Updated

Sorry for the lack of big updates, but at least the weekly gallery is updated. Check 'em out at The Weeklies. Anyway, here is a little sample of things to come.

Prints for Sale

Hello. I hope that this e-mail finds you in good health. It may or may not have been a while since we spoke, but I thought I'd send you a quick notice as to what I've been up to:

I am currently live in China. I moved here 6 months ago and am working here as an English teacher. My plan is to be here for a total of 2 years. Additionally, and more importantly, I have been traveling and taking photos. I invite you all to take a look by going to my website (http://www.dansandoval.com/) and taking a look at some of my most recent work (http://www.dansandoval.com/chinaone/). Some of this work has recently made the cover of Chengdoo Magazine (http://www.chengdoo-magazine.com/) issue 21, which also includes a photo story on Lugu Lake. Also, if you would like to keep track of me on a more day to day basis, feel free to check out my twitter feed (http://www.twitter.com/dandoval/). The main reason for this e-mail, though, is to let you all know that prints of my work are available for sale. If you are interested in purchasing an image, please let me know by e-mailing me (dan(at)dansandoval[dot]com) with the name of the print you are interested in, and what size you would like it to be (you can just say big, med, or small if you are unsure of an exact size). I will get back to anyone who responds as soon as I can. Other than that, most of everything else I have to say can be found on my blog (http://deathtalk.blogspot.com). Feel free to respond and just say hi, if youd like (but please change the subject heading). Feel free to pass this information on to anyone who you may think is interested. Also, if you, or anyone you know of, needs anything related to travel in China for a magazine or... anything, really, let them know as well. Thanks for reading.

 

Dan Sandoval, photographer
www.dansandoval.com

A Letter from the Editor

Dear Blogosphere,
I'm very sorry I have not posted as often as I should have, but I have been slightly busy with other projects. Amongst those projects is the brand spanking new Afterthoughts Podcast. Some of the other projects I've been working on are a little hush hush at the moment, as I'm not completely sure they will ever come to fruition. I find its better to just not say anything than to disappoint. On a side note, I did just get the front cover of Chengdoo Magazine (see the Geese?). Pretty excited about that. I can now officially state that I am an internationally published photographer. They gave me a pretty nice two page spread (not as nice as it could have been, incidentally, but nice, nevertheless). Its a photo story on my travels to Lugu Lake, which borders the Sichuan and Yunan provinces here in China. Please, feel free to download the issue and check it out. As always, if you really like it, send some love (chengdoo[at]gmail{dot}com) to the editors at the magazine and let them know what a fine job I've done. Last thing I want to mention, is that I have posted an archive of all the images from my last journey (sans the self portraits), which you can find at The China One Gallery. Of course, with this update comes the usual weekly photo gallery update (didn't think I'd leave ya with nothing new, did ya?). As usual, click on the image below to go to the gallery. We'll be in contact.

Regards,
Dan Sandoval

Apologies

Sorry for the lack of recent updates. I'll get back on the blog with more info as soon as I get the chance. Meanwhile, just know that there have been a couple of side projects in the works. Check out my twitter (twitter.com/dandoval) for a temporary fix.

The Missing and the End

First off, I’d like to start by apologizing for the extremely late post. Things have been a little hectic as I go back to the day to day affair that is teaching. This post will be wordy. If you don’t like my writing, or happen to be illiterate, just scroll to the image and click on it to see the weeklies. Although, if you happen to be illiterate, you wouldn’t be able to read this anyway, so I guess its just for you lazy haters. This update will be in sections divided by stories, and not chronologically. I will not tell every little detail, I will just relate the adventures I think were of note. The Weekly Gallery will stay the same for 2-3 weeks, at which point I will put up a massive upload of all the choice images from my travels at some soon to be disclosed location.

Edit: I will only do 2 stories for now, and will write more when I have more time. Update just happens to be long overdo, although its not finished yet. Also, it seems I forgot to title the post.

