So I am extremely excited about finally being able to travel again whether on my own, with friends, and/or colleagues.  It has been many years since I have traveled anywhere.  Cambodia was the first time in 6 years where I felt healthy and happy enough to travel.  Saw some wonderful locations, took some amazing photos, and met some great people  – see previous posts.

Now I am happy to be going to Laos which is suppose to be one of the best countries in the world to travel to because there is lots to see and do in this land-locked country.  I cannot wait to see the beautiful buddhas, see the night markets, and wander through the peaceful areas.  Have not figured out housing yet or my exact itinerary but I am hoping that the experience in Cambodia translates to my experience in Laos 🙂

I managed to book a roundtrip flight from China to Laos for $480 USD – even cheaper than the Chinese discount websites 🙂  Flying in and out of Wuhan is ultra expensive.  While we might be a train hub in China, we do not have flight services direct to South East Asia like Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Hong Kong does 🙁

There is a Lao Consulate in Kunming China and direct bus service from the Chinese city through Luang Prabang the tourist city of Laos.  Also, for the Americans there is a visa on arrival program which also includes the Chinese.  Our visas are $50 USD and the Chinese visas are only $20 USD so our Chinese friends can go with us 🙂  Sometimes we run into issues because the visas are harder to come by for Chinese citizens.

Blessed to be an American if nothing else than for the travel visas.

Current Mood: Excited to travel to Laos and to experience the peace other friends have found there before.

I am a proud, meat-loving, American…

From science classes and studies, I realize that it costs more time, energy, and resources to grow those cows, lambs, goats, aquaculture seafood, rabbits, pigs, ducks, and geese for my satisfaction but for goodness sake, God(s) made those creatures so tasty that I would rather reduce my carbon footprint any other way than by eating less meat.  (I have reduced my carbon footprint immensely since arriving in China as I walk everywhere and no longer have a car).

So on that note, for Thanksgiving, I had the most wonderful turkey, bacon, cheese, tomato, pineapple, and mushroom pizza from a local campus pizza parlor.

Can eating less meat help reduce climate change? – http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34899066

As for the North Koreans, I am pretty sure they are also as proud of their food heritage as my Korean friends have always had pretty heated discussions on who has the best kimchi – especially in Korea Town in Beijing.  What I did not know is that the South Korean Kimchi had already received the UNESCO status.  Who knew that the South Korean version of a thanksgiving tradition to serve food to the homeless was to make kimchi for the homeless?

North Korean kimchi put forward for Unesco award – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34907609

Mood Currently: Food, food, and more food.  Starving and no 24 hour food place here. Really want a Japanese Tuna Rice Ball like the one from the Wuhan University Cultural Fair.  Those Japanese girls were the nicest and they made awesome rice balls…

Most people who know me realize that I cannot stand the liars, fakes, lazy, narrow-minded, discriminatory, ill-mannered, and/or corrupt.  So I was tickled when the BBC reported the following headline, “Tanzania civil servants locked up for lateness”and thought, this is something that China can totally learn from their African counterparts.

Many of my coworkers, colleagues, and/or random people on lines at government offices have complained at the lack of efficiency in government offices in China.  Between the red tape, forms, lack of regard for others, lack of work ethic, and/or lack of ability to properly get in line, getting things done in government offices in China is a nightmare.  What I do not understand is how Chinese Consulates in the U.S. are so efficient yet Chinese governmental offices for foreigners in China are so dysfunctional…

Notice in the article how the new Anti-Corruption President of Tanzania, John, Magufuli on his first day in office told his fellow civil servants to show up on time.  He then arrested all the employees who were late for the meeting without any viable explanations – approximately 20 according to the article, and then miraculously, the next day, all of the meeting members showed up 2 hours early.

Tanzania civil servants locked up for lateness – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34931964

Maybe if President Xi adopted these kinds of policies for his anti-corruption campaigns, the Chinese Government would be super efficient and overtake the U.S. in terms of productivity overnight.  As it is, from my unofficial polls of Americans in China, many of us cannot figure out why it takes us so long to try to get anything done.

