the pieces of this damn puzzle won’t fit together

...Every time you think you’ve got it figured out, a new piece arrives. With every new piece, you are forced take apart a world you thought you had just figured out.

Some of the greatest moments of my life have been lived during this process of deconstructing and reconstructing worlds. The energy it requires is immense, however, the reward—paid in the currency of self-knowledge—is even bigger. And that’s the irony too—you spend all this time and energy trying to figure out another culture, and you wind up learning so much more about yourself in the process.

very quickly

I am just making a short post tonight before we get ready to head out to Harbin. The New Years was amazing! I have a few photos I was able to upload on another site. The link is.. http://groups.msn.com/shenyang/shoebox.msnw?albumlist=2
Or something close to that so if you want to take a look you should check it out or not.
I will have to make some effort to put up some good ones from the ice festival this week. It should be a lot of fun. Thats all for now.

Smoking in Shenyang

Shenyang 116
Originally uploaded by just_fred69

So I had told myself and several others that I was not going to smoke anymore once I got to China. Well I should have known better than that, this is China after all Smoking is everywhere you look here and it is dirt cheap much unlike back in the states. I can afford to smoke a pack a day and not even notice even on my rather small emolument.
The trouble is I really don't want to be smoking at all and certainly not at that rate. I did manage to go my first 5 days here and only have 1 cigarette but on the first night I went out for drinks in Shenyang that all changed. I will admit that I much prefer the taste of my American Spirits to any one the ones I have come across in China so far. But I feel I could say the same for many things I have tried here and I am sure as time pass my tastes will begin to adapt and change like everything else will have to.

This feels like that type of posts I want to start making on my blog and I hope thats what it will become over time. A little more personal and a little less tailored for anyone who I think might or might not be reading. This was meant to be a personal outlet for me on my journey and that is what I hope it will become.

Annual Banquet

So last night was a big night for everyone at the school. It was a meeting with the owners of Langston and the parent company that owns Langston got together with everyone between there. And after it was all over we were invited to attend the Banquet which I was told to expect would be a real treat in Chinese culture, and I was not to be disappointed.

Admittedly when I arrived I had no idea what to expect, they sat all of us (the white people) at one table. and before long the food was being brought out and served. Some very delicious food I might had. Probably some of the best food I have had since I got to China. And that is when they fun began to start. First let me start by telling you something about Chinese culture.. you see there is something of a tradition in the culture that when you are out with your boss at a dinner party drinking isn't just encouraged it is mandatory. And if you don't drink with him every time he offers you a drink it is considered to be very rude. This is whats known as (Ganbei!) and let me just tell you it is a whole lot of fun. Why we don't have these types of dinners back in the states in beyond me.

With those words I will just cut to some pictures from the night and let them try to explain the whole experience more than my words might.

one last thing if anyone cares for an address to send me anything while I am over here I will include that below.

Shaun Willis c/o Langston English
Dongyu Building 3rd floor, #2 Heping South Ave.
Shenyang, Liaoning Province 110001
China

New Place

I have been in China for 10 days now and have yet to really settle in. I feel my lack of an apartment right now may have something to do with this unsteady feeling that I have inside right now. Our place where I thought I would be living was a little run down but I was ok with that, I mean come on I am living in China I figured how much can I really expect? But then after both elevators went out in the first week and with my place being on the 22^nd floor it was a bit much to ask. So right now I am sort of just in apartment limbo while Eli and Wayne are hunting down and new place and I am couch surfing in other interns apartments. I have to post up some pictures of the girls place though because you would not believe how nice they have got it. The apartment is nicer than most any of us could afford back in the U.S. it is truly incredible. It seems a little unfair in comparison, but I will have to wait and see what we end up with our second time around before I actually say that out loud.

As far as the experiences I have had so far here in China I really need to start writing these down more while they are fresh because I have several more everyday and I feel before too long I will just become immune to them and not even think them worth mentioning.

Then people of Shenyang are a lot different from the people I interacted with those first few days in Beijing. They don’t see as many foreigners up here and therefore don’t quite know what to think of us when they do. In fact I have been told that of the over 7 million people living in Shenyang only about 400 our foreigners. They mostly just point and stare or on occasion one brave enough might run up to you and say “HELLO” before becoming embarrassed laughing and finally turning to run away. It is very cute the first few times that they do it, but after that it starts to lose its luster quickly. The stares are really something that you start to get use to pretty quickly and even enjoy at times. Although I hear that this can start to wear on you after awhile and become a little less enjoyable.

I am going to try and come back and edit this post with some more pictures later.

First post from Beijing

So this will be the first post of many for me from China, I hope to get back into this blogging thing and have an outlet for all of this excitment I am feeling and a way of shareing it with all you back home. Today was the first day out and about in Beijing and it was a blast! Our hotel is just behind this night market so we had to check that out last night and get a snack before bed. You could eat everything from snake to sea hourses or even scorpions as I saw one young boy enjoying, all roasted like a kabob on a stick. It was fantastic and after a quick rest we were off to explore the subways and bus systems. We had a little more luck on the subways however, and before we knew it had came accross the olympic stadium. After spending the day getting lost on the subway at times I feel like we now have a good understanding of the subway system. I don't know if anymore of my rambling can really do this place justice so instead I will just upload some photos from the day. Hope you enjoy them and please feel free to leave lots of comments. Its just another way of getting ahold of me. I miss you all very much and look forward to talking to you soon. 

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.