December 29, 2009

I'm pretty well adjusted to the time difference now thankfully- it always seems to be easy for me to adjust to the time change, but the problem is usually not feeling hungry when I should. Making myself eat when I'm not hungry is just not a fun thing to do. Today I've been helping organise our old family photos- I've made it to 1983 so far. It's great to have a photographic history of our family- besides just birthdays and Christmases, random family events and photos taken just because. If I work on it a bit every day we'll be up to the digital age in no time, and then for designing yearly photo album books. :) 

Tomorrow my mom and I and my sister in law are going into Adrian to do a little bit of shopping. I'm after some decent photography books of Michigan, a US map, and other information about Michigan and about the US. I have tons of those sorts of books that I got second hand in the UK, so if I bring some back our international friends will be able to have a better idea about America instead of what they see on TV. 

It's almost 9:45pm, so I'm feeling tired as I should be. :) I can't believe it's Wednesday tomorrow, my 5th day here!

December 26, 2009

I'm writing a quick post from the bus to Heathrow- I'll be landing in Detroit around 2pm EST. I'm SO looking forward to seeing everyone! Although I'm officially on holiday I'll still be doing aa bit of foto work- I'm behind. :) Today is called Boxing Day here- no idea why.

See you all soon!



-- Post From My iPhone

December 21, 2009

There's still snow and ice on the ground here, and snow and ice on the trees too. Everywhere you go, there's ice. And snow. :) What you don't see (or hear for that matter) are plow trucks- no plow trucks, no "here comes the plow truck" sound, no salt flying everywhere, no pieces of rock flying onto your windshield....think 1950s snow storm, that's what it looks like here. Our road is solid ice, as are most non primary roads, and most people are still freaked out by driving in the snow, although after this they'll have plenty of experience. :)

I had a lovely compliment Friday at my BNI Christmas thingie- one of the guys said "no offense, but this morning you definitely looked like an American- we were all dressed like usual but you looked like you'd been through this a million times." I took that as a compliment- yes I was the only one sensibly dressed, with proper layers, and proper clothing. It was a Christmas lunch which generally means dress nicely, but I decided that a wool sweater and nice jeans (the pair that I can wear fleece long johns under) looked nice enough. :) I've been the only person in every group I've met this week that has been warm enough- except maybe for G as he's never cold anyway. :)

My camera club is having a night photo shoot so I have to run!

December 19, 2009- Snow day!

Hi everyone! Believe it or not, we have about 4 inches on the ground here in Cambridge. The snow started coming down blizzard style Thursday night, and it actually stuck which is almost as rare as getting snow in the first place. It's been below freezing all day today, all day yesterday, and will be tonight as well. We're due more snow in tonight from what I hear. I am LOVING the snow- snow is all that Cambridge needs to be stunningly, gorgeously beautiful in the winter. I went out to Anglesey Abbey very early yesterday morning to photograph in the snow, and must have canvassed the property 2 times over by the time I was done. It was just so fantastically beautiful- there were only 3 gardeners in, so I gave them a hand whacking snow off trees on the paths and stuff and making snow angels, and all sorts of fun gardener jobs. :)

This week I've had lots of Christmas events- every group I'm a part of has a Christmas end of the year party of some sort, and I've eaten very well indeed this week that's for sure. :) Enjoyed myself and got photos, and now I have to catch up with the processing.

Our street looks like a scene from The Christmas Story with all our 1930s houses and the ice covered pavement and sidewalks.

Tonight Z is having some folks from StAG over for a game night- we're playing Settlers of Catan, always a favorite. :)

December 16, 2009

Wow has it been 16 days since my last post? The time has just flown by here- as with everywhere the run up to Christmas is manic, but here it's also filled with Christmas dinners and Christmas dos for every group that you happen to be a part of. This week alone I have one event every evening, most of them involving a dinner. Whew. I've just managed to lose the weight I put on while I was on holiday in China! :)

For me it's 10 days till I'm back in Michigan- I can hardly believe it! I'll start thinking about it Monday, after the dust settles and I'm done with work for awhile. I'm looking forward to hanging out with my family and stateside friends!

I finally settled on 361 Photography as my business name. I haven't sorted out how to insert the degree symbol yet, but it'll be in the logo whenever that gets sorted. I'm excited about it- it's really cool to finally be moving ahead with that. When the logo is done then I'll get the web guys cracking on a new site for me, and hopefully things will be ready for the end of January.

It's been below freezing here this week- very cold for Cambridge, and the fog makes it feel even colder. I've picked up a cold from our international weekend away this past weekend, so I'm sticking close to home for the most part trying to get over it. Traveling a lot and working with moms of young kids as well as internationals means I pick up colds and bugs left and right. Job hazard. :)

December 1, 2009

December already- wow. And it's almost 2010 already- another wow. 2009 has actually gone by rather slowly- that's not a complaint, it's just a comment since most people say how fast the year went by when they get near the end of one. Not me- this year has been very full with a lot of new things and lots of changes, plenty of adventure and plenty of just plain old life stuff. So I expect the rest of it to continue as it has carried on being. :)

I made up a new syndrome today- I'm calling it Post Shopping Stress Trauma, PSST for short (think psst!). I don't know about other people but I always seem to get it. :) My family can attest to moments of "what the heck is her problem- why can't she just decide which boots to buy and get on with it?!" from like 13 years ago, but it was definitely made worse by my going to Cambodia. Everything is so easy to get in Asia, life is really convenient in most ways- except the stuff I don't really care about like squatties. :) I never have to worry about too many options, too many choices, not having what I want, or other problems that seem to contribute to PSST. :) Anyway all I wanted was a grey hat and black gloves to wear with my dress coat- nothing fancy, just ordinary. I went to 4 stores, no 5- no luck. After 2 hours of "shopping" (read searching desperately through the crowds of people and piles of stuff that I don't care about) I gave up and came home to unwind. Hope pointed out to me on facebook that perhaps I should not go shopping by myself- I hadn't thought of that, but from now on I'm going to have to recruit a shopping buddy who will kindly come along and prevent me from feeling waves of "Why is this so hard AHHHHH!!!" from sending me packing for home. :)

It's a nice quiet week here this week- I'm catching up, G is away working on a project for his company in Kansas City, and Nelly is trying new antics for getting attention including jumping at my face which is a bit new, and yowling from mysterious parts of the house as if she's trapped in a closet (which she never is.) I'm over jetlag, though not hungry at the right times still, but sleeping just fine (those 2 days outside pretty much reset my clock).

Tomorrow I'm out to photograph some trees being powerwashed. :) Anglesey Abbey has to power wash their white birches to keep them looking their best, and they've asked me to photograph them doing it. Good fun!

