I made it back! Well, to california at least. Turns out blogspot is banned on public computers in china, so I wasn't able to get on here. But I just got back this morning after leaving this afternoon (does that make any sense?) so it's been a very, very long day. I'm trying my best to stay awake but I think it's a losing battle. I just need to make it another 2 1/2 hours and then it's straight to bed at 9pm. Tomorrow I catch my plane home to michigan and begin what I'm sure will be a long adjustment period. I will post day by day details starting in the next couple of days. Hope someone is checking this still!
matt
oh, and i caught a cold over there. i just love traveling while sick!
Friday, July 27, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Japan and Typhoon
Yo Yo Yo!
I made it japan and have survived the typoon. Well, actually, it`s still coming. The wind (upto 100mph) is coming tonight. I am now hunkered down in my hotel with a couple of beers. I`m ready!
Japan is awesome. Everything I expected (the crowds, the craziness, the food) has exceeded expectations. The only thing has been the weather. Rain, rain, and more rain. We finally got a break this afternoon and explored the area of Shibuya. All the girls are dressed like paris hilton. Of all things that america has exported, I`m sad dressing like a ho is the most public. oh well.
Gotta go as my internet time is running out. I`ll pick a short story from the trip so far to post tomorrow (hopefully). Hope you all are doing well!
peace
matt
I made it japan and have survived the typoon. Well, actually, it`s still coming. The wind (upto 100mph) is coming tonight. I am now hunkered down in my hotel with a couple of beers. I`m ready!
Japan is awesome. Everything I expected (the crowds, the craziness, the food) has exceeded expectations. The only thing has been the weather. Rain, rain, and more rain. We finally got a break this afternoon and explored the area of Shibuya. All the girls are dressed like paris hilton. Of all things that america has exported, I`m sad dressing like a ho is the most public. oh well.
Gotta go as my internet time is running out. I`ll pick a short story from the trip so far to post tomorrow (hopefully). Hope you all are doing well!
peace
matt
Monday, July 9, 2007
Birthday and departure
hello sportsfans! coming to you live from SF, the site of this year's MLB all-star game. too bad i'm not at the ballpark...
it was my birthday today. thanks to all of you who contacted me today. i really appreciate it! too bad i spent it cleaning out my deceased grandma's garage and painting a fence. you know it's a good day when your snot is black after it. the strangest thing today was how people in this city deal with garbage. you can't haul things to the dump (i think it's about 50 miles away.) what you do is take it to a transfer station in your county. what this amounts to is a giant warehouse that people dump all their trash in, right there on the floor. I have to say the air quality was not the best inside. talk about a dirty job.
enough labor. on to the vacation! i leave tomorrow for japan. as i am writing this i have a big smile on my face. the day has finally arrived! yeah!!!!! hopefully i will find enough computers over there to keep this blog up to date. otherwise, i'm keeping a paper log of my adventure and will copy it to the web upon first opportunity. so keep posted! (pics to follow after trip)
all right, i'm going to bed. up in 7 hours!
your truly,
cuddles
it was my birthday today. thanks to all of you who contacted me today. i really appreciate it! too bad i spent it cleaning out my deceased grandma's garage and painting a fence. you know it's a good day when your snot is black after it. the strangest thing today was how people in this city deal with garbage. you can't haul things to the dump (i think it's about 50 miles away.) what you do is take it to a transfer station in your county. what this amounts to is a giant warehouse that people dump all their trash in, right there on the floor. I have to say the air quality was not the best inside. talk about a dirty job.
enough labor. on to the vacation! i leave tomorrow for japan. as i am writing this i have a big smile on my face. the day has finally arrived! yeah!!!!! hopefully i will find enough computers over there to keep this blog up to date. otherwise, i'm keeping a paper log of my adventure and will copy it to the web upon first opportunity. so keep posted! (pics to follow after trip)
all right, i'm going to bed. up in 7 hours!
your truly,
cuddles
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Headed to California
Off to the golden state in the morning. On monday, me and my dad get to clean out my deceased grandmother's garage. Good times to be had by hall.
