POCKED PICKET!!!

On the "Silk Road" Shanghai American School trip last week I was a chaperone and constantly warned kids about pick pockets in the local markets. A few times I'd stop one of the guys with the 'baggy pants' look and tell them that the wallet in open view in their baggy pocket was easy pickens. Did the same with a few of the girls who had open back pack pockets.

So did you ever lose something and keep looking in your pocket thinking: "That $50 bill HAS to be here somewhere"? You keep thinking on one hand it's still there while your logical side says "GONZO".

I'm sure two parts of my brain had something like the following conversation when I got jostled hard in the market place and instantly knew something wasn't right but couldn't put my finger on it. Well deft fingers opened the front of my fanny pack and helped themselves to my cell phone.

"What are you doing?"
"Looking in the fanny pack compartment for the cell phone."
"You know he got his pocket picked don't ya?"
"I'm not ready to admit that. Look here are some rubber bands and an empty Tic Tac box."
"So you think if you keep looking in there it's going to reappear?"
"After all he's been preaching I've got to help the guy. Let's ease him into reality."
"The cell phone is gone!!!"
"Let me look again for him. Yup...still rubber bands and a Tic Tac box."
"It's not there!!!"
"I'm going to take him back through the market. Maybe he dropped it."
"Oh....and why do you think that compartment is open right after he got jostled?"
"He left it open?"
"You're not ready to admit it yet are ya? HE GOT HIS POCKET PICKED!!!"
"He's reaching into each of his front pockets now."
"It's not there!!!"
"You're right. Time to fess up to the reality monster. But.....if I look for one last time maybe...........

Road Trip: Near Mongolia

An adventure comes out of nowhere.

The leader of Susan's Shanghai American School, "Silk Road" school trip tore his ACL. Doc says: "Nope..no trekking near Mongolia for you.". So Susan asked if her hub, that be me, could take his place. Voila. Road Trip!!

The school outing for tenth graders will take them on a cultural "immersion" trip to Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The city les west of Bogda Mountain, part of the Tianshan Range. The area has lush pastures populated with many minorities who herded sheep and cattle. In Mongolian, Urumchi actually means "beautiful pastures". The trip will take us to the far northwest of China, a mere six hour flight from Shanghai.

The road trip will also take us to Turpan, the lowest point in China (505 feet BELOW sea level).

The last town to visit is Dunhuant where a cluster of 492 caves, containing 45,000 square metres (45,000 square metres????) of frescoes is located. There are an additional 2,415 stucco statues. The caves were created during the 4th century.

Of course I immediately picture National Geographic images in my head of wide open plains, peasants wearing coolie hats toiling away under a deep blue sky, mountains in the background, pastures rolling into the horizon. Wake up Joe!! It's 2006. Urumqi is now a city!! You've got to drive to the pastures. If where we're going is anything like the image from Warrior.tours, no complaints here.

Weekly Photos: Week1

Amazing how work can get in the way of whatcha wanna do. I flew to Miami to work with my client and 10 to 12 hour work days really mess with the funner parts of life:

Cycling

Photographing

Reading

A post urged me to get something done with my weekly photos, so here are my first two choices for my two photos a week goal. My plans (and hopefully not aft gang aglee, or words to that effect) are to post a months photos and a bit of why and what made me choose them. In the meantime, I'll add them to a link at the left for those who don't want to word wallow.

Photos from Week 1. Double left click on image to enlarge. Use back button on browser to return to Blog.

There are some leading lines I like such as the angle of the book in the background and the object in the front, leading to the image of Mao. I tried to make the depth of field shallow to have Mao fading into the background, because I feel that's what's happening in China. The lens I'm using is a multi purpose zoom (18mm to 200mm) which is great as a "carry around all in one" lens, but you lose bokeh because the widest aperature is only about 4.5 or so. Nope, haven't looked at the exif data as I type this. I'm also not very good at still life so I was hoping this might be a good one.



Don't think this one needs any explanation. If it does, I've failed miserably.

The Weekly Photo: At Least

Other than family and special friends, my two great passions are cycling and photography, where I haven't spent enough time learning, developing (no that's NOT a pun) skills, and just working at it.

What happens is I get discouraged with my "eye" and technical ability to capture what I see in my mind's eye but that doesn't get caught in the image. So I procrastinate and put it off and put it off and put it off beating myself up with "I'm not worthy!!! I'm not worthy!!"

So to steal that ad slogan: "Just Do It."

