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

The Alps

It is the last day here in Geneva, Switzerland. Tomorrow, I will be in Paris, France. The mountains here are amazing. Especially in Innsbruck, the mountains were giant walls surrounding the city. In Austria, we stayed at the facilities of the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. While in Austria, we visited the Swarovski headquarters for a lesson in luxury and branding. After the corporate visit we went to their Crystal World museum (aka Kristallwelten)--probably one of the strangest/most interesting places in the world. It was like a cross between a modern art museum, a science museum, and being on LSD (at least what I would expect being on LSD would be like). We spent one afternoon at supposedly the highest mountain lake in Europe while we were in Austria, and then a couple days later we were at another mountain lake in Switzerland as we were passing by on our way to Geneva. Both of these places were astounding and definitely highlights on the trip. In Switzerland, we went to the Nestle headquarters and the WTO headquarters. The only downer about Switzerland are the prices. Just to give you an idea of the prices, a Big Mac costs about $12 USD. Everything else generally seems to cost at least twice of what I would expect to pay for it.

I have tried but am currently unable to post videos of Kristallwelten and the Swiss mountain lake, I'll post that when I can. 

Finally, for Dad--my video of the mountain lake was me saying that I love you and wish you a happy Father's day. Hopefully, I can post it soon. Our bus driver, Ronny, exclusively plays James Taylor on the bus quite often and it always reminds me of driving in the car with you.

The people of Europe

Its been a busy week, an update on Austria is coming, but for now...

My friend Keith and I are having a bit of a competition as we traverse the European continent. We all know that in general Europeans have a greater fashion sense than we do in the US. The game is to get the best photos of the most "fashionable" people of Europe. Here is part of my collection. Keith has some good ones that I missed out on, but I feel like my portfolio is quite solid. Enjoy.


Latvia: With suspenders to support his sweat pants, this man proves that you are never too old to make a fashion statement.

Germany: The beautiful view from the top of the city of Heidelberg. : )

Czech Republic: Sexy Saxman, Sergio Flores, rides a horse-pulled carriage through the historic streets of Prauge

Austria: A tourist from India styles a beautiful orange bandanna at the Swarovski Kristallwelten.

Corporate Visits

Most of what I have mentioned here on this blog has been mostly describing the different cities that I am in, but one of the key elements of this trip has been the corporate visits. The corporate visits are what sets this trip apart. The five that we had in Germany and Prague were particularly good.

We had three corporate visits on our second day in Germany: Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, and a John Deere manufacturing headquarter in Mannheim. The Deutsche Bank presentation was not as inspiring as I was hoping, but the company headquarter building was amazing. It is one of the most state of the art buildings in the world and one of the "greenest" buildings in the world. The ECB was a great presentation. Our presenter was a extremely knowledgeable guy and we all got to discuss some of the recent events in the Eurozone with him such as the sovereign debt crisis and what the ECBs role is in that. This was all stuff that we were talking about in my comparative economics class. We ended the full day with the John Deere visit. I was impressed with the kind of technology they have in their tractor equipment and how much they invest daily in R&D. Probably the highlight of the day was touring their manufacturing facilities. I never thought that I would learn so much here. Every process was evaluated and they seemed to squeeze every bit of efficiency out the facility, even with all the necessary customization. We saw tractors ready to ship to the US, Africa, and all over Europe. 

In Czech, spent the afternoon at StanleyBlack & Decker manufacturing facility. Specifically this facility manufactured DeWalt power tools. These were the tools that I handled on the construction sites a couple summers ago. The expat managers seemed to do a great job of understanding the local environment and adapting to the Czech mindset. Again, their manufacturing processes were managed proficiently. I think that there was a lot of carry over to my global strategy class. Finally, we sat down with an Australian expat who worked for the global marketing firm, DDB. They were responsible for the local add campaigns of companies like McDonald's and Volkswagen. This was our first marketing-centric presentation and it was a solid presentation.

I think that touring these facilities has given me a broader perspective of business and all of the industries that contribute to global business. I have been trying to soak up as much as possible. 

Heidelberg and Prague

Sorry that it has been a while since I’ve updated this blog. By the time I post this I will be in Innsbruck, Austria. The past week and a half has been busy with corporate visits classes and exploring the cities.

Heidelberg was our first stop after we returned from Russia. It has also been my favorite stop until this point.  I am not sure whether to call it a city or a town, but it is a kind of place that I could see myself living in someday. Its home to Germany’s most reputable university. The 5 days that we spent there were just about enough to enjoy everything about this quaint city. I probably logged about 10 miles of walking a day. Our hotel was a few blocks away from the city center. There was a mile long main street that had shops all up and down it. I probably walked this about 4 times a day. As you can perhaps make out in my pictures, the town is surrounded by hills and has a river running through it. Just across the river there is a beautiful path that we hiked up where we could see out over the whole city. A few of us did this at night so that we could watch a fireworks show from above the city. Fireworks shot out of the castle and the bridge—probably the most spectacular fireworks show that I've seen. The day after fireworks, we went to church and then the castle. This great time in Heidelberg does not exclude the great corporate visits we had in Germany. I’ll highlight some of the corporate visits in my next blog tomorrow. (I intend on posting a new post for the next three days. That should make up for the week and a half of nothing).

