Sunday, September 21, 2008

Upcoming Vacation

Jim and I are getting excited. We have a 5-day vacation planned to Beijing and Xian the week of September 29 for the week of China's National holiday!

The first two days of the week are professional development days for me at school, so we're leaving on the morning of October 1 and return to Shanghai the evening of October 5.

Jim's trying to learn everything about the new camera (imagine that) before then so he can take awesome pictures. (No word from the camera market about the older camera yet.)

It will probably take us through the following weekend to get the blog and photos loaded to the website.

Camera News

Jim's camera died. It wouldn't even power on. The battery was fully charged so Jim took the whole thing apart to try and fix it. He checked to make sure that power was making it to the circuit boards with a multimeter and checked the internal fuses to make sure they weren't blown. Everything checked out but it was still dead.

I wish I could have taken a picture of the dissassembled thing. Oh, but the irony involved. How can you take a picture of a camera, when your only camera is in a million parts? There were tiny screws and parts everywhere. I stayed at least 2 feet away from the coffee table for fear of bumping it and sending pieces flying and rolling everywhere accross the wood floors.

So this Saturday, as an early birthday present, we purchased a Sony DSLR-A700 for him. He is dorking out about the camera. From the recommendation of a friend, we were able to buy it at a camera market for close to $150 less than what's available in the states. It does have a serial number and its taking nice photos, so we're pretty sure it's legit.

While at the market, we found a camera repair shop, so Sunday we took the old camera there. Maybe they'll know something Jim didn't. The charge is about $45 dollars, if they can fix it and they would call if it costs more. It will be ready by next weekend, so we'll report back. Once fixed it will either become my camera, or we'll resell it on EBay when we return to the states.

The market also has shops where you can get photos printed and framing shops. We want to get a few printed and framed to hang in our house. We are open to receiving suggestions of photos you like from our Flickr site.

Our Flickr Site

Friday, September 19, 2008

Blog Status Update

I've been meaning to post this for awhile now. I realize the posting frequency has drastically dropped off. I understand that I am not holding myself to the level I should as self-proclaimed blog editor-in-chief. And for this I apologize.

There is however a very good reason for the sudden decline in posts... I got a job! In China! This may be old news to some, but I'm not sure if everyone was aware.

I am teaching as a semester long substitute at Shanghai American School in the outskirts of Puxi. I have two preps: Algebra2/Trig and Core Pre-Cal. The position is called a substitute but it's a full time position as I'm filling for a gentleman who is on medical leave through at least January.

So how does this contribute to fewer posts? Every weekday morning I leave the apartment at 6am to catch a shuttle bus 2km away from our complex. The shuttle leaves at 6:25am and arrives at 7:30 while the school day starts at 8:05am. The folks who know me know that in order for me to leave by 6, I'm waking up by 4:45. The nice thing is since Shanghai is east of Beijing, and all of China is in the same time zone (i.e. Beijing time), the sun rises around 5:30.

I pretty much repeat the same process in the afternoons, although the commute takes longer since we travel on Shanghai's busiest road: the Yanan Elevated Road. Think of it like I-35 around downtown Austin during rush hour. Fun stuff, only I ride on a 32-seat bus with some of my coworkers. The other really cool thing, I don't pay a single RMB to ride the shuttle, as the school covers 100% of the cost. But I usually take a taxi to the stop in the morning. In the evenings I walk or take a taxi, depending on how tired I am, and/or how the weather is.

I arrive home most days between 6-7, and I'm usually pretty tired. Then we cook dinner, and I like to try to workout at the gym. The experience has made me appreciate everything Jim did from January until May.

The school is pretty cool. It's the oldest international school in Shanghai. It first opened in 1912, but closed in 1949 due to the Cultural Revolution. The doors reopened in the 80's when the rest of China opened to the rest of the world. One of the school's goals is to be the leading international school in Asia by 2012 - some say it already is. It's an American curriculum (as the name says), but it has a very Asian face. The students are not Chinese citizens, but expats' kids. Mini Terminology Lesson - Jim & I are expats. It's from the verb expatriate: to withdraw (oneself) from residence in one's native country. Anyways, close to 60% of the school's student population is Korean.

If anyone wants to know more about the school, the website is:

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Guilin Vacation: Day 3

Longsheng Rice Fields
Originally uploaded by jimwink

On the final full day of our vacation to Guilin, the weather and my health decided not to cooperate. We had thought that we would walk or ride bikes along the banks of the river by our hotel in the morning, but the early thunderstorms put a damper on those plans. The rain was followed by either food poisoning from a bad milkshake or a reaction to anti-malarial medicine for me. Needless to say, we kept indoors our hotel room reading books or snoozing.

At noon, we had arranged for a rental car to pick us up and drive us to the Longsheng Rice Terraces, a 2.5-hour drive from the hotel. (Ugg…) I was feeling better and the heavy rain had stopped. The drive was uneventful, but the scenery was awesome at the rice terraces.

The rice fields look different during each season of the year; the summertime is when they are green. The sky was a combination of overcast and foggy, but it was neat to see the fog move in and out, as we climbed around the terraces. We also saw some of the ethnic minorities that were featured in the light show from our first night in Guilin.

We did not actually make it to any of the “lookout spots,” as we did not allocate enough time for this event. We also both want to see the rice fields in the spring, when the rice is first being planted and the terraces are full of water. If we go back, we plan to stay at one of the guesthouses in Longsheng. That said, if anyone is up for the adventure, we’re willing to take you along!