To that end, I'm setting a goal for my self of one or two very good photographs each week. There will be a link to Weekly Photos where I'll post 'em.

Focus: The categories:

Faces Of Man (Yes, I know there's a coffeetable photo book by that name ) The charcter of and character in faces has always attracted and fascinated me. Having now traveled to so many different countries (Sri Lanka, India, Egypt, Malaysia, Thailand, England, Turkey, and China) my basic belief is that we really are all the same, has been solidified in the same emotion that a face radiates: Joy, Sadness, Pain, Delight, Sorrow, Elation, Smugness, Stoicism...and so many more. No matter the nationality, the "LOOK" is the same.

Scenery: Can't get any more wide open than that!! Landscapes, Mama Nature, Abstracts or Patterns, and more.

Sports: One of my passions and it's fun trying to capture a "sports" moment, so I'll attend the Shanghai American School sporting events.

Cycling: Enough said. Just doing an essay on the various types of bicycles in China could take up all my spare time.

Images Within: Sometimes the larger image is the smaller part of something.

Spent the last day of September, Saturday the 30th, as the "Okay Just Do It" day. It didn't help that it was raining. Yes I know there can be wonderful rain images, but I'm now down to one camera and I'm going to be overly careful with it.

I'll update this with the "one or two" images for the last week in September.

A Ride Around Zhudi Town

I'm finding that there are only so many roads to cycle around here that aren't busier than the proverbial one armed paper hanger. There are some short side streets that are absolutely deserted. Go figure.

Ah but at least I can cycle and explore. However, I don't think there are going to be "Oh My Gosh" landscape shots, so I'll have to look for the pearl images amongst the oysters.

One of the photos below gives a whole new definition to "TV Guy". Note the rice paddy with a development behind it. About eight years ago this whole area was nothing but farms and rice paddies. Now I'll cycle past a warehouse or factory, make a turn, and there is a small rice paddy or patch of land being worked for what it's worth. And I'm sure that's a lot for these folks.

DOUBLE LEFT CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.
USE BACK ARROW ON BROWSER TO RETURN TO BLOG

Would You Like To Be My Neighbor ??

Even Mr. Rogers would have a tough time making neighbors here: The Chinese appear to be very stoic, reserved, and emotion checked.

I ride a very unusual bike called a folding recumbent and I've dubbed it "...the smile and make you wave bike..". It seems to have that effect wherever I ride it. Well now it's almost wherever. Doesn't happen that much here in the outskirts of Shanghai in Zhudi Town, where the Shanghai Racquet Club is located. Wait..that's also my home for the most of the next two years.

I'm thinking because there are soooooooo many types of bikes here, that mine is just another bike. That would be the case if they didn't know that I can see them stop, turn around, sometimes point, smile, giggle in my rear view mirror. As I pass often there is no sign of recognition, until I'm by them. Then the looking glass reveals all.

At least I got to ride around the neighborhood today. Right now I'm a bit hesitant to take pics of people in their environment until I learn how to ask permission in Mandarin. After eight lessons I've learned: "Wah tshong hua ediar toom shee pea jo", which translates to something like "I would like to drink some beer."


SOME PICS (To view large image, double left click on image. Then use back button on browser to return to COGITATION)

Good Morrrrrrrrrrrnnning Shanghai

Long story short: I'm in Shanghai because Sue, the better half, is a high school counselor for the Shanghai American School in Zhudi Town, an outer suburb of Shanghai. I'm what's called "..a trailing spouse.." meaning I'm not a teaching spouse, but here on her sponsorship. In other words, she can kick me out of the country.

The view to the left is the view from our balcony at Shanghai Racquet Club, which has all the amenities associated with "Racquet Club". It's definitely the Ying or the Yang, but the opposite of where most "Shanghainese" live, which will be shown later after one of the Friday after school bike trips to places unknown. Unknown because I did one this past Friday, led by Lou, the Middle School PE Instructor. Lou has been here for eight years and probably now knows every backroad, including open sewage pits, to out of the way villages.

What's going to be difficult about this BLOG is to keep the posts about Shanghai life short because there is soooooooooo much to see here. In one short week, I've seen the best and worst of living conditions. A pic as they say is worth a 1,000 words, so this BLOG will have more than its share of links to photo albums.

Welcome

Welcome to me blog.

You'll find postings about travels, cycling, photography and musings, that is if I ever find the right muse. Or maybe I have.

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