Although there are so many more interesting travel possibilities here in Sichuan, we’ve decided to hit the road again tonight. We’ll be taking a 25-hour train to Guilin, a gorgeous city in the southern province of Guangxi.

You might remember an earlier trip I took to Yangshuo, the cozy traveller-friendly little brother of Guilin. We hope to end up there for a few days … but first we’re going to head north to Longsheng, the backcountry home of some of the most beautiful rice terraces in China (and a nice hot spring too).

Onward!

[Guilin - Longsheng, by jackfrench]

[Lost Chengdu Photos, by Lance Webel]

During my first two days in Chengdu, I took a bunch of great photos of a Sichuan Opera, a Panda Breeding Center, and some of the local life. After importing these photos into my computer, however, I found that my hard drive was almost completely full.

After deleting some unneeded photos to free up space, I found that I somehow deleted the Chengdu photos too! I was really bummed … a couple of the photos, especially of the pandas, were fantastic. All that remains is this screen capture (large version) of the iPhoto thumbnails.

This morning we went to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. It was pretty sweet to learn about and observe these lovable and utterly helpless (can I say stupid?) creatures in their unnatural habitat. One thing’s for sure … I got some fantastic photos of those living teddy’s!

This afternoon we’re going to take it easy, relaxing here in the hostel then traveling to a unique park called People’s Park. We’ll then get some local cuisine, pack up, and head to bed early to get ready for the long trek tomorrow to Jiuzhaigou.

We still haven’t decided whether we should go with a Chinese tour or travel independently. There are pluses and minuses for both options … and we already know of the vastly different experience that each route will provide. Either way, I probably won’t be able to tell you about it for the next five days or so.

After an 18 hour train trip, Daisy and I arrived at our hostel in Chengdu, Sichuan this morning. We’ve only been here a few hours, and I already really like this place … it’s laid-back, full of culture, quite tasty, and fairly reasonable. And there are lots of options for fun things to do!

Tonight we’ll be going to a traditional Sichuan opera performance … it should feature some crazy singing, limited face paint, highly-polished acting, and even some acrobatics. Tomorrow is up in the air, but it’ll surely include visits to some local parks and temples and some more great local food.

Then, on Saturday, we’ll go to Jiuzhaigou for a four day adventure in what is presumably one of the most beautiful places in China. It’s especially known for its snowy peaks and blue, green and turquose-colored lakes … many of which are clear enough to see down to the bottom. My lenses are gonna be happy!

I just turned in the last three papers for my final graduate course. Now the only thing that stands between me and a Master’s of Education is my portfolio!

Oh, and those pesky student loans …

This quotation by Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism, speaks about the importance of living with character and integrity.

This has been one of the hardest things about my life in China this year. Despite all of the amazing experiences, new growth, and brave steps forward, I can’t help but feel that the shadow behind me is pretty bent.

I found out today that my students here at Loudi #5 Middle School will not have a foreign teacher next year. The reason? My liaison didn’t turn in the paperwork or return the Hunan Department of Education’s phone calls.

My school’s irresponsibility and terrible communication has persisted all year … they refused to tell me about breaks, cancelled classes without notice, wouldn’t respond to my requests for weeks on end, and sometimes didn’t even seem to notice that I was there. Most of the blame will probably be placed on one person … my liaison, whose job it was to facilitate communication between my school, WorldTeach, and me. But, in all fairness, she’s a nice girl who was thrust into this position against her will this year and given little incentive to follow through on a day-to-day basis.

For the most part, I figured out how to deal with it (patience and persistence) and even started to use it to my advantage. For example, because they weren’t telling me when the last date of school was this year, I made up a deadline then told all of my students their tentative answer (and, as a result, I was done last Friday). So once I figured out how to work the system, it really wasn’t so bad.

But this reaches an all-time low. Without a foreign teacher, more than a thousand students’ momentum, confidence, and comfortability will be drastically severed … and it’s essentially because someone refused to return a phone call. I’m not angry, but I am definitely sad for my students and insulted that my school doesn’t value what I’ve done more than that.

What a shameful thing for them to do.

The good news, if there is any, is that another school in Loudi has applied to have a foreign teacher through WorldTeach … so even though my students will be left empty-handed, at least this city will be represented. I’ve already modified my handover letter (13mb PDF) to send to this new Loudi volunteer, and I’m hopeful that she will have as awesome of an experience as I did this year!

Think you’re good at discerning if someone is being real or not when they smile? Then you should try this BBC test.

During the test, you’ll see a series of 20 videos of people smiling. You’ll then be asked to guess if each one is genuine or not. It takes about ten minutes to complete.

Sounds easy, right? It’s actually surprisingly difficult … I only got nine of them right (lame-o). I’m not sure exactly why … but my answers were much more accurate at the beginning. I think that after a while, I just started guessing.

Can you do better?

Today’s been a day of great news. After a slow morning watching my dear Cavaliers lose their first-ever NBA finals to the extremely talented Spurs, I finally started working on my taxes. Putting them off as long as possible is an annual tradition for me … and this year was quite special, because all citizens living overseas get an automatic two month extension on the due date.

When I finally finished crunching the numbers, I was pleasantly surprised … I found that I’m getting a $1,867 rebate this year! It’s a pretty sweet surprise … the credits that I got for my grad school tuition really added up. I guess being a student really does pay!

Next, I went to class. My last class in China. That’s right … after 45 minutes of I-Spy-and-basketball-game goodness, I’m finally free and clear for my 2007 summer vacation. Time to celebrate!

So I’m off to Changsha for the WorldTeach End-of-Service Conference. It should be a great time of celebrating with my fellow volunteers, tying up loose ends, and filling out endless reams of mindless paperwork. Then, over the course of the next six weeks, I’ll be doing a lot of things … visiting some places I haven’t yet been to and returning to some others that I didn’t get enough of, packing up my things and sending some of them home in the mail, working on getting a mortgage and starting the hunt for a new home, working on thousands of unedited photos and taking a few thousand more, and generally gathering myself for the trip back to the states.

Will it ever end? I sure hope not …

What kind of politician hires a professional political lobbyist as one of his high-ranking advisers? Our President, that’s who.

Ed Gillespie, named Wednesday as the next White House counselor, is a partner in Quinn Gillespie & Associates LLC, a lobbying firm whose clients include: Sirius Satellite Radio, which needs antitrust approval to acquire a rival; Qualcomm, which wants Bush to veto a federal agency’s ban on imported cell phones made with its chips; and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group trying to limit drug industry regulation.

Wormtongue has once again entered the White House. Gillespie, who co-founded his lobbying firm with former Clinton White House Counsel Jack Quinn, earned $16,000,000 in 2006 by convincing “public” officials to pass legislation that serves their rich corporate clients instead of the American people.

Honestly, I don’t get it. Why is it acceptable for our elected officials to continue to share a bed with these corrupt soothsayers? Seriously … what do you think?

[Censorship in China, by lance webel]

This photo, which I snapped at Beijing’s "Gate of Heavenly Peace" just as a soldier told me not to, clearly represents how the Chinese government is grasping to maintain its stranglehold on the Chinese people in this increasingly democratic and communal world.

For example, the "Great Firewall" is now blocking people in China from viewing Flickr images, presumably because of user-uploaded photos of the 1989 T-square incident. As a result, I probably won’t be uploading new photos for a while.

I’m remarkably busy.

Even after reading this incredibly sad story, I can’t imagine what life would be like as a young man in New York named “Osama”.

This is a long video, but it’s worth watching if you’re interested or involved in education. It features a democratic school where the students set their schedule, decide the rules, and even elect the teachers!