Disclaimer

So while out for a run today, I was thinking about my blog. I realized that I tend to blog when I am least cognitively present…either late at night right before I go to bed or early in the morning. Neither are prime times to be recalling my adventures of the past few days let alone to be writing and tying about them, which are neither my strong points either. So I was thinking I should put up a little disclaimer for those who read through my blog, which I will get to in a second. The funny thing is that in a conversation this evening (after I had gone running and thought about this) it was brought to my attention that I constantly use the word there in place of their(probably among many other grammatical errors). While not the biggest of deals, this is still embarrassing. I mean I am in graduate school. All that being said, a disclaimer is due.

Disclaimer: When I am writing my blog posts I tend to just sit down and start typing, I don’t game plan I just spew out what comes to my mind. This combined with the late/early hours, details may be left out or stories and sentences may not be comprehensible, not to mention the poor grammar that ensues. If you are ever caught wondering what? or wishing you had more info, let me know. I am always open to criticism and advice, how else will I get better. On the same hand if you have a question or would like to know about something, just ask. I will do my best to answer. I have nothing against someone giving me a topic to blog about. Less thinking for me ha!

I saw an interesting article on CN today. It was titled “For rent in China: White People,” Click on the title for the full article. It was very interesting; they presented the importance of “face” in the Chinese culture, which I would compare to reputation in American culture. They went on to discuss how many Chinese companies will hire white people to pose as employees or friends, sometimes sit at a desk in the front window of a store appearing to workand even pretend to be the CEO of a visiting company. This is because it is believed that if a Chinese company can hire a white person, they are a successful. Neat article, you should definitely check it out.

Well I must go,as I need to pack for Shanghai, but stay tuned their should be some good stuff going up soon. I only get three days in Shanghai and the mainland, so I will be making the most of it! Little sleep and crazy adventures. This is going to be a trip!

In good health,

Brent

Can you introduce me to your school?

This is was the phrase I heard all day today. I spent this weekend on a recruitment trip to Guangzhuo, which is the second largest city in China. Nicknamed five goats city (not sure why?) it is located in southern China about a three hour bus ride from Macao.

So obviously this means that I finally was able to get a visa to the mainland this week, however...they unfortunately only granted me dual entry due to my student status and only staying in Macao two months. So this means I can only enter China twice, one being this recruitment trip (which is fine, because IFT paid for my visa which was $150US) Now I only have one chance to visit the mainland, so no Yangshuo and the awesome climbing, no Beijing and the Great Wall, and no Huashan for the world's deadliest hiking trail...those will all still be here when I come back. I will be heading for Shanghai on Wednesday for the Shanghai Expo, better known as the World's Fair! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so I had to take advantage of it. Can't wait, but I'll discuss that more on another day.

The trip to Guangzhou was fun, there were supposed to be three of us going, however Oriana (the experienced one) fell ill, so it was just Eri and I. Eri has only been here for less than a year. So he was scrambling to ensure everything was in order and get instructions from Oriana. I am happy to report that the trip went without a hitch. There was not a lot of excitement for most of the trip, just arriving and checking in with the exhibition coordinators. After that we just grabbed some dinner and returned to the hotel to rest up and watch the world cup...why USA, why? There was not a lot of excitement for most of the trip, just arriving and checking in with the exhibition coordinators.

This was a HUGE exhibition! The hall it was held in was about the size of three football fields. I was not sure what to expect, but I was not prepared for the number of people who would actually attend. The phrase herding cattle was absolutely necessary for this event. I do not

know the exact numbers, but I will guesstimate that there was in excess of 100,000 people that came this event.

The terms helicopter parents or lawn mower parents do not even come close to describing what some of these parents were like. They came in holding their children by the elbow, leading them around asking all the questions, it was a sight to see. Many times I never even saw the students, the parents came without their students…seriously. (In a conversation last week I had found that this is common in Chinese culture, quite often the parents choose the school and the students have no say. Also, this is similar with dating. Apparently they have large dating events, except the singles do not attend, their parents do. The parents meet with other parents to decide if their children are compatible for each other.) These parent were vicious too, there was no sense of line or anything. You could be in the middle of talking to someone, when another parent would just push to the front of the line and start asking you a question while you were answering the other person. It was nuts.

Now, this was by no means every single parent. There was a good number like this, but the majority of parents were there with their child. They followed their students around to schools the student picked, let the student ask some questions, asked some good questions themselves and it was very much a mutual relationship. Overall, this was very similar to a US college fair, just on a far larger scale. Most interactions were similar to that I would expect to have had at a fair in the US.

