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Last weekend I went to Weihai with Alicia on her company trip.
Steven, Laura, Sulu, Alicia, and June
The two butterfly photos below are by Alicia. I taught her a little more about how to use her camera and she was really happy with these shots. I agree – pretty!
(photos by Alicia)Tags: alicia, butterflies, weihai
We took the cable car up to the wall, walked for quite a while along the wall, then took toboggans down the mountain. It took a few hours and we were all exhausted by the end. All except the two-year-old, who had her own personal Sherpa to carry her the whole way.
Our whole group (photo set up by Jon.)
Tags: brendan & johnna, jon, mike & casey, mutianyu, paul & suzy, The Great Wall
We stayed at The Schoolhouse in Mutianyu, which is a tiny town about an hour and a half outside of Beijing. It was a pretty cool place. The first day we just hung out, napped (after the late night and early morning on the train), watched the Rugby (Mike brought his projector and laptop, and streamed the game live in Slovakian to their make-shift AV room), ate, played games, and walked around the town.
Tags: friends, mutianyu, the schoolhouse
On Friday we took the train to Beijing as the final part of Brendan’s birthday surprises. He just thought it was a family trip – until there was a knock on his cabin door and Paul, Suzy, Mike, Casey, and Jon and I were there with a bottle of bubbles singing Happy Birthday! I think he would have fallen over if he hadn’t already been sitting down.
Mike and Jon got a hold of my camera and fisheye lens and took most of the photos in the gallery. The tiny confine of the train compartment was a perfect place to use it. More to come!
Tags: Beijing, brendan, friends, jon, mike & casey, paul & suzy, train
Brendan’s Tattoo from Emily Minor on Vimeo.
On Sunday, we met at Crystal Jade for lunch to celebrate Brendan’s 40th birthday.
Johnna told Brendan about the tattoo she’d had designed in a song… and then told him the appointment was in 30 minutes! He didn’t back out and a group of us hung out while he was getting it done. This is a time lapse video of Ting from Shanghai Tattoo.
This is what Brendan had to say about the day:
I turned 40 on the 25th of July. With help from a lot of friends, and particularly Paul and Suzy, Johnna had been planning my 40th for many months. I had absolutely no clue what she had planned for me!
We started the day with a Dimsum brunch at Crystal Jade in Xintiandi, and then had a wonderful banana birthday cake made and decorated by Suzy. At the end of brunch Johnna sang a song about me set to the tune of a Sonic Youth song! The last verse was about my present; a tattoo! I was pretty cool, calm and collected at that point because I had been talking about getting a tattoo for years. That’s when Johnna told me the tattooing was starting in 30 minutes and had already been designed! At that point all of the blood drained from my face.
Luckily, I loved the design and the whole story behind it. In Chinese, a set of boy and girl twins is called “龍鳳胎”, or in English; a dragon and a phoenix. This means the dragon/taniwha in the design represents Finn and the phoenix represents Jade. Neve’s Chinese name is 白星， or “White Star” in English, so she is represented by the star. The background is a traditional Maori Koru pattern.
At 2:30PM I sat down and Ting, the tattoo artist, got started. All our friends sat around in the tattoo parlour drinking wine and beer and periodically coming over to check out the progress. Jon provided some great advice on how to cope with the pain, and Mike provided cans of cold diet coke and a human fan whenever it looked like I was getting too hot!
It was all done two and a half hours later so we went downstairs and had a couple of quiet drinks. The guys all performed a haka to bless the tattoo, and then we moved on to dinner at 1221 – a Chinese restaurant that has been our favourite over many, many years. It was a great meal and a great way to end a huge day!
Tags: brendan, tattoo, time lapse, video
Nishant and Sandhya repatriated on July 1st, and Corinna and Andrew moved to Australia. Jon and I also left for the US on July 1st, so we had a farewell party before we all left for different continents. I set up my camera and laptop so everyone could take photo booth photos.
Tags: photo booth
Lyle has an iPad! It’s pretty cool….. He got it to use as a netbook, which seems to be a good use for it. Everyone is getting used to typing on it. It’s much more ‘hunt and peck’ than typing due to the touch screen.
This week was restaurant week. Right now we are enjoying brunch at Cristal on the rooftop. It’s beautiful out, amazing food and free-flow champagne for 298 rmb. I can highly recommend this place!
Tags: cristal, restaurant
Eating brunch with Nishant and Sandhya, two other Couchsurfers living in Shanghai. It was the only day warm enough to eat outside so far!
Sidsel (Danish), Janan (Turkish but lived in the UK the past 5 years), Jon, Boots, me, and Lara (German).
The girls are all teaching English in a “village” of 1 million people about 5 hours from Shanghai. They said they’re the only foreigners in the town and are practically celebrities there.
These girls were creative with the photo booth! I love the first one.
Tags: couch surfers, Janan, Lara, photo booth, Sidsel
Too cute! You can make your own stick people here.