November 30, 2009

As you've probably noticed, I've been posting my travel blog up on here (finally!) I can't seem to find the last 3 that I wrote, but when I do I'll get them up here. :) As you can imagine it's been a crazy few days here in Cambridge- I arrived back very late Thursday night, made even later by my bus from Heathrow being stopped on a highway that was closed due to an accident. But I eventually made it and breathed a sigh of relief to finally be done carrying bags everywhere.

I had to hit the ground running pretty much, because there was a huge Lantern Christmas event at Anglesey Abbey on Saturday, and I planned to return from China Thursday night so I could be out helping with the event set up Friday and the running of the event Saturday. It was a wild 2 days- the event went really well, was massively over-attended, and we really enjoyed ourselves despite the chaos and meyham. I spent most of the day yesterday in bed chilling out and getting over a cold that came on since I got back from China, and today back to work sorting through emails, putting photos onto the laptop, and generally getting back to normal. The strange thing is that in the same way that China doesn't feel foreign to me, the UK doesn't feel quite so foreign anymore either. But in many ways living in the UK is stranger than living in China! :) Anyway my sleep pattern is pretty well back to normal, but I'm still not feeling hungry at the right times of the day.

I have finally unpacked for the most part- it is nice to sleep in my own bed, but not so nice to have to cook and all that stuff, China has a way of spoiling you because cheap food is available everywhere so you never need to bother with cooking. Anyway getting back to the routine here- photography work is a bit slow at this time of the year which leaves me time to do some business stuff that needs to get done. I have a business meeting tonight, and BNI at the crack of dawn tomorrow! :)

Nov 22- China Day 8- Guilin Day 1

It’s 6:20pm here in Guilin. We just got back from a day packed full of interesting outdoor sightseeing, and now we’re both pretty tired. We’ve climbed up Fubo Hill, a karst (limestone mountain) to see the city from up high, and then back down, and down into an amazing underground cave and back up. We’ve walked around several lovely green parks here- Seven Stars Park (named for the Big Dipper) was my favourite- thy have a little zoo there with pandas and all kinds of things! I’ve never seen a panda so close before. We also walked around the Elephant Arch, and we saw some ancient postcard style writing that was carved into the walls up close and personal. We had a very nice lunch including a toffee covered taro dessert, and we walked around the pedestrian areas here in the city. Our hotel is very conveniently located for the night markets- bonus! J

Guilin is an interesting city- there are tons of huge Chinese tour groups here, and lots of people stop and stare because we’re one of the few foreigners in the city right now. Several people commented to our guide that they were surprised to see foreigners in a Chinese tourist area. But watching the Chinese tourists is really fun- here there’s not much separating you from historic sights, if anything at all, so you can walk right up and touch stuff. I touched an 800 year old bell that monks used! I’d like to provide a little cultural insight here- ideas about preservation of objects are different here. If they don’t want people to touch something, they put it behind glass. If something doesn’t have glass but has a sign saying Don’t Touch, people here don’t take it seriously because if the people really meant it the item would be behind glass. In the west we take signs very seriously, but here they simply aren’t used to taking signs and instructions as seriously as we take them. It’s not that they don’t respect historical sights or whatever, it’s that they show respect in a different way. So the next time you see a Chinese group doing something they shouldn’t, instead of thinking that they are being disrespectful, remember that things are different in their country and being in a foreign country is difficult. When in Rome do as the Romans do- I took every opportunity to touch ancient stuff, and let me tell you it was pretty cool. J

Nov 21- China Day 7- Shanghai Day 4

It was our last day in Shanghai today- we didn’t actually spend it in the city though, we went with G’s friend and his wife out to a what they call “water town” that is over an hour from the city. What’s amazing is that within an hour’s drive of the city there are loads of these little traditional villages right on the water. It’s like a movie there, except for all the Chinese tourists. J Z took us to this one because there aren’t any Western tourists there- there are 2 which are closer to the city that end up attracting them first, but the Chinese come out to Fengjing instead. We saw some very interesting aspects of village life- the sort of thing that used to be pretty much how everyone lived in China. We had all sorts of interesting food- fried frog legs, snails, interesting pork/rice combinations, deep fried little fish, homemade tofu and home grown bok choy, and even bought some local homemade cookies. It was fantastic- the photography was amazing, we took a little gondola ride on the river and it was so cool! And there is also a preserved commune in the village- it was so weird- 1, because many buildings in Cambodia look just like this commune, 2, the commune idea was to make things more egalitarian and there we were walking around with very wealthy Shanghainese, and 3, it was hard to imagine that their idea of communist society would work properly. They had a collection of Mao pins, Mao red books (that was his book about communism), and even coupons that were used during the period when they eliminated money and made everyone work on a barter system. What a crazy time. We bought lots of street food, including tasty homemade cookies- sesame flavor was my favorite. J

Here we are in our hotel in Guilin, and we’ve just had a hilarious time looking at the various English translations on the signs in our room, not to mention the, well, “interesting” items they have for sale (as every hotel room has.) We have Gillettey razors, “Uncomplimentary” Commerce Towels (no idea- it looks like a louffa), and best yet various badly translated personal hygiene items including “Man Joy Sex Oil” and various condom options. You’re probably wondering at this point why on earth I’m telling you this- like you’d really want to know that our hotel offers condoms in their in room bar! Well here’s why I’m telling you- no hotel I’ve ever been offers those type of items in their in room bars, but it suddenly made a LOT of sense why this one does when G noticed on a leaflet labeled Therapeutic Service List that right at the bottom of the list which included Foot Massage, Body Massage, Sauna and Bath, and many others was Lady of the Evening! We don’t know what it says in Chinese so it could be a mistranslation- our room is full of mistranslated English- but then again, maybe it’s not! In any case the hotel is very clean, very modern, in a fantastic location, and overall a nice hotel, so they aren’t renting out by the hour I’m pretty sure, at least on our floor. JGuilin is a tourist town and the fact is that tourists sometimes come here for that sort of thing.

I’ve gotten a bit spoiled these past 4 days in Shanghai because our room was on the 25^th floor- not so good for earthquakes, but great for no road noise. Alas our room here is on the busiest corner (our lovely guide was trying to bless us by asking for a room facing the river) and although it’s 11pm people are out shopping and enjoying themselves as shops don’t shut till midnight. They don’t open till 11am so that’s nice for the owners anyway. But there is a LOT of traffic outside, and traffic in China means honking, shouting, and lots of noise. Anyway we’re tired so I hope it’ll be ok.

