My last weekend and long due bungee photos.

Well, I now have less than a week left of my time here in Macao. I decided to spend my last weekend going to all the sights I have yet to visit and making up for the pictures I have not been taking. Saturday morning started off with a trip to A-Ma Temple, which is the oldest temple in Macao, built during the 1400's. The Buddhist temple actually played a roll in the naming of Macao. About 400 years ago when the Portugese landed
on Macao
the temple, they asked the natives the name of the land. Thinking they were asking about the temple, the natives replied "Ma Ge," which how they pronounced the name ofthe temple. The Portuguese translated it into Macau and began using Macau when referring to the land, and so Macao had been named. (You may have noticed I ended Macao with both an o and a u...well the u is how the Portuguese spelled it and the o is how the Chinese spelled it. You can find it spelled both ways, using the u is the more common spelling and I am naturally inclined to use the us as well, however the Institute for Tourism Studies (where I have my internship) spells it with the o, so I have been trying to use the o as often as possible.) The temple was small but beautiful, many of the large boulders leading up the paths had been inscribed with Chinese writing. The characters had been intricatly inscribed with hammer and chisle then painted. A beautiful sight it was. At the bottom there was a little shop I was checking out, when a couple girls next to me asked where I was from. I told them America and found out they visiting from Taiwan. We continued to talk and I found out that they were couch surfing in Macao, with a guy whom I had met earlier that week...such a small World! Since we were both sight seeing around Macao, we ended up hanging out for the rest fo the day together.

We went to Lim Lou Leoc Gardens, which was This was not as exciting as I had anticipated after reading about it in the guidebook. If I were a local, this would be a nice place to come for some R&R, but there were better things to be seen, so left after only 10 minutes or so.

From there we headed to the Guila Lighthouse. We traveled to the top of Guia Hill via a wonderful little two minute cable car ride. From there it was a short walk to Guia Fortress on top of which was the

Guia Lighthouse. (We also walked on the Guia path, saw some Guia trees and adored the Guia flowers...Guia,Guia, Guia) The fortress and lighthouse are the highest natural point on Macao, which offered an awesome view. As we headed up the lighthouse, we came accross the room where they stored the typhoon signals. Each shape represents a level of the typhoon warning system. (Speaking of which, we are currenlty at Typhoon 1 right now, it will probably be upgraded to a T3 tonight and possibly a T8 by Thursday. There is

no numerical progression, it actually goes 1,3,8,9,10. 3 means there could be some big gusts, 8 means stay in doors and all/most businesses close down for the day. The center of the typhoon is currently forecast to pass about 100km to the West of us.) And I digress, the lighthouse was cool though, got some great pictures!

From there, it was just a random evening of dodging the rain, eating some thai food and watching a movie back at my apartment. What a fun day. IT was going to be a fun day either way, but rather than spending it exploring Macao alone taking photos, I got to spend it with two wonderful Taiwanese girls. I love random!

My highlight of Sunday and the entire trip was dinner with my friend Carmen and her family. They invited me over for a traditional Chinese dinner and I was honored to have such a wonderful opportunity, as Sunday dinner is usually the biggest meal of the week. I purchased a bottle of wine to bring with as a gift for their hospitality and was on my way. They said dinner would begin around 8:30, so that would be a good time to

arrive. Carmen met me at the street and escorted me up to her Aunt's apartment where we were having dinner. We hung around and chatted for a while, then started in on dinner around 9pm. What a spread it was. They had preparred a ton of food. Soup which had been made with fish stomach's and black chicken, baked fish, broiled fish, barbecue pork, chicken, garlic stuffed prawns, Taiwanese sausage, bamboo shoots, watermelon and a small citrus like grape sized fruit. While Carmen's parents spoke little english, we still had great conversation with Carmen translating. My favorite part of the evening was when we sang songs for eachother, so much fun. I sang Friend's in Low Places by the Garth Brooke's and they sang a number of Chinese songs for me. They would usually only get through a few words before they began to giggle and laugh, it was great fun. After dinner Carmen and I went down the street to have some Chinese sweet soup for dinner. I had a mixture of greenbeans and redbeans, it was really good. By the time I got home it was 1:30, but totally worth. The Lio's are a wonderfula nd generous family. I thank them so much for the hospitality they have shown me during my stay here in Macao.