The exception seems to be my school at the university who can pull conferences together overnight if necessary.  This however seems rare.  I am testing the waters with the International Student Cultural Scavenger Hunt – so far seems awesome, my department was approved funding, the proposal is all done along with the costs, and the foreign affairs office seems on board, and some of the awesome students at Wuhan University have agreed to come over and be clue givers for the event 😀  Have some more logistics to figure out while walking along campus but other than that seems good to go.  Wish me luck.

Mood: A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss 😛

So I woke up this morning finally in the Christmas spirit even though I am coughing up and blowing out these wonderfully green and brown colored balls of muscus. I go off and then wander to the computer and find a great deal on shoes only to find that someone in NYC has a copy of my credit card and has been trying to buy things at Macy’s Tech Department in Elmhurst NYC, pay for parking on the street through the NYC muni-meter, went to Black and White in Long Island to purchase clothes. Meanwhile, these purchases were not made while I was actually in the country so that is good news for me. Only one of the purchases could have been remotely me but I shop in very specific locations, even if it is my favorite brand because I want customer service.

So Christmas shopping and cashing in on the deals this year so far sucks.

By the way, Skype in China is atrocious. For the life of me, I cannot keep anyone on the line because the internet keeps cutting out.

I am wondering if the pretender is back. Last time around this Chinese woman pretended to be me and took out a bank loan, opened a cell phone, and stole my credit cards to buy lots of things and then disappeared. Managed to find transactions for her in CA and TX but then she disappeared around the time they arrested those 54 Chinese people in NJ for credit card fraud and identity theft. I would put the link for the news story here but I have no access to the NYTimies so you need to look it up yourselves.

Current mood – Finding zen. You win some and you lose some. At least the credit card fraud system was good at Chase and they declined the charges before I even found out. Sometimes, bigger is better 🙂 So to all of you shopping away watch out. It turns out that they could copy your credit card without the original.  I  have had the original with me in China the whole time.

While I am disappointed in the lack of urgency regarding climate change policies leading up to COP21 in Paris, the reaction is understandable as most people believe that climate change and energy efficiency  policies are economically costly.  Although people believe quite a bit of hair-brained ideas and such from the disinformation superhighway, the climate change myths are probably the most prolific.

Now several countries which are not going to be following the climate naysayers are Qatar, Nepal, and several small island nations which are sinking into the ocean.  A country does not all of a sudden get an entire year’s worth of rain in several hours unless there is a climate issue afoot.  A country does not have to worry about their glacier melts and new large lake formations causing a massive mudslide and wiping out a large portion of their population so soon after devastating earthquakes if there is no climate change.

So despite all the pomp and circumstance related to the President Obama and President Xi signing of the Bilateral Climate Change Agreement, this COP21 may be just as disappointing as COP20 Copenhagan…

Qatar orders inquiry after rain exposes construction flaws – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34931199

Lakes expanding ‘dangerously’ in Everest glacier – http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34928569

COP21: Public support for tough climate deal ‘declines’ – http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34900474

These are some of my favorite photos from Cambodia.  Angor Wat and the surrounding temples.  Also some of the nice landscapes from the floating village.  No stealing my photos 😀  If you want the full size ones let me know.  But see why I loved the place?  Also, I was there during a drought, so even though it was the rainy season, I have awesome photos.

Another professor and I went to the Wuhan University cultural event today and we loved it.  Had we known how awesome this event would be we would have required our students to attend.  I would have gotten a bus from campus to take us all.  The only down side to the event is that many people walked around to take picture with the students in their traditional clothing like they were tourist attractions and not people.

We were thinking that if we ever did something like this at our university, we would require the students to interact more with the international representatives because it should be more about cultural exchange.  We spoke with some of the students who were representing their countries and found that many of them felt that their cultural exchanges were spent dispelling popular misconceptions and/or sterotypes.

