Photos

I just realized that I can make all of my travelling photos viewable. Cut and paste the following addresses (I'll make them links soon) to see the photo albums:

Europe: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3777&l=a4fec&id=661300258
China:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3778&l=0dd19&id=661300258
South America: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3782&l=0d1a4&id=661300258

I will add more about my latest adventures soon!

Argentina (or: Why My Efforts to Become a Vegetarian Failed)

By the first moment Colleen and I arrived in Buenos Aires, I had already gotten the music from "Evita" stuck in my head and indeed the first thing I said to the taxi driver was to go to the Casa Rosada. As it turned out, the Plaza de Mayo where the building is located was close to our hostel and we returned there several times. I also ended up buying a book called "Santa Evita" about the reality and the myth about Eva Peron, which went well with my book about that OTHER famous figure in the musical, "The Motorcycle Diaries" by Che Guevara.

We stayed at a place called Milhouse Hostel, which had a fantastic word-of-mouth reputation despite not being in Lonely Planet that it certainly lived up to. Colleen definitely had some reluctance at staying in a hostel, but ended up partying more than I did. The people running the hostel were really suave, flamboyant Latin American types who were a lot of fun and organized walking tours and pub events. On the first day, we went on a walking tour through the upscale and historical Recoleta neighbourhood, which was followed by a walk through the Recoleta cemetery where of course Eva Peron is buried.

We followed that by looking at the Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American art, which was interesting and had stuff by all of the great Latin American masters including Frida Kahlo, etc. We had flown in overnight so decided not to go out that night, and the next day we went on another walking tour through the San Telmo neighbourhood.

This was where we saw a lot of the best architecture of Buenos Aires, and it wasn't for nothing that it reminded me of Paris, because that was what it was exactly modeled after. On the walls we saw lots of tango paraphernalia as Buenos Aires is indeed the world capital of tango culture and I became very entranced with the sexy, sultry music that played everywhere we walked. For lunch that day, we went to a restaurant that served the famous Argentine steak for which I sacrificed my long self-imposed red-meat fast. Let me tell you: it was worth it. It was the juiciest, most succulent steak I have ever tasted, and this is from someone who doesn't even especially like steak. North American steaks seem to be a lot tougher.

The tour ended at the Plaza de Mayo where we saw a protest of the mothers of the disappeared, who have been protesting for many years about the disappearance of people during the recent time in which Argentina was run fascist-style by the military. After China, it was kind of refreshing to see a protest, although there were still many police on hand to make sure that nothing too much happened. At the plaza I bought some Yerba Mate, which I have been completely hooked on for several years, and later that night I learned how to drink it Argentine-style. From here we went to the Museo de la Casa Rosada to learn more about Argentine political history (many, many presidents who ran for very short periods of time, and a large painting of the Perons) and then to an old, classic-style bar (of which there are many) with a guy from our hostel and we got to see a live tango show! Obviously I was very excited to watch some tango and the dances were interspersed with live versions of tango classics (including "Volver," which was central to Pedro Almodovar's latest movie). After this we returned to the hostel, rested for a bit, and were ready to leave at 2am to go to a club. I must say, it was the craziest club I have ever been to. There was a live show cross-dressers, dancers, and as much sexual innuendo as I've ever seen. We pushed our way to the front of the stage, where we were able to do shots of champagne from the dancers. At around 6am, innuendo gave way to a female stripper, all the women vanished and were replaced with scores of men taking pictures with their cell phones, and it was time to go back to the hostel.

The next day we were obviously a little bit tired and decided to take a bit easy, sleeping in and going down the street where for USD $1 the vendors destroyed about 12 oranges to produce a fresh cup of orange juice for you. We went to La Boca, which is the working class district that has buildings painted many different colours. We then went to the Museo de Evita to appease my Evita fixation that began when we entered the country, and the Museo des Belles Artes where we saw lots of classic paintings in a world-class collection.

