the paper trail

Last night before watching the inauguration, went to said goodbye to a pal heading "home" to the States after 11 years in shanghai. He's seen the city change and grow about way back when foreigners had it really rough. Before metro and major highways- and maybe bread too? One of my bosses was in shanghai when bread was impossible to find- there were no import markets and china was still 110% china.

We spent part of the evening being human shredders meaning 10 people ripping paper and mixing it thoroughly into several bags, eating pizza, and scavenging his left behinds( I got kleenex, some bins, and a screw driver) We ended the night with a prayer for the future and new beginnings!

Headed to Malone's American Bar to watch the inauguration at about midnight. I was pretty tired, but determined to see what all the hoo-haa was about with Rick Warran and Aretha franklin and a poet that was... interesting. I coudln't believe there were so many folks- 2 miles from the capitol building?? I enjoyed obama's speech and his themes for hope, change, and it seemed honest and realistic that we have to work through what we are presented with. I wasn't a super hardcore obama fan, but didn't hate him either. I think he has a unique opportunity to influence a slightly diff people group than uh..others and it could really make a good impact.

China Central Television, the country's main broadcaster, aired the speech live with a simultaneous Chinese translation.

But when the translator got to the part where President Obama talked about facing down communism, her voice suddenly faded away.

The programme suddenly cut back to the studio, where an off-guard presenter had to quickly ask a guest a question.



In other interests some other tidbits:
-www.chinesetime.com, teaches mandarin via skype, all over the world, and also has a great resource section for practicing
-www.acmebaggage.com, will hope fully be making a comeback soon
-www.whatislovechine.com, looks like an exciting event


peace be with you