Testing…testing

And here we go, my first attempt to blog while in, as Lou Dobbs so eloquently put it for me, Communist Red China!

I’m currently sitting in the waiting area of Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, I just checked my email after 24 hours of traveling and I’ve got some downtime before my final flight to Taiyuan in a couple hours.  But it doesn’t end there, I am staying the night in Taiyuan with a friend because the buses and the train to Taigu won’t be running by the time I get there.  So it’ll be another hour or so tomorrow of either a standing room only train or a cramped commuter bus.

If there is one thing that I can say I have definitely improved during my stints in China it has been the ability to withstand what I would once have considered excruciatingly long days of travel; 18 hour flights, 20 hour bus rides, and 16 hour train rides still aren’t what I would consider ideal but they’ll do as long as the prices stay low.  Though I have heard horror stories, previous students in Kunming once took a 54 hour hard-seat train ride to Urumqi or Kashgar, or somewhere up in the “Western Frontier” of Xinjiang, I believe they mentioned blisters…

And my battery is about dead.  This Sunday is the Lantern Festival which commemorates the end of the Spring Festival (which begins on the Chinese Lunar Calendar new Year).  So hopefully I’ll grab some pictures and have a post up about that in the near future.

Brown/ Walsh Dinner Party Musings

So to anyone who knows my family this may not seem so strange, but I feel compelled to share it anyways. My brother and my dad love to scrutinize and theorize over big picture problems and issues and they enjoy boiling them down to the most entertaining solution. So this evening's dinner conversation meandered through the normal small talk, weather, schedules, lofty plans for the future, and so on. And as per the norm the conversation made its way round the political sphere and began to delve into the darker seedier aspects of international relations, a la the cyber attacks on google and other multinational companies, the suspicious and alleged murder of a hamas official in Qatar by Jason Bourne-esque, for lack of a proper nationalism, white people, and other similar recent happenings "that had to be going on." For a few moments the topic seemed to shift off into more practical areas, namely the recent Toyota recalls; hopes for a cheaper mid 90's Tacoma by summer and friends and acquaintances that had been afflicted with the Toyota problem. But in true Brown form everything came full circle.
The reasons behind the problems began being speculated on. Was it really a Toyota problem or was it more likely that all of this inefficient manufacturing and poor design stemmed from designers in the United States, American professionals hired by the Japanese and their sub-par execution. With a track record like Toyota's that had to be the issue. But in today's world, anything could be possible and with a push of encouragement from Uncle Joe Dad and Spence were only too happy to make the jump; what if GM, Chevrolet and Ford had somehow infiltrated Toyota's production line and performed some sinister and terribly effective corporate espionage? What if the business plan required by the Obama administration before their bailout had actually included this as a way of helping the President revive the American economy? Oh the possibilities, how much crazy secret spy work was actually going on?

Anyways, for anyone who is curious here is the video of the Qatar Hamas Irish Nationals that don't exist thing.


REAL SECRET AGENT ASSASSINS

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/dubai/7250217/Dubai-Hamas-assassination-Irish-citizens-not-involved-Ireland-says.html

Dubai Hamas assassination: Irish citizens not involved, Ireland says - Telegraph

The three Irish citizens who the Dubai authorities allege helped to assassinate a Hamas official do not exist, according to Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs.

One way

So this is a photo of the entrance to an exhibit at the Science and Technology Museum in Shanghai. It's of the digestive track. I'll see if I can get ahold of my friend Geralds videos of the ride. To give you an idea of what to expect you ride through all the organs of the human digestive system...alllll of them.

Testing

Just a test to see if the Microsoft program works…

Greetings

So I've gone ahead and created this with the hope that I'll be able to get around the firewall somehow once I get back to China, fingers crossed. The idea is to be able to put up photos and observations, and all that good stuff. Laughably I don't think I'll actually be able to view my own blog directly, I'll be posting photos with Picasa and writing entries with the Microsoft live journal program, so forgive any odd looking formating or seemingly random clumps of postings that may occur.
That being said I hope I can offer some degree of entertainment or interest over the next four months. Enjoy!