I am pretty sure I was the only westerner in the entire exhibition; I never saw another during my time there. It was fun too. I was this goofy white guy with long blonde hair. I definitely stood out. Some people would completely ignore me, while others would approach just to say hello. Some would try to look at me or take pictures of me without making it obvious. The majority of my time was spent handing out our publications, as I did not speak Mandarin. The table constantly looked like this. Everyone was surrounding Eri, who spoke Mandarin, and I was on the side with no one to talk to…so I had time to take this picture because it was funny.

A few brave souls every so often (usually girls) would approach me, giggle a little and ask about the school. Usually phrased as “Can you introduce your school to me?” It caught me off guard the first time someone asked me and I had a little chuckle, but once I got used to it was easy and I slowly built up my sales pitch. They would come in waves; once one person began to talk to me a whole group would form to listen to my replies in English. Overall it was a great time. Towards the end as things began to quite down, there was a group of students who hung around, because they just wanted to talk. They enjoy speaking conversational English. It helps them to practice. This was great, I could tell they really enjoyed getting to have a conversation in English and I enjoyed it too!

Overall the day was a great success, but we were starving so we headed off for some food…and I finally remembered my camera so I could document what I ate. So here we go!

Corn Juice! Pretty sure they put corn through a juicer because that's exactly what it tasted like.

intestines on potatoes, a bit chewy but good.

Green beans with squid, very good.

This was a bake with tofu, tomatoes and seafood such as crab, shrimp and squid.

This was pretty much a bowl of bacon in BBQ sauce, it was amazing!

More interesting foods to come!

A few more thoughts about my Hong Kong trip...

I know a lot of people hate public transportation, but for me it was always a great way to start my day in Hong Kong. Not because of the transportation itself, but because there always seemed to be something on every ride that brought a smile to my face. The first morning I got on the subway around 7am...seriously. I was kinda tired but had the excitement of being in Hong Kong to keep me awake. Others on the subway apparently did not have that same level of excitement or energy, because when I looked around the car I was in there were about 10 other people all asleep! It was hilarious, leaning there head against a rail or wall, they were all asleep. I had a good chuckle. The other two times involved kids. One trip there were two kids, young enough they couldn't walk. They dressed in superman and batman outfits, which I was kinda jealous of, and there parents were flying them around and having a great time. Who wouldn't enjoy this. Finally on my last sub ride, there was a little girl, probably 3 or 4 and she was just dancing up a storm and swing off the handrails. It was so much fun watching. She didn't care who was watching or what was going on, she was just having a blast. I can't wait to see what's in store for me next time on the subway.

Hong Kong itself is a fast city, hustle and bustle 24/7. Very different from Macao, which is very laid back. In Macao you cross the street whenever you want, in Hong Kong it's a little more tricky. The traffic is way faster, so you pay far more attention to the crossing signals. In Macao the traffic laws seem to be more like traffic tips, you can follow them if you wish. The sidewalks are much more crowded too! It never seems like you are walking down a sidewalk, it was more like you were always in a line. Another large difference between HK and Macao, is that Macao has little to no green space, seriously, none. Hong Kong on the other hand has a ton. They have huge parks with grass and trees. There are even large national parks great for hiking and climbing. The Chinese culture is very big into outdoor activities and really love to hike.

Finally, my Hong Kong tour guides and hosts for the weekend, Robyn and her mother, were such a blessing. I literally spent the whole with them and wouldn't trade it for anything. They showed me a bit of the city, introduced me to some great people and took me climbing. Beyond that we shared many stories and experiences. I told them a lot about American culture, particularly midwestern and they shared a lot of neat stories about Hong Kong and Asia. I am very grateful for there hospitality, they did not even know me until they met me at the bus for the refugee run. I am very lucky to have had these experiences and met the people I have thus far. If the second half of my adventure is half of what the first half has been it will be a greta success!

Brent

Hong Kong, new friends and climbing

Another amazing weekend in the books. I took off Friday evening after work for Hong Kong. I took the Turbo Jet, which is a ferry that runs on hydrofoils, just like the Mach II sailboat. Once it is up to full speed it looks like it is flying. If you no me well or maybe even not that well, you know I'm not the biggest planner when it comes to things like this, I just like to go. So, the only planning I had done was book a hotel room at the YWCA Anne Black...cheapest I could find and turned out to be nice. So upon arriving at the ferry terminal I realized I did not know where I was, or where I was going. Sweet deal! I had my computer with me so I was able to pull up the address of the street for the hotel, so I was off. Luckily HK people are really nice, and the first person I asked told me which MTR (subway) station I would want to get off of. This was my first time (I think, or that I can remember now) I have ever rode on an actual subway...not including airports. I have ridden on the El in Chicago and the raised rail in Thailand, but no subway. I liked it, it was cool to see what looked like one giant hallway twisting and turning. Finally I got off and found myself a taxi. The taxi driver spoke little to no English, so I finally able to get him to understand the street name, and he dropped me off at the right street, but I had no clue where the hotel was. Fortunately, there was another hotel I popped into and they gave me directions. IT was about a fifteen minute walk down the street. I found it, checked in and crashed!

