvious that I owe my greatest gratitude to my own mother, who sacrificed and labored to bring me into this wondrous world!

Note: Silverchair has a new album - you can listen to the whole album on their website. I most highly recommend it.

Warmth & Vulnerability

2007-04-14T01:17:00.000-05:00

I had a house-warming party, with lots and lots of fruit!

Love is an amazing gift.

I am so excited to get married in two weeks! There's a warmth in my life that I've never known. I really feel that all the hype in songs and movies about love is actually underplayed - true love, and falling in love, are much more powerful and intense still. This is mostly because they miss the whole spiritual aspect of the relationship, which adds multiple dimensions to the relationship.

I've recently realized that I've had this idea that when you really love someone, you end up feeling feeling vulnerable. Maybe vulnerability seemed to me like a sign of true love. I wouldn't have agreed theoretically with this idea, but it's been a part of my reality. I now know that showing weakness and susceptibility do not enhance the feeling of love and appreciation in the partner - at least not in Lillian. I think that strength, confidence and empathy form a good combination, where one stands firm, aware and understanding, confirming one partner's reality at the same time as one's own.

I feel like there are so many new worlds to explore. What's interesting is that I'm actually still on this earthly world. Seeing how rich life is here, I can scarcely imagine what exploring other Worlds will be like. Maybe the fact that I will discover them with Lillian gives me a sense of their existence and impressions.

Two Keys to the Valley of Contentment

2007-04-01T08:04:00.000-05:00

Key to the Valley of Contentment:

Sometimes, when you win, you lose.

Sometimes, when you lose, you win.

Those two strange phrases from "What Dreams May Come", my very favorite movie a few years ago, evoke strange feelings in me. I don't particularly buy into them, but they resonate with my heart, and generate tickling musings.

The truth is, we sometimes battle to take the right path and make the right decisions, only to find that it has no result we can recognize. We can only assume that our good intention has some kind of positive effect, but we still need to figure out how to tackle the challenge at hand. It sometimes even feels like a waste of time!

And then at other times, the opposite seems to happen - we make no particular move within one problematic area of our lives, and it is suddenly inadvertently resolved!

When we trust that those things which are meant to be resolved will do so of their own, and accept that our efforts, however valiant and purposeful, may not result in what we intend them to - without at all diminishing them - we bathe in deep contentment.

Key to the Valley of Contentment:

Have you ever noticed that an artist from one of your favorite bands goes solo, and his or her music suddenly loses all the beauty it had heretofore? (I'm thinking of the exorbitant and lamentable tragedy of Tom Yorke, Louise Rhodes, Lisa Gerrard and Billy Corgan's solo ventures among others.) Why are sophomore albums so frequently vastly inferior to debuts? Why is it that when some artist gain access to greater resources, they often lose their spunk?

I think people have a misguided idea of what it is to "get what you want". What do you want? Do you want what others say you want? If you're an actor, do you want to be a Hollywood star? (It's often been assumed that that would be my aspiration...) If you're a painter, is your main goal to have your art exposed around the world and sold at exorbitant prices (I know, I've used this exquisite word twice now!)?

Wise people always say they have all they need - everyone always ever has all they need. What a joy to know that the people in my life are the very souls that will benefit the most from my talents and my work! We always pray to reach more souls and touch more hearts, and we can remain confident that we have been chosen to bless the very people with whom we already come in contact. There's no one else we were supposed to have met or impressed - but maybe the very next moment there will be!

All you need is love.
Love (actually) is all around.
All is full of love.

Han Yuan

2007-03-29T07:09:00.000-05:00

Han Yuan is an awesome (though pricy) private Chinese language school, where I studied October through January. Learning there helped my level of spoken Chinese increase dramatically. I particularly love the teachers, the materials (books they have designed themselves), the atmosphere, and the complementary drinks!)

They had a fun Christmas Party, which Lillian and I attended:

This is my main teacher, who has lots of energy and enjoys her job!

The teachers are all young girls - I'm not sure how they justify that...

Camille, my one classmate, an awesome French adventurer, who's been all over China, and has the craziest sense of humour. We had such a blast, perpetually cracking up at everything. I sure didn't mind someone to speak French with. He's supposed to be helping Lillian and I organize our hopefully very imaginative wedding party this summer.

No Time to Read

2007-03-26T09:51:00.000-05:00

As some may know, there are a number of weblos I cannot access, and my habit of keeping up with my friends' weblos has been all but lost.

Enters Google to save danio's life for the 5th or 6th time! Google Reader lets me check your delicious life updates as I would e-mail! I've lost many URLs to my friends' weblos, so please take this opportunity to shamelessly post yours as a comment below. You may e-mail if as well.

Lillian and I are planning to set up our own weblo and picture site - both through one convenient all-in-one Google account. I'll post a link when that's done.

And speaking of pictures, I'll post pictures of our trip to Xinjiang within the next week. I'm very hopeful that I will gradually return to a regular schedule of posting on this weblo. Please rest assured that the danio's life remains full of beauty, excitement, depth, growth, spiraling, and (for better or for worse) devoid of babies or decadence...

Fast & Future

2007-03-03T01:18:00.000-05:00

Whoah!

Life is great!

Back in Shanghai!

I have some two months of e-mails to catch up with, so if I owe you one, I'm working on it.

The fast has begun - refraining from food and drink from sunrise to sunset for 19 days. That's not hard at all, though. What's hard is being away from Lillian for 19 days. Kind of interesting having two overlapping fast - the latter ending upon her return to Shanghai on Wednesday.

We'll be posting lots of pictures onse she gets back with the camera.

Wedding Schedule

2007-02-18T00:03:00.000-05:00

So here's the idea:

Marriage 1:
Lillian and danio travel to Nanning and Guilin at the end of April to get our official marriage papers, because neither of us are Shanghai locals, so we can't get married here.

Marriage 2:
Late June, we have our official wedding party in Shanghai

Marriage 3:
We should be visiting the US in August, and probably have a wedding reception in Richmond, VA

Marriage 4:
We'll be coming back to Xinjiang about a year from now, so the family on Lillian's side will throw a party (or two), and have a big gathering!

Home Sweet Home

2007-02-11T06:44:00.000-05:00

Well, here I am, happy as can be with my new family in my new home, Kuerle, Xinjiang, China.

I've been here some three and a half days, but it already feels like much longer. It's so beautiful here, and it's just about the best vacation I've ever had. It's so great to see Lillian in her natural environment, as it were :)

So I'll be here for another few days, with mom, dad, and the family, then off to new adventures, then back in Shanghai by the end of the month.

All my love to all of you!

Mission

2007-01-20T08:57:00.000-05:00

To follow-up on two posts from last year:

The rainy days mystery:

I was recounting how I had a mission to complete, and I positively had to do so before the long rain stopped. At that time, in mid-September, it rained for over a week straight, without a clearing in the sky. As you may know, I most love rainy weather. At the time, I was falling deeply in love with Lillian, who at the time had no particular interest in me. I knew that in order to make steps forward in my dream to gain admittance into her heart, I must first purify my heart. Well, the mission was successful, in that I was honestly able to sublimate my love for her, such as to truly wish her happiness and success, regardless of the results for me - regardless of whether or not whe would reciprocate the kind of love I had. Hurray! and now look at me: the happiest man alive!

Unhappy danio:

In another post, I mentioned how I had to face how sometimes I am unhappy. Well to contradict the last sentence from the last paragraph, I have recently found myself feeling unhappy more frequently than I can remember in long years. It has a lot to do with my job in primary school, where I cannot control the classroom, I get exhausted and impatient, failing to serve consummately in my workplace. I just decided to try to take concrete measure to help ensure that the standard jubilant danio's demeanor endures. I don't know how I'll do that, but it's exciting to really tackle this mission full-on. One new aspect is the presence of my life-long companion, Lillian, who is here to listen to me and accompany me on my mission. The sense of companionship is most precious (even though I remain a weirdo for living life the way I do - such a dreamer-thinker that danio...)

Faux Pas

2007-01-10T09:08:00.000-05:00

Some of you will really appreciate this:
Some years ago, I made a big booboo - I had a friend at work who really wanted to go out for lunch once or twice per week, so she offered to even pay if someone would accompany her. I said, "I'll eat on you, I have no shame!"

