The Last Adventure of the Summer

The summer has officially ended for me. I am in Cedarville, Ohio creating a home of my new apartment. Classes begin in less than a week, and there is still much to do over the next few days, but I am mentally ready.

The readiness that I feel for this new semester would not have been possible if it wasn't for some quality time at home in the great Northwest. Flying over the Cascades has never been more beautiful and refreshing then after 10 weeks of traveling the globe. Because of my usual bad luck with flight delays, I didn't get home until over 40 hours after landing in the US. However, that dazzling descent into PDX energized me--so much so that 8 hours later I was in the Columbia River Gorge hiking near a waterfall with my old pal Jordi Bright. What was about to happen next was not the welcoming home that I was looking for...

We forged a trail around the edge of the waterfall to reach its summit so that we could continue up the river. However, just as were about to reach the top of this treacherous trail, I was welcomed by an angry nest of bees/wasps/hornets (or some kind of stinging creature). After being stung about 5 times, it was time for me to turn around. Yet as I quickly turned, I slipped. The hill we climbed was steep, and as I fell, I knew that there was a very good chance that I was going to be in really bad shape or even worse...but, praise the Lord, I was saved by a tree half way down before I reached the most dangerous part of the decent. To say that was a tree would not be exactly correct. It was a cluster of five little trees ascending from the ground like fingers of a hand, waiting to catch me before I made impact at the base of the waterfall. Never have I been so grateful to be alive. Jordi had to endure an even worse attack of bees as he carefully climbed down after me. Above is a picture of my back with evidence of rolling into a tree.

The rest of my time at home was not so severe but also full of adventure. Jordi and I did actually get a good hike in the following weekend climbing up the creek that feeds into Bridal Veil Falls. I enjoyed making music with my other old pal and Cedarville roommate, Andrew Moses and his band. (Playing the saxophone was one of the greatest things that I missed while on IBI, and it was the first thing that I did when I got back home). I even enjoyed quality time uniting with my family. I praise the Lord for the blessings of the beauty and amazing people that surround the place that I call home.

China (The end of IBI)

Due to the Great Firewall of China, I was not able to access this blog during my 2 weeks there. China likes to control the media in order to prevent mass opposition to the communist government. Economically, China has embraced most of the tenets of capitalism. However, I was surprised to discover that there are still many ways that government still believes in communism. Lack of free speech (i.e. media) is one of these ways. So Facebook,  Twitter, and Blogger were not options while I was there.

               

In China, we spent a few days in Shanghai, over a week in Dalian, and a few days in Beijing.

               

When I looked at my IBI itinerary before this trip, Shanghai was near the top of my list of places that I was eager to see. This was because of all the pictures I’ve seen of the cityscape of Shanghai. Shanghai may be the most amazing and beautiful city around. It is home to some of the world’s tallest and most unique skyscrapers which reflect their colorful lights off the Yellow River below. This entire metropolitan area basically sprung up in the last 15 years. This is a testament to the aggressive role of the government in planning the future of the city as well as rapid economic emergence of China. China and India are often compared to each other, but being in Shanghai makes this comparison seem silly. China’s infrastructure is much more developed than India’s. Our group went to the top of the world’s third tallest building in Shanghai.

We took a train from Shanghai to Dalian on the same day and, in fact, about an hour after there was a devastating train crash in China. We mostly had class in the hotel that we were staying in. Dalian gives some perspective on how many people live in China. Even though I have never heard of Dalian and even though it is about the 20^th largest city in China, it is home to more people than all US cities except for NYC.