Why Hong Kong? Well, my first weekend in Macao when I went sailing at Hac Sa, I was also asking the members of the sailing group about the local climbing scene and if they were aware of how to access the local wall. Eric, one of the gentleman told me that he wasn't sure, but his daughter, Robyn, climbs in HK a lot and may know something. So, I got in touch her. She did not know about the Macao wall, but if I am ever in HK I should let her know and we could go climb. I had planned on going there at some point in time anyways, so it was a good deal. Once I figured out this weekend was going to were I let Robyn know I would be in town. She informed me that Saturday was no good, because she was participating in a refugee run, which I was welcome to join her on, but Sunday would be great and she would try to get some people together. I wasn't really sure what this refugee run was, maybe it was a fundraiser for refugees...but I though what the heck I could wander around HK, looking at touristy stuff that will always be there, or I can go do something positive and unique in the refugee run. The run it was, I wasn't too worried, I have been running a good bit in Macao and climbing is a great cardio workout too.

I was meeting her at the Central station exit D, at 9am. The bus left at 9:15 sharp. I did not have a cell phone, because my sim card only only worked in Macao. I was waiting for her at the station, and about 6 after 9 I began to get worried, and once agin a nice person of Hong Kong aided me and she let me borrow her phone. I got ahold of Robyn and she informed me that there were two parts of the station and that I was in the wrong one. So I had under ten minutes to run my but to the right one. Twice I received false information and ran down escalators only to run back up the same ones. Finally I asked an office and they walked me outside and pointed me in the right direction, and I took off, a crazy American sprinting through the blistering humidity of downtown Hong Kong. Luckily I made it in time and the bus was still there. I introduced myself to Robyn and we headed to the bus.

I had on all my running gear, compression shorts, running shorts, running shoes and mesh lightweight t. Upon getting on the bus, I found that most people had on t-shirts like I, but they were wearing jeans or cargo shorts, this is when I realized it wasn't an actual run. LOL, no one else really noticed but I had a good laugh. It turned out the refugee run was a simulation, putting the participants through an experience "similar" to that of what a refugee goes through. Now I understood. The bus ride was nice, I met some of Robyn's mother whose name slips my mind (I really cannot believe I cannot remember it, I just never used, AH! Sorry Ms. Robyn's mom, I know the next time I guarantee I won't forget) I also met some of her friends and a few other people. It was a fun ride. Chatted awhile with her friend Kaishi, who went to school at Wesleyan in Connecticut and was working in Hong Kong as a Princeton in Asia Fellow. We had some good convo.

We finally arrived at our final destination, Crossroads, which is a non-profit that serves both the HK area and the world in serving as a distributor of goods of any kind and need. This center also does simulations of a large variety from blindness to refugees, all in an effort to raise awareness. We received a brief introduction what exactly refugees are, I had a vague idea but wasn't super clear. A refugee is someone who has a real fear of human rights persecution in their country of origin because of their actual or imputed political opinion, religion, race, nationality or persecution in a particular social group. They must also show that they are outside of their country of origin and that their home government is unable to provide them protection.

After the intro I was handed a card with my new identity, my name was a Ansari Sobieho. I was a 16 year old boy from Afghanistan. . The simulation was very realistic, I could talk more about this, but would not do it justice. There were guns and explosions, death and corruption. Click here if you would like to learn a more. It was an eye opening experience into the life of a refugee and if you ever have the opportunity to participate in a refugee run, I highly recommend it.

After the run we had lunch at a Nepalese restaurant to debrief. I met a number of people here as well. One person I met, Amy, went to Stanford and is currently working at Lignan University in HK coordinating their service-learning. Service-learning an area that some student affairs professionals go into, which is what I am going to grad school for. Service learning is a teaching style and learning strategy that integrates community service with instruction and reflection to add to enhance the impact on the student, teach civiv responsibility and strengthen communities. Next semester I will be co-teaching a U101 (first year seminar) course service learning angle. It was sweet to chat with her about student affairs and more. I plan to return to HK towards the end of my trip to tour her university and chat with some student affairs peeps in HK.