I have outdone myself twice here.
Xiao3 Jie3 (numbers are the tones) kind of means woman, and can be used to call on a waitress in a restaurant. Outside of this context, it means prostitute. I heard Liz call Jacqui xiao3 "J" once, mistaking it for the above. It was quite an insult when I called on her out loud the next time...

Today's takes the cake, though, the summum of embarrassment.
At our NewBeat (my school) meeting today, we were passing minutes from previous meetings around, to make sure everyone had signed them. Actually, we're supposed to put our initials - in my case a small "d". One piece of paper was passed along to me, Liz and Stephanie indicating that my "d" couldn't be seen. I responded in Chinese, saying, "ok, fine! you wanna see my 'd'?!? I'll show you my 'd'!!" Well it turns out, I was pronouncing di4, which of all things, happens to mean penis.

So there you have it...

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What I like on the metro:

* People staring at my vocabulary notebook, allowing me to start a conversation with a complete stranger!
* People asleep, so cozy-looking
* The arhu players with their little bowls for collecting money
* So many different people, with so many different lives

What I don't like on the metro:

* Beggers, especially children trained to bow down their head to your feet, or mothers with their babies
* Having to put not only my backpack on my lap, but also my coat, because it's too hot
* Bad smells you just have to live with for the duration of your trip

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Lillian and I have had dinner a couple of times with Maryam and Andy - who are married, and will help us avoid some legal annoyances that may come with marriage between a Chinese and an American citizen.

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Just a few more weeks before we take off to the other side of the country to visit the beautiful Xingjiang and "meet the parents"!

Video

2007-01-03T10:03:00.000-05:00

Hey there!

Please watch a new video of Lillian and me!

It's a New Day

2007-01-02T12:33:00.000-05:00

I am delighted to announce that Lillian and I are engaged to be married this year!

We are both very happy, and wish you, dear reader, much much joy in this year 2007.

La vie est belle!

I will share more in future posts.

The Love of my Life

2006-10-29T10:23:00.000-05:00

This is the first post in a couple of weeks. Sorry!The main reason is that I have found the soul with which I will spend the rest of eternity, and I have been overwhelmed far beyond measure.Her name is Lillian, Chinese name Li Lin Ling (3rd, 2nd and 2nd tones respectively). We have known each other pretty much since I moved here in February, and we are very close friends. We are learning to do all kinds of different things together, and we are planning our future life together. There is an abundance of joy, intense marveling, and abiding peace. Even the craziness of The Mars Volta music cannot begin to touch the depths of this life-turn!

On another note, this is my second week teaching English in primary school instead of kindergarten. It's been a serious challenge, which I am appreciating. Today I discovered how wonderfully crafts can work in the students regular classrooms (half of the classes are in smaller groups in my own classroom!). So I will be resorting to crafts more in the future. There's a beautiful girl names Ingrid, who is an absolute storm of misbehavior! For some reason, though, I took an immediate liking to her, and today she proudly demonstrated to me how attentive and engaged a student she can be, and ran into my arms after class. These two learnings made today a wonderful, heart-warming day (not to mention a long conversation with my parents in the morning, and coming home to a delicious home-made dinner from my beloved hands in the evening!)The danio is happy.

Note: This post was written on November 9, but I have not had access to Blogger.com recently.

Meals

2006-10-24T09:53:00.000-05:00

BREAKFAST
I've been eating the same breakfast for the last 6 years or so:
- Hashbrowns sprinkled with cheese (less cheese nowadays, as it's so rare and expensive in China)
- Dark bread (usually wheat, multigrain, rye, etc.) with peanut butter and jelly (natural, no sugar added, usually - also harder to find in Shanghai)
- Bowl of cereal (a muesli-type), with soymilk
I am probably one of those few people who can say with confidence that I have enough fiber in my diet! Sometimes I'll add an egg or some fruit (preferably grapefruit, my favorite - also uncommon in China, alas)

LUNCH
Since I've been in Shanghai, I've been enjoying the marvelous vegetarian meals prepared by auntie Fei or uncle Martin at NewBeat. They are amazing! especially the latter. The food varies so much! It's always white rice with an assortment of three dishes. The dishes are vegetables like potato, eggplant or broccoli, but often veggies I have no good name for: sigua, donggua, and lots of green leefy guys... also lots of tofu, soybeans, mushrooms and beansprouts. All of this is prepared in many different ways. What's more is we have some kind of fruit as dessert every time! watermelon, peach, apple, pair, banana, grapes, lychee, etc. I will certainly miss the lunches when I'm gone.

DINNER
Dinner was usually eating out for the first several months. I could get decent restaurant food for 10-30 RMB ($1-4). Then I went through a phase where I snacked on nuts and fruits for dinner, with an added street food of some kind, like a couple of baozis (last picture on the left). On that note, one of the best things in my life is the sheer amount of fruits I have been eating on a regular basis. It's so affordable, so delicious, easy to buy and everywhere!!! Several fruits, like the veggies mentioned above, are completely new to me - never seen or heard of them! Over the last couple of months, I've been getting pre-made food at the local market, which I can just toss in the wok, with maybe some added veggies, ready in a short 2 minutes. 4RMB. Sometimes I'll hit the noodle shop for 5RMB. And then I eat out with friends sometimes, which is more like 25-40RMB.

Monkey-danio in Anji

2006-10-21T07:53:00.000-05:00

In This Life...

2006-10-17T09:51:00.000-05:00

Well, I haven't been able to blog recently... but at least I haven't been able to blog recently!

For lack of anything personal, I will share some pictures from my good ol' pal Logan, a bexy sitch I never made love to... somehow... or did I? He lives in Cali or something, and probably doesn't play basketball. In any case, these are pictures he took - except the one of himself, I guess. blablabla.

So that was Logan... or his pictures. It's late and I should sleep 'cause I'm going to the zoo tomorrow. for half-a-day. No two days are aleich. And you should be proud of who you are. because I am.

Who said that?!?

Take it from me... do it. Use your hands and do it. This is the end.

Anji. Love.

2006-10-05T12:12:00.000-05:00

By special requests:

1. "Please post pictures of Anji"

They are at my new photo site.

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2. "Who is this girl?"

A friend was asking who is this girl in the poem I wrote a few posts back. She was a beautiful, inspiring girl that I met only once! On another note, my love life, as it were, is taking an interesting turn. It's quite a bit crazy, multi-faceted, exciting and of course spiritually affirming. There is reciprocated love in my life, and I am traveling that road to finding my life-long partner. So much has been experienced, so much my dear reader will never know...

Riveting

2006-10-01T10:45:00.000-05:00

Things to do with friends:

- watched a play about how crazy Shanghai is. It was quite creative and intriguing. It was also very poignant. I got to practice my Chinese!
- watched the new big movie, The Banquet - a Chinese remake of Hamlet. It was so gorgeous! Several deviations from the original, including in theme, personalities, and relationships. Much more intrigue and politics. No improvement, but still worthy of merit, especially the cinematography and performance.
- went out to a bar on opening night with free drinks - called LaLa Land!
- went out dancing to excellent house music - my first time since I've been in Shanghai!
- going to Anji in the morning for two days with two friends
- going all night to karaoke with some friends when we get back

It's vacation time! One week of partying and hanging out with friends in Shanghai

Life is sweet. Lamb agrees

Do Not Flee

2006-09-21T08:59:00.000-05:00

Some 16 months ago I fell for a girl who already had a boyfriend. I always learn a lot when I find in someone the qualities I'm looking for in a life-partner. The way Javad put it, it's always nice to experience this, 'cause it reminds us that there are indeed people out there that match the criteria. On the one hand, I should obviously respect the boyfriend-girlfriend relationship existing, but on the other hand, what if something else is destined? Or in my own words,

To fall in love with one you cannot wed
Is better fate than to have loved and fled.

This is one of the 20 sonnets I wrote to this love interest:

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Zonnet 5

Reverberating curiously between
Our hearts, a love traverses the divide.
By circumstance my heart from yours is wheened,
Yet still we find that you and I collide.

For in mine eyes thou seest thine expressed.
A swift connection binds our hearts in twine.
No selfish purpose hid, no wish repressed,
Nor ambiguity canst thou yet find.