For example, the Ukranian girls were often told that they were the prettiest on campus.  It is true Ukranian girls are really pretty but they are more than pretty.  My Ukranian friend from law school was often told that she was pretty by the Chinese students but she was also nice, friendly, hard working, and a really good contracts person which seems to have been lost in translation…

We spoke to a really nice student from Afghanistan who told us that people often tell him that he could not possibly be from Afghanistan because he is not wearing Taliban clothes.  I think those students were thinking of Osama Bin Laden’s garb but he was not from Afghanistan – he is actually a disowned prince from Saudi Arabia.

Now these are the comments these international students are getting from people at Wuhan University which is a very international university.  There are so many international exchanges and collaborative opportunities there, lord knows what the staff and students in our institution think about students and citizens from those countries.

Our institution does not have as many foreign collaborations which we are currently working on changing.  Got to work on three MOUs so far with different countries in Africa so hopefully by the end of my year term, there will be more.  I want to be able to achieve my cultural exchange goal at the largest scale possible.

Look at all these cool ideas and things from the Wuhan University Cultural Event.  They have had 11 years to make this good so my friend and I are going to pilfer 😀

Some of my family members and friends think that I am lucky and can do no wrong because I always seem to get what I want.  On the other hand, my brother thinks that I am too much like Mother Theresa, but not in a good way as saints usually die painful and miserably deaths – you can see we both went to Catholic school.  My mom told me that I am too stupidly nice to others and too many people take advantage of me.  My dad thinks that I am an idiot for being so idealistic and not charging everyone for the favors I do.

Frankly, I think that I receive quite a bit of awesome karma in the universe because I give way more than I receive.  If I was as selfish and as close minded as the rest, I would not be me and worst of all, I would be you.  Maybe being idealistic does not necessarily benefit my wallet or my status as much as those who believe in selfish practicality or self-preservation, but I like to think that I can succeed in this world just by being me.  I would like to think that being a good person counts for something and does not make me stupid.

I know that some of the professors on campus gripe about my stupidity, specifically in reference to my lack of brown nosing capabilities and inability to comprehend the necessity of backstabbing others.  However, I want to be me and not anyone else.  While what I am is incomprehensible to others, I don’t care because I am who I am and make no apologies for wanting to succeed on my own terms.

Frankly, I receive very little compared to what I give but life is good 😀

My Chinese friends – professors as well as those in other occupations – do not seem to understand why I love the university I teach at.  They told me that I should be at any other university that is higher ranked, treats me better, and/or gives me more pay. However, what they do not understand is that I like challenges and I like underdogs.

There is little ability to institute change at institutions with higher ranks as they do not see the value of change until it is too late.  The possibility to help and motivate people to achieve greatness is way more fun then sitting around brain storming ideas which most will never use.

This post is the result of a conversation that a Professor and I were having about our school’s ranking and its ability to recruit talent.  The professor claimed that the reason why we cannot recruit good teachers is because the school is ranked low.  In that professor’s opinion, the school is also unable to give more opportunities to its professors because the school’s rank is low.  However, when I asked what the ranks are based on, the answer is that the school ranking is significantly based on research papers, more specifically professor’s research papers.  So frankly, I feel that if you have an issue with rankings and you want that to change then collectively you need to work harder to make this a better place.

The professor claimed that the other problem with the system is that the university has no famous graduates.  We have a really famous, former, now adviser to Beijing University President.  Her fame was helpful to the university as most environmental lawyers in the field know of this institution now because she is so famous in China.  However, we do not have famous students who give back.

My assessment of the problem is as follows: the students and teachers talk about superficial things and gossip but for the most part, they do not trust each other and certainly do not bother to take the time out to get to know each other.  Most of the students and professors will gossip about famous movie stars, other teachers, and chat about events on campus but if there is a huge problem, the students will not go to the teachers and even if some of the teachers know there is a problem, most of teachers would not do anything to help because it does not benefit them monetarily  The concept of charity and being involved just to do good is not accepted here.  Most professors think I am stupid for even trying to affect change that is beneficial because they do not see any immediate benefits.

