It's time for summer vacation, which starts friday!
I'll be taking a 25 hour ferry from Incheon, South Korea, to Tianjin, China this friday. From Tianjin I'll be catching a train to Beijing, where I'll meet up with a friend and galavant about the Chinese capital for a few days, possibly followed by a short trip to Shanghai to see another friend. I'm beyond excited, especially now that I'm packing this little piece of kit:
That would be my new Nikon D40 dSLR. It's pretty cheap as far as digital SLR cameras go, but it has capabilities and qualities that my old digital camera can't hold a candle to. Much as I loved that Kodak and took some great shots in Europe with it, it's time to move on to bigger and better things. If you take a look in the photo section you'll see a bunch of new albums up; everything that's new has been shot with the Nikon and I think it's a huge improvement.
Besides my impending trip to China, not a whole lot is going on here. July 4th came and went with absolutely no fanfare (of course,) and that was actually a little bit sad. I'm not the most patriotic person, but you never know what you've got until you don't. That includes fireworks, crappy American beer, and bug bites.
I've been doing a lot of rock climbing, including two outdoor trips to nearby mountains with folks from my rock climbing gym. Those trips were incredible, especially the second one: a multi-pitch ascent up what I'm told is a roughly 600 foot face. It took all day, and we completed one section, we would clip into anchors drilled into the face and rest for the next portion. Definitely the most frightening experience of my life, including running with the bulls. Of course I was on a rope the whole time, with almost no chance of serious injury, but try telling that to your jangling nerves when you're 500 feet off the ground, holding onto a mountain using nothing but one tiny finger hold and the sheer friction of your climbing shoes on the rock.
In infinitely more boring and mundane news, management is being juggled around at work, with unpleasant consequences. The job is now no longer as much of a cakewalk as it was before, but remains a pretty decent living. I do have to say that my initial desire to extend my contract past the original 12 months has cooled somewhat. Right now I'm thinking I'll go straight to Thailand in February, when my contract is up, spend 6 months there, and then maybe move on to Hong Kong.
One never knows.
My next update will be packed with info and stories on my trip to CHINA. Stay tuned.
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