If growth and learning be hereby attained,
If truthful love and happiness abound,
If to our lives these instances pertain,
If to inspection it remaineth sound,

Then let such magic foster as it would,
It can forsooth amount to only good.

---

To give credit to Brent's comments, I would do things differently now than I did then. I would remember that "Not everything that a man knoweth can be disclosed, nor can everything that he can disclose be regarded as timely, nor can every timely utterance be considered as suited to the capacity of those who hear it."

I So Love Children...

2006-09-14T09:52:00.000-05:00

I am frequently overtaken with emotion at my job, on the verge of tears. I contemplate the beauty of these young souls who are still in the beginning phases of their relationship with this big world of ours.

One thing that strikes me frequently is how "real" their experience is. It is rare for us adults to cry outright, or to scream out of fright, or feel completely overtaken by embarassment the way children do. However, the experience is as real for them as it would be for us if we had it right now. Those are the childhood memories we tend to keep, because they're so intense. But it's easy for adults to dismiss the instance as something children maybe "just go through." I frequently see adults, especially teachers, ignore children crying, or even yelling at them. My God! They are so sensitive and vulnerable! Every time this happens, it takes a toll on their whole life! I pine for their suffering, as I recall my own experience as a child!

There is a new class I teach on Thursday afternoon. They are 3-4 years old. They are a trouble class, specifically bunched together according to a perceived lesser potential - at least that's how it's been explained to me. There are difficult to teach. Their discipline and focus is very poor, and their ability to learn in hampered. But this is where the simple acts of love show the clearest effect. In the course a short 25 minutes, I saw how my love and patience empowered them to control and enjoy their own actions. I am so grateful to God that I have a job where I can so clearly see the effect of my own service. And according to friends' accounts, what I see is only a small portion of what I am actually bestowing.

Month after month, my mother's widsdom of a multi-decade teacher infiltrates my own methods and approaches. I always thought it was remarkable how every single day she could have so very much to say about her students and her classes. I never thought I might one day be so grateful for her endless stories and anecdotes! Today we taught a huge class of some 40 students (2 classes combined for their English learning, actually), which is exceptionally challenging. The majority didn't behave too well, which Jacqueline and I both feel should be corrected. How? Remembering my mom's wisdom, I thought of a punishment. I usually focus on rewards, but punishments are also useful. It's simple: we said that because of how poorly they were behaving, the class went very slowly, and therefore we had no time to play a game, which we know they all love.

Did I mention I love my job?

On another note, it's been raining for four days. I love rain, but this time there's another meaning, and I have to finish a mission before the rain leaves, which gives me possibly another two days to complete a task which will most likely change my life. One day I might share i

Last Resort

2006-09-10T11:27:00.000-05:00

So I got a membership at a gym near my home, as a last resort, since I have not been exercising since I've come to Shanghai. I was trying to do capoeira, but it didn't work with my schedule.

I've started working on three different performance projects - some friends have been asking me about this, since I am a performer, after all... I have to make slow progress at this point, because of my heavy schedule, but it's nice to make some headway.

The new semester has started, and it's great to be back at the kindergartens, especially to be once again with some of my classes from the Spring.

Blogging...

How about a poem! a love poem!

Beneath the surface of your smile there lies
A mystery, which no detective's eyes,
However keen, could e'er elucidate.
How can your smile so bright illuminate
In one sweet hour a world as big as mine?
The secret lies in how you did define
The meaning of your life when as a child
You looked up to your teacher's face, so mild
And kind, and recognized the peaceful way
That you yourself would choose to be and stay.
Today, like many other days you teach,
Your light has shone on one you tried to reach,
And I am thankful for the smile I feel
Is spreading on my face - so warm and real.
I hope and pray you always will bestow
Your happy smile on those you get to know,
Because our world can seem so very dark
With so few acts of love to make their mark,
But smiles like yours can bring a kindling spark.

---

danio's song of the month

Gnarls Barkley - Smiley Faces

What did you do? What did you say?
Did you walk or did you run away?
Where are you now? Where have you been?
Did you go alone or did you bring a friend?
I need to know this 'cause I noticed you're smiling.
Out of the sun, having fun and and feeling free.
And I can tell you know how hard this life can be, but you keep on smiling for me.

What went right? What went wrong?
Was it a story or was it a song?
Was it overnight or did it take you long?
Was it knowing your weakness what made you strong?
Or all of the above. Oh how I love to see you smiling.
And oh yeah, take a little pain just in case.
You need something warm to embrace, to help you put on a smiling face.
Put on a smiling face.

Don't you go off into the new day with any doubt.
Here's a summary of something that you could smile about.
Say for instance, my girlfriend she bugs me all the time.
But the irony of it all is that she loves me all the time. Oh, see.

I wanna be you, whenever I see you smiling.
'Cause it's easily one of the hardest things to do.
Your worries and fears become your friends and they end up smiling at you.
Put on a smiling face.

Profile: Edward

2006-08-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

Profile: Edward Giles

Beauty & Strength:

Edward is agreeably a one-of-a-kind soul, in a unique relationship with life and other people. Growing up in a violent and confusing environment, he has always embraced life as a stream of power feeding his spirit, so he can soar in new directions. The simplest of events take on profound significance as they interact with the constellation of pieces of wisdom, which he has gleaned from his grandfather, Islam, Sufism, Freemasonry, and the Baha'i Faith. He is most kind-mannered and gentle, with an amazing ability to converse at great length in abstract concepts, all the while keeping it grounded in reality (though the interlocutor may find it challenging to draw the correspondences).

Connection:

Edward once showed up at my home to talk to my dad and me about spiritual truths, which he had been investigating. He soon became an integral part of my life, as we slowly reached across the distance between our worlds to gain mutual understanding. On the one hand, I always feel like an apprentice in his presence, as he shares his various thoughts, many of which are encapsulated in a few simple word plays. On the other hand, I feel like a light that has found something to shine on, as my own thoughts find validation in his attentive ears.

Service:

Edward has been serving homeless and poor people through a local church in Richmond, and he has been developing his relationships with family and friends, sharing his great wisdom (which unfortunately are lost on many misunderstanding or overwhelmed ears).

Vision:

Edward will certainly continue to guide and inspire others with his great warm heart! It may even be within his lifetime that people learn to turn to his words for growth and comfort. He or someone else may also gather some of his compiled wisdom in writing.

Token Couplet:

On this soul's open oceans only odes
To you and life are heard - in hidden codes.

The Breeze is Wafting

2006-08-27T07:46:00.000-05:00

Yippie!

I love white tea! I've been hanging out with the lady at the tea shop down the street from me. She so sweet and welcoming. I've been learning lots about tea, and getting lots of free samples! She and her daughter are from Anhui province, just West of Shanghai, and they've been here for over 10 years!

One thing for which I am particularly grateful is the fact that none of my friends here complain about their lives or their jobs. While it's possible they keep some things bottled up, the main reason is that they are simply not inclined to complaining about things in general.

I also love that when a friend introduces me to one of her or his friends, this person immediately also assumes the role of a friend to me - in a "a friend of my friend is also my friend" kind of way.

Shanghainese is so much fun! I only know a few phrases, and I'm focusing on Mandarin, but it's a really cool sound, and it gets huge laughs whenever I attempt it.

A funny lesson in the 5th book in our NewBeat English series teaches the sentence, "The breeze is wafting." This is to follow "The sun is shining",

Zhuhai

2006-08-21T06:08:00.000-05:00

Zhuhai is such a very beautiful city! Unfortunately, I didn't really take any pictures. This is a view onto one of the many Zhuhai mountains, from my hotel room:

Guangdong food - yummie!

Touba (my school's director) and I were lucky enought to meet and have dinner with Rainbow's sister, who lives in Zhuhai (Rainbow is a NewBeat teacher).

Sandy and Adrian, from Macau - a beautiful family. This picture was taken by Julia, their daughter.

For the family consulting training course, we had a dinner together, where people took turns performing or speaking for the group - it was a delightful group indeed!

As I have mentioned, I was sick the whole 10 days in Zhuhai. I went to a doctor, who performed what is known as cupping, where they put suction cups at different strategic spot on my back to purge toxins from my body. I can't seem to get the picture to come up, so it's been divinely censored

Suzhou visit with friends

2006-08-21T05:42:00.000-05:00

And now, to Suzhou! So cool to go to these beautiful cities back to back like this! The first picture I want to share is one of old people dancing, as they are wont to do at all time of the day. This is at around 7AM, and they were having a grand time!