But if the issue is that you cannot obtain grant money and cannot retain good talent because of your low ranking then stop whining and try to do something about it because if you expect to stay at the institution until retirement then it is in your best interest to help those students and your colleagues.  From what I can tell, most of the professors claim that they have all these things to do but all of these things are self serving.  Paper writing, research, and all the other social activities most of the professors participate in seem to be related to their own promotion.

At this rate, even if we do have some awesome and famous students graduate from this institution, none of those students would give back to the school and help other alumni or students because they are going to remember these selfish and egotistical professors.

We have so many professors and administrative persons who are very into what everyone else is doing but refuse to talk about themselves.  From what I can see, everyone is trying to compare what they have to what others have but they do not want to put in the time and effort to achieve something.  Now the professor justified talking about others because he claimed it is harmless.  However, if it was really that harmless then why are you not talking about yourselves?  The only person you are truly an authority on is yourself.

For example, some of the professors and staff in my own department were complaining about how I am not always on campus like they are.  However, when I am not on campus, I am still working to either negotiate something for the university or still working on projects with other professors and students.  I do not see you putting in the time to negotiate and ask for things which have no bearing on your own salary or promotion potential.  I CANNOT ever obtain tenure at a Chinese university because I am not fluent in Chinese, my negotiations for the school and its students will never lead to an economic bonus for me.  At best it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Frankly, I believe you should do good just to be good but if you do a cost benefit analysis you should still do what I believe because of the reasons above.

Here are my goals for my time in China other then studying for the UBE and writing some really good research papers for publication and finishing the PhD:

1. Motivate the best students to apply for research grants and opportunities to work and study abroad.
2. Motivate all students to have an open mind.
3. Motivate the administration to have an open mind and to change status quo.  Why should your institution stay in Tier 2 when you can be a Tier 1 school?
4. Change the professional teaching culture at my university.  I want the other professors to stop being so selfish with their time and salaries and live up to the profession.  We are suppose to be teachers first which means you should give a damn about the students.  You cannot expect the students to achieve and be the best they can be when you are disenchanted, do not care about them, and act like a selfish brats.
5. Give opportunities to foster cultural exchange.  People and cultures are not books, movies, or other media.  People are people.  All media is crafted to serve a purpose or agenda.
6. Teach that media is not fact nor is it truth.  We have too many idiots who say but I heard, I saw, etc.  These people are obviously not lawyers nor are they independently minded.  I put in a five second, never mind a five minute delay in any recording and I can change it to say or be anything.  Students in my oceanography class and hopefully my law class from last semester know this.  Showed them the same photos and recordings of things last semester and everyone had multiple conclusions because they looked and sounded different.  Frankly, my American students better know this unless they failed my oceanography class.
7. Increase the number of truly international professors who engage with the students in my school.  We have a handful of foreign professors and the majority of them are very white.  As the North Carolinian friends of mine would say, they are vanilla to the core.  The problem with this is that my one African American friend and I account for the school’s diversity.  Our students and even some professors and staff need to realize that intellect and experts come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.  When everyone looks the same, this does not help the diversity cause.  I am not saying I support affirmative action, as I do not – I believe in merit based accounting for everything.  However, there are good people who come from different backgrounds and our students need to be exposed to them.  Seeing is believing after all.  Sometimes I take for granted that I am raised in NYC and see all sorts of people doing all sorts of things – good and bad.

France has endured quite a bit the last few days.  But we need to pray for them to whatever God or Gods you believe in.  Even if it is some sort of sprite.  If you are an aethiest then express your condolences as people who cannot sympathize are those who will experience the same pain twice over.  This is the French version of the American 911.

While it is not a surprise that crazy fanatics decided that the best way to deal with a grievance was to kill random people who have had nothing to do with the policies you are riling against, everyone needs to keep their wits about them to identify the ones who actually were responsible and not innocent people who fit some description or imagination of guilt…

French TGV high-speed train derails near Stratsbourg – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34822666

Paris Attacks, Prosecutor Molins Says Three Teams Were Involved – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34823938

Paris Attacks: Islamic Militants Change Tactics – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34824375