Spent the last couple of nights at my sister's fiance's, Justin, house. Took a lot of nice pictures out by the lake. Here are a couple:
I'll try to post before I leave on Tuesday. Later!
Spent the last couple of nights at my sister's fiance's, Justin, house. Took a lot of nice pictures out by the lake. Here are a couple:
I'll try to post before I leave on Tuesday. Later!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
The People's Court
I just read an interesting review of this new PBS show. It talks about China's struggle to adapt somewhat of a western style legal system. Should be good. Check it out if you can. I think it's on tonight at 9pm on PBS (check your local listings!)
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Burglary, boredom, and sushi
Hello all. I hope things are going well. Let's get right to the updates.
Just received a call from the Big Rapids police department. Apparently someone broke into my car and rifled through the glove compartment. There really wasn't anything of value in the car (other than a large ratchet set) for the hosers to take but it doesn't make me feel better about it. My landlord found a door to the car open and said it may have been like that for as long as 2 days. She also said that as soon as I left last week, someone put a for sale sign on it. The police called the number and reached a voice message for a dude called Roger. The general consensus is everything has been the work of bored teenagers. I just hope my stuff is there when I get back! (Oh, and the cops took some papers to lift fingerprints from. They must really be bored.)
Speaking of bored, I am very, very bored. After a week at home, I think I've spent 60% of my time trying to think of something to do, 30% sleeping, 5% reading, and 5% walking around. All of the people I knew here moved away. Even the people I spent college with up in Eugene are gone. Of course it doesn't matter because I don't have a car. That's back in Michigan being molested by teens. Anyways, I'm probably exaggerating how little I've done but I'm still mostly just sitting around. Yeah.
I did, however, make a brief dent in the boredom by going to dinner last night at the new sushi restaurant in town. Seeing how I will probably be eating some in Japan, I wanted to try it here first. It took me a little while to get used to the idea of eating raw fish (and I still haven't gotten over it 100%) but I will say that most of what I had was very tasty. The tuna rolls were particularly good. I just hope I don't go back to being squeamish.
I've been diligently studying what to do in Japan, seeing how I've focused mostly on the Chinese portion of the trip. I bought a few phrase and guidebooks and they are mostly helpful. The phrase books present a problem in that they all have different sentences, words, or pronunciations for the same translations. The best book I've used has been the Lonely Planet's guide to Tokyo. Super helpful.
All right, enough of the boring you. Take care.
Just received a call from the Big Rapids police department. Apparently someone broke into my car and rifled through the glove compartment. There really wasn't anything of value in the car (other than a large ratchet set) for the hosers to take but it doesn't make me feel better about it. My landlord found a door to the car open and said it may have been like that for as long as 2 days. She also said that as soon as I left last week, someone put a for sale sign on it. The police called the number and reached a voice message for a dude called Roger. The general consensus is everything has been the work of bored teenagers. I just hope my stuff is there when I get back! (Oh, and the cops took some papers to lift fingerprints from. They must really be bored.)
Speaking of bored, I am very, very bored. After a week at home, I think I've spent 60% of my time trying to think of something to do, 30% sleeping, 5% reading, and 5% walking around. All of the people I knew here moved away. Even the people I spent college with up in Eugene are gone. Of course it doesn't matter because I don't have a car. That's back in Michigan being molested by teens. Anyways, I'm probably exaggerating how little I've done but I'm still mostly just sitting around. Yeah.
I did, however, make a brief dent in the boredom by going to dinner last night at the new sushi restaurant in town. Seeing how I will probably be eating some in Japan, I wanted to try it here first. It took me a little while to get used to the idea of eating raw fish (and I still haven't gotten over it 100%) but I will say that most of what I had was very tasty. The tuna rolls were particularly good. I just hope I don't go back to being squeamish.
I've been diligently studying what to do in Japan, seeing how I've focused mostly on the Chinese portion of the trip. I bought a few phrase and guidebooks and they are mostly helpful. The phrase books present a problem in that they all have different sentences, words, or pronunciations for the same translations. The best book I've used has been the Lonely Planet's guide to Tokyo. Super helpful.
All right, enough of the boring you. Take care.
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