North Korea Video

This was a video I made last October when I visited Dandong, a Chinese city on the border of North Korea, during the National Holiday travel period. I included some footage from Beijing–the shots of Tiananmen Square, the reverse cars in Sanlitun, the beginning shot of the female student trying to pass the guards to go sit with her friends. I included these shots because they were relevant with both the lyrics and message I…

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Conversations with Chinese, Part Four

(Haven’t read “Conversations with Chinese Part One?” Start at the beginning.) “All done,” he said. It was over. We talked about what I was doing in China and Andrea’s relation to me. “She is quite an amazing person,” he said. I agreed. He asked me if I could speak Chinese and I said yes. We then had a conversation in Chinese without me making a mistake (quite a feat). I was sent home with Ibuprofen…

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Conversations with Chinese, Part Three

Andrea told me she was studying at Loyola Chicago this summer and would make a short trip to DC. I told her I would be in DC in July and we agreed that we should meet up. I was so surprised by our conversation. I had written Andrea off long ago for reasons now unknown and not worth remembering. Yet this entire time she had kept a stellar opinion of me, but I had never…

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Conversations with Chinese, Part Two

(Haven’t read the “Conversations with Chinese Part One”? Click here) We entered the United Family Hospital, which is a fantastic hospital in Beijing where the doctors speak English (Western medicine with Western prices). Andrea tried to push me in a wheelchair but couldn’t tackle the hill, so her fiancée took the reigns and ran me up to the entrance. We wheeled down the hall to the emergency room and everyone stared, probably because they had…

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Conversations with Chinese

(Originally I was just going to write about my stupid knee injury. But as I wrote it, it turned into a reflection on my stay in China so far (seven months). I had so much to say, so I broke this post into four separate ones. Enjoy!) At first this post was going to be an all sad and “happiness is fleeting” type of thing. I woke up this morning and thought, “Everything is going…

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The Broken Bridge

Getting a cab back was tricky—we had to downgrade to a three-wheeler. It was probably the jankiest car I will ever travel in. It only had three wheels and the motor groaned when it tried traveling faster than 30 miles per hour. When you are in China, you usually want to avoid these “unofficial” taxis like the plague, but since I was with my Chinese friends I figured I was in safe hands. We arrived…

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Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea

After visiting the Great Wall in Dandong, we took the bus back to town. The bus didn’t have any seats left, so we sat in the bus-equivalent of a trunk, behind the last row of seats. I’m not quite sure if that’s legal, or safe, but I chalk it up to a “when in Rome” sort of situation. Apparently the ticket taker asked my friends if I was American. Most of the people on the…

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This is China

A man walks up to you and your friends, says “Hello,” looks away from you, but still stands right next to you. You quickly look around for his friend’s camera taking an opportunistic shot, but you can’t find it. The guy is standing next to you just for the hell of it.  “This is weird,” your friend says. “No,” you reply. “This is China.” So many moments occur on a daily basis here that are…

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Day Nine Part Three: There is no right of way

(There are four blog posts to Day Nine…stay pumped) After my presentation, we clambered onto the bus and rolled out from Xia’he to Lanzhou. Of course we made a few pit stops on the way. We stopped for lunch at Linxia’s Languan Square. TBC likes to plop us in random towns and tell us “Okay, now go find food.” It makes for a interesting and real experience, no doubt. My friends and I went walking around and found…

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Day Eight: The Sick Road

My blog has been quiet for a while, as I waited to come back to Beijing for Internet, and get settled in. Many more blog posts on the Silk Road to come. Stay tuned and enjoy! Day Eight: Today has been rough, to say the least. This morning I woke up to discover that the high altitude did not agree with me, and my body retorted with painful cramps lasting a large portion of the…

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