Men With Knives (a.k.a. The Robbery)

It happened in Dali. It was late night, perhaps 2:30 in the am. I had just come back from hanging out at a bar with some friends I made while travelling. I was on my way back to my hostel admiring the sights in the darkness. Dali is an old city. The main part of the city is surrounded by ancient walls that protected the city against any invaders. My friends had chosen to stay at a different hostel than I. Their hostel was very close to downtown, while mine happened to be just outside the city walls. To get outside the walls, you have to walk through a big tunnel that leads beneath the walls. As I entered the tunnel, I noticed a couple guys hanging out at the other end. As I reached about the half way point, they started walking towards me. That’s about the same time I heard someone behind me say “Hello.” It was a friendly hello. The kind of “hello” that you typically hear followed by “where are you from?” I turned around and saw 3 guys. The one that said hello was standing on the right side smiling. Instead of the typical statement, the words following this “hello” were “Please follow.” The other 2 guys had just about reached me at that point, and I began to get an inclination of what was going on. I said to the guy “I am very tired and want to go home.” At that point, the man said something in Chinese, which made his 2 “associates” draw long 8-12 inch knives from beneath their jackets. “Please follow.” I did as I was told.

The men led me just outside the city gate, where they had me stand in (there is no other word for it) a dark corner. The man said “Give money.” I took out my wallet and gave him everything in it: about 400 RMB. I then proceeded to take out my "small money” wallet (where I put in anything under 100 RMB) and handed them another 150ish RMB. The man then said something along the lines of “Don’t hide money, or things go bad.” I decided that money wasn’t worth the risk of getting stabbed to death in a Chinese city, so I opened up my stash and handed it to them. About 490 dollars and another 500 RMB. The guy counted the money. He then took out a 100 dollar bill, two 20 dollar bills, and 300 RMB. He then handed them to me. I was confused. I didn’t understand why he had handed me back some money. He then said something in Chinese to one of the guys, and one of them pulled out a small bottle of bijou (Chinese alcohol. A poor man’s drink) and a glass. A shot was poured, and then handed to me. I don’t normally drink, but I thought to myself ‘If you’re ever going to drink, there seems like no better time than now,’ so I drank. The guy then said “Thank you” to me, took back the glass, and they all walked off, leaving me standing in the dark thinking ‘What the fuck was that?’ I made my way back to the hostel and filled out a police report. Later that night, as I lay in bend, I couldn’t help thinking that it could have gone much worse. I had my camera gear, and they weren’t even interested. They gave me back about 30% of my money. Hell, they even gave me a drink. It dawns to me, looking back at the situation, that is was the best robbery I had ever heard of.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Legend states that a long time ago, a tiger was running from a hunter. As he was running, the hunter managed to corner the tiger and put its back against a large canyon. With nowhere to run, and desperate to escape, the tiger decided to leap over the gorge in order to evade his pursuer. What legend doesn’t say is if the tiger made it or not. I assume he didn’t (its a rather large gorge).

