That was then, this is now?

When my wife and I first moved to Beijing, I made the mistake of renting an apartment too close to Tiananmen Square. One evening after dinner, we sat down and to watch the nightly news on CCTV 9. A story came on asking various "random" people, "what are the 10 things you LOVE about China?"

My wife then said, "I can tell you 10 things I hate about China." About 3 or 4 seconds later, the electricty to our apartment was completely cut off. Looking out the window, EVERY other apartment in the 200 unit complex still had power.

Sitting together in the dark, I looked at my wife and said,
"Welcome to China!"

Thankfully, our spying hosts turned the power back on after about five minutes. From that moment on, every time something strange or unusual happened in our lives, this blogger just repeated the phrase,
"Welcome to China!"

Click on image to open in a new window.

The above photograph shows the last paragraphs of a five page business report written by Thomas A. Worrall (Peter's Step-Great Grandfather) from the MacAndrews & Forbes Company office in Shanghai, China on October 23rd, 1926. This original report was mailed from Shanghai to the company's treasurer (Mr. F.J. Maginniss) in New York City.


"Gate of Heavenly Peace"
Original photograph taken by Thomas A. Worrall
(Peter's Step- Great Grandfather)
Circa October 1926
Tiananmen, Beijing (Peking), China

Chen Guangcheng case puts pressure on Chinese activists?
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Why is it that even when everybody speaks English...

everything I say still gets "Lost in Translation"?

Wall Street Journal
Cognitive research suggests that language profoundly influences the way people see the world
by Lera Boroditsky




"It turns out that if you change how people talk, that changes how they think. If people learn another language, they inadvertently also learn a new way of looking at the world."
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Last year, this blogger's  wife finally retired her "I'm with STUPID" T-Shirt.

The Ripple Effect of the Internet

...wanderlust...

"The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination." 
~ Don Williams, Jr.

Swords of Qādisīyah، at Sunset, Baghdad, Iraq (April 2005).
Photo by Peter Rimar

7 Bizarre Monuments of Saddam’s Iraq
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Lessons Learned from 9-11?

Traveling strangers, locked together inside a pressurized cabin at 33,000ft, will collectively take action to stop any and all acts of lunacy or terrorism on an airplane. The days of folks passively sitting back and doing nothing are officially over. Read More...

...perspective...

"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends."
~ Maya Angelou

Photos by Peter Rimar.

Our Digital Age?

It's hard to imagine a world without the internet, Facebook, Twitter, international air travel, Ford Trucks, talk radio, 24/7 television news channels, digital cameras, voice activated software, cell phones and GPS...

The Library of Congress recently published a digital collection of images from one of the early pioneers of photography. Between 1905 and 1915, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii traveled the far reaches of the Russian Empire on behalf of Tsar Nicholas II. His task was to visually document a country undergoing a rapid transformation. Read More...

After the Bolshevik Revolution, the photographer left Russia and eventually settled in Paris. In 1948, the Library of Congress purchased his work from his heirs. Because of the unique techniques he developed and used to photograph and then process glass plate negatives (digichromatography), up until now, these images could only be viewed within the confines of the Library itself. With advances in digital photography, it's now possible to take a glimpse of a world soon to be swept away by war, revolution and industrialization. View Collection Here...

Rights and Restrictions Information

Question of the Day?

When was the last time the Faux News' talking head crew reported on the growing 'Cash For Access' scandal in the U.K.? Can you say 'Fair and Balanced'? Read More...

News of the World Phone Hacking Scandal Timeline: Read More...

Update: Gingrich charges Fox News with pro-Romney bias?
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...perspective...

Blogger's view from a sleeper car window on a Chinese Train

between Beijing and Shenzhen (June 2008).

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"
~ John Wooden

Big Ben at Sunset, London, England (March 2012).

"Travel teaches toleration." ~ Benjamin Disraeli

"Taking time to sit back and watch and think about what you've seen is important. Traveling did a great deal to me. I found that when I travel and just sit in the corner and watch, a million ideas come to me."
~ Lionel Richie

Ministry of Education, Baghdad, Iraq (April 2005).

"Never go on trips with anyone you do not love."
~ Ernest Hemingway

Homeless in China?

It happened.

For six hours, my wife and I were homeless in China .

In September 2008, I accepted a teaching positive at a university in the city of Changsha. So, after giving our landlord the keys to our apartment in Shenzhen, we boarded a train and headed northwest to the capital of Hunan Province.

The moment we arrived, I knew we were in deep, deep, deep trouble...




First, our sponsor told us their may be a slight problem getting our work visa paperwork processed (i.e. green card). However, I could teach until they figured out what to do (i.e. against Chinese Law).

I said,
"O.K"
"No problem."
"Tomorrow's a new day."
"Let's go see the campus and the apartment."

To make a long story short, when our sponsor showed us the apartment, my wife nearly died. It was bad. Let's put it this way, compared to this University apartment, my tents in Mogadishu and Baghdad were the Hilton.

Basically, this alcoholic BRIT had lived in this apartment for over a year and had never cleaned it. Heck, according to my sponsor, he barely made it to class. Anyhow, after dragging my wife around China, there wasn't a prayers chance in hell we'd live in that apartment.

So, we said our goodbyes and walked away from the school...

At that moment, as we were trying to wave down a taxi, we were indeed homeless.

Plan B

Before leaving Shenzhen, I had received an offer from another school in another city. After more than a dozen phone calls, we decided to board another train and head north.

Anybody that knows anything about traveling in China, it's nearly impossible to get train tickets on the same day you want to travel.

Fast Forward
So, after standing in line for 3 hours with five thousand other people wanting to leave Changsha, I finally made it to the ticket window:

"Mayo." (the Chinese word for NO)
 Blah. Blah. Blah.
 "Mayo."
 OMFG!
 "Mayo!"

At that moment, ALL the train tickets out of Changsha were sold out for the next ten days. Getting back on the phone with a different head hunter in Shanghai, she says to me, "there's a high school in Changsha that has an opening."

"You're telling me there's a school in this city? The city I'm standing in right now? Making twice the money for half the hours?" "In Changsha?"
"This city?"

"Yes."
 "Have the school pick us up right now!"
I know it sounds crazy, but by allowing ourselves to become homeless, I ended up teaching at one of the top ten high schools in China.

By allowing ourselves to become homeless,
we received our Green Cards and a nice apartment.
And yes, making twice the money working half the hours.

True Story.

...perspective...

Short video of Electric Powered Double-Decker Buses, Hong Kong, S.A.R. (July 2009).
Photo of student produced motivational blackboard in Peter's classroom (February 2009).

"Every religious group, while perhaps a majority somewhere, is also inevitably a minority somewhere else. Thus, religious organizations should and do show tolerance toward members of other religious denominations."
~ Russell M. Nelson

Buddhist Temple, Seoul, R.O.K. (July 2009)

Blogger's Breakfast in a Dining Car?

Somewhere between Beijing and Shenzhen, PRC (June 2008)

Dancing with Turks?