Today at the airport there was a fight that broke out right in front of us- we were trying to leave the airport to find our local guide and a random woman ran up to a staff person and shoved her really hard, knocking her down and into a post which also fell over, and started shouting at her and pointing. The woman stood up and called for security, but this other woman kept trying to push her. That’s the second fight I’ve seen in an airport here- Chinese people seem to be hot tempered when it comes to airports.

Nov 20- China Day 6- Shanghai Day 3

Today I took a taxi out to Intel's huge complex to hear G's talk on
the scheduler- that's what he's been working on and giving this talk
is why he's here in Shanghai. It was a really good talk- I can tell
that for 2 reasons- 1) it was in the main session of a 250+ conference
room and 95% of the attendees were actually paying attention and
engaged in his talk. Usually at these sort of things half the people
are on their laptops reading email etc. 2) It was very well structured
and had a good summary at the end, and encouraged people to join in
the open source project and help with the scheduler. It's exciting
that G's been able to spearhead this project, and he's made lots of
connections over time here in Shanghai so it's likely that we'll be
able to visit again. Intel has like 600 employees here in Shanghai-
their office is in a Silicon Valley style development about an hour
outside the city. I think Shanghai might be the most recently
developed city I've ever been to- everything here has been built in
the past 15 years. All the highways are brand new, the subway is brand
new, all the streets are fantastic and there are trees planted
everywhere. All of the street signs are in both Chinese and English,
all the subway signs as well, all the highway signs, basically
everything is written in both languages so it is really easy to
navigate. Plus there's no faffing around (good British word) with
stuff that was retrofitted into an old system (read London here) and
is all squirrelly and stuff. Chinese culture in some ways is more
similar to American than we are to British- although we don't have the
whole face saving thing, many root values are the same. Efficiency,
convenience, and economy are 3 big ones that we share that aren't
shared with Britain. We also both value good service. :) But of course
independence, freedom, and justice are not as high a value here. But I
think they could be eventually. The fact is all the talk about China
rising isn't just talk- they will soon be at the forefront of the
world economy, and they got there because of American money and
following our lead. Don't get me wrong- there are a lot of problems,
but I think the president is right to change tactics from the American
style "beat them with a big stick until they agree" to a more Asian
style Guang Xi (relational) approach. If you have good guang xi with
people, you have a huge influence over them, and that's how Asia
works. Anyway enough about politics- if you want to be a global player
in the next 15 years you must learn Mandarin, period. :) In a similar
way that people all over the world have been learning English to give
them an advantage in a global market, smart Westerners will start
studying Mandarin because if you can speak Mandarin (and read it) you
have a market of 1.6 billion people at your fingertips. Native English
speakers who also speak Mandarin are like gold dust. So I better get
more serious about studying Mandarin. :)

I had a great time at the market yesterday- good bartering takes like
30 minutes or longer, so I didn't make it anywhere else. But I walked
away from all 4 purchases feeling satisfied with what I paid, though
of course I could have gone harder and paid less. I aimed for about
30% and got it, and they whined a bit but they took it, so I could
have gone lower anyway. ;) But that's fine. I'm about to practice a
few Chinese phrases to use in the market today- the head of Citrix
Shanghai office is taking us all for dinner and some shopping in
another local market, and I hate to rely on people to translate (it's
not needed but Chinese friends feel they should translate for you,
it's hospitable.) Last night after the market I met G at a local
family's house for a pr meeting- our friend from Ann Arbor who we
worked with in the Chinese group is here for a few days doing some bbl
training for local leaders, and it was great to meet and pr with them
all last night. It reminded me that life in Asia really isn't that
strange- it seems strange on TV or in the media, but it's just not. :)

Nov 19- China Day 5- Shanghai Day 2

It's about 2pm, and I've just finished making my plan of attack for
the day. Fortunately places are open till 10pm here, so there's plenty
of opportunity for evening shopping and sightseeing. G is off at his
conference, and although I got up at 9am I've been laying low today-
my lower back muscles have been killing me because I carried around a
heavy backpack yesterday. Took some ibuprofin but decided to skip the
bag today and just carry the camera. I'm trying to sort out a way of
carrying it without it being obvious- Canon makes their camera straps
say "Canon Digital 5D Mark II" on it because a lot of photogs are kit
proud, but in a place like this you might as well put "I'm rich please
rob m e and steal this expensive camera" on it. Seriously- they just
aren't thinking. I couldn't get a new strap in time to bring it along,
so I've been flipping the strap over as the back which has the grippy
bit has no writing- but of course that makes the camera fall off and
draws attention. Yesterday when I was walking around with 2 big guys
that was one thing, but today (and tomorrow) I'm on my own so I have
to be a bit more street smart. Also considering that Chinese men of
lower classes openly gawk at women not even 2 feet away, especially
white ones, I don't need any additional attention. Don't worry, I'll
be fine- Shanghai is certainly not as lawless as Phnom Penh, and I
also have the phone number of a local friend who can help me if I need
it. So don't worry mom. :)

Yesterday was about getting to know the city a bit, and hang out with
our local friend. Today is about exploring more and taking more time
for photos. People who aren't photographers don't walk as slowly
through places- that's one benefit of being a photographer, you get
the chance to savor places and events because you're moving more
slowly to capture the feeling of it. Also, today is about a bit of
shopping! :) Some things are very cheap in China- Shanghai isn't a
cheap city, and forget buying cameras or anything like that because
China has a very high import tax and most of those are made in Japan.
But there's good variety of souvenir shopping here if you go to the
best markets and haggle- rule of thumb is you should aim to pay 30% of
the initial asking price, and make your initial offer between 10% and
25% of what the seller asks. They still make money on that believe it
or not, but that's the way haggling goes. :) It's all a big game
basically. Besides gifts, I'm in the market for interesting looking
fake antiques- all of that stuff is fake on the streets here but I
don't care as long as it looks interesting. :)

Our local friend put us on to a taxi swindling group so we'd know to
avoid them- taxis with an X in their license plate, usually the car is
red coloured, are ex prisoners who were let go early and the
government gave them jobs. They only take tourists because they rip
them off- they won't take locals anywhere. They speak English a teeny
bit, but they stand outside the taxis and they want to seem friendly
and talk to you first- they have a little switch inside their meters
that they can hit which like doubles the fare or something. They ask
if it's your first trip, if you've been where you're asking them to
take you before, etc etc. I've been burned by Cambodian taxis myself
so I always lie if I'm asked questions like that- yes of COURSE I've
been to China before, and I've been to this market many times. I go
there all the time! In fact a trick I use now is to pretend like I
think they are going the wrong way and be like "Hey, this isn't the
right way- where are you going?" Sometimes I've caught taxi drivers
out that way- either way they don't know that I don't have a clue
where I am or where I'm going. And ALWAYS ask the fare in advance and
don't get in if you're not willing to pay that fare. :)

Ok, time for me get some late lunch and then hit the streets! I
haven't decided if I'll take the subway or the taxi today- we took the
subway yesterday and it's great, it's all brand new and all the signs
are in English as well as Chinese. Ha ha there's a blinds repair guy
who just came along to replace the turning rods in our curtains and
he's standing on the trash can to do it- his phone just rang and he
answered it and started shouting in Chinese! In my hotel room!! Ha ha
ha!!! Ok I'll let you know how the shopping and photo trip goes.