As opposed to the cheap, do-it-yourself trip I had made with some friends to Zhu Jia Jiao, this time Tian Tian, Zhang Han and I took a tour bus, which means that we were steered around, going to a few select places, half of which are just touristy commercial spots aimed at getting us to buy various products for which the city is famous... like stone tea pots and silk products. This is a picture of our tour guide in action.

We visited a few beautiful gardens, which seem to make up a significant portion of the city's layout.

Throughout our visits, we had a few opportunities to watch and listen to beautiful young women playing traditional Chinese music on characteristic instruments:

My two companions took quite a few pictures themselves!

Haha! I got her:

I had several other pics, here, but having trouble loading - sorry! Maybe I'll start a Flickr page...

Hangzhou visit with Grandma

2006-08-21T05:20:00.000-05:00

Yippie! Time for Hangzhou pictures. Although this is funny for starters, the next few pictures are from my favorite restaurant in Shanghai, which they also have in Hangzhou. They have the most delicious Thai food, and live performances (instruments, singing and dancing). Their outfits are great, and they have some many fruit foods and drinks!

The main feature of Hangzhou is West Lake:

Another big attration to me is the only place I know of where I love to shop! It's a night market with lots of arts, crafts and trinkets. The pagoda in the background is also a principle landmark:

I was very excited to go to the market for a second time:

A few clothes in my wardrobe are from this shop:

Next time I go, I want to buy a couple of this guy's amazing stone-carved tea pots!

This is a picture of our breakfast, which we picked up on the street market right outside the hotel:

Linyin Temple is the next main attraction after the lake:

This girl is just so cute!

I love this woman's dress, but I couldn't get a good shot of it!

There's a whole set of paths going up the mountain. Last time Javad and I walked to the top together. So many stairs!

Did I mention it was a beautiful, no-clouds sunny day?

This was a neat arrangement of rose paintings at a cafe we stopped out before leaving Hangzhou. It reminds me of our promotion for the production of The Rose Knight last summer.

Bright Sight

2006-08-17T04:39:00.000-05:00

In brief:

* Grandma's visit
The week my grandma spent here was splendid. We visited much of Shanghai, had a most lovely time in Hangzhou, she visited some of the classes I teach, and met many of my friends. The friends gave her gifts to add to the huge lot that she was taking home. She got back safely and is back at work.

* Suzhou
I traveled with two of my friends to Suzhou. There's an expression in China that goes something like, Heaven has paradise, and Earth has Suzhou and Hangzhou. And the good news! I got a new memory card, so you'll soon see pictures!

* Zhuhai
I am currently in Zhuhai, in the South of China, near Macau and Hong Kong. I have been taking a course in psychology - family consulting, along the lines of psychotherapy. I quit half-way through, though, because I feel it's not fit for me. Instead, I've been sick all day everyday, while friends are taking care of me, and I'm doing other things, mostly in my head.

* NewBeat
This is the longest by far I've been without teaching English to the lovely children, and if I weren't sick, I'd miss them a lot more! I'm getting a raise in September, and hopefully a better schedule. I'm also considering adding a whole year to my contract, which would keep me at NewBeat through Jan 2008! I have finally met with Yuklan Fong, the founder of NewBeat, and we've had two meetings over the last 24 hours. It's been great hearing about the history and vision of this school.

* Macau
Tomorrow I will visit Macau for the second time, then I'm headed back home to Shanghai on Sat morning. Once I'm back, I can see about these pictures.

So Good!

2006-07-31T00:25:00.000-05:00

My grandma arrives today!

By the way, there've been no pics on my weblo recently because my phone's memory card is fried, so I have to find a new one and haven't really bothered looking. Cheer me on!

So my grandma and I have one week to make the best of this beautiful side of the world together. We will be be doing some of the touristy stuff like going up the Pearl Tower and the Jin Mao tower (tallest building in China, 5th tallest in the world, right here in my home town!) We'll also visit the Bund on the Huangpu river bank, with its gorgeous view of Shanghai city skyline. Best of all, we'll be visiting paradise on Earth: Hangzhou! I'm so very excited. This is my second visit, and if we're lucky there'll be pictures this time.

Yay!

Then she'll be heading back to Richmond in time to prepare for my cousin Katharine's wedding!

Right now my parents are visiting my sister Charlotte in Quebec from Richmond, staying for a week! Plus Charlotte will be flying to Richmond for Katharine's wedding - which is on my birthday, Sept. 2 - my 26th!

Unhappy danio

2006-07-25T06:14:00.000-05:00

Haha! I knew that title would catch your attention!

Yesterday was a fine day, but I was unhappy for a while. During that while, I got on the phone with a friend who noticed the unhappiness in my voice. Now, as far as I'm concerned, a little bit of unhappiness is nothing to worry about - maybe even a good sign. But I've learned that maybe I don't like people to notice that I can be unhappy. This friend has been trying to get me to feel happy since, and everytime it just reminds me that my unhappiness showed. It feels like a nagging, making me once again uneasy, irritated even.

Over the years, a number of friends have pointed out to me that I am always happy, and they are amazed at this. This was encouragement for me to work harder to make sure that I am always more and more happy, so that I can be a positive influence on others, and so that this happiness may spread around. In the process, though, I may have become attached to the idea of appearing happy to others. One of the cool things about my life in China is that many of my positive personality traits which used to stand out in the US are barely noticeable here! That's because the average Chinese person is so very mild-mannered that we barely ever discern any disagreeable behavior in each other. It's great for me, because I have to get used to not being perceived as having an excellent temper.

On the flipside, I am perpetually praised with an endless streams of compliments on other elements of myself - from talents to intelligence, etc. But that hasn't been too difficult for me, since I am not attached to having or not having those. I just keep trying to do better.

A few days ago I started a journal again. I had quit after trying three times, feeling that it just wasn't for me. The reason for my persistence was that so many of my most inspiring friends keep journals. So finally, I started using a journal for practicing my Chinese writing, and I got caught reading back through what I had written. I then understood that maybe journaling is for me after all!

Oh, and since I stopped watching stuff on my computer since I finished Lost: Season 2 a couple weeks ago, yesterday I downloaded a SNES video game I have wanted to play for the last 10 years, known as Secret of Mana 2 (never officially translated). It's so great!

Profile: Yves

2006-07-16T23:08:00.000-05:00

Profile: Yves Bosson

Beauty & Strength:

Yves is a strong character, with vision, poise and understanding. He values his friendships and the blessings in his life, but remains detached from turns of events. He retains perspective. He places importance on ethical values and proper form.

Connection:

Yves was my mentor while I was growing up. Although only two years older than me (that's a lot when we're children), I looked up to him as an examplar for conduct and thinking. We used to play all kinds of games together, go out on walks, chat, etc. I used to watch from my home balcony for when his mother would take off on some evenings or on the weekend, and as soon as the car left the lot, I ran over to his house, super-NES in arm, and a huge grin on my face. His home was impeccable, and he would always remind me not to waste energy by leaving the light on in unoccupied rooms. Small lessons like that have stayed with me. He was the one person I know who disliked candy. He played with me when I first discovered role-playing games.
I lost touch with Yves some seven years ago, and I pray that some day we may meet up again, reminisce of our wonderful youth together, catch up, and speak of a bright future.

Service:

Yves was always the calm one in our neighborhood, keeping a great balance in his life between play and work. He thought of his own well-being just enough to be able to think of others'.

Vision:

Last I heard from him, he was possibly heading out to Quebec to study or work in video game programming. I've found his name with a video game company on the internet, though without contact info. I imagine that he is helping to bring up the standard of video game entertainment through higher quality programming and more meaningful game concepts and design. Surely he continues to be a leader and example among his peers.

Token Couplet:

As lunar truth and peace from him descend,
To broader ends your powers now extend.

Cannot Wallow

2006-07-10T07:57:00.000-05:00

I've tried a couple of times to wallow in my not-so-great day today, but it don't work! I just start smiling at myself for the perfection of this life and my every moment.

I've often taken issue with the lack of hardship in my life. Today is the first not-so-great day that I can remember since I've arrived in Shanghai, and it's only because I couldn't get a cleaning for my teeth, and I probably miss spending most of my day with children...

