因为在神没有一件事是不可能的

Yesterday ZouNan and I went out to a park. It was raining most of the time, but it was still fun.

While we were eating we remembered there was a heavy metal show in a small venue at 8:00. We figured we would just bum around downtown until it started. I probably wouldn't have brought my camera to the show if I had gone home first. I'm really glad I brought it though. Despite getting slammed into a wall and stepped on several times I still got some decent shots.

Here's a preview of what you will find on my Flickr page. Give it a look.

I went to Zao Zhuang over my last holiday. Zou Nan has a very good friend that lives there so we stayed with her friend. We spend a couple days hanging out with her friend Hui Hui and her brother. It was good fun. We also climbed Tai Shan. I still don't understand why Chinese put stairs on every mountain. It's not fun and it's much harder. Over 7200 stairs up and then back down again. We climbed at night so we could watch a sunrise that didn't happen because of clouds. But at least we did it, no matter how much our legs punished us for it.

Here are some pictures:

In Zao Zhuang


A big park we went to outside of Zao Zhuang.








Zou Nan in the park.


We took a boat in the park, got some nice shots because of it.


A water fountain in the same park.








The four of us.


Up on Tai Shan.




Yes, people actually live on the top and carry their supplies up.






In other news, Today is the 20th anniversary of what didn't happen in tian an men square in 1989. As such many websites are blocked. I had to jump through hoops to update this blog.

I also woke up to sirens all over (I live by two universities). I expect it was because of some pretests and whatnot. I was late to work so I took a taxi and saw a big group of students marching, holding flags with something I couldn't read written on them, and saying things in unison. I asked the driver what they were doing and he just said they were crazy.

Sigh. China, China, China...

I'm either stupid, crazy, or a strange combination of the two.

Say "hello" to Sam.

ZouNan and I were just walking around downtown. It was a beautiful Saturday. The air was a little cool, but the sky was so clear that the sun warmed everything up quite nicely. I was almost hot.

We ended up looking around a little animal market downtown. I thought it might be nice to get a cat. Cats are low maintenance; I thought it would be perfect for me.

But then I saw Sam. He was in a cage with four other similar looking dogs. I asked what kind of dogs they were, the lade said 狼狗 (langgou literally "wolf dog" but Google Translate says, "shepherd"). Whatever that is.

I was looking at him and he was so calm, so relaxed, not at all behaving like a puppy. His sister was a puppy, jumping, running, going crazy. We flipped a coin. Heads was for Sam, Tails was for his sister. It landed on heads and I was the proud new parent of a 3 month old 狼狗.

He's so smart, so lovely, and adores me so much. That when night came it was a nightmare. I didn't know puppies could cry this Sam did on Saturday night. If China had noise laws - or if they were enforced - my neighbors could have called the cops. I finally caved and let him in my room. At that point he quieted down to a law whimper. I slept about half the night.

I met ZouNan for lunch on Sunday. When we were coming back to my house we could hear Sam from roughly 30 meters away. I am not exaggerating. This dog has a voice that carries like no other sound I've ever heard. When I was talking to ZouNan about this on Sunday she decided I had two choices. Give him back, or get another dog to keep him company.

Say "hello" to 美女 (meinu = beautiful girl). I sent ZouNan to pick out a dog. I told her to get whatever she liked. She came back with this tiny little creature.
It is so funny to see them play together. Sam nibbles on 美女, then she gets pissed off and chases him back a few feet at which point he remembers that he is 5 times her size and knocks her across the room with one swift blow. After playing they get tired and fall asleep. 美女 prefers to sleep on top of something. Either my feet or Sam if he's available.
And if you're wondering, Sam only cried a little bit last night. He would moan some, then 美女 would shut him up.

As promised, a short blog about my short trip to Beijing. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera for the best stuff...

It was a spur of the moment decision. Then after 14 hours on a train I was in Beijing.

I did the touristy stuff:

Great wall.

Old (trying to look it anyway) town outside of Beijing. It was lame so I only have close up pictures.

The cat was more interesting than the stuff at this place.

Ming tombs.

Then there is this guy... Like it or not, strange feeling when I watched them raise the Chinese flag at sunrise in Tienanmen Square. I actually saw a couple people crying...

It was the things that I forgot to bring my camera to that were the best. I went to an area near an art university that had loads of small shops, coffee shops, music shops, and live houses. It was so fun. I really with there was a music scene in Yantai. I even ended up playing a few songs at one of the coffee shops. Made friends with a few guys there and then made music with them. It was so fun. Stinking camera stayed home...

That was my time in Beijing. Now I can say I've been there.

Here are some pictures from church on Sunday. It's a totally new building. The lighting made for some neat pictures.

I came across a pretty amazing photo of President Obama's inauguration. It's on a website called Gigapan. It's made up of 220 photos taken and stitched together by David Bergman to make an amazing 1474 megapixel panoramic view of the whole situation. You're able to zoom in and check things out close up. There are some pretty amazing situations in there that people have taken snapshots of. You should definitely check it out.

It reminds me of the old Where's Waldo books.

I did it.

I bought a cajon.


Unfortunately this means I'm going to have to leave my cheap guitar in Okinawa.

I doubt I can carry on my cameras, a guitar, and a cajon.

I don't care about the guitar, but this makes me a little sad because of the art on my guitar.

That said, I bought this guitar for about $60 in order to have a guitar I can drop and not care about. You can't see from the picture, but it had quite a few dents and scratches.

So whoever I give it to must do one thing: not care if they hit, drop, scratch, or damage it in any way. I'm going to make sure they do this by forcing them to drag it on the street for a few seconds before I let them have it. It's going to be so much fun.

Well, one week down three to go.

I'll be back home soon. I do miss China.

Here are some pictures of what I've been up to. Just bumming around with friends.

I'm going to buy some instruments I cant get in China before I go back. A cajon for sure.