Nov 17- China Day 3- Xi'an

We’re sitting here at the airport waiting for our flight back to Shanghai. Overall my feeling about Xi’an is that it is a very interesting place that I’d like to get to know better. Being on a tour trip means you don’t get to meet many people that are local- our guide is from Xi’an but she is university educated, which is not the average for the population of the city. Xi’an is very much an industrial city, with lots of people working in what Yo yo called light industry, and some in heavy industry. She pointed out many streets to us where the rural people travel in to do work and they eat and live on those streets- pointed out from the car, but I would have loved to have time to go down streets like that with a local believer and learn more about the people there.

Today we visited the City Wall, the Bell House, the Great Mosque, Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, and also a camera store and a bank. And the Shaanxi Regional Museum. My favorite was the streets outside the mosque- full of market type sellers and interesting foods. We didn’t have much time there unfortunately, but I hope to hit some night markets in Shanghai to make up for it. J I love markets- they are my favorite way to shop!

I was looking for a sort of wheeled camera bag to carry my camera kit, as I mentioned yesterday, so Yo yo took us to a reputable camera store. Alas they didn’t carry those bags because there’s no domestic market for them, but I did have a fun “conversation” with the camera guys who drooled a bit over my 5D Mark II (they had the 5D) and we talked about the difference in price between what I paid in the US and what it would cost there. Believe it or not I got a better price in the States than I could get here in China! We had a good time, and I ended up buying a monopod which I’ve been in the market for for ages, because the high quality light metal versions with nice ball heads are very expensive back home. I don’t know how I’m going to explain the Chinese receipt to my accountant. J

China has an interesting history of islm which was brought along the silk road long after the first C’s came and told people here the good news. The mosque we visited was built in 700AD. It’s still in use by the local Hui people who are mslm, and we couldn’t go into the sanctuary (especially not me as I’m a woman and women’s place in islm is very low) but we were able to take some photos. Apparently they offer sheep sacrifices (read they slaughter the sheep) around noon, so I’m glad we missed that.

We also got to see the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, which is where the first sutras (Buddism) that came to China along the silk road are kept. They came around 600 AD. The pagoda is surrounded by an enormous purpose built city, which just opened in September and has new shops and restaurants and apartments for people.

One interesting thing I have to tell you about is the toilets (aka bathrooms). I know this might gross a few of you out, but you really can’t get a good idea what daily life is like in Asia without being introduced to what we affectionately call the “squattie.” Squatties are the eastern style of toilets. Rather than have a large porcelain seat on which one sits, squatties are a porcelain sort of sunken bowl, level with the floor, which sometimes can flush and sometimes not depending on where in Asia you are. Now you can see why they’re called squatties. They function as the name suggests- ladies you can forget about the problem with the hover method, because squatties solve that issue completely. J Actually in places where hygene isn’t a priority I prefer squatties because you don’t ever touch them. Some squatties in airports even have a flushing mechanism as opposed to a bucket with water in it, or nothing at all. Here in Xi’an most of the tourist sites have automatically flushing squatties- amazing. There are little signs on the stall doors with a picture of which sort of toilet is in there, so if you’re a Westerner you can avoid the squatties. I prefer to use them- it’s all part of the experience. However, today I came across a situation where I thought perhaps I should have looked for a western toilet. You may remember that I mentioned that my backpack weighs close on to 45 pounds- you can put 2 and 2 together and determine that I would NOT want to set my bag (or anything else) on the floor in the toilet with the squattie. Can I just say in all seriousness that an additional 45 pounds on your back makes using a squattie very much more difficult. If you don’t believe me you can simulate the experience by loading up a ton of heavy books in a bag and putting in on your back, and try to squat down and touch the floor and stand back up. Let me know how you get on. ;)

Nov 16- China Day 2- Xian

Today is Day 2 of our trip to China. I managed to sleep most of the
night, which was great- I did wake up with a splitting tension
headache at around 3am, caused no doubt by carrying my 45 pound
backpack all the way from Cambridge. Yes, 45 pounds- laptop +camera+2
lenses and misc camera bits does add up! When I woke up this morning
with a foggy head due to this terrible headache I realized 2 things:
1) I'm not as young as I used to be, and carrying that heavy bag
around that's not designed for so much weight is not a good idea and
2) I should just look for a wheeled version of a camera backpack
instead while I'm here in China as I should be able to get a good
price on it. I've carried heavier bags hiking, but those bags are
designed for the weight to sit on your hips and are designed for women
especially- this camera bag is not woman friendly. :) So I've asked
our tour guide if we could stop by a camera shop tomorrow.

Our guide's name is Yo Yo- she's a lovely young Chinese girl who
finished her university degree in tour guiding last year. Like almost
all Chinese her age she's an only child, and tends to see things from
a practical perspective. She actually reminds me just a bit of my dear
friend Stacy. Yo yo has been a very good guide for us- we've booked
our tour with a company called China Highlights, which we found
online, and they have really taken care of everything. If you're
thinking you'd like to see China but are put off by the language
barrier or fears about navigating a foreign Asian city on your own,
I'd recommend them. It is a bit weird to have a local guide helping
us- whenever I've traveled in Asian before I've been on my own or had
a local friend assist me until I was proficient enough in the language
to go it alone. So it's strange to just have someone right there who
can translate for you, who knows where everything is, and is so
helpful.