Tiger leaping gorge is located near the lovely city of Lijiang, in the Yunan province of China. The adventure began at 8 a.m. in the morning. A number of us left the hostel and loaded into mini vans for a 2 hour drive to get us to the starting point of what would be a 2 day trek. On the road, I became friends with a couple of really cool cats: 1 woman, from Spain, and 2 girls and 1 guy from France. When we arrived, we were instructed to pay the 85 RMB admission fee, but being a cheat and a no good liar, I decided to try to pass off the good old student I.D. card, which yielded me a 40 RMB discount. So far, so good. There are two routes that lead through the gorge. There is the lower route, which is the route that the majority of Chinese tourists take. This consists of a bus ride to the gorge itself, and a short 2 hour hike down to stand next to it. Chinese tourists have a tendency to be lazy. They go, they pose for a picture (with the mandatory peace fingers), and then they get back on the bus and go about their merry way. Don’t do this route. You’ll miss out on the good stuff. My compatriots and I began the hike taking the high route. The high route, as previously mentioned, takes 2 days of walking, but is definitely worth it. The hardest part is called “28 bends”, but I do believe that the Chinese definition of a bend is different than ours, as I counted more than 35 bends. Reaching the top, though, is amazing. Whenever you are exhausted on a hike and manage to reach the highest point of your trip, it feels incredible. To have that “I’m on top of the world” feeling combined with beautiful scenery… well, you just can’t ask for much more. You get a beautiful vista of the surrounding areas, in addition to having gorgeous snow capped mountains in front of you. At the top, there is also a direct view down into Tiger Leaping Gorge. There was a man at the top who told us that its free to walk to the viewpoint, but if you want to take a photo, you were required to pay 10 RMB. Being the cheat that I am, I took photos and didn’t pay. Shooting from the hip FTW. That night, we slept at The Halfway Guesthouse (which is more than half way). The view there is magnificent. I don’t think I have ever stayed anywhere with a better view from the rooms (see star trail image [10 min exposure f4.0 ISO 200, in case you are wondering]). The next day we hiked down to the gorge itself (6 more hours of walking) and made our way back to Lijiang. All in all, one of the best things I’ve done in China.

Coming soon…

No Money, No Food, But I Can Play Guitar

The Bamboo Sea

Birds, Birds, Birds

En Route: Part Two

Current as of Thursday Jan. 29, 2009. This post will be a big one in the weeklies. Hope you enjoy ‘em. For the most part, I’m letting the photos do the talking in this post (which is probably how you like it, anyway).

This weeks travels have taken me south. I began this session of travels by hitching a ride in a friends car to the city of Xichang in the Sichuan Province. Due to unexpected delays, particularly a nighttime road closure (due to extremely dangerous roads [see weeklies]), we ended up not making it in the same day, and ended up staying in a small town (unsure of its name). The next few days were spent traveling about in the Xichang area taking in some of the local flavors, and having a couple family dinner’s with my friend’s wife’s family. Oh, right, and due to the Chinese new year, I got to blow up tons of fireworks. I must admit, Chinese new years wasn’t the big party I had expected, but instead, consisted of everything closing down for the entire week before, and a variety of small family activities.

2 days after the New Year’s I was off to Lugu Lake (Lugu Hu). On the way there, I met a group of 7 friends with whom I joined in traveling there (lowers costs of activities when you split it 8 ways) All in all, fairly amazing place. I went for a boat ride, saw 2 sunrises, and dropped my hat in the lake (fear not, it WAS recovered). Lastly, I headed to Lijiang on what was supposed to be a 5 hour bus ride, but turned out to be 8. Anyway, enjoy the weeklies. There are quite a few good ones in there, not including the mandatory “I was here” photo.

The Edit

I’ve been recently thinking about my style and my photos. I’ve been considering the idea of going back to doing Photoshop work to my images. I see some of my photos, and I cant help but think how much I could bring out of certain images if I just went into Photoshop and started making adjustments to curves and making masks upon masks. Lately, I’ve been giving you the MOSTLY unedited versions of all of my photographs. The most I have been doing is adding a slight amount of contrast. I feel that this allows you to see the world that I have seen, mostly as it is. The problem, though, is that although many of these photos (I feel) are beautiful, they are not the most that they can offer, and that is the internal debate. I am inclined to continue in my current method, which is mostly unedited, save for slight contrast, mostly because it is more truthful. But if your intention for coming to this blog is to look at pretty photos, and not care about how real they are, maybe I should change it up a bit. Let me know what you think. Anyway, New gallery is going up (old format for now). Enjoy.

En Route

Written Saturday the 17th, regardless of when the update happens. Ill try to cut back on the details, for the most part, as details would make the next few posts incredibly long. The galleries for the next few weeks will contain more images than normal.