From here, we took an overnight bus to Cordoba. This would have seemed a bit easy, except that our bus from Cordoba either did not come or did not have anything indicating that it was going to Cordoba, and found a way to leave without us. When we tried to board another bus with the same company, the driver took our tickets to let us on, only to change his mind and tell me to go to the office to change our tickets. I asked him to give me the full ticket back, instead of just the stub, but he said it wouldn't be a problem. It was, however, and even though I went running back to get the full tickets, I was too late. We then went back to the office where we argued with the company saleswoman for about half an hour. It was here that I got to use the full extent of my Spanish, such as "el conducteur VA con YO TICKET!" There were a couple of nice Argentine ladies who argued on our behalf, and I picked up such words as "turistas... no bueno impresion de Argentina." We ended up paying full price from another company. Fortunately, we still arrived at Cordoba on time, and took a day trip to Alta Gracia to see Che Guevara's childhood home. It was interesting to visit this place having been to Cuba, and on the way there a local woman told me that Fidel Castro had recently visited the house before he got sick; it was even because of his extensive travelling in South America that he started to fall ill.
From here we went around Cordoba, doing some shopping and seeing the university, which is the oldest in Argentina, before heading back to BA for another day of sightseeing and shopping, and then headed back home via George Bush International Airport (no joke) in Houston.

Back from South America...

I actually came back several months ago, but I haven't had a chance (or haven't gotten around to) updating the blog. So here goes:
By the time my sister Colleen and I arrived in the Lima airport, I was a little exhausted. Still, I was not exhausted enough to go with the cheaper option for the taxi to the hotel. I soon learned that I made a mistake when the driver crossed himself and proceeded to take us through a maze of dangerous-looking sidestreets... and keep in mind that this was at 1am! There were a lot of scary-looking locals. Finally, we arrived at the hotel with the thought that we might just not leave it for the three days that we were there. Then, when we signed in, I learned something about Peruvian customs: you need to keep a tiny slip of paper they give you upon entering the country. Of course I had managed not to do this, and was therefore alarmed at the possibility of being turned back onto those dangerous streets. Fortunately, we were allowed to stay and the next morning we learned that it wasn't a big deal, it just meant that I would have to pay USD $25 upon leaving. I think it's just a conspiracy to rip off foreigners.
Once we managed to sleep off the trip and muster up the courage to leave the hotel, we learned that Lima is much safer-looking during the day than at night, although the hotel clerk still wrote down the license plate numbers of the taxi cabs he stopped for us. In Peru, anyone can be a taxi driver. It's just a matter of putting a cardboard sign on the roof of your car. We went to an old colonial church, one of the oldest in Peru and one of the most spectacular as well, with a dust-filled library and scary catacombs.

The next day we headed for Pachacamac, which is an archaeological site located close to Lima. After trying with broken Spanish (I've had exactly one lesson) to find out how to take the bus there, we headed back to the hotel and got a cab. The site was interesting with the Temple of the Sun being a highlight, as well as there being some other Incan ruins. We managed to take the bus back to Lima, and were dropped off not far from the museum of erotic art. It was news to us that the Incans were so famous for their erotic art, but indeed they are, and it made for some interesting photo-ops and souvenirs.
The next day we went to the national museum of Peru, which holds the largest collection of Incan antiques. It was interesting, but the highlight was really a photo exhibition of the recent civil war from which the country is still recovering. What made it even better was that we met some locals around our age who spoke good English and were able to tell us quite a bit about it, and then invited us out to a restaurant to try the local ceviche, a dish of raw whitefish, onions and lemon juice that was really good, and then back to one of their houses.

Unfortunately, it was time to leave for Cusco, which is half modern city and half ancient colonial style city. You can take a wild guess which part is meant for tourists and which we stayed in. There were a lot of beautiful cobblestone streets that winded around and lots of big, open plazas. We enjoyed it while frantically trying to book a trip to Machu Picchu the next day, which was a little difficult because it just happened to be peak tourist season AND a national holiday in Peru. We still managed fortunately to book a trip there, where we went the next day, and all I can say about it is that words cannot do it very good justice. Maybe pictures can be a bit better. I don't know. I was interested to see it because parts of the area were used in Werner Herzog's nutty, mystical, brilliant movie "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" and I could understand why he was drawn to such an intriguing place. There's something about a small city on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere that gives it a sort of transcendent quality.