Today it snowed again- I love the snow, it makes Xi'an feel like the
perfect blend between Michigan and Cambodia. :) Except here in Xi'an
all the cars are very very new- Yo yo told us that people here tend to
be very wealthy, and have their own cars. The city population is about
9 million, and our hotel is on the main drag, not far from the East
Gate in the old city wall. Our guide took us by private Asian style
taxi (a sort of smallish van with lovely plastic on the floors and
always foggy on the inside) to a very interesting factory that makes
high quality replicas of the terracotta warriors, amazing rugs,
lacquer furniture, hand made and glazed tiles, and all sorts of
amazing things. We spent about 2 hours there seeing how things are
made and doing some shopping- a person can buy a lifesized replica of
a warrior and have it shipped straight home. We were sooo tempted by
this lovely mahogany rocking chair with mother of pearl inlay, but
1500 pounds was out of our budget. :)

From there we went on to have a nice Chinese lunch at a restaurant on
the grounds of the terracotta army museum. It's a massive complex with
LOTS of people hawking cheap souvenirs everywhere, and people selling
pomegranates and fresh dates all over the place. Lunch was very good-
spicy chicken bits (with the bones in- I was blessed and got the foot)
and green beans with mince (and "ma" which is a spice that tastes a
bit like dish soap right before it makes your mouth go numb). It was
so good to have real Chinese food, I've been dreaming about eating
like a pig here for months! :) After lunch we proceeded on to the
terracotta army- our guide had worked at the museum and she had all
sorts of inside knowledge. And can I just say that nothing is quite
the same as seeing these guys up close- you can't get too close to the
3 main pits where they were found, but they have some you can look at
closer and they are amazing. Each one is different in body type,
height, weight, and ethnicity, because all the craftsmen were from all
over China and were not allowed to go home or visit their families
ever again. So the made some of the soldiers to look like their family
and friends. They're amazing. There are still some sections that are
under excavation, and since it's the quiet season the archeologists
were there digging and repairing the soldiers. They were not all in
tact (in fact few were) because after the Emperor Ching (who had all
this done) died, there was a civil uprising and his tomb was raided
and set on fire. The roof over the soldiers was wooded, so it burned
(you can still see the black from the fire 2200 years ago) and the
roof collapsed on the soldiers. Fascinating history here- we even
bought a book about the warriors and had it signed by the farmer who
discovered the place when he was digging a well. :)

Tonight we're going to see a Tang Dynasty show- this wasn't on our
original itinerary, but it's a dancing and singing show from the Tang
dynasty, which is very old. I don't know how old. ;) Time for a shower
and stuff before dinner- interesting how new habits start to sink in,
as I've gotten very used to having tea in the morning and tea in the
afternoon, and the day just seems nicer after a cup of tea. :) I've
had a nice cup of Chinese green tea and looking forward to more
Chinese food and celebrating Chinese history tonight! Our guide says
it's supposed to snow more tomorrow, and our flight to Shanghai has
already been pushed back 2 hours, so I guess we'll see what happens.

Nov 15- China Day 1- Xian

Just wanted to let you all know that we've made it safely to Xi'an-
you'll be interested to know that facebook is blocked from here, as is
Twitter- supposedly due to the unrest in July among the minority
peoples in the west of China. We can text to twitter but I didn't set
up my facebook to pass the Twitter updates on, so if I seem quiet
that's why. :) Blogger is blocked from here too- again I suspect due
to the unrest. It feels weird to be cut off from the outside world,
but at least there's still gmail. :) It's well known that emails are
monitored in China as well though, which as some of you know is why
people often use abbreviations if they are talking about certain
subjects.

Our flight went really smoothly, and Xi'an (shee-ahn) is a cool city
so far- Asian cities can seem a bit crazy to Westerners, but I'm
feeling very at home (Zephyr I know you will not be surprised!) and
things feel comfortable here despite the massive traffic issues, 9
million people in a small space, and other exciting things. It snowed
here just before we landed in Xi'an so the countryside looked really
beautiful from the air. Our tour guide brought us to our hotel, which
is centrally located in the heart of Xi'an near to the famous sights
that we'll be seeing over the next 2 days- the terracota soldiers, the
Bell Tower, and some other interesting historical sights. Shops are
open here until 10pm on weekdays, 9pm Sundays, and as it's almost 9pm
now I think we'll stay in and chill and go in search of the night
market tomorrow (I hear there's a good one near the big mosque in
town.) George is feeling more awake than I am, but my goal is just to
make it to 9pm without falling asleep! :)

We're heading back to Shanghai Tuesday night, and George's conference
runs Wed-Thu after which we'll be on to Guilin. I'll keep you posted
whenever we happen to have email access. :)

By the way, I thought you might be interested to see some of the
options on our hotel's room service menu:

Boiled seafood into pumpkin
Boiled almond and pig lung soup
Boiled ginseng and black chicken soup
Pan-fried fishhead
Fried duck tongue with meggic sauce
Boiled partridges soup
Roasted baby pigeon
Assorted brine beef and goose wing
Braised forg and pig kidney with rice

Any of the above tasty foods can be had for approximately 4 pounds
($6.50)! Sounds like I bargain I hear you say! ;)

Love from China!

On our way to China!

I'm writing this from the bus that goes to Heathrow- we are almost at the airport! Our flight to Shanghai leaves at 2pm, its an 11 hour flight, no layovers. Our plan had been to fly straight on to Xi'an from there, but we just got an email that the airline cancelled that flight so we'll have to sort that out after we get sorted at the airport. Thankfully we have iPhones. :)

We'll be in Xi'an for 4 days, then back to Shanghai for George's conference, then south to Guilin. George is flying from Shanghai to Kansas City and will get back Dec 5.

We're really excited to get on the plane and get going! Hopefully we can update you when we get to Shanghai.

-- Post From My iPhone

Armistice Day

It's Armistice Day today- the day we celebrate Veterans Day in the US, but I never put 2 and 2 together on that one. 11th month, 11th day, 11th hour. The Queen paid tribute to the WWI generation, the last of whom passed away this year in Britain. Thank you soldiers- we don't really have any idea how much we owe to our armed forces, but I'm grateful for them anyway.

Believe it or not we are leaving for China Saturday- that's 2 days from now! Our trip is all planned out (for once- it's a miracle!) and we just have a few last minute things going on here. I have a few photo shoots to sort out, a few things for the Camera club, and moving my lovely antique housekeeper's cupboard out of the hallway where it is resting since it won't fit up the stairs. That was a real bummer actually- I want to use it for my office stuff but I either have to take it apart or move my whole office into the living room...boo.

I've had 3 photo shoots today- a fun one of the bathrooms in Anglesey Abbey, a long one doing towels in a rurally looking bathroom, and a short one of some food that a catering place did. The only one I knew I was doing was the towels one- the other 2 popped up and I wanted to fit them in before the trip. I think I'll be in shock when I actually have to pack stuff for the trip, and even more shock when I end up at the airport for an 11 hour flight to Shanghai!

We're flying into Shanghai nov 14 then straight on to Xi'an where we'll pick up our tour thingie at the airport and go to our hotel. Back to Shanghai Nov 17-20 for G's conference, then 21st on to Guilin, back to Shanghai Nov 25, and I'm flying home the 26th. G may be flying straight to Kansas City, depends on if he can get his flight changed. It's a business trip for a client of his company. Otherwise he's coming back to London then straight out again to Kansas City. Whew- lots of travel this month.