After lunch (ps Nepalese food is really good, you should check it out) we walked around HK for a while trying to find a good bus to take to the beach where one of Robyn's friends was celebrating her birthday. It was a cool way to see the city and chat with Robyn. She went to the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and is headed to law school in Hong Kong in the fall. The beach was a blast, we just chilled at a restaurant and talked about all kinds of things the whole night, it was an amazing group of people. We talked about politics, many cultures, family, traveling, the state of institutional marriage, the value of job satisfaction and more. It was an interesting night and a lot of fun. I am so lucky to have these experiences and opportunities

From there I took the MTR back to my hotel, while walking through the crowded streets to downtown Hong Kong, I was rounding a corner and I heard loud screaming and I thought oh man, there's a fight or something. As I rounded the corner, I came to find it was a group of about 20 Africans (not sure if they were specifically from Ghana) watching the Ghana vs. Australia World Cup game from outside a bar. The loud yelling was their excitement and energy. I was luck to come across them right as a the Australian player had been called for a red card and Ghana Got a penalty kick. When Ghana scored they went crazy the singing, drumming and bugling was so much fun to watch, I caught some video. They were spilling out into the street and blocking traffic, it was awesome. While China is sweet, I wouldn't complain if I were in South Africa right now. After this excitement, I headed back to the hotel, cleaned up and went to bed.

It was easy to wake up the next morning, as we were going climbing and this was going to be my first time climbing real rock, aside from bouldering in

North Carolina. I've spent a lot of time at 15 meter indoor wall at USC, but never had the opportunity for the real deal. Finally I would get to climb some real stuff and it was the best first climb I could ask for. I met up with Robyn and her mother and we walked to catch the ferry that would take us to Tung Lung Chau, the island where we would be climbing. The trip there was fun, we had a great view of Hong Kong and learned a lot of history and info from Robyn's mom.

The island only has a few people living on it and is still in it's natural state for the most part. It has good hiking climbing and camping. When we landed , we had about a 20 minute hike to the are we were going to be climbing known as The Technical Wall. On the way we stopped at this small

little place on the way to grab a bite. Had some great dumplings!

We then headed down a beautiful gully to get to the climbing location, some fun scrambling at

times. We rounded the corner

and there we were at this beautiful sea side climbing location...too good to be true for my first, but it was real. There were a few people already there climbing, but this was a big wall, with plenty routes to keep us busy.

Robyn took the first climb, so she could set the rope so I could top rope for my first climb.

Then it was my turn, and I was off on my first ever outdoor climb, so cool. My first route was named the black corner. In HK they use the French grading system, of which it was rated a F5+, which on the Yosemite Decimal System is a 5.8+

Gotta chalk up to make sure to stick that last move.

Great success! I on-sited my first outdoor climb ever, which would be climbing without a fall.

Robyn the took on a tougher climb and rocked it, she mad a difficult roof section look easy. It was a F6a+ or 5.10. I gave this one a go and was good until the rough where I struggled.

I then took off on my first outdoor lead climb, I took a pretty easy route called Black Crack, which was a F4+ or 5.7. It turned out to be a lot easier than I expected, but that was probably good. Lead climbing is when you start with all the rope on the ground and then clip yourself in on the way up. in this first picture you see me grabbing my quickdraw, which I will then clip into the wall and attach the rope to. If I were to fall before I clipped in, I would fall and land on the ground.

As you can see the rope is still below me, but in the bottom of the picture you can see the quick draw clipping the rope to the wall. If I were to fall that would catch me.

Luckily I didn't test their reliability and I made it to the top without falling.

It was a great day, I had a ton of fun! I am getting tired and need to get some rest, but I have a few more noted I will posts soon about Hong Kong.

In good health,

Brent

What a week this has been, less exploring and more hanging out. Enjoyed an evening out with local students, had a great time with many of the exchange students on their last nights in Macao, celebrated Tuen Ng Jit, happened across a brothel of sorts(no I did not go in) and I need to cook a pound cake. Preparing for the weekend, looks to be an eventful trip to Hong Kong. Currently listening to Game 7 of the Playoffs as I type this up. Love the Internet and streaming radio!

Work this week has been pretty much the same finalizing some publications for the two programmes I have been working on. I have also been preparing materials for our recruitment trip to Guangzou. Had the opportunity to stay late and assist with an information session for two new evening programs IFT is offering. This is a new program for IFT, in which they are offering their Hotel Management and Tourism Event Management degree programs in in evening courses taught in Cantonese. The focus is to reach out to non-traditional students who will work during the day and attend courses in the evening. Expecting these pilot programs to be successful, they hope to expand the evening programs to to offer their full five bachelor degrees.

Last night we had an information session for those interested in the program. My role was to greet people at the entrance of the main building, and to direct them to the classroom. I then went and sat in on the presentation...which was completely in Cantonese, so I tried to follow. When there were slides to go along with the info, I could kind of figure out what they were talking, but they didn't help too much. Either way, it was fun to try to make up what he was talking about.

Monday evening I went to a karaoke with with Carmen and a bunch of her friends from IFT, this was a fun experience. It was a welcome back party for Carmen, who spent the last semester at the University of South Carolina The Chinese drink of choice when going out, at least to karaokes, is green tea and Johnnie Walker Black Label Whisky. Sounded interesting and it didn't taste too bad either. It wasn't your traditional Chinese green tea, it was more like the super sweetened Lipton green tea you can get in the states.

