Jetlag

My last (and only) cup of coffee in Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Jetlag.

I've returned to this place I currently call home. I had an amazing time in China. I miss Hong Kong already.

Classes commence first thing Monday morning. The joys of class and sitting in lectures, of seeing good friends and not paying attention to the lecture; the joys of my typical university life. Returning to the daily rituals and study sessions. Missing friends, old and new, experiencing great things overseas. Looking forward to meeting new people and making new friends at the start of this fresh academic year.

Details of my trip to come once my circadian rhythm has lined up with my current time zone...

Departing For Awesome Experiences

The time is soon here. I'll be flying away from Barbados. After three flights (one lasting up to 16 hours), I'll arrive at wonderful Shanghai! I'm so incredibly excited!!! I've been waiting for the day to come for 2 months and, in two blinks, it's here. Before I know I'll be returning to Barbados after another three flights. But it's okay because I would've had an immense amount of fun and travel.

I know China to be an extremely hot place. I complain about the heat here but I can't wait to see just how much hotter it is there. Last I knew, temperatures go up to 40 degrees Celsius there. I wonder what the humidity is like there, though. Hopefully it's not very humid because I get more than enough of that here...

Anyways, just a quick post to say "Bye!" =) I won't have direct access to this blog, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook or YouTube while I'm there (courtesy of The Great Firewall). I'll try making posts from my email if I have decent internet access and time. Hopefully, it can work out well that way so that I can sort of keep you all with me as I go day by day. =)

P.S. This post was done through my email account...kind of like a test to see how things go. If I manage to make posts as I'd like to from China and images seem to be aligned anywhere but center or have funny sizes, then...that's just how Gmail attaches images. =)

10 Days before my disappearance

It's been an indecent 14 days since I last made a blog entry! I figured it was about time I remedied that.

I've been incredibly busy the past 2 weeks...doing a course, practicing what I've learnt and trying to learn more! Meanwhile, I still have a research project report to type up and hand in by next week. I'm no good at biostatistics and 1.5 weeks of cram teaching taught me next to nothing about it so it's relatively safe to say that I'm feeling very lost with this research business.

Whenever I get frustrated with school, I have a tendency to look for a distraction. This time my distraction is Roswell. I never really got to watch it when I was younger and I had the link to all 3 seasons sitting there in my bookmarks. I started watching and now I'm at episode 12. My oh my. If the only available links weren't megavideo, I would have a difficult time stopping myself from watching episode after episode like a marathon. The 54 minute break lets me work on my report but I get frustrated with it fairly often. Roswell is as good as I always hear it to be! =)

In exactly 10 days' time...I'll be disappearing from the face of the internet! Everyone must know by now where I'll be going...China! I'm so incredibly excited! The Shanghai World Expo is gonna be a blast. Not to mention, I get to see a friend again! The one I mentioned a few times before who's studying there. He's working at the Barbados booth at the expo and he's having such a great time...I'm so envious! Or at least I was. Now that I get to go to the expo myself, I'm pretty satisfied with life. =)

Shanghai In One Month's Time!

It's been over a week since my last post and I feel like I haven't been posting as much as I should lately! For that, I apologise.

In precisely 1 month, I'll find myself on the other side of the world. It's so exciting to think about! I've said it before but, in case you don't know, I'll be making my way over to wonderful Shanghai to head out to the Shanghai World Expo that I've mentioned before and visit some other lovely sites in the city. I'll also be making a one-day stop in Hong Kong so that I get to see my family and breathe in the city air I love so much. One day in Hong Kong, surely it will satisfy me until my next visit, right?

Sometimes, I miss it there so much it hurts.

The research course that I've been doing the past 5 weeks is driving me crazy. I have a test on Monday that I can only pray for the best for. So, until next time!

*scurries off to cram*

On this day 13 years ago...

...Hong Kong was no longer under sovereignty from the United Kingdom and was handed over to the People's Republic of China.

Today is Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day. Quite a mouthful, isn't it? Basically, on July 1st 1997, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (or HKSAR) was established as it was returned to the People's Republic of China.

People often say to me "I thought Hong Kong was China." I usually reply with, "It isn't." It is a country on its own. You're probably wondering, "But how? You just said it was given back to China." In the same way, colonialism worked with the British and the Caribbean, and even the British and Hong Kong, a country remains a country on it's own. Or, at least, that's how I see it.

To be clear, when people think of China, they think of the People's Republic of China (PRC) because that is what China is portrayed to be...and that is exactly what China is. It's a country and a region on its own. Hong Kong is not a part of the PRC. And, hence, it isn't the same thing as China. The PRC has two special administrative regions: Macau and Hong Kong. They are a part of, yet separate from China. Get it? =)

At the Shanghai World Expo, you would find that Hong Kong and Macau have pavilions of their own as they are countries with cultures and practices of their own. But you would find that they also stand right beside the China pavilion as they are China's special administrative regions.

Get it now? =)

I'm going!

I'm going! I'm going! It's all confirmed and there's nothing stopping me! Oh yeah.

Where am I going? Here:

I said in a previous post that I wish I had the luxury to go to the Shanghai World Expo 2010. Well, I've been blessed with so much fortune. I'll be going to the Expo after all! I'm so super excited about it. I'll be going with my Mom and it'll be so much fun. So much. There's just so much to see there and we'll have 3 days to see all we can.

As my Mandarin is mighty poor (so poor, in fact, that I cannot even greet anyone with anything more than "Nǐ hǎo"), I'll do my best to learn even more of the language over the next few months before the trip.