It's past my bedtime- good night all!

November 10, 2009

Today was one of those sorts of days where I feel about a 100 years older than 30. :) My high school cross country coach used to say that I had an old soul, and while I don't believe in reincarnation I do often think of him on days like today. There are just days where the weight of life seems incredibly heavy, and the consequences of the choices that people make seem to stretch on and on.

I heard a story on the radio today that got me thinking actually- it was in a slot called Choices on BBC4, and it was an interview of a man who had changed his gender. It was a very honest piece- this man was now in his 70s and looking back over his life and the choices that he'd made. He talked about how he'd always felt like he'd been born the wrong gender, and although he did very masculine things his whole life he'd felt like it was a cover up for who he really was. He was in fact a very late bloomer, and when he underwent the sex change operation he didn't need to take hormone therapy because his body made a lot of female hormone naturally at that point, which makes me wonder if his problem wasn't physiological. Anyway he lived until he was in his 50s as a man, was married and had 2 grown sons, but when his marriage collapsed he decided that was the time to be what he'd always felt that he was. So he did it. He had the operation and began living as a woman.

The thing that struck me about this story is that this guy was now in his 70s, or might have been 80s even, and was being asked about why he did it- why he gave up what seemed like a good life in order to do something so seemingly out there. And although he explained why he did it, he also talked about what it had cost him- it cost him a lifetime of friends, abandonment by his 2 sons, no relationship with his grandchildren, his career, and romantic relationships. He wasn't surprised at people's reactions, and looking back on his life he regretted what he had done because it cost him everything and gave him very very little in return.

I've always thought to myself that I did not want to be one of those people who reaches the end of their life and regrets pivotal choices that I made. I prefer to learn from other people's mistakes rather than my own. :) But because we live in a fallen world, we can't prevent bad choices from happening necessarily. I think I'd always had the subliminal idea that a person can by being cautious make all the right choices their entire life- which is silly of course. :) At the ripe old age of 30 I'm beginning to realize that as people we have to make the best decisions that we can given what we have at the time, and accept that in the future we may wish we'd chosen differently. I don't really like that, but it's just a fact of life. Or unseen consequences may arise that we could never have known would happen- that too is a fact of life. I feel really blessed that I've gotten to be 30 and lived a very full life without having made any decisions that I would regret- I know that's a rare position to be in.

There's no point really in regretting the past anyway- it can't be changed, and the fact is that each of those points serve to remind us what a big Gd we serve, who knew that we were helpless to live life perfectly rightly, and made a way for us to have a relationship with him as a father and a friend. Those things can remind us of his amazing mercy and incredible grace, if we let them. Few of us will have had momentous points like this poor man had in his life (thankfully!), where we stand to lose everything we love and value if we make the wrong choice, but we should extend Gd's mercy and love to those who have and looking back have made what they have come to see as a wrong choice.

When we follow JC everyday is a new day, a fresh day, and on that day we can choose to follow him or choose to go our own way. If we want our lives to be impactful on the world we live in, and to get to the end of our days and see not just the wrong turns but the beautiful fruit of a life well lived, we have to rely on JC for that and trust that his way is the right way for us. Even if we've made choices in the past that we now regret, that is a part of the human experience- it's a part of life, we can still take each day as a new day. That's really good news. :)

October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween everyone! Interestingly, Halloween isn't a big holiday here. It's gaining popularity due to American media influence, but it's nothing like what tends to happen back home. We did have a handful of trick or treaters come round, which really thrilled Zephyr who has never gotten to experience Halloween before. :)

The frameshop opening went very well today- my photos were looked at by a lot of people, and I hope some will sell soon. I have a deal with a printer who will give me 50% off printing on large format, so that makes it more feasible for me to print things to be mounted and framed than it would have been. It was exciting to see people coming in and it made me think back to my parents opening their store years ago- I don't think I realised how much valuable business knowledge I gained simply from working in their store. But now that I'm running my own business I'm getting a lot of comments from people about my having good business sense- basically I'm just doing what seems to make sense to me and learning from my mistakes as I go along, but active learning is no small task I suppose, and I'm blessed with business genes from both my parents. :) And I know that Gd has put me in this situation for a reason, hopefully so that the business will do well and we'll be able to start other businesses in the future.

Any of you who are astute might notice that I'm posting this at 12:26am our time- it's been a catch up day for me today, getting lots of photo processing done, some even from back in the summer on our last trip home! I am very nearly caught up, which is great since we are off to China in 2 weeks now! It's been quiet as far as StAG work goes since it's half term, but I for one needed the time to get random things sorted out. Our bble studies start back up this week.

Ok it's high time I went to bed- I hope you are all well there and enjoying the beautiful trees! I hear the weather has been up and down, and it has been here too. We miss you all and are looking forward to seeing you around Christmas time!

October 28, 2009

Now that I'm over swine flu, I've been up to my ears in business related stuff. An exciting development this week is that a business connection of mine is opening a framing shop and is renting me wall space so I can sell my fine art pieces! I am SOOOO excited you guys- I started out in photography as a fine art person, doing black and white. I've learned to use some skills from my classes to do other sorts of work (that actually pays) but black and white is my first love and I am really thrilled to be able to sell some. Finally my babies are going out into the world to earn their keep! ;) This development has kept me busy- I've been visiting local printing companies like crazy to see if I can find someone who will print on fiber papers for me (no luck yet) and getting more business cards done, having my photos framed for the wall, etc etc. I still have to make some little placards for the pieces to put on the wall, with the name and pricing.

This past weekend we had a lovely visit with our friends Helen and Robin from the Ann Arbor SCD group- I miss dancing in A2!!! It was wonderful to spend time with them and we were very sad to see them go. On Saturday I was out with the US Air Force who brought out a small group of volunteers to do some tree felling for us, and it was really nice to enjoy some American hospitality and friendliness. Most of them live on base and don't know many British people well, which I found interesting as we've immersed ourselves in British culture and don't know many Americans here! There are certainly days where I'd love to transport myself to America- maybe I'll just go out to visit my friends on the base and get my fix that way. :)

Tomorrow I have a new client coming round to get some help with batch processing his files. I seem to be doing a lot of photoshop tutoring these days- its been great for raising my profile and credibility, and I hope it brings in some new business as well.