The karaoke was fun, they had a number of songs in English. I sang We Will Rock You and some Backstreet Boys Song. I also picked We are the World, the 1985 USA for Africa version by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. We all sang this and it was pretty cool. I love that song, we truly are the world and should embrace all cultures as one great global family. I also sang Sorry Sorry by Super Junior, a Korean pop group. IT was really fast but fun and funny. You can watch the video by clicking on the link above, it's pretty catchy. Finally it came time to karaoke a popular American party song, which I was very much looking forward too. Much to my dismay however, they did not have Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks...WHAT! ARE YOU SERIOUS, you cannot have a karaoke without Garth, I am writing my legislators, the US must take action, this is a crime against all human kind. Oh they had Carey Underwood and Taylor Swift, but that was about it for the country selections. Great disappointment. Even though they did not have Garth, I can forgive them. It was a great evening partying Chinese style.

The following night was the last night for many of the exchange students, not to mention World Cup games (Go USA!) were on, so it was going to be a long night. The World Cup airs here in Macao at 7:30pm, 10pm and 2:30pm of course most of the games I want to watch are the 10 or 2:30 games. Some of the exchange students were from Portugal and Korea so we made sure to be watching both of those games. We started out at the Thai restaurant at 10 to watch the Portugal vs. Ivory Coast game, which really turned out to be disappointing. After that we headed to the Sands Casino, where they usually have good live music. They had a pretty good band, but the fun part came when they called our group out. We had a large group of about 20 people, and they asked what we were doing tonight. Well...Alex, a dude from Portugal proceeded to tell them it was my birthday, and of course they believed it. I was serenaded and pulled up on the stage to dance multiple times. I can't really complain the band was a bunch of cute girls from Taiwan. Others in our group came up to dance as well. Good times.

We then headed to another bar to watch the Korea game This one turned out to be much better, sorry to you Brazilian fans, but I was really hoping Korea would pull this one out. It was a great game, but Korea just didn't have the endurance to keep up. Man that Brazilian team is fast and quick! After that we were hungry, so we headed to eat at the Lisboa. I had some really good handmade Cantonese noodles. The chef basically had a block of dough (or whatever you call noodle dough) and with this special noodle cutting tool, he sliced off thin strips to form the noodles. I liked them.

Upon walking out of the hotel it was light outside..WHAT! I checked the time and it was 7am! Wow, I can honestly say I have never done that in my life. You may be saying, didn't Brent have to work at 9? Usually yes, but today was a public holiday, so IFT was closed. That is why I knew I could go big. However I had not intended to go that big. While I don't want to discount the fun I had that evening, I really do not like staying out until 7am. I hate wasting a day just sleeping. Luckily I am young (sometimes I definitely feel old) and was able to re energize in four hours, ready to head out and enjoy Tuen Ng Jit, or the Dragon Boat Festival.

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebration of the life of Chinese Sholar Qu Yuan. In the third century he worked for the King of Chu. He was greatly respected by the King and government, but as time went on he was accused of conspiracy and ejected from his position. his ejection in it's own right is believed to be a conspiracy itself as the government was not agreeing with his progressive ideas and was looking for a way to oust him. Due the false allegations and to act out against the government he committed suicide by drowning himself in a river. Many Chinese citizens respected Chu and went to the river in hopes of finding his body. They never found it, and now the spiritual portion of the Chinese culture comes into play. Someone dreamt that the fish were eating his body, so they began to throw rice into the river to feed the lost hero. Then they were worried that the rice was being eaten by the fish, so they wrapped it in bamboo leaves hoping it would sink to the bottom and get to him. There are many version of this story I have heard through various conversations, but they are all similar to this. They also say the dragon boat race is to symbolize beating the water to keep the fish away.

The Dragon Boat Festival is a brightly colored noisy fun experience. Many of the teams have there own support groups, where people come out with bells and whistles, drums and anything else that can make noise. They sit sit grouped together in the stands, which looked like a bowl of fruity pebbles with all of the groups. (man I miss fruity pebbles!) The warm up area for the teams is down in front of the stands, so when they run laps and do calisthenics the spectators can watch and cheer them on, to pump them up for the race. You could also purchase the Dragon Boat rice dumplings, which back in the day were thrown into the water, but have since became a festival delicacy. They are stuffed with pork, red beans and more. It's rather bland, but my roommate recommended I put sugar on it and it turned out to be pretty good.

The teams have 20 members, 18 paddlers, one drummer to keep the paddlers in sync and one sweeper who steers the boat. The race itself is 500 meter long, and lasts approximately, I am guessing as I did not actually time them, 1 minute. I actually met a high school team from San Francisco. It is actually a club sport at their high school, apparently their are a number of dragon boat teams throughout the country. They came to Macao for a week specifically to participate in the Dragon Boat Festival Race.