I came to the realization a few days ago that my life may serve as an example - at least for myself. There has been so much suffering on this planet for so long, only worsening, that many believe that can only define our human life and civilization by its misery. Many spiritual scriptures confirm that we only gain true happiness through hardship. At the same time, though, Baha'u'llah says that this is the day that will not be followed by night, so I want to believe that our future holds a promise of true peace, harmony and joy.

Maybe my life so far (and maybe into the future) is a demonstration that the sacrifices of the people before me, who gave so much for future generations (i.e. me), can help beautify what it is to be human - gaining and growing without having to suffer so much - and still being able to truly grow spiritually. In any case, I am always grateful, even if I know I don't deserve all of these blessings. But then of course, I do deserve them in a way, because they are what providence has ordained.

On another note, thank you "V for Vendetta" for yet again pointing out the problems of our world without truly providing beauty or direction. At a recent performance, a philosopher shared his thoughts that society is going through depression, and each individual needs to go through the same process and come out on the other side. He mentions the popularity of Radiohead's "Kid A" as a sign of this world-wide depression. Well, I don't seem to be depressed, although I occasionally week bitter tears for the condition of my brothers and sisters suffering around the world.

For those I encounter in my life though, you can catch me on the merry-go-round, calling out your name to come for a ride. Heck, I even often come down and walk around to invite folk over.

There's a song in my heart, and I think I hear it in yours also.

My Love is Real

2006-07-07T08:50:00.000-05:00

This was written for my friends after the TV show Lost reminded me that sometimes all we need is one person we know to truly love us. My longing desire is to be one such person for my friends.

My love is real
- as real as the beating of your heart.
It pulses, it flows, it gives, it is grace.

If you can feel,
as much or as little as impart
A letter, a word, a kiss or embrace,

Then feel me now,

For I have seen the face of Beauty in your spirit, and I long to let you know that I would sacrifice my life to see you happy and alive - and thence continue still to send whatever love I can from life beyond.

Redemption

2006-07-07T07:57:00.000-05:00

Last night I watched the last three episodes of the TV show, Lost (Season Two).

This show has been my favorite TV show (displacing the previous holder of this position: FarScape) for the following reasons (among others):

- The characters have to deal with their own identity and their psychological and spiritual progress at a pivotal time in their lives, in an environment which gives them no choice but to face their personal challenges - future and past.

- The characters have to learn to deal with each other (new faces) in a hostile and unfamiliar environment, which brings out fascinating dynamics.

- The island which has become their home reflects some of the most mystical and interesting elements of our world, all compacted in diminutive space and time.

- Action, thrill, suspense, drama and mysteries abound!

- The script, directing, cinematography, and acting are of the highest calliber.

Unfortunately, many of the episodes I have watched recently have irked me by focusing more on plot, and turning the focus of the show away from the beautification of human personalities and inclinations. I had really liked how so many of the characters, though outwardly not such good people, were given validity and interest through a reification of their inner beauty. This aspect falling to the background, and a new ugliness showing its face, it became difficult for me to continue watching.

WARNING: spoilers

It was notably difficult to see Charlie make poor decisions in his desperation to serve as a father figure or simply get revenge on Locke; John himself losing faith and becoming impatient with others; Jack losing perspective in his desire to attack the "others"; Sayid going back to torturing and feeling no guilt; Anna-Lucia making no progress in her violent inclinations; Sawyer pulling a disturbing long con (not to mention the aweful one in his flashback); even Mr. Ecko resorting to violence and deceit to follow his dream. Michael atrocious actions are unspeakable.

In the last few episodes, I found semblences of redemption, which, though still falling short of my hopes, have proven marginally satisfactory in my book.

For one, the show has continued to nurture some of the positive relationships like that of Jin and Sun, Hurley and Libbie, and the interracial couple (whose names I forget). Kate has kept her strength also. Here's what I really liked:

- Sawyer confessing to Jack, claiming the latter is the closest thing he has to a friend - thereby confirming Kate's attraction to and patience with him since the beginning. We all know people who show their feelings through violence and antagonism - Sawyer is here just an extreme version of this. I remember how it took 3 seasons of Farscape before Rygel finally stopped betraying all of his friends on Moya, so the makers of Lost might have the same kind of long-term redemption path for Sawyer.

- The scene between Michael and Walt shows the pain of their situation. Michael has always been a spiritually weak character, and since he can only focus on his one failure in life, he is destroying everything around him in a desperate and misguided attempt to redeem himself. The scene in the forest when Jack gets him to reveal the truth of his actions really shows how pathetic and blinded he is. People all around us are misguided and commit terrible deeds. Michael is an extreme but believable example. His dialogue with Mr. Ecko about hell is also revealing, and suggests the insightful purposes of the show's writers.

- Claire is able to see the true, loving intentions of Charlie, and through her forgiving him, the audience is given the emotional strength to see past his transgressions.

- The opposite crossing paths of John and Ecko demonstrate some of the more pernicious vagaries of faith, which we also have to face. Particularly, John lets his limited mind dictate his faith, and Ecko lets his fanaticism dictate his actions. Neither finds peace, and through their antagonism, neither finds peace, instead they are stuck together and may be dead. Instead of one of them saving the day, Desmond the unbeliever does. These are challenges we too have to deal with at times.

- The beauty of Penelope's love for Desmond is very moving, especially when he opens the years-old letter, and gains strength from her deep love and devotion. Love literally saves the day, and this is the kind of thing that makes Lost a great show - while many people may only be aware of the non-spiritual and non-ethical aspects that make the show.

In the end, most of my issues with the show are only partially addressed. I have regained confidence in the show, and look forward to season three.

Zhu Jia Jiao

2006-06-27T09:53:00.000-05:00

Off to Zhu Jia Jiao we went on June 15.

My oh my! what an adventure! We met at the Shanghai stadium to catch the 9-yuen ($1) bus. Originally it was just Javad and I going:

Soon enough, there were 8 of us going! Cool art at the stadium:

Zhu Jia Jiao is one of several river towns, where boat faring has always been a part of locals' lives. Today these boats are mostly for tourists...

... and the ocasional garbage-men:

We took the boat too!

This next picture is what I was looking at in the previous - foreigners like meself are always a funny sight to locals and other tourists alike:

This was a true gentleman:

Especially to put his boat in my hands!

Oh-so pleasant!

The beautiful locals:

Beautiful Architecture:

Beautiful art (there was much more, of various kinds, but you'll just have to go there...)

Beautiful danio:

Of course, the fun was mostly about the people with whom we were spending precious time:

Including my dear companion Javad:

Javad just left a couple of days ago, moving to another city. He has been my closest companion here in Shanghai. We are both very excited about his new home, and the service he will offer there.

As always, the most important is that life is beautiful, so I leave you with a picture of Shanghai's official city flower, the Magnolia, which has been blooming everywhere for the last 3-4 weeks!

Profile: Courtney

2006-06-18T06:45:00.000-05:00

Profile: Courtney Sullivan

Beauty & Strength:

Courtney is strong, driven, and most kind-hearted. Courtney is everyone's confident because she opens her heart to all. She has the strength of character to serve as a leader, and the humility to make those she meets feel like they are home. Her words console the soul, and her loving smiles make one melt - let alone her hugs!

Connection:

Courtney is one of my greatest inspirations. She taught me much of what I know about love. We spent four years at the same university (Alaska Pacific University). I once decided to emulate her ability to spread love all around her, and the lessons gained will always be a part of who I am. Courtney and I have shared many magical moments, between chats, travels, parties, and especially service. As you may know, service together is just about the greatest way to connect to another soul, and this was certainly the case with Courtney. We organized various activities on campus (informational, cutural, entertainment, etc.), and provided mutual motivation and encouragement for our seperate initiatives. The opening night of The Peach (the play I wrote/produced/directed in college), she cried for the joy of seeing its success. She holds a permanent, big place in my heart.

Service:

Courtney is conscious of the challenges the world faces, and works on many fronts to help heal its condition - such as human rights, supporting cultural heritage, and especially the environment. She is currently president of Alaska Natural Resource & Outdoor Education Association (ANROE), and one of her greatest contributions has been the organizing of Native Alaskan Youth Olympics over the last couple of years. She has also travelled for service to remote Alaskan villages, South America, and probably other places I do not know of... She is also a dedicated friend, making great efforts to be of service to those most in need.