Tags: stick family
We drove from Brisbane to the Gold Coast (Surfer’s Paradise.) Dan and I took a dip in the ocean and then he dipped Alex’s feet in. He didn’t really like it and pulled his feet up. We also held hands with Wendy’s mom and walked out a little so the waves could splash up to her knees.
We ate at the Kurrawa Surf Club. It was awesome to sit outside, have a beer and enjoy the view!
I was holding a sleepy Alex while Wendy ate (and the girls at the next table oohh and ahhed all over).
He was not so thrilled when I shifted positions on him. (Notice his little finger.)
Tags: Australia, beach, dan & wendy & alex
Lost Heaven is a well-known restaurant that serves food from the Yunnan province. We’d never been so I suggested we go there.
We had a bottle of wine and some drinks at the bar on the top floor. There was a nice roof top bar that would be amazing in the summer. (We all are wearing the new glasses we’d gotten that day.)
Hanna mentioned something about singing, and we decided to go to karaoke around 2 AM. Really, it is a totally Chinese cultural experience! Here they are rocking out to Queen.
Tags: bar, hanna & henrik, Lost Heaven
Hanna and Henrik stayed with us for a week in January, after three weeks in New Zealand for their honeymoon. All of these photos are from their travel blog. Here is their Shanghai entry.
Hanna’s post about the week:
They went on a shopping tour I lead, along with 3 people from Spain.
We’re really stylin’ at the glasses market.
Jon finally bought a remote control helicopter like he’s wanted for 2 years (which is now broken.)
Tags: hanna & henrik, Shopping, shopping tours
Last week, CAT (China Advanced Toastmasters) help Yingdan Liu put on a training. It’s a Toastmasters program called From Speaker to Trainer. You can see more photos here and read Yingdan’s comments about the training here – part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.
Tags: China Advanced Toastmasters, training, Yingdan Liu
Two British friends and two Australian friends decided to go out for Thanksgiving dinner, so they thought they’d better invite me. I mean, how can you celebrate an American holiday without an American present?
Thanksgiving dinner – a cold oyster, turkey, potatoes, broccoli, and “stuffing” which was a bit of gravy with chunks of things like nuts in it. Stuffing? Really?
“Pumpkin Pie” – everyone was disappointed in this and hardly ate any. It taste like pureed nothing. And it wasn’t even a PIE!!!
After the meal, we stuck around for quiz night. We didn’t do too bad – the bonus round question was “What is this a picture of and where is it?” It was Carhenge in Nebraska!! We got it right, but even doubling our points didn’t let us win.
I also showed the non-American’s how to draw a turkey using your hand and what a Turducken is.
Tags: Casey, Thanksgiving
Eva and Josh stayed with us one night, after flying in from Denmark, then left for their new home in Xia’men the next day. We tried to keep them awake until 10 to fight their jet lag and I fed them coffee in the morning. They’ve invited us to their home and we’ll definitely take them up on that in a few months.
Eva has a job leading Danes on tours of China and spent a few days in Shanghai with a group recently. She stayed an extra night with us after they left. We took the sidecar out to eat, then played some Wii Fit the next morning.
Tags: couch surfers, eva & josh, photo booth
Lucy stayed with us last month. She was the first couchsurfer to ride in the sidecar. Yes, we did leave the car park, but it was dark outside so not good for photos.
Boots is always a popular photography subject.
Lucy is a photographer too. Gotta watch out for that paparazzi!
Tags: Boots, couch surfers, lucy, sidecar motorcycle
A highlight of the trip was Brad and Sarah’s wedding! They held a big reception, buffet and dance in Brad’s parents’ huge machine shed. It was a lot of fun! (As you can see from the above photo) I was their photographer. All photos can be seen here.
(Just because I hardly have any photos of myself here!)
Jon was talking to someone who was shocked to hear he was from Nisland. (Local town, population about 150.) She said he was the last person at the reception that she thought would be from there. I guess it must be his dashing good looks, tailored cashmere coat and scarf that makes him look so urban? When she found out he lived in China, she said, “Oh, I’m sorry.”
Sorry for what? Getting out of the state to see the world a bit? I’m sorry for people that don’t realize that there is something outside of their own little bubble.
Tags: sarah & brad, wedding
The other day Steve told me his dad was worried about me and asked if I was sick, since it had been so long since I’ve updated my blog. Thanks for the concern, Steve’s dad! I did take some time off blogging, as I was visiting friends and family and starting a new (part-time) job.
Last month we went home for October holiday. We went to a friend’s wedding, saw family on both sides of the state, Jon went into work one day, I extended my visit and went to visit my cousin Ann in Arizona, then I got stuck in San Francisco an extra day due to a missed flight.
Just a couple days after I got back, I started my new job. I’ve blogged before about my friend Suzy’s shopping tours. She’s asked me to give tours on days she is unavailable or if she has two tours or a big group. In the past two weeks, I’ve done four tours. It’s really fun and interesting meeting all of the different people.
October 24th was the year anniversary of my brother’s death. It’s a really hard time of year for the whole family. Jared’s headstone was finished last month. It certainly doesn’t seem like it’s been a year already. It also doesn’t always seem real.