So I actually did the bungee jump one month ago, but have been waiting until I got the pictures to tell y'all about it. Maria Lobo, an exchange student from Portugal, and I had been talking about wanting to do the bungee...I mean we had to, it's the World's tallest bungee, why not?! We finally decided to do it and I spent my lunch break (and about an extra hour, ha!) experiencing the World's tallest bungee!! 233 meters/764 feet and approximately 5 seconds of free fall.

Leading up to the jump I was super excited, I look tired as hell and should probably sleep more, but I didn't come to Macao to sleep. I kinda had some butterflys but not really, just excited. Roger helped me get strapped, cool guy from Indiana actually. We were just have some good convo, prio to takeoff!

When it was time to jump, I still wasn't scared. Not even stepping onto the platform, then he said "Okay, walk you toes to the edge of the platform." ...excuse, me what, ok... now I'm scared. I'm looking straight doen 764 feet to the ground, a million thoughts went through my head. Luckily the camera guy talked to me taking my mind off it for a second, the it was back to thinking... (thoughts in 5 seconds) Holy crap what am I doing I can't do this I'm crazy this is going to be nuts I can't do it I won't go when they count down they'll have to unhook me it's going to be so emarassing is that a bird cool I can't do this are there actually butterflys in my stomach this is so high "5..4..3..2..1" Oh shoot I'm actually going no coming back now! Whooooo!

It was so cool, free falling for five seconds. I won't even try to describe it. Great day!

Enjoying life!

No super exciting stories as in the beginning of the trip, but life has been good. New activities, dinner on many various occasions trying new foods with great people and only two weeks left! I sat down to type this blog post up this morning, but had a mini case of what I am calling quasi culture shock. Culture shock is the emotional and physical

discomfort one experiences when moving into a completely new environment. I feel that my positive and adventurous outlook on life have kept culture shock at bay up until this point. However over the past week and weekend I did not have any crazy exciting adventures to keep that honeymoon stage going. This morning I felt ok, just a little out of it. I couldn’t find the words to even make complete sentences for the blog and I was feeling really groggy. That’s pretty much how I felt all day, just not my self. This was the disintegration stage

After work was over, I was headed to a coffee shop near the famous Sernado Square (beautiful Portuguese stone work, I want it for my driveway!) to attempt to write this blog again. I once again got writers block, but not because of feeling funny…because while one of my co-workers, Sophia, happened to be at the bus stop at the same time and we were both headed to the same area. On the bus she told me she knew of a better

coffee shop and wanted to take me there. This turned into an evening of dinner, coffee and great conversation! This could not have come at a better time. Sophia has a great outlook on life and has is wonderful to chat with. Guided Serendipity in it’s finest. Who is guiding it? Well I am still pondering that one as I continue to explore and get to know myself better, but a greater power was keeping an eye on me. Thanks Sophia!

So I think I went through a mini case of culture shock in one day, which is why I called it quasi-culture shock. I’m not well versed on it, so I don’t know if it usually lasts longer, but I imagine if I were to stay here longer I would experience it on a greater scale. Culture shock is nothing to deny, it is a completely healthy part of the adjustment process. I expected to experience it at one point, so now I begin to prepare for my return Next Sunday! I will probably experience some shock upon my return to the states, as it is usually experienced upon returning as well.

Culture shock aside, last week was still an enjoyable one. I had a couple great evenings at the climbing wall. On Wednesday we made some plans for my last weekend here. Since I fly out of Hong Kong on a Sunday, a group of us are going to go climbing in Shanghai the Saturday before I fly out. Perfect way to cap off a great trip. On Friday at the wall it started to rain halfway through the evening, so w few of us headed to the indoor bouldering gym. It was a great workout, and then we went to grab a late night snack across the street, as it was about 1am.