Vision:

Courtney will continue to devote her life to service, through education of both herself and others, as well as through action. Considering how much her leadership skills are growing, I envision her in a position where she can truly influence the course of events on a large scale, for the benefit of still more people. She will, of course, continue to inspire me in my life, as I learn to develop myself and serve others. And I am sure others feel as I do.

Token Couplet:

If rain and sunshine showered from above
No longer, there would still be Courtney's love.

Go

2006-06-14T06:51:00.000-05:00

A few days ago, I saw a couple of gentlemen playing go on the street. I watched them for a while, and after the game, the one gentleman offered to play me a game. I got violently massacred, which was totally awesome! We exchange a few words, some contact info, so hopefully we

Clubbing

2006-06-14T06:41:00.000-05:00

I just remembered yet another time the experience I had clubbing in Hangzhou a few weeks ago. A great song started, and I felt myself entering a new role:

She followed the conventional motions of a robot, with strict conventions of rhythm and style. On a sudden, she noticed her own movement - abstraction had stuck! As she noted the influence of her volition over her dance, she took control of it, becoming more free, fluid, vibrant. Life was fresh. After some time, she recalled the beauty of her inner essence: the robot in her.

School Days

2006-06-14T06:26:00.000-05:00

This is our team, back from a busy morning!

These lovely meinu (beautiful ladies)were all born in the year of the Monkey:

Bruce, stage center:

Felix, Sandy:

Profile: Shawn

2006-06-07T08:45:00.000-05:00

Profile: Shawn Harris

Beauty & Strength:

Shawn is an amazingly focused and perceptive person. She demonstrates a level of genuineness and frankness that is extremely refreshing. She's the kind of person that will look at you in the eye, truly listen to your words, and share her thoughts (though initially in only very small doses, until much ice is broken). She does not play (social) games, so there's no wondering and guessing with her, which I appreciate beyond telling. What you see is what you get, as it were.

Connection:

In my experience, no time spent with Shawn is trivial, and that is one of my greatest attractions to her. I look for everything in my life to have purpose, so when we connect, we go far very fast, jumping straight into exchanges of ideas and vision, looking for a new breakthrough in both spiritual growth and pragmatic understanding. Shawn and I have a most unique relationship, for which I am most grateful: we often come from extremely different perspectives and work together to build across the divide, thereby connecting worlds which may have never met before! Our creative collaborations in roleplaying games and in theatre have sparked fantastic seeds and lead to the completion of splendid projects, often involving several participants. She's often the mind at work behind our collaborations, whereas I'm kind of the face and the gatherer of outside resources.

Service:

One of Shawn's principle acts of service recently has been her work in designing solid, practical, welcoming, user-friendly, and somewhat divergent roleplaying systems. They serve to streamline the roleplaying experience for the afficionados like myself and several of my friends, as well as to open up the world of roleplaying to new audiences (which is also one of my greatest aspirations!). Her script-writing has also touched the lives of many souls, especially in the context of the production of "The Rose Knight" last summer. On a personal basis, she is dedicated to nurturing her close relationships, especially with her family, and those fortunate enough to be her friends.

Vision:

Shawn is scheduled to move here to Shanghai within the next 9 months or so, which is the most exciting thing for me! We will most certainly work together again, possibly on her stellar play, "The Rose Knight". She has many goals, including possibly further schooling (such as a Masters in scriptwriting), and reaching out to more people for the promotion and production of "The Rose Knight", along with other works she is bound to write.

Token Couplet:

As her stark charms your spinning world compel,
It skips a pensive beat for just a spell.

The danio-Profile

2006-06-07T08:34:00.000-05:00

I have just today decided to start what I will dub "The danio-Profile". Every profile focuses on one of my friends, extolling her or his beauty and strengths, recounting our connection to each other, noting some of the service he or she is rendering to the world, and share a vision of where I see her or him going. I will also compose a tentatively encapsulating couplet in iambic pentameter.

Harbor

2006-06-06T08:23:00.000-05:00

This time just mostly some pictures.
Life rolls on through worlds of majesty and simplicity.

This is from maybe two months ago - the NewBeat team hard at play:

A more recent picture. It's a good life we NewBeatnicks live:

This is a new friend from Shangqiu, Ivy - picture taken from my front door:

Last wednesday was the Dragon Boat festival, and I got invited to a special event sponsored by my particular neighborhood. It's evidently common for the Chinese to invite foreigners to special events to demonstrate their desire to welcome us. It was rather cool, and I got to get up in front of everyone and show off the little Shanghainese I have learned. They got a kick out of it!

Goodies! Thank you!

There were a couple of performances shared:

This has got to be one of the most fabulous pictures I've taken - what a great shot on that stupendous smiling face!

Two more pictures of me:

Guitar Troubleshooting

2006-05-30T22:38:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to get my guitar fixed since I arrived in China. I've been also trying to get Javad's guitar fixed for some two months. Both have been sitting in my home, collecting dust and irking me. For a time, I went out and looked for places to get it fixed, asking many friends to help me find a guitar repair shop. After a few attempts, my desire did not decrease, but my actions all but disappeared. I did that thing we probably all do sometimes, where we get stuck on something relatively small, and deem it insurmountable.

Yesterday, I went out to the Music Conservatory with my new friend, Crystal. There are tons of music shops in that area. It turns out this area is a 20-minute walk from my home! We went into a few stores, each of which informed us that they cannot complete the repairs, recommending that we go to another spot in Shanghai, somewhat far away.

My guitar: one of the tuning knobs is broken off, and it needs new strings (I've been to lazy to change them myself)
Javad's guitar: has an awesome buzzing noise, which I have been unable to locate, and also needs new strings.

After the failure to find a repair shop, Crystal simply went to get some super-glue. I came home, glued the broken knob back on, changed the strings on one of them, and located and fixed the buzz. Three months of annoyance, taken care of in one pleasant evening.

I was telling Eric when he was here about the concept of "seeing the end in the beginning". In "The Seven Valleys", Baha'u'llah explains that when people reach a certain level of spiritual growth, they no longer makes this mistake of being frustrated at the guitars: they see the end in the beginning, and "because they see the end in the beginning, see peace in war and friendliness in anger " (Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 15)

In this case, it simply means that with this level of spiritual growth, I could have been grateful and happy while the guitars didn't work, knowing that it served a purpose, or several: for me to learn to take care of it myself, to gain confidence and patience, to reach out to different people, to make this new friend, etc.

People having grown beyond this ability to see the end in the beginning, "the people of the Valleys above this see the end and the beginning as one; nay, they see neither beginning nor end, and witness neither "first" nor "last." Nay rather, the denizens of the undying city, who dwell in the green garden land, see not even "neither first nor last"; they fly from all that is first, and repulse all that is last." (Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 15) ***

In this case, it would be a blissful experience all along, both before and after fixing the problem. The issue wouldn't have even been a problem at all!

So as I was telling Eric, I keep noticing instances of all three in my life:
- not seeing the end in the beginning (the guitars)
- seeing the end in the beginning (my job at NewBeat, my new friendships, and much more)
- seeing "not even 'neither first nor last'" (not as easy to pinpoint, since it's so integrated into my life...)

So I'm sort of straddling these different stages of spiritual growth.

The whole experience with the guitars last night put me back in touch with the words of Piersig in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". It was really delightful working and making things better with my own two hands.

Actually, today and this week I'm teaching some of the children about hands and fingers - such magical things. I think it was Nikki who once told me how she occasionally will just stare intently at her own hands, marveling at their power and beauty. Humans are truly a noble and beautiful creation!

*** The quote goes on: "For these have passed over the worlds of names, and fled beyond the worlds of attributes as swift as lightning. Thus is it said: 'Absolute Unity excludeth all attributes.' And they have made their dwelling-place in the shadow of the Essence." (Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 15)

Touba

2006-05-21T10:06:00.000-05:00

I've noticed that all the praises I'm receiving all of the time is starting to get to me... I tend to not initiate conversations much, so others do, and when they initiate conversations, they ask about me, which tends to bring up impressive things about my life, which leads to (sometimes excessive) complements. Furthermore, since I'm always looking for opportunities to practice my Chinese, I get several compliments about that every single day.