"Integrated City" - This makes me so nostalgic of my winter trip to Hong Kong. It just warms my heart and makes me miss Hong Kong even more every time I watch it.

No doubt I'll be stopping in and checking out the wonderful Hong Kong pavilion at the Expo.

As the flight we'll be taking makes a connecting stop in Hong Kong as we go and come from Shanghai, we'll be spending an entire day with my family (just one) before we return home. I can't wait to see Hong Kong again. It overwhelms my heart to know that I'll have the opportunity to visit again in just less than a year.

My question to you: Are you going (or already went) to the Shanghai Expo?

Shanghai World Expo 2010

I quite wish I had the luxury to visit the Shanghai world expo. It would be the most amazing thing ever. But, most unfortunately, I can't.

My CCTV9 channel has been missing recently, replaced by CaribVision, a pointless channel with stuff I care nothing about. It must've returned late last night or this morning because it still wasn't there yesterday. And, I missed the expo's opening ceremony.

I hope I can get another chance to see it. From what I see on the news, it looks like it was superb! Many of my favourite artists and musicians performed and I'm sure everything else was simply wonderful. The Chinese know how to put on excellent shows. Few things capture my attention the way Chinese performances do.

An opportunity to visit the Shanghai expo (and I must say, it certainly won't be for Barbados) would be one of the most amazing things I could ask for. Travel into Shanghai is difficult at this point. I can only imagine what it would be like to visit. My friend in Wuhan will be going this summer...I'm a little envious!

Qinghai Earthquake

Have you heard of it?

If I didn't watch CCTV9, I wouldn't have known

about it. I don't watch much TV but my Mom watches CNN on occasion and she never heard anything about it there or on the BBC. But we did find out on CCTV9. Why is it that it hasn't been broadcasted worldwide? Or has it? We haven't heard about the news elsewhere.

The Qinghai Province of China was hit on Wednesday April 14 by an earthquake of magnitude 7.1 followed by 18 aftershocks measured over 6.0.

The death toll has been rising as the days pass and currently stands at 1706. Over 200 people are still missing. Tents for shelter were erected in time for survivors to make it through a snow storm that occurred on Saturday. Yushu County has been disinfected as a preventative measure against disease.

Various countries have been expressing their support and condolences to the victims of the earthquake and South Korea has offered US $1 million in emergency relief aid and relief supplies.

As always, my prayers are with the victims of this devastating earthquake. I know China is a strong nation and is already well on its way to recovery.

[Images from CCTV]

History Lesson: China

I spent a nice part of last night watching the History channel. There's rarely anything worthwhile to watch on TV these days and I don't normally watch the History channel. In fact, I wasn't even aware of actually having the channel in my cable package because we don't ever watch it.

Last night there was a 2-hour documentary on the first Emperor of China. It was the most fascinating documentary but I'll admit, it was probably only so interesting because I'm not studying Chinese history. Somehow, I think if I learn about something because I have to it doesn't strike me as interesting as it would if I just wanted to. Well, I was just so taken by it that I thought I'd blog about it.

The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, was an undeniably admirable man who accomplished so many great things and has created the China we know today. In short, he created one large empire and ruled for a duration of about 3 decades. He was a man of great strength and power. Unfortunately, his obsession with immortality led to his own demise at the tender age of 49.

The Great Wall of China we admire today was built as a protective shield from external enemies from the North. It's still somewhere in my life-plan to visit someday!

The Terracotta Army stand to protect the tomb of the great Emperor. Under order of the first Qin Emperor, these figures were created.

A Show Not To Be Forgotten!

I think I've been complaining more than I'd like to lately. And I haven't made an entry in ages! Well...now I've got something nice. Why? Because I saw something awesome.

In honour of the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the Guangdong Arts Group is travelling to Dominica, Barbados and Grenada from the Guangdong Province of China.

The performances were just...excellent! There was acrobatics, music, dancing, singing, magic (not the lame kind) and martial arts. Super enjoyable. And it didn't cost much either but that's because the group wasn't really doing it for money. I've been so excited about it that I've been telling everyone who didn't go and I've been showing off pictures and everything!

Balance & strength...and lots of it!

These shows aren't really anything new to me. I've got China's Central Television 9 (CCTV9) on my cable so I always watch this show called Center Stage. Basically shows concerts (boring and not-so-boring), some of the best works of some famous chinese musicians, choreographers etc and the best performances at galas and festivals. Festivals and galas have acrobatics, music, singing and dancing so it was like watching 3 episodes of Center Stage (it runs for 30 mins) but in person! So it was quite exciting. It's always a different feel when your actually there for the experience. =D

We Are One

"For the past 46 years, I have been searching for the meaning of life. But now, I know that I can do my best to help our global family, our ONE family. Thank you for being with me here, and let's join hands to build a better future."

Just yesterday I was watching the news on CCTV and heard about Jet Li's One Foundation and that tomorrow, May 12th, will be the anniversary of the devastating 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. This is a week of remembrance for many as so those persons have lost a lot of things precious to them in the earthquake last year: families & homes.

Jet Li's One Foundation is partnered with the Red Cross Society of China and was founded by, of course, Jet Li, a Red Cross ambassador.

The foundation believes that: 

“1 person + 1 dollar/yuan + 1 month = 1 big family”. 

If each person donates at least one dollar/yuan each month, our individual donations can be transformed into a much greater fund. When we combine our charitable strength, we can make sure that the most vulnerable members of our global family will receive the help they need.

[www.onefoundation.cn]

Many are still working hard to rebuild their lives. Others still suffer and have difficulty moving on from the past. But whoever it may be, for those who lost in the Sichuan Earthquake, I send my prayers out to them.