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A special note on Chinese Democracy & Fairness.

We produced a stellar video: http://blog.johnmizell.com/2009/03/31/recruitment

For a competition that they created: http://blog.johnmizell.com/2009/05/29/vote-for-hohhot

In order to develop free marketing for their school (which they still use): http://www.astonrecruiting.com/hohhot-aston.html

The competition developed:

*PICTURES TO COME SOON*

And then we were disqualified: http://blog.johnmizell.com/2009/07/05/taking-my-leave

… I’m not bitter.

I’m still disappointed in Aston English Schools.

*From the Archive*

After some discussion with my employer, it’s been decided I will take three weeks of leave prior to starting my bicycle trip through south China.  I think this will ultimately be good.

- and that’s the news.

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)

Aston Corporate has finally put it’s pieces together and erected a live voting site for the various recruitment videos regions have put together. Remember ours, way back at the end of March? Here’s another look if you’ve forgotten.

Now we’re going to need your Honest To Goodness Opinion and a couple clicks with a pointer in your favorite browser.

HERE
We are nestled up here in the North, so look for Hohhot under the North and South Region category (yeah, I know, way to use your brain grouping school Aston, but go with it.) If you click on the link to view the video it will bring you back here. But go for it. Then We’ll need you to click-click-click-a-roo and then tell your friends.

This IS a competition for hard earned Chinese dolla-bills. So it’s serious. Remember. Don’t finish reading this, instead click
HERE