I never thought I’d say this, but Rochester, New York is a pretty cheery place, or at least it seems that way after spending two days in the bustling metropolis of Potsdam*. No offense to the denizens of the village or the students and faculty of Clarkson University, but seriously, your town ranks pretty high on the “lame places of america” list. Between the weather, the architecture, and the total lack of anything other than a gas station and two pizza places in the surrounding environs, Potsdam’s dreary tops Rochester’s ten times over. We spent a day and a half in Potsdam completing paperwork, learning incidental Chinese, and “team building.” Especially satisfying was being given the rare opportunity to apply one’s Beakman’s World skills to balance 13 screws on the head of one screw. According to precedent, this activity is supposed to take an hour or so. What they failed to consider though, is that when you get a group of eight serious nerds together, the chances are pretty good that at least one of them woke up at 6:30 AM on Saturday mornings to watch a green-frocked professor and a guy in a rat suit talk about science. The challenge took us about thirty seconds.
Even though we were driving to the alleged stronghold of crappiness, at least according the writers of South Park and most of the members of my a cappella group (the Twilight Wanderers, find us on MySpace!) Canada is a breath of fresh air. The fresh air may smell weakly of pine trees and ham-like bacon, but after Potsdam, who cares? Unfortunately, we’re only here for another 5 hours or so, so I won’t get the chance to go find a source of poutine, the uniquely Canadian combination of French fries, cheese curds, and beef gravy that I desperately want to try. Instead it’s looking like we’re going to stay here at the Monterey Inn and watch the Nuggets lose. Hopefully I’ll find a place to post in China soon after we arrive. Once I confirm that the government doesn’t block Blogger**, then I can actually send this URL to some people. Not that I mind my only reader being my girlfriend Marie, but it’ll be nice to spread the word a bit. That’s all for the western hemisphere, now onward and eastward.
-Jimmy
*This is not the Potsdam of WWII conference fame. That Potsdam is in Germany, though it leads one to wonder how history might be different had Stalin, Truman, and Churchill met in upstate New York. They’d probably have beaten those former Nazis up even more, if only because they’d be in a foul mood.
**They do.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Disoriented...again
This is all Google's fault.
I also partially blame the rise of wireless internet, because it makes it possible for someone like me to immediately obtain pages of information based on whatever crazy idea happens to start rattling around in my head like a BB in a tuna can. Following last summer's adventure in Thailand (and subsequent jaunt to Korea in the fall), I figured I'd give Asia a break for a while. However, a crappy job market and a propensity for mindless internet browsing led me to find a new job for this summer, this time in Dalian, China. Go figure.
For those who don't know me, my name is James (Jimmy) Trescott. For those who do know me, you'll all be quick to notice that my name is not really Jimmy Trescott. However, due to the reputed impenetrability of the Great Firewall of China, I've decided to write this new blog under a pseudonym to escape any possible problems that might come up because of the C-word (starts with a "c" and rhymes with "gensorship"). I have no idea how much of an actual problem this is in China, since I'm typing this initial entry from my kitchen at home, but come on, how cool is it to use a fake name to escape the clandestine gaze of "the man"? I don't know when I'll have another excuse to ghost write anything, so I'm ghost writing while the ghost writing's good.
I'll be heading out in about nine hours for middle-of-nowhere upstate New York (2.5 hour drive with mom, 1 hour flight, 1 hour cab ride). From there, I'll drive to Ottawa before flying to Beijing via Toronto. After the required Great Wall/Forbidden City visits, it's on to Dalian for the rest of the summer. I will post again as soon as I figure out internet connection details, but hopefully it won't take too long for me to figure something out.
Till then, cheers,
-Jimmy
I also partially blame the rise of wireless internet, because it makes it possible for someone like me to immediately obtain pages of information based on whatever crazy idea happens to start rattling around in my head like a BB in a tuna can. Following last summer's adventure in Thailand (and subsequent jaunt to Korea in the fall), I figured I'd give Asia a break for a while. However, a crappy job market and a propensity for mindless internet browsing led me to find a new job for this summer, this time in Dalian, China. Go figure.
For those who don't know me, my name is James (Jimmy) Trescott. For those who do know me, you'll all be quick to notice that my name is not really Jimmy Trescott. However, due to the reputed impenetrability of the Great Firewall of China, I've decided to write this new blog under a pseudonym to escape any possible problems that might come up because of the C-word (starts with a "c" and rhymes with "gensorship"). I have no idea how much of an actual problem this is in China, since I'm typing this initial entry from my kitchen at home, but come on, how cool is it to use a fake name to escape the clandestine gaze of "the man"? I don't know when I'll have another excuse to ghost write anything, so I'm ghost writing while the ghost writing's good.
I'll be heading out in about nine hours for middle-of-nowhere upstate New York (2.5 hour drive with mom, 1 hour flight, 1 hour cab ride). From there, I'll drive to Ottawa before flying to Beijing via Toronto. After the required Great Wall/Forbidden City visits, it's on to Dalian for the rest of the summer. I will post again as soon as I figure out internet connection details, but hopefully it won't take too long for me to figure something out.
Till then, cheers,
-Jimmy
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