This week I went out in search of a yoga studio here in town. I stopped doing yoga during the spring semester and I can really notice the difference. I need to get back into it, for it's health benefits, to release stress and to get more flexible for climbing. I knew what area of Macao it was in and what street it was on, but I did not know exactly where it was. So I took off in search of it, I figured it would be easy to find, just look for the sign with Yoga on it. It wasn't that easy, I went to the concierge at a couple hotels on the street, but they were unaware of a yoga studio. They were able to direct me to the correct building, but in the lobby there were no signs indicating a yoga studio. I did however see a sign for Senado Health Spa, it was in the basement of the building and for good reason I imagine. The large billboard like sign had a young Asian girl laying on a bed in a provocative pose. This is not the kind of health spa you find in the US, maybe you would in Nevada. I really wish I had a camera, because it was a funny billboard. I asked my coworkers about this place and they just laughed. They said it was like a spa or sauna, where you would go in and sit in a hot tub or steam room, but then a line of girls would parade out, at which point the gentleman would make their selection and so on.

Unfortunately prostitution is legal here in Macao, so this can be a common sight if you are in certain areas of the island. Brothels and saunas are commonplace. Many Chinese from the mainland as well as other Asian countries travel here specifically to participate in such activities. I don't think I have seen a prostitute in my naive life, if I have I did not notice. So Macao was my first time to see prostitutes. I was walking into the Venetian late one night to meet some friends at a bar, where at the front entrance there were numerous scantily clad women waiting. Then upon entering the casino, you could see more prostitutes working the floor, usually in pairs. I even saw some bargaining take place as a man approached some and they exchanged some words then walked off. It was something, I have found that if you do not make eye contact with them they do not approach you. If you do, they may say something to you, but when you give them a what the hell, are you serious look they get the point quick and leave you alone. It's not as bad as it seems, the tourists and gamblers outnumber the prostitutes by far, but once you are aware you can point them out.

Also, yesterday at work, someone had brought in some left over pound cake from a meeting and left it in the break room for anyone. When I was asked I joked that I had made it and brought it in. She just laughed at me and I told her I was kidding, she said that if I had made something she would be afraid to eat it. Really...I said and asked her why. Her reasoning was that I am a man and I have not had kids. While this may be true in the Chinese culture and some of the American culture, I do not fit that stereotype and will be blowing her mind with a pound cake that I make. If you have a pound cake recipe that is amazing, send it my way. I may or may not use, as I imagine my grandma has a rockin recipe I will use.

There's the happening of the past week in a nutshell. Now, may the traveling commence. After work today, I will head to the ferry terminal and travel across the bay to Hong Kong. I have a refugee run Saturday morning, will be doing some extreme sporting on Sunday and hope for some high flying excitement on Monday, but you will have to wait to find out more.

Till next time,

Brent

Two weeks and going strong

So it has been two weeks and I have met many people, explored most of the island and much more. The second half of the past week and the weekend were great. I am beginning to settle in and form somewhat of a rhythm. Work is beginning to pickup, the exchange student from IFT whom spent her past semester at the University of South Carolina, has returned, it's is the last weekend for most exchange students studying at IFT and I volunteered at Macau Youth Sailing Association's inaugural International Dinghy Regatta.

Work is beginning to pick up, I have a few more responsibilities and had a couple opportunities to leave the office, changing up the scenery a bit. The Institute For Tourism Studies is currently in it's finals week, so I had a couple opportunities to invigilate examinations. If you are saying what the heck does invigilate (that's what I said), it would be the same as proctoring an exam in the US. Basically, I sat in and made sure no one cheated. I would read off instructions for the final, such as no phones can be used, or if you are caught cheating you will lose two fingers...kidding. Then I would basically sit there until everyone had completed the examination and return the completed packets to the registry. It was nothing fancy or much different from the office, but it was a change of scenery and made the days pass by quicker.

I have begun to prepare for two programs, the first being the 2010 Summer International Exchange Programme. The programme is sponsored each year by IFT and is held at either IFT or another partner tourism institutions around the country. This summer it is being held at the tourism college of Zhejiang. I have been preparing various documents for the program as well as contacting the participants making sure we have all the paperwork and their travel plans are confirmed. I have also been preparing for the Asian-Pacific Education and Training Institutes in Tourism's (APETIT) meeting this summer, however this just started so I have not done too much yet.