I was really hoping to get some food from the guy on the corner known as Sai Guai. (little turtle in Cantonese) He is famous for his fried noodles, which he cooks to order at his corner wok station. I have passed by there and it always smells soo good. Unfortunately we got there as he was finishing up his last order for the evening, so we had to find somewhere else to go, which turned out to still be great. I had a picture of us

hanging out waiting for the food and wanted to post it up, but I somehow managed to delete it while my camera was in Chinese. I do however still have pictures of the food. I had noodles with prawn eggs on them, the eggs looked like some kind of seasoning. They still tasted like shrimp though and were very good. My friend Kevin said it was one of two places in Macao you can get that dish. We also had fried wontons and fried fish balls (not like mountain oysters, but actual balls formed out of fish and some other items) The fish balls are one of my favorites thus far.

On another food front, I went to eat at Carmen’s parent’s café. (Carmen is a student from the Institute for Tourism Studies, which is where I am interning. She spent the last semester studying abroad at the University of South Carolina. We ran into each other quite often

at our favorite coffee shop Cool Beans) This was fun, she treated me to some truly authentic Macao cuisine. I had a fish sandwich, beef sandwich and a soup with beef tongue, chicken, pork and some time of ligaments from the stomach of a cow. The ligaments and tongue were good!

Last week was also a week full of physical activities. I started going to a yoga studio and that was a great choice. I have felt some much better after only three classes. The serenity and stretching and relaxation are so wonderful. I even felt better when I went for a run on Sunday. Yoga really does compliment overall fitness and mental well-being. Check it out. Also played some badminton with some of my co-workers today. They are intense about their badminton here. While I still need to work on my timing, I am proud to say the 20-year veteran says I have professional potential. What can I say, I just got it...but I don't really see professional badminton in my future. Ha!

I am in a good place now. Feeling good and excited for the next couple weeks!

In good health,

Brent

Ps I know I need a haircut, lol, I was compared to the likes of Ronald McDonald this week (Thanks Yuki) lol! I'm am just too afraid to get it cut here, I don't care that much about my hair, but I do care enough to not risk getting it cut when I can't communicate with the person cutting it.

So...I may have possibly lost my passport in China...

I left Macao Wednesday afternoon headed for Shanghai. Crossed the border with ease and found the bus terminal after about a good twenty minutes. After the 3 hour bus ride I arrived in Guangzhou, where my flight was delayed two hours and we didn’t leave until 11:40pm. While waiting I Dimitriev well, he’s a Russian who spent the past year studying

Chinese in Guangzhou. Finally we took off and after the to hour flight, arrived in Shanghai around 2am. I took a taxi to my hosts house, which I set up through couchsurfing.net, he let me in and I just crashed. I awoke the next morning. Began to prepare to head out and realized, uh oh, I don’t have my passport…to be continued

Shanghai was a great time, spent most of the time bouncing around on my own, and randomly meeting people here and there, doing some touristy stuff and meeting new people. My first two days were purely spent at the Shanghai 2010 Expo, better described as the World’s Fair, which was one giant cultural slap in the face. In the beginning it was rather overwhelming due to the massive size and number of pavilions one could visit. The expo site itself is actually bigger than the main island of Macao. It has 500,000 visitors everyday (give or take a few) and over 200 countries were participating. Many had their own massive pavilions, some had

smaller pavilions (which were still big) and other smaller countries shared large buildings grouped together geographically.When I arrived at the expo site, I was having trouble finding the entrance and I saw a blonde woman who looked like she spoke English. She turned out to have been from Switzerland. She pointed me in the right direction and gave me a VIP pass to the Switzerland Pavilion, as she had an extra one from volunteering there the day prior. With a VIP pass, you surpassed the line and were allowed to enter the pavilion immediate. This was very nice. Upon making through the entrance gate, which was orchestrated wonderfully by the security, it was time to begin my Expo experience.