Well, I have begun my travels for this vacation period. I have spent the last few days traveling in western Sichuan with 3 travel friends I made in Chengdu. We caught a bus from Chengdu to Danba at 6am Wednesday morning. The bus ride took a total of 13 hours, including a 2 hour stop where the road was closed. The better roads leading to Danba were nothing more than 1 lane of traffic in either direction. The not so good roads were 1 lane dirt roads which hugged dangerously close to the edges of cliffs. All in all, a fun ride.

After the 13 hour bus ride, we arrived in Danba and found ourselves a place to stay at a hostel. Soon after settling in, we went out to find a bit of local cuisine (which turned out to be not-so-special) and had ourselves a meal. Soon after eating, we returned to the hostel. At this point, 3 of us decided to wander about the night streets of Danba. After a slight bit of exploration, and the crossing of a wobbly pedestrian bridge, we made our way back to the hotel and rested.

Then next day was fairly uneventful, except for the climbing of an ancient Tibetan defense tower (see photos in weeklies for more “details”). These ancient structures are fairly well preserved (considering their age), but still dangerous to climb. Other than that, we explored 2 Tibetan villages (Suopo and Jiaju) and ended up in a third village named Zhonglu, where we spend the night.

The 3rd day, I woke up feeling sick, so I got a late start. My 3 companions went off to explore the countryside on their own, while I stayed behind and recovered a bit. I ended up starting my day at almost 1030. Once I got up and going, I wandered about the village of Zhonglu until I came about a house where I heard music coming from within. After standing at the gate for a minute, or so, I was invited to come in. I spent the next 3 hours sitting and chatting in my broken Chinese with the people who lived there. In addition to that, I got to see some of their religious activities. During those 3 hours alone, I felt the most in my element. I was exploring and interacting with the locals the way I like to, which involves spending enough time with them so that they no longer feel awkward with my presence. Eventually, I wandered off and rejoined with my compatriots to have lunch, followed by a hike into the hills.

On the 4th day, the day I write this, we hired a car to take us to another Tibetan town named Badi. Badi, in general, was uneventful, but we did watch the construction of a Tibetan house (to which I helped carry a rock to, Tibetan backpack style). We had the car drive us back to Danba, at which point my partners in travel and I parted ways. I came back to Zhonglu to explore the hills here a bit more, while they head back to Chengdu. I am now here in Zhonglu, writing this just after the sunset while staring up at the sky filled with infinite stars.

Its beautiful out here, and I wish I could share it all, but take what you can get, and enjoy the photos.

Passing the Baton

It seems to me that a good way to start the year, is through exploration, so I did a bit of that this last week. A friend and I went to g gallery of sorts that is currently under construction. After we finished the shoot that we went to do, we began exploring the building itself. The building was designed by a German architect, and is of fairly contemporary design. The really cool thing about the experience, though, was wandering through the innards of this building in progress. I think that one of the most amazing things about the inside was the vast emptiness sad sense of exploration I was experiencing. Wandering through the desolate halls and rooms. Climbing unfinished stairways. testing ground to make sure it was solid. 10 floors of this in q fairly large building is like cave exploration, but urban. It almost felt like we were exploring the ruins of a civilization, but truly, its quite the opposite. We were exploring the birth and growth of civilization. This experience has opened up a desire to do more photography of this nature, and though it wont be often, I assure you, there will be more. In the spirit of it all, I leave you with photos of design and architecture (and a self portrait) for the week.

'Tis the Season

Contrary to what last week’s post may have led you to believe, I am enjoying my time here in China. It is different, and there are things that I have not adapted to yet, but there is still much time for me to learn. Although it is sometimes difficult to adjust to the… lonesome factor, I constantly find myself talking to people. I don’t think that the problem is the lack of people to talk to (at least for me), but the lack of a stable group of people to talk to. People I can relate to. I am constantly making fleeting connections on a daily basis, but very few of the people to whom I give my contact info to will ever actually bother to get in touch with me. It’s not that bad, though, as I do have a few fairly stable friends; I just wish they didn’t live so damn far.