Overall, I am enjoying my internship thus far. My office mates are wonderful Louisa the director of the Office of International Affairs and Oriana and Sonya, who are administrative assistants in the office. While there title is administrative assistants, I am pretty sure in the us they would have a coordinator role. As they have many responsibilities. It is very different from many US offices in higher education. To begin the Chinese tend to be more reserved and quiet, but we are also a public institution and our ties to the government keep things eve tighter. I literally sit 5 feet from Sonya the Director, and she will constantly e-mail me with items she would like me to work on. I personally would prefer the "Hey Brent, could you..." but I understand that as part of the strictness of the university and possibly to keep track of all my projects, she send the e-mail to keep a record. The CYA method (cover your butt, Ha!) so that is she is questioned on my purpose she can back it up. once I am completed with a project, I still enjoy turning around and saying "Hey, what's up! I'm done, what do you think? Seriously though they are great we always have various convos on what kinds of food I've been eating or how my travel plans are coming. Sometimes I can really get them to loosen up and we will being to joke around and laugh. It is great because they are not super animated, but their eyes will get big and they may laugh a little bit, but they always cover their mouth and sometimes they even blush when they laugh, I love it. I'm in a great place and can't wait for the next month in a half!

Check out this link for a sweet video made a long time ago by IFT, it is state of the art! IFT video

Carmen Lio is a 3rd year student here at IFT, who spent her spring semester at the University of South Carolina. I met with her a couple times before I left and we had many informal meeting at Cool Beans, a coffee shop I like to frequent in Columbia, SC. She grew up in Macau and knows a lot about the city. Her parents own a cafe here, where she will soon be taking me to treat me to beef tongue for the first time. She returned late last week and I went out to lunch with her and a group of her friends, for a dim sum style dinner. Good times were had, and plans for Karaoke were made. I will make sure to have video of that for you.

This weekend has been exciting, eventful and lacking of sleep Friday was kicked off with a great evening at the climbing wall. I took Carmen and her boyfriend Curtis for there first time climbing. We had a blast and I am really out of shape, need to get the chops back. Afterwards we headed out to a birthday party for one of the exchange students. Fun night on a rooftop talking about all kinds of sweet things, great convos. Went to bed about 3:30, only to wake up at 7 in order to grab some breakfast and catch the series of buses to Hac Sa for the regatta.

The regatta is being sponsored by the group I went sailing with a couple weeks ago. They have been very helpful in helping me make connections and plans around Macao and China, so it is the least I could do to volunteer. Quick description, it's a sailboat race for those 18 and under, with two per sailboat. Click here to learn more about the regatta in a Macau Daily Times article. I was on the beach crew, we had about 30 sailboats which we had to ship off and land on the beach. While the Macau racers were use to such a task, those from hong kong usually ship from a port and were not use to the beach. Depending on the tide and the intensity of the waves, it can be tricky. The boats could roll or if you get off on the wrong side, you could be run over. My job was to help move the boats around on the land, and to help them take off and return. We had a very successful day, no one was hurt.

The regatta was in part sponsored by McConaghy Boats, they make the Mach Two Moth, which a 30 kg fully carbon fiber boat that sails on hydro foils. They brought one out to demo for the day, and it was really sweet to see it going, it looked like it was flying.

It was fun watching the kids sail around and have a blast, During the morning portion, after all had been shipped off I took a sailboat out and sailed around the edges of the race course watching the action. This was fun, but during the afternoon, I took a sea kayak out and went to explore a bit. While out, the most amazing thing happened.

pink dolphins came up and played around not 15 meters from my boat. I had read about them, but this was the cool thing. They wold gracefully glide in and out of the water. every once in a while they would jump out of the water a make a big splash, it was a sweet way to cap off an awesome day! Pink dolphins are an endangered species found in Southwest Asia and the Amazon.

Rain rain go away!

The camera is in the shop, should have it back within 3-4 days. So get ready for a visual overload.

I was spoiled during my first few days here in Macao. (If you have been following my posts, you may have noticed I switch back and forth spelling Macao with an o and an a. This is because both spelling are used. The a ending is the Portuguese spelling and the o is the Chinese spelling. I am more inclined to spell it with a u, however I am beginning to adopt the o version, in lieu of Macao no longer being under Portuguese rule.) I digress. So my first two or three days were sunny and not too humid, great for traverse the islands of Macao. I was planning to spend weekends at the beach and days enjoying the sun. How great it was going to be well...I should have kept my thoughts too myself.

The day I went sailing at Hac Sa beach had been cut short due to an amazing thunderstorm that rolled through. I really enjoyed this, because they don't really seem to have thunderstorms in South Carolina. I think I heard thunder (by the way I still think Thunder would be a sweet name for my first son, Thunder Danger McCauley. Danger would be his middle name because I have a friend, Andrew Moyer, (I will hold you to this) who said he would give me $2,000 if I gave my kid the middle name of danger. Effectively invested from the day he is born, this could be a nice start to a college fund...just sayin) back to where I was. I think I heard thunder maybe twice, and it was weak thunder at that. Not what I was used to back in the Midwest (I won't get started on this, but Indiana and Ohio are not a part of the mid-west) The thunderstorm in Macao was great, it took me back home. Not only did I get to enjoy a thunderstorm, I got to enjoy some wonderful conversations with the sailors on the covered porch of a Portuguese restaurant. What a deal.