After this, we quickly jetted to Puno, located at the mouth of Lake Titicaca, which is close to the Bolivian border. The titi is for Peru, the caca for Bolivia according to the tour guide. We took a cheap night bus there and got the most comfortable seats that lean back for the trip. Unfortunately, we were not aware that the bus would not have heating, and we nearly froze to death in the high altitude late at night.

Lake Titicaca, once we got there, was definitely one of the highlights, as it was fascinating to see an indigenous culture that has been largely preserved, even though it raises the question of how much tourism impacts it and to what extent the influence is positive. I tried to rationalize it by believing that at least the tour group was locally owned and treated the locals well according to Lonely Planet, but I was still left with some questions. We saw the locals who worked on islands made entirely of reeds (historically, but mostly for the benefit of tourists today) and then went to a bigger island where there was a festival, put on mostly for tourists but which was interesting nonetheless. The lake offered some stunning views and once we returned to Puno we got to observe some locals who dressed traditionally but normally, not for the sake of tourists. This got me interested although there was still an extent to which we were kept at arm's length.


From there we moved on to Argentina... more on that later.

Starring Brian O'Neill As Himself

This is a film I made in fourth year of university (three years ago).

NOTE

As I was unable to access my blog in China due to government censorship of the internet, it is just now that I am able to publish it. I also included a story about my time in Paris.

Last Post in China--July 20, 2006

Since my last post (which was awhile ago, I know) I decided to stay in Shanghai as my life there was more comfortable than ever and that I would rather invest my resources into exploring other countries than to extend my stay in China. It worked out quite well as the second half of my year was by far the best. I ended up getting several part-time jobs instead of one boring full-time jobs and had various interesting gigs. One of these was teaching children once a week, which taught me that I absolutely love children... in small doses. In every one of my classes I found kids that reminded me of myself and I was constantly finding myself in situations that my teachers no doubt found themselves in, and it was definitely empowering to gain a sort of objectivity of my own childhood in this way.
Another part-time gig I had was teaching Grade 8 science, which is something that could only happen in China as science was my worst subject in high school by far, and yet here I was teaching photosynthesis and the chemical properties of the water cycle and burning. I wanted to do the job not because it paid well or was with a reliable and organized company (there was a ton of preparation required, and the company was the worst organized I'd ever seen) but I just wanted to be able to say that I'd done something completely removed from my experience.

After spending Chinese New Year's Eve with the family of one of my old student's, where I discovered the joy of lighting fireworks, I went on a trip to the Anhui province to the town where the famous mountain Huangshan is located and also saw some of the villages that surround it. The mountain is famous for being covered in fog (I believe it's the mountain that Zhang Ziyi disappears into at the end of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and I could definitely see how someone could get lost in it) and the day I went was no exception. I really enjoyed the surrounding villages (at least when I wasn't being hassled to buy things) as it was the closest I was ever going to get to "rural China" where people live lives that aren't too far removed from how they lived a hundred years ago, with live chickens, pigs and cows everywhere.

I enjoyed that trip so much that I decided to take up another student's offer to visit her and her family in the so-called small town of Wuxi one weekend. However, upon arriving, I noticed that Wuxi was significantly bigger than I expected: when I asked what the population was, she said that it was around 5 million! (It's therefore one of the top 50 biggest cities in China.) Her family there didn't seem too far removed from modern society and even asked me if I watched "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives." However, it was at least a novelty at the restaurant we were at to have a foreigner, so the owner of the place came to personally greet me, informing me that with the exception of Japanese, all foreigners were welcome at his restaurant.

After I finished teaching in June, I went to Beijing for a few days, knowing that no trip to China would be complete without it. I had kind of had some reservations about going there at all, thinking that seeing landmarks along with thousands of other tourists isn't incredibly exciting, with kind of a sense of "wow, okay, it looks pretty much the same as it does in pictures and The Last Emperor." I kind of felt that this was true for places like the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City (although Tiananmen Square was kind of interesting seeing how incredibly patrolled Tiananmen Square is, with the guards marching as the red sun sets in the background), but I really liked Beijing as a city overall, with much more grandeur than Shanghai and interesting districts with traditional buildings. I also went to the art district, where I saw the first (and only!) reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 (the English-language TV station in China only acknowledges that that year even existed when in reference to the "highly successful" Sino-Soviet Pact that any history book will tell you was completely overshadowed by the protest) as well as the Cultural Revolution. There was an old converted warehouse with Maoist slogans that hadn't been erased, and I saw an art exhibit by an artist who chopped off one of his fingers in protest to the massacre and photographed his hand holding old pictures.