In speaking with friends, they all prepared me for the lines, they said you could expect to wait anywhere from 30 min to 6 plus hours. So in the beginning I tended to walk around more, taking pictures of the pavilions, not willing to give up my time to wait in a huge long line. I had a lot to see only two days to do it. Finally I sat down took a breath and convinced my self to just start getting in lines and waiting it out. So I did, and the lines turned out not to be that bad, the longest wait I had was probably and hour. Now, even though I did decide to be proactive and just get in line, I was still selective. If it looked to be longer than a two-hour wait I just passed.

The pavilions I actually went in were India, Nepal, Israel, Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Slovenia, Lithuania, United States of America, Caribbean Communities, Cuba, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, African countries pavilion, South Africa and Angola. I also went to some theme pavilions, such as the Urbanian Pavilion, the Pavilion of Urban Footprint and the Pavilion of Future.

Of all the pavilions, my favorite was the Urbanian Pavilion. Here you follow the stories of six urban families from around the world. There were five sections "Family," "Work," "Contact," "Learning" and "Health.” Each section had six video screens, which would play simultaneously. You could look around and see whatwas like to go to school, or work in all the countries. They would also include various demographics and facts for the cities throughout the videos as well. It was cool to see the similarities and differences among the families.

On my first day there I grabbed lunch at the German Pavilion, because bratwurst, sauerkraut and beer sounded awesome…and they were! I ended sat with a group of Chinese who had an open seat at their table. A couple of the younger ones spoke English fairly well, so we chatted for a while. It was very enjoyable lunch.

Later that evening, I saw a few people that looked like American so I chatted them up. Sure enough they were and to my surprise the University of Southern California marching band was going to be performing at the Expo that evening how sweet! They were supporters and donors of the USC marching band and come over to check out the Expo and support the band,

that is dedication. It was fun to chat with them for a while, because I was nearly interning in USC’s development office this summer. They were never in band or any sort of music, they just really enjoy the marching band so they donate to the program. I love stories like that.

On my way to the Expo on my second day, a Chinese gentleman stopped me. He was an English teacher in Shanghai and was super excited to get the chance to talk to me. I mean really excited! His name was Mr. P. He has been teaching English for a long time and has started numerous programs in and around Shanghai. He may be a good resource when I am looking for a job next year.

My last day in a half was spent being an uber tourist. I went to the Bund, which is a huge river walk with old buildings on one side and a great view of the Shanghai skyline on the other. It is a very beautiful and distinctive skyline. I walked up and down West Nanjing Road, which is full of shops and stores, but something every tourist must do. It began to rain (actually a pretty heavy thunderstorm) around lunchtime, so I had about a three-hour

lunch. Ha. I stopped in at a Thai coffee shop. The three hours gave me time to catch up on my journal which I have somewhat neglected as well I read a bit. My waitress, Pear, was from Thailand. She is studying International business in Phuket and has come to China for the past two summers to take courses. She will be graduating in a month. She was really cool and we ended up having dinner together later that night. It was fun to learn about Thailand from a native’s perspective. When I traveled there, I was more of a tourist and did not speak with many locals. So this was a great experience.

That afternoon I spent at YuYuan Gardens, which was a beautiful area with a lot of older Chinese architecture and a ton more shopping as well. I had a blast bargaining with the vendors here. They really try to rip you off big time. So it’s fun to see how low they will go…which is pretty low. I got a cool tiger screen painting and bottle. They were asking around 600 RMB for, but I ended paying 180 for them. Sounds like a good deal and I felt good about it, but who knows, I may have still gotten ripped off. Whatever, items with tigers are priceless.