Since that day, the sun has shown its face maybe a couple times...the sky's are constantly overcast, and sometimes foggy (I think it was fog, possibly could have been smog but I'm not sure). Starting two days ago, the flood gates were unleashed upon the island. I awoke Wednesday morning to the pounding of wind and rain on my window, with rolling thunder in the background. I was once again excited to hear the storm, but not so excited for the walk to work which was luckily only about 5 minutes. I purchased a wonderful Mountain Hardware Gore-Tex raincoat prior to heading to Macao, and this has turned out to be a wonderful investment. The rain was crazy intense, you could not see more than 20 feet in front of you, and the flash flooding was intense. There is very little green space on the island, mostly consisting of buildings and streets, so when you get this kind of a downpour the water does not have anywhere to go. At times I had water nearly to my knees. I wished I didn't have to go to work and that I had a boogie or surf board, because I am pretty sure they would have worked. (The entire coat worked wonderfully at keeping the rain out, except for the embroidered Gore-Tex log in the right wrist...I find this rather ironic, but I can deal with a wet wrist.)

It calmed down by the afternoon, but continued a steady drizzle for the rest of the day and through the evening. I awoke today to a similar roaring thunderstorm and heavy rain. Same story, trudged my way to work, upon getting there I realize...oh crap, I forgot my time card. I went to tell my boss thinking maybe she;ll give me another card for today, or we can amend it later. I should have known better, the response was "Maybe you should walk back and get it, but I will verify that you were here on time." Well then, not the answer I was hoping for...at all, but whatever, off I went. (I will not expand on this idea either, but oh man)

Well, I need to get to bed, so stay tuned for the next update on couch surfing and the internship.

In good health!

Brent

Not much going on, so I'' talk about Tigers.

My weekend has been pretty quiet, so here are some random thoughts on Tigers

Given my love for my Alma Mater, the great University of Missouri aka Mizzou, it is only necessary that my first blog post be about the Tiger. This thought actually just came to me recently and I cannot believe I had not realized it sooner. I have truly been a tiger for life, and Tigers have had a significant impact in quasi-form throughout my life. I was born in the year of the Tiger, I grew up watching Tigger on Winnie the Pooh, I was a Tiger Cub Scout, I was a Tiger at MU and I am now going to China during the year of the Tiger!

According to the Chinese Zodiac I was born in the year of the Tiger, which is a sign of bravery. The courageous and fiery fighter is admired by the ancient Chinese as the sign that keeps away the three main tragedies of a household. These are fire, thieves and ghosts. So if you have a problem with any of those three tragedies, you know who to call…I specialize in tragedies involving fire and ghosts. I feel the overall description of those born in the year of the tiger fits me pretty well. Another cool fact is that 2010 is the year of the Tiger and I will be heading to China this year, how perfect.

I’m not actually going to write much about Tigger, but I’d say that he can be partially blamed for my goofiness.

My first steps as a Tiger were taken in the 1^st grade when I began Cub Scouts as a Tiger Cub. This was the beginning of a long career in the Boy Scouts of America, which culminated as an Eagle Scout and the rank of Runner Red Ram in the tribe of Mic-O-Say. The Cub Scout motto was simple and true…Do Your Best. That a great motto, simple sand too the point.

Next came the greatest time as a tiger in my life, my time spent at the University of Missouri. I grew up my watching and loving Mizzou athletics, wishing I could someday on Faurot Field in Memorial Stadium. My dream came true when I had the awesome opportunity to play football for the Tigers as a linebacker and longsnapper (longsnapping was the ticket in). Beyond that I was highly active in the university and love it with all my heart, almost as much as I love my family. I love it so much I even have a Mizzou tattoo of the 80’s logo.

The Tiger is the second most popular mascot, with the eagle coming in first. Missouri adopted the nickname “Tiger” soon after the football team was formed in 1890 (specifically a Bengal Tiger).

The name was chosen in honor of the local Civil War militia called “The Missouri Tigers.” The tiger is embodied in our official mascot Truman T. Tiger, named after Missouri-born President Harry S. Truman. Truman is not a male or a female, he is just Truman. The T. in his middle name stands for “the.“ Truman has twice been named the “Best Mascot in the Nation,” most recently in 2004.

While in China during the year of the Tiger, I hope to continue these Tigeresque experiences. I would love to find my way to Tiger Leaping Gorge in southwest China. Maybe I could find my way down to Thailand to hang out with the Buddhist monks that live with Tigers in their temple. So much to do involving the Tiger, this will be great!

Hope you enjoyed my little rant about Tigers, I love Tigers!

Tigers, Tigers, Tiger!

Brent