The best part of Beijing, of course, was the part that is still worth going to despite tourism, and I was fortunate enough to stay in a hostel that arranged tours to a "secret" part of the Great Wall, which was completely unrestored and unpopulated by other tourists. I attached some pictures which probably do no justice but the experience was very humbling and yet empowering to see what people are capable of.

I'm back in Vancouver now, but only temporarily before I do more travelling! Right now I'm kind of in the honeymoon stage of being home where the home-cooked western food still tastes great, I'm relieved to be away from all of the things that annoyed me in China and people aren't sick of seeing me yet. Still, I think that now I can better understand the old cliche of appreciating where you come from after travelling, and I'm much more grateful now to live in such a clean, democratic, tolerant, quiet country.

More Shanghai--November 28, 2005

In the last few months I've found a job close to my apartment, which is nice because before I would spend an hour on the subway each way, teaching mostly adults. This has been quite interesting as most of my students are not beginners and come from all over China, mostly rural areas in the provinces around Shanghai. It's interesting learning about their lives, which have all seen enormous changes, and what they think of China's present and future. The management is very laid-back, for better and worse: in what is said to be characteristic of Chinese bureacracy (the company is owned by a university which of course is run by the government) decisions are not made unless it is absolutely necessary. There's a bit of a problem with the other full-time English teacher, an Englishman in his mid-forties. When I started working for the company I thought he would be gone in no time. He's still here despite the fact that he throws frequent temper tantrums, is impatient with students and has had complaints from students of being drunk and sexual harassment. Surprisingly, there has been a steady decline in students since he started working for the company, and after my contract is finished they will only hire teachers part-time because they're losing so much money! Today I only work one hour, although I have to be on call for six other hours in case a new student shows up. Sometimes I just go home and read or watch a DVD or explore the area (there is an old-style Shanghai market closeby, with raw meat, live fish and vendors everywhere).

One thing to note about China is that my coworker is in many ways an example rather than the exception of foreign men living in Shanghai, which is the type that are unable to find a woman in their own country but find themselves surrounded in China. This guy, another teacher at my school and the teacher I replaced all have Chinese wives... and girlfriends. They are all getting divorces, and two of them have the problem that their wives are trying to take all of their money. There's a lawyer who deals with cases like that and one of the teachers recommended him to the other one. It's not unusual to see or meet men who just seem kind of "off" who have a Chinese woman at their shoulder.

Perhaps one of the most striking examples of this phenomenon is a man named Mark Rosewell, who along with Norman Bethune and Celine Dion is one of the most famous Canadians in China. He's a tall, awkward-looking, nerdy type with an embarrassingly strong Canadian accent (I confess that I bought his "learning Chinese" DVD). He speaks perfect Chinese and has reinvented himself as "Dashan" and has made a fortune with his language-learning programs. My Chinese is improving bit by bit although I have a long way to go... at least here people are very nice and friendly when you try to speak their language, unlike certain places I have visited...

Regarding the current situation in China, I have found many complications and contradictions that I am only starting to scratch the surface of. On one hand, most people I've met seem to believe the propaganda that you see in the newspapers and on TV that Japan is still a threatening enemy, Taiwan is not a country, the "progress and development" in Tibet is something to be celebrated, and nobody wants to talk about 1989. The rigourous education system makes the Napoleonic French system look like the hippie-run alternative school I went to as a child. On the other hand, millions of people have been lifted from poverty, and I have met many of these beneficiaries. Of course Shanghai is where much of this is happening, and there seem to be more opportunities than ever before. A result of the one-child policy is that the young people are the best-educated and well-taken-care-of generation that the country has ever produced.

I've gotten to see some of China's history, although in Shanghai opportunities for this are limited. For the National Day holiday in October I went to an island called Putuoshan which is said to be holy and it has many Buddhist monasteries. It was the first time that I really felt like I was seeing the China of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." It was very beautiful with a lake of lotus leaves and a huge statue of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy on top of a cliff. The only problem was that the way holidays work in China is that everyone gets a holiday at the exact same time, and do not have many days at that so of course there were special prices and lots of company. I'm planning to go to some more places like that in the next few weeks, which should be much less busy.