This, I just realized, is my first post of the year. I suppose that this post should set the tone for the rest of the posts this year, but it wont. The coming posts may or may not be of this nature, but who knows. I’ve been toying with the idea of writing these posts in a fashion more befitting of a publication, but that would take away my ability to say what I want, when I want. The more I think about it, the less appealing it sounds, as I am sure that it would lead to a faster death for this blog.

Lets get into a couple resolutions. I suppose one of my new year’s resolutions is to continue this blog in its current format, although I hope to do a slight redesign soon. I hope to have 52 posts for you this coming year (one for each week, for the mathematically challenged). In addition to that, I hope to do something big with my photography. I wont mention specifics right now, but I am currently working on a couple big projects that should come to fruition this year. There are a few more resolutions that I can think of off the top of my head, but we aren’t that close, and even then, what’s a girl without her secrets?

And now, I’ll leave you with a few late comers to the Christmas game, and a few photos from a bar last weekend. I hope you all have a wonderful new years. May you find pleasure in all things you do.

Christmas...

I write this at 12:53 am. It's Christmas. There is no Santa. There is no snow. There are no loved ones. There is no holiday cheer. So tell, is it really Christmas? No. Its just another day. I have come to the conclusion that Christmas is not December 25th. December 25th is just a day. Christmas is friends and family. Christmas is the spirit of goodwill. Christmas is… well, not readily available in China right now.

I wont lie, it has not been the best of weeks for me.

I originally intended this blog post to be about the 4 goats I saw killed on the street here. I intended to discuss the how deadened I was to sight of it. How little it bothered me to see these 4 animals stabbed in the back of the head, only to be laid upon the ground and have their throats slit. The crimson blood draining from their bodies into an awaiting basin. That’s what I intended to write about, but after a week’s worth of other events, I’ve started wondering how deadened I am in general. I just feel… indifferent.

It has been a fairly stress filled week, with little or no time to vent. I’ve been giving my students their finals, which gives me almost no time to do anything else. I have now realized I have too many students (appx. 900), which translates to too many papers to grade.

Additionally, I got some depressing news from a good friend. At first, it didn’t bother me as much as I thought it should have. It was unexpected, but at the same time a known possibility. Like a line drive with a bad bounce: you think something is going somewhere, but it suddenly changes directions. You knew it was possible, but unexpected. For some reason, though, I didn’t really react. I just watched it race right by. Days later, events piled up: loneliness sank in slightly, the weather got colder, and eventually, I must admit, I started feeling a little down, in general. It wasn’t like I was suddenly depressed or anything, but I just slowly started getting into a deeper and deeper slump. And right now, while I am sitting alone in my apartment on Christmas day knowing that in 6 hours I have to be up and teaching and giving tests… well, it makes me feel like I am sitting in a spotlight in a dark theater. I know there are other people out there, but I can’t help but feel alone.

At this point, I feel I should mention that you shouldn’t worry about me. I’m fine, and I’ll always be fine, but my blog exists for me, and I feel like writing all this.

Regardless, I know why you are really here. You want your photo. And that’s okay by me. I like giving it to you. The lead reminds me of better days, and the first few weeklies are part of that.

And Now Presenting...!

I have decided to try something new. For those of you who cant seem to get your Dan photo fix, I have decided to implement a new feature to my website: a weekly gallery! Yay! This gallery is meant to be a flavor of the week, type thing. Usually, the gallery will be of current work, but not always. Yes, it means more work for me sometimes, but it also lets me show you more images than I normally could without cluttering my blog.

From now on, the main Image will link to the gallery. Note that the main image will not always be representative of the gallery.