I tried stinky tofu, which I read was a favorite of many Shanghaians, so how could I pass up the opportunity. I wasn’t searching fro it, but while walking around, I smelled it. This is a smell you cannot miss. It smelled like dairy farm, which has a strong scent of cow poop. I worked on my uncle’s dairy farm for a couple years so I am familiar with this smell. It did not smell good, but from what I read is smelled bad but tasted good and the line was long so it must be good. (I experienced a similar situation in Thailand with Durian (pronounced turian…as I was corrected by Pear) Which is a fruit that seriously stinks but tastes good) After waiting aout 15 minutes it was my turn, I stepped up received my plate with the tofu and a sauce that I am pretty sure was tobacco, which is not a favorite of mine either, but when trying food I always like to have it as is. So I just popped one in my mouth…ugh! Thos articles were freaking wrong! It tasted just like it smelled. It tasted like cow shit with Tabasco sauce, I nearly threw up. I was eating the smell of a dairy farm. Gross. So I still recommend you try it if you ever have the chance. Maybe you will like the taste of dairy farm, it just wasn’t my gig.

Also while walking around that evening, I ran into a couple of girls who went to the University of Texas, while I am super competitive and don’t love Texas by any means, it was nice to talk to some Americans. One was there working with international business, while the other was teaching elementary English. We talked about the new Big XII(10) which was fun, and I am pretty sure I convinced them to take a holiday to Thailand. They will be hooking me up when I return to China as well, so more contacts! Good deal.

So overall, a wonderful trip to Shanghai; met some wonderful people, literally travelled around the world at the Expo and had a wonderful first couch surfing experience. Wish I had time to travel more, but this is what I got and I am content with the trip.

Oh yeah the whole passport deal…well I kind of freaked out…but not really, because the first thought that came to my mind was “Yes now I can spend more time in China. HA!” Anyways, the evening was rather fuzzy, as it was actually early morning, but I remembered that when I got on the plane I had put my passport in the seat pocket in front of me. I just couldn’t remember if I had taken it out or not when I got off. So it was either still there or I dropped it somewhere.

I had to keep my priorities straight, so I got breakfast before heading to the airport. It was a wonderful helping of Xiaolongbao, A soup and meat filled dumpling that was oh so good! Now that my stomach’s desire has been fulfilled I was of to the airport to find out what in the heck happened to my passport…hopefully that is. I was waiting for a taxi when a guy pulled up on a motorbike and said Taxi? I usually try to stay away from the bikes as they are pretty dangerous (actually on my second there I saw a couple on a bike get hit by a police car, haha so funny, the police hit

them…it’s okay no one was hurt, you can laugh too) However, I had been persuaded to take the bike option after reading my friend Susan’s update from Vietnam where she went on a bike tour and said she loved it. I would have to agree that the bike was much more exciting than a taxi, weaving in and out of traffic with the wind in your face, not to mention the view is far better than the backseat of a taxi.

Finally arrived at the airport and made my way to the Spring Airlines desk. I explained my situation to the attendants and I could tell they were trying not to laugh. Can’t blame them, it was pretty funny not to mention that I was laughing, but they did a pretty good job keeping a straight face. They called someone and got some info. They told me a passport had been found but it had to be brought to the desk for verification and I would have to wait for a bit. A bit ended up being 20 minutes, and I thought about a lot. If it’s mine good deal, if it’s not mine at least I’m not the only dummy who lost their passport. If It’s not mine what is the next step, maybe I could get a fake one made, who knows…Well as it turns out I WAS the only dummy to lose their passport, and they had found my wallet. What a relief! I actually wanted to blog about this the night it happened, but facebook is not the only thing blocked in the mainland. Blogging sights are blocked as well, so I could not write or read blogs, quite interesting.

I will leave you with some words from the song from one of the videos in the US pavilion.

“You’ve got a dream so plant it in you’re heart,

then you can start to make you’re garden grow.

Water it with love and lend it to the sun,

now go and be the one to make your garden grow!

“Unknown” (I think Regina Spektor)

Still in good health, (knock on wood)

Brent