I find that it seems kind of contradictory to live in a country with so much fascinating history and yet live in a city that's about the same age as Vancouver. The most famous sites of Shanghai are all office buildings: the Bund, where the Europeans did business, and Pudong, the futuristic-looking business centre in the not-so-distant future. After my contract is over I'm planning to move to Beijing, which in addition to having so many historic sites and the next Olympics is also the political and cultural heart of the country, whereas Shanghai is too commercial for me. Still, it is interesting to understand the trends towards this in the future and to travel around the area. Anyways, I realize that this email is already very long; I miss you all and hope everyone is well!

Life in Shanghai--August 3, 2005

I've now been living in Shanghai for five and a half weeks. It's already going by very quickly, so I didn't hesitate to sign a year-long lease on an apartment. I started working full-time a week to the day that I arrived so it's only now that I'm really starting to get a bit settled and I plan to finally do a bit more sightseeing. This also means that it's a bit too early to comment on my ideas of Chinese history and culture; the only thing I've realized is that my grasp on it is about as good as my Mandarin, and to look at China as only one country is like looking at Europe as just one country, except that China is bigger, has three times as many people and a longer and more complex history.

As far as teaching, I've already done a bit of everything working part-time and have been very picky in terms of finding a full-time job. Of course, for the last few weeks my "part-time" job has been 18 hours of teaching (given no preparation) 6 days a week. If something's just a little bit wrong, I don't take it. There's so much work offered that it's a luxury that I'm trying to take full advantage of. I'm teaching two business English classes, one with students so advanced that most don't need lessons and just want to practice, which means that it is often quite interesting. I also taught an intensive class with junior high school students, very rambunctious products of the one-child policy who were a lot of fun but maybe a little stressful at times, as they were so loud that the teacher in the next classroom complained a few times. On top of that, I've done three demo classes with young children! So basically I've gotten to meet a lot of Shanghainese people.

I got an apartment in the French concession area of Shanghai, which is considered to be "Old Shanghai." This is because there is also a "New Shanghai" that is still currently being built and is where one of my jobs is. There's so much construction that it's like being in a construction site. To give you an idea, there are currently 4 subway lines in use but within a couple years there will be 9. As a result the subway is ridiculously overcrowded and I avoid it as much as possible! I've already turned down a couple jobs for that reason. My apartment however is quite nice and in a good location not too far from the subway and lots of shopping. There's stuff to buy everywhere I look. I thought that I would only be able to buy the latest Hollywood movies on DVD here (which for me would be rather useless this time of year when nothing but crap comes out) but so far I've seen a few silent films from the 1920s, little-known Ingmar Bergman movies and even--get this--CANADIAN movies such as Leolo, Exotica and Margaret's Museum. I was also able to get the fourth season of Six Feet Under, which I was very excited about. Unfortunately, this does not apply to books and I am glad that I brought 20 (of which I've read 3 so far).

It would have been much easier for me to go to Korea or even Japan, but I haven't regretted my decision to come here for a moment. There's so much fascinating history here that it would even take more than one year to be able to take it all in, and I'd like to learn some of the language as well. It's not too hard to meet people, and it's not much of a culture shock when I grew up in a city with half a million (at least) Chinese people and the city not only has every comfort from home (pretty much) but is also very cheap and to top it off I'm getting paid. I've never lived so well on my own in fact. I'm able to go to restaurants all the time, which is quite a bit from Paris where I barely stepped in one restaurant during the entire time I was there. I think my experience in Paris helped a lot for coming here in terms of dealing with a new environment, new people, a language barrier and of course I also know how NOT to teach a language.

Salut from Paris--December 3, 2004

Things are going well here in the final leg of my stay here in Paris. I can hardly believe it, but I'm coming home three weeks from today. I wanted to delay my stay here to as long as possible before Christmas so now I'm coming back on December 24th at 8pm! While it will be very nice to be home for Christmas, it will also be hard to leave here as I'm just starting to visit here, although I'm very happy with how things have gone and what I have learned. However, I have to admit that my decision to come back does have just a bit to do with the fact that I'm sick of school and can't work here...