Kelly and Ellie are both from Florida and on an around the world trip. They work and save up money, then go traveling again! They are both vegetarian so one night we went to Vegetarian Lifestyle, a Chinese vegetarian restaurant where the food is made to look and taste just like meat. The “spareribs” were delicious and very real. So real that Kelly stopped chewing and said, “I think this is meat! It has a bone!” (it was really a radish) and so delicious we ordered seconds!
The food was so good that we’ll probably go back, even though we aren’t vegetarians. :-)
Tags: couch surfers, Food, kelly & ellie, vegetarian
Melissa and Matt are an American couple who’ve lived in Japan for the past 4 years, teaching English. They surfed our couch for a few days and we had a great time. They are traveling around the world on their way home, and have joined the Peace Corp and will most likely be stationed in China next year! We’re hoping to see them again. We’ve had such great experiences with our Couch Surfers.
This was my first time going to hot pot, which is pretty unbelievable since we’ve lived here for over two years. It was really good.
Tags: couch surfers, Food, hot pot, matt & melissa
Johnna brought her whole family to the BBQ. Almost-two-year-old N was quite the cutie. She can speak Chinese just as well as English. She always calls Suzy by her Chinese name – Sushi. Too cute.
Our friends Casey “Any Excuse to Party” and Mike “My Future Wife is a Crazy Cat Lady” threw a big BBQ a couple weekends ago. The occasion was Picasso (their foster cat) turned one. Picasso’s favorite toy is corks from wine bottles, so we needed to consume wine in large quantities as our gift to him. It was a lot of fun – and made me miss doing this back home! Our couchsurfers, Kelly and Ellie, came too and we had a great time hanging out.
Tags: BBQ, couch surfers, mike & casey
I have a computer program that controls my DSLR. It can do things like time lapses. It also has a photo booth function! I’ve been having each of our Couch Surfers do it, then I print out two copies on 4×6″ sticker paper. They get a copy, and they stick the other ones in our guest book and leave a message for us.
Marion and George, from the Netherlands. They gave us the guest book as a gift. We’ll definitely see them again the next time we make it to Europe. We have quite a few Dutch friends.
Melissa and Matt, Americans who’ve been teaching English in Japan for the past four years. They have joined the Peace Corp and most likely will be stationed in China next year! We’ll definitely go visit.
Kelly and Ellie, from Florida. Kelly fell off the stool…. we had a blast with them. We’re thinking of visiting Florida in the middle of a South Dakota winter sometime way in the future!
Tags: couch surfers, friends, george & marion, kelly & ellie, matt & melissa, photo booth, Photography
George and Marion (our Dutch surfers) on the top of our roof.
Boots likes to lay on our CSers stuff on the bed and wait to get petted. (photo by Marion)
Marion, Sandhya and I. Sandhya and her husband Nishant hosted the party and cooked delicious vegetarian Indian food. VERY delicious!!
A very diverse group – guys from San Francisco here for the eclipse, a guy that lived at the South Pole three times (my cousin Brian did that; worked at the research station there and shoveled a lot of snow), people from Isreal, Lithunania, Columbia, the Netherlands, Italy, India and a guy with Pakistani heritage living in London – all getting together in China. The world is really small now!
Tags: Boots, george & marion
As soon as the groom leaves the head table, all of the guys rush up to kiss the bride. The girls all kiss the groom if the bride leaves the table too. Not just once – every time either of them leaves.
There are a lot of songs sung by everyone, usually ending in a toast. We also saw lip-sync performances, many speeches by their parents and siblings, and various fun activities by friends.
During one traditional game, they had to answer questions about which partner had more of certain traits by holding up the shoe of that person.
After the dinner, toasts, games and general fun, we went to another building for coffee and cake (this was at 11 PM. Swedes love their coffee!)
The dance then started about midnight. I think it was 3:30 AM when we left. It was certainly a massive party!
Tags: friends, hanna & henrik, Sweden, travel
An excited bride! Hanna was one of the most expressive (and fun!) brides I’ve ever seen.
We all got on a boat to take us to the castle grounds.
Approaching the castle… it was actually the summer home.
A simple ceremony was performed outside. Because they had so many international guests, it was in both Swedish and English.
Tags: friends, hanna & henrik, Sweden, travel
Marion and George are Couch Surfers who stayed with us 4 days. They’re from the Netherlands, and George was studying business Chinese in Beijing.
The view is quite nice when the lights are still on. Behind us is the infamous view of Pudong across the Huangpu River.
37 Fuzhou Lu, near Sichuan Zhong Lu
福州路37号，近四川中路
Tags: bar, captain's bar, george & marion, views
Daft Punk came to play Shanghai!
Actually, #14 welding glass is an approved method of looking at the sun. Steve got the whole mask to be extra safe. :-)
Steve, Jon, Dan and Wendy watching as the eclipse starts.
Mid-eclipse
Tags: dan & wendy, Weather
Tags: friends, hanna & henrik, Photography, Sweden, travel
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