Our trip culminated in the capital, Beijing—a city that should probably hold the title of “counterfeit capital of the world”. I was impressed at how much fake stuff you can buy in Beijing—basically anything, even electronics. About 15 of the other IBI students picked up some trendy counterfeit Dr. Dre Beats headphones for about 10-20% of what they would cost in the states. They even sounded pretty good and many of the people who bought them were convinced that these headphones were real. They did not sound quite like $350 headphones, but it took us about 30 minutes of research to finally determine that they were fake—a testament to the amazing abilities of Chinese counterfeiters. The best part of Beijing was the Great Wall. It was the second world wonder that I saw on this trip. A solid number of us made it to the top of the hill. It was a challenging climb on a hot, dry day.   

                It seems that about once a week I have a special experience that I would classify as a highlight of the trip. Looking back, climbing the Great Wall will be one of the highlights of the trip. Among these highlights are: the Taj Mahal and rickshaw rides in India, the cruise to London, running to the beach at the Hague in Netherlands, outdoor concerts in Paris, mountain lakes in Switzerland and Austria, walking up the Philosophers Way in Heidelberg, Germany and seeing fireworks from the top of the city, the Hill of Crosses and swimming in the Baltic in Lithuania.

                   

What an amazing experience! I am finally back at home now and enjoying the Northwest for the next few days before I return to Cedarville to finish my undergraduate education. Thank you all who cared to read my blog as I enjoyed this journey. I plan on maintaining this blog as an outlet for my thoughts on other things in life. So there may be more to come.

 Shanghai at Night

 Chinese men like to where there shirts like this on hot days, especially if they have round bellies.

 The Great Wall: almost at the top of the hill. 

The Great Wall: Celebrating at the top.

Delhi and the Taj Mahal

Here is a pictorial update of my happenings this last week.

In Agra in front of one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Monkey hanging out behind the Taj Mahal.

We got to ride rickshaws through the crowded marketplace. Definitely a highlight from India.

A man "charming" a snake. There were a couple guys like this and some guys with monkeys that wanted money from  the people on our bus.

I'm in front of one of the many impressive buildings in Delhi. This is a tomb of a Mogul emperor and is an inspiration for the Taj Mahal. I found that the best buildings in Delhi where built by Muslims.

Contrast

                The past week has been full of contrast and contradiction. Not long ago, I was taking a cruise from Rotterdam, Netherlands to the UK. It was the perfect way to cap off our European tour. We basically had three free days in London—no classes, no corporate visits, and everyone speaks English. It was the perfect formula for relaxation and reinvigoration.

                The last week of this trip has been nothing like London. This last week, I have been four and a half time zones away in Chennai, India. While our group was receiving our orientation speech in preparation for our time in India, I tended to have more optimistic of what Chennai would be like. I figured it would be like any other modern metropolitan city with large buildings everywhere and nice paved roads with sidewalks. I was surprised. As I looked out the window from our bus as we drove from the airport to our hotel, I was surprised by the shacks, the rubble, and the trash. Cows still roam free and people enjoy using the side of the road as a restroom.

                While the contrast between London and Chennai seemed great, I think the greater contrast could be found in Chennai itself. Along the same stretch of road from the more central part of the city to our hotel were the large regional headquarters of some of the world’s leading IT companies. In the same city, there are signs of the third world country that India is transitioning out of and the modern country that they transition toward.  

                 This part of the trip necessitates a whole change in mindset. I have enjoyed my time here in India for different reasons than Europe. From an economic and business perspective, it is exciting to see how rapidly this country is changing and how much opportunity there is in India. People are coming out of poverty and seeking new kinds of opportunity.

                I have much that I could say about all the different experiences that we have had here which I probably would have written out if we weren’t so immersed in class work at the same time, but I think that I should finish by noting the hospitality of the people here. The service that we receive at the hotel and when we go out to stores has been unrivalled by anywhere we have been. We have been served Coke and snacks at every corporate visit and everyone seems excited to have us around (they make us take a lot of group pictures). At the GEM Granite corporate visit they took us to the owner’s private beach, and they cut open some coconuts for some coconut milk.

                Right now I have just about finished my global marketing class and get to enjoy the next five days in India class-free—a trip to Delhi and the Taj Mahal to come in that time. We will be in China in a week and the International Trade and Finance course begins then. 