Keep in mind that there will be a new gallery replacing the old one every week, so no more of this checking once a month business! You snooze, you lose! In case you are not sure, the blog gets updated every Thursday. Sometimes my Thursday, and sometimes yours. Depends on my schedule, but Thursday nonetheless.

If you would like to get to the gallery without having to scroll through my (admittedly) sometimes annoying posts, feel free to cruise to it directly at http://www.dansandoval.com/weekly.

Lastly, if you like the idea, or like the images, please let me know via the comments. Even though I do this for me, its nice to know that someone, besides me, looks at it every now and again.



P.S. Lets see how long I manage to keep this gallery thing going…

It's in My Bones

I can feel it. Whenever I leave my house, it is there. Whenever I stray too far from the comforts of my desk and bed, it is there. It’s a sinking cold that seems to just crawl into the deepest warmth you have. Chengdu is nestled in mountains, and though I may have mentioned it before, one of the things it is known for is its lack of sunlight. Chengdu tends to have overcast skies throughout winter, as is the city that gets the least amount of sunlight per year. Its not that the sun is not there, but it is obstructed by the giant diffuser in the form of overcast skies. To give you an idea of how little direct light makes it to the surface here: I’ve come to notice that my students consider it sunny if they cast any type of shadow.

Being from Los Angeles, at first it was a little depressing. For the most part, though, I’ve learned to deal with it. The only thing that I have trouble getting past, though, is the lack of warmth that comes from the sun. Like I previously stated, its USUALLY not cold enough for me to feel like I’m going to freeze to death in an instance, but its more of a slow cold. It’s the type of cold that sneaks up on you, and the next thing you know, you are getting sleepy and tired as your system shuts down into a sleep you will never awaken from. Okay, so I’m being melodramatic, but it really is a cold that you don’t exactly notice at first.

Most of the time, when I go somewhere that I consider cold, I walk around for a bit, and not too much later, I’m used to the temperature difference. Here, it is the opposite: I walk outside and think to myself ‘Oh, its not too cold today. I can go out without the heavy jacket!’ But as I walk around, it slowly sinks into me. I don’t notice it for a while, usually, but then, I suddenly will realize how cold I feel. And by then, its not the kind of cold that throwing on an extra layer can get rid of. No, its the cold that can only be taken away by sitting in front of a heater for a nice long while, or taking a long hot shower, or even just curling up under some blankets and watching T.V. for a bit.

Anyway, keep that in mind when traveling to China in the winter. Oh, and here is some advice that applies to both Photoshop and cold: Layers are your best friends.

Disclaimer: No layers were involved in the making of this image.

Rat Tat Tat

One of the things people tend to overlook in China, is the huge subcultures that exist here. When we think China, we, of the western mind, are led to believe that China is a largely impoverished place where people live as poor farmers. Not true at all. What we hear of even less, is large amount of people that are a lot like us.

Last weekend, I went to a… bar, for lack of better words, where a guy I know was playing drums. What he does is play drums on stage with a DJ mixing. Its like a DJ/Drum band. Pretty cool stuff, and you have to be a pretty good drummer to be able to improvise and have enough changes so it doesn’t get repetitive. I was fairly impressed. He was honestly one of the best live drummers I’ve seen, which is not something we readily think of when we think of China. We don’t think of the skateboarders here, but skate they do. We don’t think of the rock guitarists here, but man can some of these guys play. We don’t think of the cafes, but there are some people that really love their coffee. All we really focus on is the vast number of people and the fact that the government here is communist.

Truth be told, we are often led to believe by our media that China is nothing like America, and in some ways, that is true. People don’t always have the same freedoms we do, but Ill tell you what they do have: people here wont often run into people that are highly impoverished. There isn’t the giant gap between the poor and the rich that we tend to see in the states. Most people are happy here. They don’t tend to complain about the government or their lifestyle. I don’t see many people that live on the streets here. I don’t see many people begging for money. These things that are so common in America are not as common here. So perhaps we westerners criticize the Chinese for their iron grip on the people, but the truth is, that iron grip isn’t usually that noticeable, but the results of it are.

