Posts from — June 2009

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Project Loki, as named sometime after we started work on it, was a work put together in less than three days and with a supprisingly minimal amount of man hours.  It was well focused and executed.  We only sustained minor injuries, and, as WE believe, yielded fantastic results.  I hope you enjoy & please share.

P.S. .. someone ask Franti if I can use his song for this.. I forgot to mention it last time we spoke.

In Other News:

Dan and I acquired our bicycles today, ordered saddle bags, planned our detailed route, and have confirmed another couple of hosts along the way.  More news to come as we create it.

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A while back we set out on a plan to enhance our neighborhood, now that it was finally spring time.  I’d say we accomplished our goal, 60%.  That’s more than half.  There’s still hope, but then again, winters are harsh here.  I who knows.  Perhaps turtles will find a new home beneath the public waters.

We’re closer to knowing our specific plan for the end of our stay here in China and as you may know it involves two bicycles (or one tandem bicycle), close to 2000 km of Chinese road, and my mustache with the possibility of a penguin suit or many multiples of dozens of California Flags.

Here’s the scoop:

After a short sit down and a long (more than necessary waiting period) with our school they finally understand our time line.  Essentially, we are quitting one month prior to classes ending and this upset them more than a little.  However, ‘surprise’ shouldn’t be a word they use when telling the story.  As eager and enthusiastic employees, I consider ourselves as open and honest individuals who strive to speak our minds when someone is listening.  And a yearning for adventure coupled with a semi-long list of grievances turned out to be a perfect mixture for my rational psyche, so we quit.  :)  And I feel great!  However, in an attempt to not land the company in ruin, we’ve negotiated a plan which will condense our final two months of teaching into one, July.  This in many respects will be hard, frustrating, and generally a nuisance, yet, in many respects too, it will be refreshing to find the time I’m using here productive.  Instead of a steady on/off schedule, with breaks for little more than a rest and a bit of travel, we’ll now have a heavy load, followed by a delightful vacation and journey.  And so it goes, as my lame duck attitude slowly filters through my teaching becomes better and my energy level increased, followed closely by my happiness.

So, let’s talk August.

Our last day in Hohhot will be the 29th.  That night we’ll take a plane into Shanghai where we will hopefully have a package awaiting us, full of two bicycles.  We’ll assemble the bicycles and collect any necessities that day as well as rest a bit.  The 31 we’ll pack our things and start riding.  We’ve assembled a comprehensive list of supplies and put together a reasonable itinerary (of which we’ll post so as to be prepared for another Mongollon situation-see previous entry under Arizona).  We anticipated doing a mixture of couch surfing and road side camping along the way.  We’ve got a road atlas, a compass, and the requisite Chinese language skills to a) read the majority of signs, b) ask for directions, c) call a friend who will remotely act as an interpreter.  I think as well put all the pieces together we’re going to be quite prepared and quite energetic to get going on the road.

Hopefully, after we depart Shanghai, some 25 days later we’ll arrive in the wonderful city of Hong Kong for a bit of touring, relaxation, and sight seeing.  We’ve scheduled our flight back to the US from Hong Kong for August 27 (hopefully that wasn’t suppose to be a secret, because now it’s not).  I arrive in Los Angeles 3 hours later.

It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long of a trip.  Hopefully I’m not forgetting to do anything while I’m out here…. I’ve already brushed my teeth.

In preparation for a month on the road I’m migrating my webposts to something which is accessible online. While I still have one month to prepare for this reality, I will be blogging from the new site in the mean time in order to break in the new system and work out all the kinks. The neat part is I’ve also migrated all of my previous blog entries, and some of the comments onto the new site (minus those found in these posts.) Hopefully by the end of the month I’ll have all of these posts migrated as well, as well as the new podcast address up and working.
That new site is the root of this one. Simply
http://www.thecalifornias.org
*modified from theCalifornias to JohnMizell.com

Q) Why did you move away from Blogger in the first place?
A) Blogger is unreliable in China. When we first arrived it was blocked, then it was allowed again, and now it’s blocked again. So rather than mess with email posts and frustration with media uploads I moved to the computer based iWeb platform. It worked well enough, minus a couple of SNAFUs I enjoyed using it.
Q) Why are you changing sites again?
A) As noted in the message above, I want to be able to update my site while on the road. I cannot do that using iWeb, so I must migrate to a new system.
Q) What system are you using? Where is it?
A) I’m using a server-side client called WordPress. It’s a blogging platform that is widely used and supported. While I only have about 2 weeks expierence working with it, it seems like a robust program that may in fact replace my use of iWeb in the future. However, only time will tell.
Q) How did you get to be so awesome?
A) Practice.
If you’ve got any other questions, or see an errors I don’t seem to be fixing, let me know.
(Photo: A Pagoda of Chairs I constructed as part of my children’s English lesson)

Imagine … no, believe this all happened.  Now close your eyes. (hopefully someone is reading this aloud).

Your buddy had this box in his driveway.  It’s a big crate looking thing.  It’s all wooden.  He/she’s standing there with a crow-bar and saying, “go ahead, open it.  have a look.”  The temptation overwhelms you, you’re soaked.  You look up to find it’s raining.  It’s been raining, but you hadn’t noticed, you just thought you perspired a lot.  You tear away at the crate.  Your anticipation catches up with your sense and you mash your finger.  The blood diluted by the buckets falling over your head only remind you of the humanity in all this emotion.  The box finally falls open and you wake up a week later, still wet with excitement.

You get a call while you’re at work.  You make a few promises about meeting up after and completely muff up the time.  You’re off by an hour and your phone rings reminding you of your mistake for an hour.  The minute strikes and you are in and out of the elevator like an Aerosmith quickie.  The taxi delivers you right to where you last left the box and there she is.  Waiting, as any good friend would.  There are some negotiations, but at last you’re a priority, so you’re one of the four.  A seat at the front.  The green metal wraps around your body, almost form fitted.  Your knees are on your chest and seem to pulse with each heart beat, but this seems all too natural.  Once started, there is no undoing.

The Chinese motor runs loud, and it’s close to your ear.  The road runs below your feet, only inches away.  Bugs fly through your teeth, and the wind whistles through your ears.  It’s tough to imagine a better hobby.  It’s truly fantastic.

Really it was a great way to see the city on a warm night. Four little ducks sitting on a fast moving bike.  Thumbs were going up all over, I couldn’t keep track. & every taxi driver was our new friend.  Dan now needs to have a serious talk with some friends of his regarding legitimacy. Because I proclaim it Bay Area Perfect.