The highlights of the past month since I last wrote are that I went to Berlin for a weekend which was very interesting as it is very different from Paris and I even felt kind of at home here when I came back! The connection I had to history there was much more vivid and upfront as it is basically the entire twentieth century all in one city. That was a nice change from Paris which could be thought of as the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in one city. I went to a war museum, the Jewish museum, a museum about the Berlin Wall and an art gallery and I also took a really cool walking tour around the city. Since I got back I've played host a couple times, having my cousin Patrick and a friend from Queen's coming to visit and giving me a taste of my life before I was here; it was great to see them and it gave me an excuse to be a tacky tourist. Otherwise, I've been studying absorbing as much culture as I can; the other night I went to an avant-garde theater performance and I've been to tons of museums and readings at Shakespeare and Company and some films as well.

The only disappointment with my stay here so far has been the course I'm taking. I could probably dedicate an entire email talking about how the classes are twice the size as they were advertised to be, the content is also different and is nothing I couldn't learn from a book (ie a grammar book), how the teaching methods are completely outdated with little interaction with students or even attention to teaching methods, and I could even put it into a historical context as the education system dates back to the Napoleonic era, is free and thus has a history of trying to get people to drop out, which was a major reason for the student rebellions in 1968 which resulted in the resignation of the French president the following year, and yet they still failed to create significant change to the system... but I'm having too much of a good time and am too stimulated culturally and intellectually to rant any further.

When I come back I am planning on staying at home for a few weeks for Christmas before looking for work teaching English in China. While I have been here I have taken great efforts and made sacrifices so that I can really feel settled in a new place and not rush everything and I think that as a result I will return eager to do more of what I'm doing, living and experiencing new fascinating places. I'm also looking forward to having a real job and being self-sufficient. I've been doing lots of reading and writing here; I would even say that I've read more books than seen movies, which would definitely be a first, and for the next part of my path I'm planning on reading more and working on my creative writing. I feel I have a lot to say and I've discovered that I get a better experience from reading a book than from seeing a film. It's very exciting to discover all of this and I feel that I've got from this experience here what I was looking for, which was to continue on the same path that I was on before and yet continue to grow and not lose my focus. From this experience I feel stronger, more confident and hungrier to do have more adventures.

First Post

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog.

I'd like to begin by talking a bit about what is on my profile, because that's what I've been doing for the past hour... I suppose I would talk about my interests in this space but I don't think there's any need to regurgitate them. Instead I'll talk a bit about the people who created some of the works I listed.

One of my favourite filmmakers is definitely Ingmar Bergman. I especially like the way he works with Liv Ullman but his work with all of his actors is definitely brilliant. He was one of the filmmakers who convinced me that film can be both personal and an art form. I wanted to be just like him at a point... until I realized that he's been married many, many times and fathered a couple dozen children. It's difficult balancing what I want to do as a career versus the type of personal life I want.

Right now I'm reading "Steppenwolf" by Hermann Hesse, which I am quite enjoying; I have a certain fondness for tortured artists out of place in their societies. I'm fascinated as well by Buddhism and what Hesse calls "the bliss of meditation." I find that when I do it it's the most beautiful and astonishing experience I have ever known, and yet I have no way of explaining it. I try to explain it as "finding God" but that sounds so cliche. Other writers and filmmakers like Alan Ball and Alan Hollinghurst refer to "beauty" as an indication of the things commonly referred to as God, but I find that term to be quite limiting. It's like suddenly being blasted with the awareness that every religion the world has ever known is the exact same, that true oneness really does exist.

I have lots of time to think about things like this lately, given that I have been living with my parents for the past few months while I try to find a placement teaching English in China. I'm hoping to go to Beijing or Shanghai, and I'm starting to want to go SOON. It shouldn't take too much longer I don't think, and it better not. My therapist told me that the less time I spend here, the better. I first left home seven years ago when I was fifteen to go on exchange to Australia, and I haven't really moved in full-time since. After I got back I realized that I preferred living away so I went to boarding school, then university on the other side of the country, then travelling in Europe last fall... I function better this way.

In Paris