On Their Minds

This last week there was an art exhibition at my school. I am not sure what grade level(s) the art belonged to, but it was on display in the area of the junior students (grade 7 and 8). As I casually looked at some of these works, I thought to myself that some of it was pretty decent, but the more I looked, the more involved some of this work became. A quick detour:

Some of you recall the big earthquake that happened in China earlier this year. For those of you who don’t, Ill sum it up: a 7.9 earthquake shook southwest China. It decimated towns, and killed over 60,000 people, and left hundreds of thousands missing, injured, and/or homeless. The earthquake was so strong that it was felt in Beijing and Taiwan. There are cities where over 80% of the buildings were destroyed. One of those cities happens to be near what is considered the capital of Southwest China, Chengdu. Chengdu is the city where I live. The city nearby that was demolished by the earthquake is named DuJiang.

DuJiang was one of the cities that had the highest death/injury tolls, and left the majority of structures there in ruins. Reconstruction is under way, but many of the people there are still living in temporary shelters.

Now, if your short term memory is not as bad as mine, you will recall that I began this post talking about art. Lets go back to that. As it turns out, a fair number of the students that attend my school call DuJiang home. The more I looked at some of the art, the more I realized what these children had been exposed to. Truly, this must have been a traumatizing experience for them, as is shown through their art. I cannot know the intensity of the emotions that lie beneath their skins, but I truly feel sympathy, as children should never have to live and see what some of them have lived and seen. It is a harsh reality in which we live, and children ARE exposed to such tragedy (daily in some places which are ravished by war). This week, I have decided to show you some of their art. I apologize for the bad copy art, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances. Click on the image to go to an album with more images. I’ve used flickr for this album, as it is easier to deal with when it comes to albums.

The Ups and Downs

We all occasionally feel the need for home. I think it is something innate within us all. Whether we come from some little country home, or a big city bustle, if we have gone away, we always have moments where we remember the good things of home, and wish, if only for a few minutes, that we could return to that place in our memories.

It could be that these moments happen more frequently when you first move away, and given that I've only been away for about 5 weeks now, I find it hard to speak of how I will feel in the long run, but I have definitely had a few of these moments. Sometimes I miss the sunshine, other times its a good burger, and occasionally, I even miss the traffic in L.A. (which is VERY different than Chinese traffic)

So what do I do when these moments arise? Do I pack my bags and head home? Of course not. Instead, I search for something that is related to home. On a sunny day, rare as they are, I bask in the light when I'm not teaching. Soaking in the rays of warmth as I play my guitar. Some days, I turn the television onto the English channel and let it talk away in the background. Sadly, there are times where I give in to the devil known as McDonalds, just so I can have something that is truly like home (although its not QUITE the same).

On the other hand, the longer I am away, the less I have this feeling of the NEED for the comforts of home. The more accustomed I become to the daily differences of China. Differences like the weather here (which is a big one for me), the lack of availability of non-Chinese foods, and the lack of English speaking people. Now, I realize that form some people this can be very daunting, but for me, it just sometimes sucks. So to ease the difficulties I face, I tend to fall into habit. In a way, I am creating comfort zones. I will visit the same restaurants, as I know that I like the food there, and I know that they know what I want to order. I will stay at the same hostel when I go into town, as they know me there (part of it is also that its the best hostel in town and the people that run it are the best). These little things make my life here a lot easier to deal with on a day to day basis.

