The Universal Migrator

It’s official … I will be returning to China this summer!!!

I’ll be leaving either June 16th or 17th, and will be accompanied by he who is called Ross. First we’re going to hit up Beijing for several days, then head up to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, for about 12 days. After that we’ll head back into China and make for Xi’an, where I was volunteering summer, 2005. We’ll stay in Xi’an for about 15 days, for where my feelers bare out to see if I can’t land me an English teaching job. After Xi’an we’re gonna make the journey to Lhasa, in Tibet, and stay there for about a week or so.

If I don’t get a job in Xi’an, at this point we’ll both head back to Beijing from Lhasa and fly out on August 5th or 6th. If I do get a job, though, I’ll head back to Xi’an after Lhasa and see what happens.

Don’t worry, I’ll be posting some pictures and anecdotes of our shenanigans.

Filed by Chris 大斌 at 4:13 pm under General
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I’ve joined a Chinese language meetup group on the site meetup.com, and my first meetup with the group took place at the 2006 Moon Festival at Colima Hong Kong Plaza in Rowland Heights. The festival itself seemed a bit too commercial for my tastes, but all in all it was a fun experience. It was really great to connect up and be a part of some of the Chinese culture here in Southern California. I met a lot of great people in the group and look forward to meeting up with them more in the future.

The best part of the day was at the restaurant in the plaza. I don’t remember the name of the place, but it had some of the most authentic Chinese food I’ve ever eaten in the States. It actually tasted like the food in China! You can see some pictures from the Moon Festival by clicking the images below.

Filed by Chris 大斌 at 3:33 pm under General, Photography
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Although this is not my poem, I wanted to share this with the few people who actually read this little blog of mine. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did . . .

In the Quiet Land, no one can tell if there’s
someone who’s listening for secrets they can sell.

The informers are paid in the blood of the land and
no one dares speak what the tyrants won’t stand.

In the quiet land of Burma,
no one laughs and no one thinks out loud.

In the quiet land of Burma,
you can hear it in the silence of the crowd.

In the Quiet Land, no one can say when
the soldiers are coming to carry them away.

The Chinese want a road; the French want the oil;
the Thais take the timber; and SLORC takes the spoils . . .

In the Quiet Land . . . In the Quiet Land, no one can hear
what is silenced by murder and covered up with fear.

But, despite what is forced, freedom’s a sound
that liars can’t fake and no shouting can drown.

Filed by Chris 大斌 at 9:57 am under Adventures In Poetry, General, Reflections
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“Spring brings cherry blossoms to comfort you. The summer stars. The harvest moon in fall, and the powdered snow in winter. All of these things, and the promise of them, is what makes sake tastes so good.”

What more can one say . . . it rings true to these ears—and mouth!

Filed by Chris 大斌 at 2:59 pm under General, Reflections
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In February, Cross-Cultural Solutions held their 2006 Global Summit at their headquarters in New Rochelle, New York. For CCS staff the summit lasted several days and included many different meetings and discussions. For alumni, like me, it was only one afternoon and consisted of catching up with friends made in China, meeting new friends, and just generally have a good time. While in New York I stayed with a friend, named Chaim, at his apartment in Brooklyn. I decided to make the most of the trip across the country and stayed for a whole week, enabling myself to see some great sites in New York, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History, which both boast some of the most spectacular exhibits in the country.

Here’s a photo of myself and Chaim with the owner of a little sushi restaurant on 1st and St. Mark’s.

This is at the CCS headquarters in New Rochelle. From right to left is Jerome (the CCS Director in Xi’an, China … who seems to be staring off somewhere else!), Zhang Hao (a China volunteer who was part of the first group while I was in Xi’an), and Christine (who was part of the very first volunteer group in Xi’an a few years ago).

This is Renee, who was my contact at CCS and who helped me set everything up so that I could get to China. She no longer works for CCS, but I was happy to see that she was at the summit so that I could finally meet her and thank her in person.

Filed by Chris 大斌 at 2:02 pm under General, World Wanderings
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