Obviously, I need to learn to flip it around and focus the conversation on my interlocutor. As a matter of fact, anytime I've been able to talk with my friends about themselves, I've been very moved myself!

Tonight is one such example, when I took the opportunity by the horns, and started asking Touba about her life. It's fitting that I should succeed with her, since she lays the most compliments on me. Touba is the director of NewBeat (my school). She was telling me how she left Shanghai when she was 16, moved during the cultural revolution to a very poor town where she worked in a rice field with inadequate irrigation and no fertilizer. She ate very poorly, and lived a most simple life, quickly becoming a teacher for many children in her neighborhood, whose only payment was a little bit of food (vegetables or the like), sent by the parents. She lived in the town for eight years - until she was my age, at which point she moved to a larger town where she worked in construction - this time for 10 years. I only got some of the details of these elements of her life during the course of our car ride, but I have been most moved all night, on the verge of tears for being brought so close to such a powerful life experience. I have so much to learn.

We on the Bund

2006-05-21T09:42:00.000-05:00

Eric was here visiting for a few days, so I finally made my way out to the famous "Bund" - a stretch of riverside walkways where one can get a great view of the amazing Shanghai skyline. My first (and so far only) trip there was on a typhoon night! (Chunks of this typhoon hit us from nearby.) So we had the bounty of having the whole place just to ourselves! (except for a negligible few people) Pictures are aweful, of course, since it was so windy, and there's not much sense in focusing on the skyline - so here's Eric and me:

I'm thinking of making it a habit of only going to the Bund during terrible weather (read: great weather - in danio's book).

A ne pas manquer

2006-05-10T06:24:00.000-05:00

Tool and Zero 7 have their new albums coming out simultaneously next week. I'm beside myself with excitement!

Fruit to Eat

2006-05-10T05:40:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but I feel that any weblo post that opens with a picture of the great Robinson gains immediately validity.

So life has been as good as ever here in Shanghai, in case you were wondering. I'm thinking that maybe after a couple of years of me saying so on my weblo, you my reader will be able to assume as much without having to read my new entries.

That's not to say that life is devoid of challenges, but I honestly forget anything bad that might happen in the face of the beauty of this world. Admittedly, I've had a hard time today dealing with the fact that a 10-year stealing from someone's purse in the middle of a negligent crowd is a confirmation of the "mind your own business" attitude of the masses. But with the delicious new fruit that I cannot name in my tummy, and the ten minutes I spent on the street with a student from one my my classes, I can quickly refocus my consciousness on the good that I can do myself in this life, and as Radiohead says, "You can try the best you can/ You can try the best you can/ The best you can is good enough."

That said, I really wanted to tell you about my week-long vacation...

It turns out I didn't miss my students as much as I had expected (although my return to class this week has been a joyous and welcome event). Instead, I jumped right into the vacation with loads and loads of activities to keep me busy. Actually, the activities could be summarized in one word: socializing. Maybe there's a better word... It's amazing how many wonderful people I've met here. Almost everyone I've met is wonderful, actually.

The most vacation-like activity was my travel to Hangzhou, with Javad and Abby. This is supposedly one of the most beautiful cities in China, and people from all over go there to visit the West Lake, temples, mountains, the night market, etc. Although I did bring my camera, I decided to rebel and take no pictures. In short, I feel picture-taking takes away a part of my experience. The bulk of our time was spent having delightful philosophical and spiritual conversations over a meal or over coffee. We also hiked a little, did some sight-seeing, and spent lots of time at the amazing night market (this is where I bought the pants and hat from the previous weblo entry).

For some reason, this weblo entry feels uninteresting... Experiences pile up, and it becomes difficult to convey to my friends what I am living. I recently had a conversation about this with my sister. I spent four months last year living with her and her family. Over the course of said months, I felt that we were able to catch up to a great extent with all of the amazing journeys we had taken separately. Now, some four months after leaving her, it feels like of all that catching up already has to be done all over again!

Today Jacqui got two mosquito bites. Bad omen. Even worse is that Rainbow has left NewBeat. Well, she'll be around on Sundays, which helps, but it's still a big change for me: half of my classes were taught with her. Jacqueline and Michelle have been doing a great job since they started several weeks ago. We'll be getting another Chinese teacher soon, I hear. In the fall we might have a much larger faculty, as I hear we are really expanding our school! Times are a-changing! Tomorrow will especially odd, since Rainbow and I usually go off between classes to pick up some jen bin (my favorite Shanghai street food) from the nearby market.

Please excuse me - I have some fruit to eat!

Action Figure

2006-05-10T05:33:00.000-05:00

By popular request, some pictures of the danio follow. I will try to have some friends take some pictures of me "in action", as it were...

More Snippets

2006-04-30T20:18:00.000-05:00

There are 2 parks I have the blessing of visiting periodically - the one at People's Square:

and Zhongshang Park:

This week is my first vacation - one whole week! So all of us at NewBeat went out to Karaoke - and the danio LOVES karaoke!

That's Right...

2006-04-21T07:29:00.000-05:00

Just in case you were wondering what cool cats look like...

Tricia

2006-04-21T01:06:00.000-05:00

Did you know I actually have two sisters? Most likely you didn't, because I always say I only have one. In the last few weeks, this has changed.

I have two sisters: Charlotte and Tricia. They are twins. Tricia was stillborn.

I remember when I was growing up with Charlotte, she would talk about Tricia some times, and would speak of their relationship - an unfathomable relationship between this world and the next. I guess I never made much of it, because I have never really thought about Tricia much.

This has changed recently. It began to dawn on me a few weeks ago that I should also feel a connection to my late sister, even though she had already long died by the time I was born. The strength of blood relationships is truly amazing. Maybe Tricia was somehow molded with Charlotte in my mind at some point, but there is a reawakening in me. I was teaching about twins and genetics last week, and I told the class that I have two sisters. I again said so a couple of times since. Obviously, this only works if I maybe already know the person, we are comfortable together, and there is time to explain how I only have one living sister on this earthly plane.

Today I mourned Tricia, and decided I should pray again for her and write about her. Thank you for sharing this precious moment with us.

More Colors

2006-04-21T00:59:00.000-05:00

I bought this painting a couple of weeks ago as the main wall piece in my living room. I am extremely happy with it.

Here are some pictures of the park where I do Tai Chi in the morning a few times per week - viewed from my apartment window:

This is one of the schools where I teach - we're all getting off from class here:

These are some students from one of my classes:

This is from this morning, as Michelle, Jacqui and I were walking to school. This is one of my favorite streets, where I buy my fruits and vegetables, and where they have tasty street food (see previous post!)

Twice the Joy!

2006-04-18T05:11:00.000-05:00

Two things that might bring you joy:

---
1.
You know you love your job when:

You go to school to teach, find out that classes have been cancelled, so you can go home early, and you get upset that you can't teach!

That's what happened to me! Walking away from that school, I felt very sad that I could not see the children - such wonderfully bright souls as Yang, Wanda, Rose, Howard, Dima, Heidi, Georgia, Tristy, Kenny, Baron, Lisa, or Vicky. I was very sad... Although you owe to that this very weblo entry...

---
2.
This next picture is the addition to the joy:

I see you smiling too!!

Elena had been living in Shanghai for many months. I met her while traveling before coming to Shanghai, then I got to meet her sister and mother when they were in town, and now they're all three gone - but not without leaving me some great pictures!

Below are a couple of pictures of the world-famous Shanghai city skyline:

There's a million different kinds of street food in Shanghai, so at any moment, one might stop and get a snack, or a whole meal. The lady below is making my favorite: simply dough, one egg, some veggies, spices, a sweet paste, and a crunchy bread-type thing for texture, delivered in what might look like a wrap. So tasty!

About my job, here are some pictures from the school we went to this afternoon without being able to teach (that bright big smile is Michelle's)

Doesn't my team look awesome!?!!

---
This last weekend I went to Fudan University, where Peter will be going in the Fall. I've already made some great friends there, so it will be great when he comes to town!

We went to a Japanese restaurant

I am surrounded by goddesses!