October 19, 2009

So I put 2 and 2 together today when looking at the swine flu symptoms list and figured out that I had swine flu. :) Here they aren't bothering even to diagnose it- they just say stay home and take some anit-flu medicine. So no one knows exactly who had it or how many. Zephyr has already had it, and I suspect Hope had it too. It really wasn't that bad as far as flu goes- much less bad than seasonal flu, except for the horrible sore throat. It was a fairly mild fever, just a strong feeling of tiredness, and runny nose etc. I'm still feeling tired everyday, which is a real bummer. But now that I've had it that's that, so no worrying about it anymore. They hype over it was quite ridiculous until people started catching it and everyone saw that it wasn't a big deal. It hasn't been in the news here in ages. :)

Now you can all tell people in the US that swine flu isn't a big deal, and that half of Britain has already had it and gotten on with their lives. :)

October 17, 2009

This week I've mostly gotten over my cold, but its swept through our house and it looks like G might be next on the list. I'm still feeling very tired in the evenings- going to bed early and sleeping a bit later than usual. Things have been relatively quiet here- Hope made it back safely, and I have some projects in the works but nothing with a tight deadline which is very nice. :) I think I mentioned that I've been tutoring several Korean girls in English, and supplementing my photography expenses that way. I've done a bit of restructuring photography wise to reduce my time spent doing small projects, freeing me up to concentrate on the larger projects. I'm aiming for about 2 big projects a month, and not more than 1 small project a week.

Now that we've gotten back and settled in, we're starting to plan for the China trip that's coming up in a month. I'm looking forward to getting a few plans sorted out in advance, though we may do most of it on the fly as always. :) Shanghai is supposed to be an interesting city, and I'm sure I'll have plenty of photo ops there!

If you are into haunted trails, you should really go to www.morrowroad.com. It's a fantastic trail, voted the scariest trail in last year's Fear Finder! I wish I could be in Michigan to see it. :) I miss the Michigan falls for sure- it's very boring here, not beautiful most of the time in the fall. I always feel a bit homesick this time of the year.

Speaking of feeling tired, it's only 8:30pm here but I already feel exhausted! I might just go to bed even! :)

October 10, 2009

We've gotten mostly readjusted after our Germany trip- having Hope here has been really awesome, and despite my coming down with a nasty sore throat (courtesy of Germany) we had a great day out in London yesterday. I took G and Hope on a tour of the cooler parts of London, we saw the main shops for Tiffanys, DeBeers, Fortum and Mason, Gucci, Prada, and all sorts of other high fashion shops. It was fun to have a walk around. We decided to see Wicked (a musical based on a book about the witches in Oz) which was really good! We got back at about 2am last night due to some engineering works on the Tube trains, but fortunately I knew my way around and we went to another Tube station. Anyway we got back and took it easy today- we took Hope out to the haunted Ole Ferry Boat Inn in Holywell for lunch, and I'm currently home coughing and feeling not very good while the rest of the Windsor House residents are playing games with a bunch of internationals! Ah well, hopefully I'll be back to normal soon. :)

October 6, 2009

We made it safely back to the UK- turns out after my last post I didn't have consistent enough internet access to blog. but here we are safe and sound. :) We got in late last night, and I had my BNI meeting at 6:30am today so it's been a long day and time to go to bed. Germany was great, loved it there, loved using the German floating in my memory somewhere, hope to visit again soon. :)

September 27, 2009

Today we walked around Bamberg! I am SO tired, but really enjoyed the city and so many photo ops. Many of the buildings here are styled as if they were in Italy- plaster on the outside, windows with shutters, just very Italian. I wasn't expecting that. But they make for interesting photos. Most places here have English speaking staff, so it's very convenient. But sometimes they don't speak English, or there's no English menu, and I was surprised at how many random German vocab words started to come back to my mind when I was looking at menus to translate. My parents have this awesome grocery list in German that hung on our wall for ages, and I used to go over the vocab words in my mind all the time growing up. Of course it would have been easier if I'd had someone to practice German with when I moved back to Michigan, and then I'd still be speaking it. :)

I've got some photos to upload tonight, I hope I can get blogger to do it properly. I'm so fed up with blogger than as soon as I get the chance I'm switching to Wordpress.

Time for some dinner here- we're knackered so early to bed most likely, unless we(read I) decide to do some night photography with the tripod...

September 26, 2009

Believe it or not, here I am in Bamberg, Germany (that’s West Germany in case you were wondering) in our hotel, the Hotel National. It’s a lovely hotel in the city centre of Bamberg. It feels a little weird to be here actually, although when we got close to Bamberg the forests and countryside started to look very familiar, and I even recognized the exit that my school bus used to take on the way to Strullendorf where my elementary school was! 25 years is a long time…amazingly I feel just about every minute of it today. In a way it feels like someone else’s life, like a movie that I remember watching, but in some ways it is very very real. Surreal I guess sums it up.

You might be interested to know what it’s like driving from the UK to Germany. It’s incredibly easy actually- crossing the border into France was easier than driving across one of the bridges to Canada, and way easier than the Windsor Tunnel. J You pull up to the checkpoint station, and they didn’t even take our passports- we showed them, he said “Oh, US- ok.” And that was it. EU citizens don’t need to bother with passports, they can just show their National ID card if asked. Talk about easy. You drive the car up inside a massive train- it looks just like a normal train, except on steroids. Huge. You put the car in park, then off you go and in 30 minutes you’re pulling out into warm and sunny France! Wow. Driving across Europe is fantastic- except for the road signs changing languages you barely notice if you’ve gone from one country to another. Like driving from one state to another in the US. There are no checkpoints, no borders, no border crossings. 90% of the laws that govern each country are set by the EU now. You can see why the Euro would be such a helpful thing given the situation of basically no borders anymore. It’s hard to believe there was ever any war or unrest in Western Europe, it seems so lovely and pristine. There are highways everywhere, just like we have in the US (and in the UK) and even rest stops. Germany has very good rest stops actually, they all look very new. Everything about the roads in Germany looks new.

Last time I was on the Autobahn I was in the back seat- this time I was behind the wheel, and I had our little Honda Civic going 110mph. J On our way we passed Frankfurt Airport, which is quite close to the road- I didn’t grab the camera in time to take a snap of it, but I remember being picked up from the airport in 1985 and hitting the autobahn, and my mom thinking my dad had lost his mind. J My turn to lose my mind now I guess!

Tomorrow we are going to walk around Bamberg, and take lots of photos. I’m hoping to get a bit of video of the city center. Everything is generally closed here on Sunday still, so we should have a quiet walk around and time to enjoy the city. I’m hoping to get some night photography in since the sun sets so much earlier now. The sunset today was fantastic.