Cows taking a stroll down the street. We don't eat cows here in India. 

On the Indian ocean.

I took this picture from our bus.

London

I have been writing a blog post about the last week that has ended up being pretty long. I decided to split it up. Here is an short update on London which will be an intro for my next post to come in a couple days. 

London is another city with a lot of history and a lot to see. London is also an expensive city. However, the best things to see in London are free. The British Museum was a highlight. I enjoyed it even more than the Louvre in Paris. It is full of artifacts from every time period and every major culture. The very first artifact that one will run into as you enter the exhibits is the Rosetta stone. I could literally reach out and touch 4,000 year old statues—although, they don’t like it when we touch the artifacts. Another amazing and free museum was the Imperial War Museum. In this museum I could probably find almost every weapon, uniform, and vehicle used in the wars of the past century and a half. Both the British Museum and the Imperial War Museum cannot be fully experienced in a day or perhaps even in a week. Finally, since we had subway passes, my friend Ben and I decided to take a short trip outside the main city to Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal FC. Even though the stadium stood bare, I enjoyed that opportunity to stand at the stadium of a world class team. For Ben, who is a diehard Arsenal fan, I think the trip was more than just enjoyable.  I am finding that tagging along with friends has proven to be a good way of discovering great things on this trip. I doubt that I would have gone to any of the places that I have mentioned if it wasn’t for just joining others. 

The famous picture

When in Paris, there is that one picture that every visitor must take. As you may observe below, I got my picture on a boat. We've been on quite a few boats on this trip. Tomorrow will be the best boat experience yet as I cruise from Holland to England overnight. I believe that this will be the second time in my life that I have cruised to England as I have good memories from when I was about 5 years old cruising from Portugal to England. This cruise will be a bit shorter and probably not as nice, but still a highlight of the trip. 

Anyway...back to Paris. After the first hour in Paris, I discovered that in this city one could spend a couple week before they see all the sights--especially if you have my propensity to get lost. Our group actually almost didn't get a hotel in Paris as this year we went in the same week as the Paris airshow and all the hotels are either double the price or booked. However, Dr. LaFrance was able to work some  magic to apparently get a good deal on a hotel that was in a pretty good location. While in Paris, I finished my last big project for my global strategy class. So, I won't have to really worry about school work until I'm in India. I also decided that it was time for a haircut and what better place than Paris.

We basically had a couple free days in Paris. On one day I check out the Louvre. They say that if you spend a minute or two checking out each work of art it would take six weeks to tour the whole museum. Half the painting that I remember seeing in my humanities book are contained in this building, including the Mona Lisa. The scene in front of the Mona Lisa is more like a mosh pit at a hard core rock show than an art museum--definitely the main attraction. The next night was the Paris's Fete de la Musique. Basically, certain side of the city you could could literally find a free concerts going on every block--all kinds of music too. There were a few good shows that I hung out around for a while, one of them was a jazz quintet which was good, but it made me miss my saxophone : ( . 

So right now I am at the Hague in the Netherlands. It is a good change of pace from Paris because by the last day I was ready to be someplace with less people and a place that did not seem so commercial. The first night here I went on a beautiful run down to the beach nearby. It was a refreshing time just to be by myself and reflect. The next night I did the same run with some friends. We visited Shell and Ahold corporate offices. The Shell visit in particular was especially intriguing. We met with Jeremy Bentham, the VP of Global Business Environment. He basically heads up the research that informs Shell about the future of energy and gives the action plan for that future. He had a lot of good insight especially because he was Christian who had a good perspective on life and was excited about integrating his faith where he worked. 

The Famous Picture in front of the Eiffel Tower

Picture taken while waiting in a long line at the Louvre.

Me in front of a Dutch windmill. (with a box of juice sneaking in the picture)

Swarovski and Happy Fathers Day