Stuck on Zen

2006-04-07T08:19:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the people from whom I was buying my new phone cover asked me where I am from. Meiguo (US) is usually my shortest answer (when I can, I say US & Caribbean). The guy starting gesturing as if he had a gun, saying things I couldn't understand. Then the girl wrote, "war". The conversation continued until they had made it clear that I was a representation of a country that wars with other countries, where everyone has a "gun", including children in "school". I did my best to express that not everybody has a gun, that I certainly don't, that I love both the US and China, and that people are the same everywhere... I left with a most sour taste in my mouth. What could I say? There are so many horrors in this darkened world. Such despair. What else should they think? So much confusion. I weep for the sorrows of the human family, for whom hope seems so out of reach, unfathomable even... I guess that's why I'm here, to bring whatever light I can upon my path.

Today I yet again received the highest praise from the director of my school. She said she visited two schools. She said after less than two months, it's still too early for the schools to give reliable feedback on my performance, but teachers and school directors are most impressed with my teaching. She said she spoke to one person who has seen NewBeat teachers come and go for the last five years, and he said my teaching is exceptional. My director has shown that she is deeply grateful for my work. The truth is, I myself feel most grateful for my work! I have never loved a job like I love this job! I have never been so happy with the way I spend the bulk of my days! And interestingly enough, I am not at all flattered by her and others' praises. I gracefully acknowledge it, of course, but I am learning to not be susceptible to the praise and the scorn of people, except inasmuch as it espresses approval or disapproval from God. God alone is the master of my heart.

In "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", which I just finished reading, there was a striking concept (many many, actually, so we'll just look at one): if you different "One"s, then you have Many. In other words, if you look at Plato's "Good", Aristotle's "Truth", the Judeo-Christian God, or Lao Tsu's Tao, since they each the Essence and the Source of all things, of all of creation, they have to be the same. This is not a new concept, since many philosophies and religions claim that philosophies and religions essentially agree, but this new context made the claim seem more pragmatic, or logical. The author refers to it as "Quality", all-encompassing, undefinable. I highly recommend this book to your careful reading, by the way.

I just realized Tori Amos has a most beautiful song called "China", on her "Little Earthquakes" album. Very moving and thought-provoking.

I guess I'm not done talking about "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". I want to talk about "stuckness". We are all familiar with the practice of meditation, of clearing one's mind to find peace, to gain better perspective, and to be able to better solve problems. If nothing else, we counsel each other to "sleep over it". If we just stop, think clearly, we'll make better decisions. Some of us also know that essential to meditation is the ability to calmly welcome unwanted thoughts as natural parts of our mind, allowing them to quietly move along to a resting place where they will not bother us. Some people envision these unwanted thoughts as screen shots or movie snippets, which sort of scroll across their field of vision. This practice is imperative, for if we try to battle these thoughts, we are at war with our own selves, so whichever side wins (the bad thought or the "controlling" "self"), we lose.

This practice is so crucial that for many of us, the bulk of our meditation is simply the practice of saying hello and goodbye to these endless stray thoughts, enjoying the few moments of clarity or nothingness or "bliss" in between. What Pirsig brings to the picture is an understanding of the beauty of "stuckness". Sometimes there'll be this ugly image, or maybe some Freudian invasion, which takes for ever to get rid of, or welcome, as it were. This can be very frustrating. This is very much the same if we're trying to fix a broken necklace, but our fingers can never get the right angle to close the gap, or if we're trying to fall asleep while stressed that we won't be getting enough sleep, or slaving over a weblo entry that won't come out right and is already way too long. The lesson is that the moment stuckness is the most propicious for growing, learning something new, changing our lives and becoming happier. Those moments of stuckness are more than just isolated annoyances - they are manifestations of our greatest need and potential for transformation. So when they occur, we can rejoyce, knowing what power lies in these moments.

This appreciation of stuckness, combined with a new integration of various other Writings surrounding my research on living a New Life, has truly changed my life, so that I much more frequently step back from the situation I am in for better perspective, instilling greater peace of mind and superior ability for problem-solving.

This better perspective is a big part of my goal to truly change my life as I integrate my new life in China. Everything has been so different here in Shanghai. What a home I have found! Praise be to God!

I watched Jim Hensons Company's "Mirrormask", knowing I would find a key for my life therein. I did, of course. This key, partially represented by an actual key in the story, is wonderful, but I haven't exactly found where to fit it. By the time I do, I fear the story of this key will have been lost to all but God, and maybe Javad, if I tell him the story, because it's a long road through the mazes in which I found it.

I hope that the meanderings of this entry reflect the simple fact that I am happy, and enjoying the new lessons in my life.

Take a Walk with me!

2006-04-07T07:42:00.000-05:00

Let's take a little tour on my daily walk from NewBeat English school to my home! As I walk out, I'm on S. Shanxi Rd. On this picture, we're looking left/north. I walk down this street and cross at some point, then take a right on Yong Jia Rd. at the first light.

This is a peek back at NewBeat:

Now we're on Yong Jia Rd. We can walk down this road a few paces:

...passing this large building and turning right just after passing it:

This is a look across the street from the gate. Fang's cafe is my favorite - good coffee, and, more importantly, fabulously chill atmorphere!

There are many buildings in this area, and this is the type of entrance you might see anywhere in Shanghai - city blocks are huge, so when you walk in, there's still streets and turns, just less traffic:

Looking back on the entrance:

Looking to the right - this is the awesome clock I always see in the morning as I go to school or to Tai Chi:

Looking to the left, toward my home:

As we walk, we can look up at the tall building to the left:

This is the next entrance, area 6 of 39 Yong Jia Rd.:

Turn a little to the right,

Another peek back at the entrance:

Up the stairs

(whith another peek back)

To the first floor up, looking out from my apartment door:

I thought I'd also show one of the many schools where I teach. Look, a climbing wall! I've seen this in several schools - how awesome is that?!?

Playground. Classic.

Classroom. Classic.

Rainbow reading her magazine. Classic.

Ever more

2006-03-27T05:23:00.000-05:00

Strange how time can go both so slowly and so quickly!

I've been here over six weeks, and everything is just so amazing. Have I ever been anywhere else before? I've been thinking that I have nowhere else I plan or would like to go (except maybe Mali or back to Martinique someday...), and it's strange to be at a place in my life where I can really anticipate the effects of long-term living in one place. It seems unfathomable, since in the last several years my life has been defined by a change of place and pace, so rich in so many things. How much richer could my experience of one place be? Unfathomable!

Some of my highlights:

- I've never loved a job this much! Spending so much time with children all the time is fabulous. This is my one day off, and I miss them! In the morning I will see them... I love that I teach English through acting, songs, dances, stories, etc. Just in line with what I want to learn and train in!

- I do Tai Chi in the morning with my neighbors, 3-5 times per week, before I go to work. It's fantastic! There are usually 30-40 of us in the park, and I have learned just enough tai chi in the past to be able to follow - and soon I will be an expert! (Well... maybe not "soon"). We have a great time. I hope to be able to dialogue with them soon. I'm a hoot to them, since I'm the only foreigner, and the only person under 40 years old - maybe evern 50! I've also done some capoeira with a small group, and I hope to return weekly.

- I've been studying Go (Weiqi in Chinese), but I have not been able to play much - just thrice since I'm here, and only online... I hope to find locals to play with on a regular basis, preferably old men, who will get a kick out of beating me.

- I've been learning lots of Chinese. My co-teachers at NewBeat help me, I'm taking a class twice per week, I just started meeting with a tutor once per week, and I might have time to use my computer software as well...

- I had a most delightful housewarming party a couple of weeks ago, for my NewBeat English school associates

On the menu, pasta with ricotta cheese (!) and veggies (carrots, broccoli, leek, etc.):

My guests brought lots and lots of fruit and prepared it in my apartment - to danio's greatest delight!

From left to right, Lillian, Liz, Touba, Jacqui, Rainbow and Shawn:

My dear friend Javad (whom I see rather frequently, as we hang out and he crashes at my place) also joined us later on:

- There are actually a good number of foreigners in Shanghai, and although cheese is imported and costs eight bucks or more for a roll, there are some nice things like cereal that I like to splurge on, just for the sake of familiarity (and taste, of course). But anyway, the food in China is absolutely terrific - especially the free lunches at school, which are vegetarian (the director is, strangely enough, vegetarian). And on a side note, I just found out that I can have exhorbitantly priced Papa John's pizza delivered to my apartment - how about that!

danio out!