September 20, 2009

It's a quiet morning here on Windsor Road- G is in Poland for the weekend, Nelly's asleep in the sun, Z's doing child care at the early service, and I'm sitting in my living room surrounded by towels. :) Yes, towels- personalized towels, which look very nice and I'll be photographing them this week for a new client who was referred to me by my star client Claire at Breckland Orchard. Do a google search for Breckland Orchard and check out her website. :) We've been needing to do another photo shoot, and I managed to book it for this afternoon which is great as I wouldn't have been able to get it done for another 2 weeks at least- we need to get some shots while it's still summery and green outside. When I woke up this morning I realised that although it's more subtle here, the trees are just starting to get that tired late summer look. In Michigan it happens like the first week of September, the trees start to look, well, sleepy. And you know that fall is fast approaching, like a train. But here, it's very subtle- just a leaf or 2 on the birch tree outside our house have turned slightly yellow. Fall here takes a long time, it's more like a turtle than a train- slow and steady wins the race. :) Oh and by the way, they don't call it fall here- they always call it Autumn. But I keep on calling it fall because I like fall better. :)

Have I gotten everything from the to do list done? No. :) But I like to set a high bar and see if I can reach it- that's my style. :) And besides, it's only 11am here, and there are 8 working hours left in the day! After working really hard Friday I did go shopping yesterday for a few hours, and watched a movie for a little while in the evening while some other tasks were running in the background- it was nice to have some chill out time. There's nothing like a warm British wool blanket- they are the warmest blankets ever, and I don't know why we don't get some in Michigan because we could all use one on our beds in the winter!

This week I have quite a bit going on- the towel shoot to sort out, a portrait shoot for a person who does Martial Arts, my various tutoring gigs, and the 2 groups that are out at Anglesey this term. Then away for a week to Germany, and then spending a week in the UK with Hope, and a week after that and Helen and Robin come to visit for a few days! I love the fall because it's the best time to travel so we get to see loads of people coming to visit. :) Our Shanghai trip is finally booked for Nov 14-26. I've already fielded a few questions about Christmas- we will likely stay here for Christmas Day to help with the international events around that time (it's always short staffed because everyone goes off for Christmas) and I'm going to head back for a week or 2 but G might stay here because he has a Stateside meeting in January already because he's on the committee of a conference for his field, so once he knows when that is he can schedule a visit to MI as a part of it. The conference is really exciting- I'm so proud of him for being on the committee, it's quite an exciting thing to be asked to do, because they don't just ask anyone and you have to review the hundreds of papers that people submit. It will get him some excellent exposure, and shows him to be the expert in his field that we all already know that he is. :)

I have to leave in about an hour to go meet my client for this shoot- we're having lunch as well. She's turned out to be a real friend to me, and I hope I'll have the opportunity to share the good news with her. So pr for C and her family. Also, I know many of you have been pring for U, my coworker from Wales- please keep lifting him up as his situation remains difficult at home, but the Father has been answering prs and U is asking more questions about Gd.

I might be switching blog providers here soon- blogger is making it very difficult for me to post photos up (ridiculously difficult actually) which is why there aren't many photos up! Wordpress has a better photo system, so I might migrate over once I have the time. :)

September 16, 2009

I've been running around like a madwoman this week- this seems to be an unusually busy time business wise, with tons of people wanting headshots for their websites, at least one new company doing a major product launch, and a few clients wanting updated product photos while it still looks warm and green outside. I have the potential to put art work up in a new local framing shop, and the chance to photograph old carpentry equipment that's about to get scrapped. Aside from that I've been at a BNI function everyday this week, 5 days running, and am scrambling to keep up with the contacts from all of that and the new business coming from it! That plus spending some good quality time outside at Anglesey Abbey, with groups and doing various gardening things, has made for some full days. But I'm getting a streamlined process going, and things won't be so crazy post Germany trip. :)

I met with a business coach/marketing connection today- we're doing a trade swap, and he gave me some great help on the business name. He liked Digitalis as well. :) But thankfully that should all soon be sorted, in which case I will be moving ahead with a new logo, followed by a new website, and new business cards etc. My virtual PA has been scanning business cards for me, and will soon take over my invoicing as well- I'm sending pretty much anything that I can her way as I need to focus on sales and marketing (and photographing of course) which is what every small business owner should spend their time on primarily. I'm still hoping to be able to take on someone to do contract work for me in the next 8 months.

Tonight was our iHUB bbl study, the second one of the term, and we looked at the centurion in Matthew and how he had such a strong understanding of authority, which increased his faith. I'm excited about the new term, and getting to know new Chinese friends. G's Chinese studies are going well- I've had to work out a system so that I'm not in the same room (or ear shot) when he's talking because I have perfect pitch and the process of learning Chinese tones resembles a beginner violinist to my ears. :) It'll get better in a few months, but for now I just have to cope. :) I'm carrying on with Welsh to divert my mind from the unpleasant feelings of odd tones coming from a beginner. :)

It's 11:20pm here- no I'm not still working, yes I'm going straight to bed. :)

September 11, 2009

Happy anniversary to my brother and sister in law- 5 years today! Wow the time flies...it hardly seems like 8 years ago since the 9/11 attacks. Interestingly there was news coverage here of the memorial events going on in the US- the fact is America is under a microscope and I hear more US news here than anything else. There's been lots of coverage about Obama's healthcare reform attempts, about Sen Kennedy's death, about the 9/11 memorials, the list goes on. I feel like I'm not very far from home because I hear about it all the time.

Things are carrying on here- we're at that time of the year when the days get shorter the fastest, and it's more dramatic here because we're quite far north. The nights are getting cold, and it's about time to put up the winter panels of glass, the ones that go inside the house and keep the drafts out. It's not cold by MI standards, but feels cold here anyway. :)

I've been meeting with lots of business people this week- tomorrow is a big event for our BNI group, we've entered a Dragon Boat race that's to raise money for charity, and it should be good fun. I'll get great photos of it. :) It's a busy weekend for me because the dragon boat race is tomorrow, then Sunday after the service is the Harvest Lunch (which I've been asked to photo) and after that another chch photo shoot this time for the students, then I'm driving to Norwich (about 1.5 hrs away) for BNI training which is early Monday morning. Whew. Next weekend I'm taking myself off to Wales- I was intending to go to Scotland but I can't drive 10 hours by myself and it won't be fun alone, so I'm driving 4 hours to Wales on my own instead and making a weekend of it. It should be good fun- George is taking the backup camera and heading off to Poland for the weekend for a wedding for one of his coworkers, so it's a bit crazy. :)

Speaking of travel, we are driving to Germany in about 2 weeks- we'll be there about a week, and I'm looking forward to seeing my old village and getting photos of it! Maybe even video if I can figure out how. :) It's been 25 years since we moved to Germany, and I looked on Google earth and you know Baunach looks very very similar still. It's still a wee village, not much in the way of development. I'm keen to see it again.

Time for bed!