One of my more usual activities in China, is going to a bar near the heart of Chengdu. The name of the bar is Lotus Palace, and it is an awesome environment. As most of you know, I don't really drink alcohol, but its not the spirits that attract me; it's the vibe. The people that go to the Lotus Palace are usually... upper middle class. The entertainment, which includes American rock, hip hop, and country covers, Chinese singing (which gets the crowd really going), belly dancers, and fire juggling behind the bar, is top notch. But most of all, its the friendliness of the people in attendance that I enjoy. People are always trying to start up conversation, and regardless of the language barrier, you end up having a great time by conversing using your hands and broken "Chinglish". All in all, I'd say the place is great, although somewhat on the pricey side. Anyway, I'm through with this post. They say a picture is worth a thousand words (although market rates beg to differ [photos are worth far less than that. I previously worked for a magazine, which pays $.25/word which yields a photo to be worth... $250 if we go in accord to the old saying. This magazine tends to pay $75.00/photo; significantly less than the value attributed by whomever made the saying up {possibly Fred R. Bernard?}. /sadface]) so I will leave you with an image from my Halloween at the Lotus Palace. Enjoy.

Twitter for Dan

Hmmm... so I've decided to make a twitter account. Ill use it a lot if I can get it to work with my Blackberry from China. If I can't, then it wont see much use, as the only reason I can really think of wanting to use it is to state something on the fly. Anyway, the address for it is http://twitter.com/dandoval. Well see how it goes.

In The Trenches

See that view? Its the view from my window as I write this. I'm in China. I have been here for a few days, but I have been to lazy to post my initial reaction to arriving here. Its very difficult to make myself do anything when I don't have the Internet in my apartment. I mean, even writing this blog post seems semi futile, as who knows when it will actually get posted. But at least you know it has been written. At least I know it has been written. Losing productivity is not what I want to happen here. I have to keep myself busy.

Well, after being here a few days, I have come to discover what is hardest about being here: I have no one to talk to most the time. I feel as if I have taken a vow of silence at times. I find myself trying to have conversations with cab drivers that don't understand what I am saying. I find myself trying to start conversations with every foreigner I see. I know, I have only been here 4 days, and last time I was here for 5 weeks, but this time, I am alone. I have no companions to speak with. Also, I am not as central in the city, which means that there are fewer English speaking Chinese here, and less foreigners. I am pretty sure that the hardest part of this is the transition, but it does get pretty bad. Right now, music is my biggest friend.

I think once I get the internet in my room, things will become much easier. Oh, on a side note, I fried my 360 power supply when I plugged it in, as I stupidly forgot that they use 220v of power as opposed to our 110v in the states.

Check In

Well, this is my final blog post from the U.S. for a while. My plane leaves tonight at 145 am. I may not have an immediate update to my blog, as I don't know how long it will take me to set up my interweb there. I must admit,  I am anxious and excited about leaving. I am saddened to leave some of my closest friends behind. People I have known for over 10 years, and some I have known for less, but are, by no means any lesser friends. I am leaving my family behind, which I know I will feel the most around the holidays. I hope to hear from all of you. I hope that when I return, we find each other again.

Morning

(this is part of the Eastern Sierras series of images)

We camped at Tom's Place. Well, not exactly, but near it. Tom's Place is just North of Bishop along the 395. You can find it on a map fairly easily. The name of the campsite, was Aspen Grove. That place is beautiful. As we were driving there, we were making plans relating to waking up before sunrise in hopes to get me to a place where I could shoot sunrise. When we arrived at the campsite at midnight, we began to doubt that it was going to happen. When we went to bed at 3am, we knew it wasn't going to happen. Instead, we made plans to get up at 7. As we dozed off, the night got colder and colder, until the point in which I decided to bury myself in a sleeping bag like a caterpillar in a cocoon. Even the best plans fail. Luckily, we only slept in until 8am.

Soon after we got up, the sun started creeping over the nearby mountains and shining light into our campsite. Just as the sun peeked over the peaks, our campsite lit up with the glow of a million glowing aspen leaves. Its funny how warm direct light from the sun can be. As we began packing our tent, and boiling water, I picked up my camera and began shooting. Its hard to describe in a photo the beauty of that glow.  The feeling of warmth as the first rays of sun light hit you on a cold morning. Its as if the whole world woke up with the sun.