Prague is another city with a great view from the top. Out hotel was above the main part of town about 30 minutes outside the city center. The walk down into the city is amazing. I did it a couple times on a couple beautiful days. One observation about the service and the people in Prague: I found that at restaurants and stores the people where a bit surly and not helpful. I had a couple bad experiences with unexpected added charges on our bill. Prague was similar to Russia in this way. I've wondered if the lack of good service is a repercussion of a communist past. (BTW note about restaurants in Europe: I'll be happy to get back to the states where water, refills on drinks, and all restrooms are free.) 

Tomorrow, I'll update you on my corporate visits and the next day I'll show you some funny pics from the people, after that I'll let you know what is going on here in Austria. Thanks for reading. Here are some pics.

 Heidelberg: Near the river

 Heidelberg: Our tour guide pointing a stick at a model of the castle

 Heidelberg: view of the city from the castle.

Prague: View as we walked into the city.

Prague: "Little Venice" 

Prague: me in Prague!

From Russia, With Love

So internet has been difficult. I didn't have any while I was in Russia. I am sitting at a Starbucks in the beautiful town of Heidelberg so that I could get internet here to update this blog. I'll say more about Germany later, but since it has been a while here is some experiences from my time in Russia.

Moscow, Russia is a giant city. We could spend an hour on the bus and not even leave the city, and that is when there was no traffic. I was just starting to get the hang of the Russian alphabet as just as we left. For example, the "C" makes the "S" sound and the "P" makes the "R" sound. One of my favorite parts of our time in Russia was going to the Russia IKEA. On this trip we have had a wide variety of corporate visits all of which have expanded my view of all that goes into business and global economics. We had gone to one of IKEA manufacturers in Lithuania, but today we where at the actually IKEA and headquarters for the Russia & CIS region. The Swedish expats that spent the afternoon with us were inspiring and passionate about what they did. We also visited a Mars chocolate factory. We also explored the more historic parts of Moscow including the Kremlin some other major buildings. 

They also have security guards everywhere in Russia. Just about every building has its own security guard. Germany has been a bit of fresh air. Not only is there less security but the people here smile more. 

The Hill of Crosses

Hi everyone,

Thanks for  keeping up with me and my travels. I am on a train right now, recently departed from the Latvian capital, Riga. On the way from Klaipeda, Lithuania to Riga, Latvia, we made on stop at a wonder of the Lithuanian countryside: The Hill of Crosses. I heard that there are over 100,000 crosses on and around this hill. It seemed like there was were much more than that even. Various people have scattered crosses throughout this hill making this such a unique man-made wonder. I was a good reminder of how significant the cross has been in the history of our world. 

 

The Baltic Bash

After a few days in the capital Vilnius, we traveled to Klaipeda, Lithuania. (just a few kilometeres from the Baltic Sea). We are now hanging out at Lithuania Christian College (LCC). We arrived yesterday. Some of the more interesting happenings of the last couple days involved visiting the US embassy in Lithuania, dancing with a group of Polish lawyers, storming a Lithuania castle, and swimming in the Baltic Sea. At this point we haven't had more than a couple hours of class time, but the next few days will be full of classes before we catch a train to Russia. 

Lithuanian is a difficult language. Basically, the only word that I have been able to master in Lithuanian has been "thank you". Communication would be extremely awkward except for the fact that just about everyone younger than 30 speaks English, and most of them speak it quite well. 

Here is a picture of our group standing in front of the presidential palace in Vilnius. It has been fun getting to all these people. Over half of the group is from Messiah college, but there are others from Biola, Olivet, Anderson, Taylor, Milligan, and Houghton. 

Here I am standing in front of the 14th century Trakai Castle. One of our stops between Vilnius and Klaipeda.

This is the Baltic as seen from atop a sand dune. It was about as cold as the Pacific Ocean in Oregon (it will make you legs numb). We could go out really far without the water rising above our knees, subsequently there were not really any waves here. This picture is actually looking out on the small Russian territory called Kaliningrad. I got some dune jumping in. 

-AJW

In Lithuania

As I write this, I am sitting in a bed in a Lithuanian hotel called the Domus Maria ready to recline and sleep in a bed for the first time in over 72 hours. The past three days has been full of traveling, meeting new people, and exploring Vilnius, Lithuania. Traveling was long but palatable because I was able to use that time to sleep, get to know some of the many people I'll be spending the summer with, and I was reading a good book (Captain Blood, thanks Jordi). However, the one piece of unfortunate news is that one of our fellow team members misplaced his passport on the flight to Germany and could not make it to Lithuania with us. Our prayers are with him now, and we are hoping he can work it out to get here by tomorrow.

After our initial orientation. We all got some Lithuanian food, and then a lady named Irena gave us a tour of the historic parts of the city. I am digging the architecture all over the city.

Tomorrow, we'll be at the US embassy here, and we'll initiate the academic portion of the trip.

My Blog

Hello family, friends, and others. This is were you can find updates and pictures of me as I am traveling about. I'll try to post something about a couple times a week or at least between each stay in a country. I am excited for this trip, and I am looking forward to sharing it with you