Spain/Gibraltar/Morocco - Finally Made it to Africa

March 22
I decided to take a trip to Spain for Spring Break before starting my new job and to take my first entirely self-financed trip. First stop: the southern tip of Spain and Morocco. I got their flying Air France through CDG in Paris, which was an interesting experience. I definitely felt that AF took better care of me than US carriers do. CDG is an interesting airport. I love the train station in the middle of the airport, however, it is a HUGE airport and my flights were, of course, on opposite ends of the airport, but I still made my connection. I even had time to hunt down a (well-hidden) ATM to have some cash before I got to Spain. I landed in Malaga and I was a bit concerned about making it to Algeciras as I was planning to hop a metro train and then bus in a place I'd never been before, but it all actually worked out fine. When I got to Algeciras, it kind of reminded me of El Paso, which was odd.

March 23
Gibraltar is an interesting place, lots of Spanish being spoken everywhere and people tell me that its primary purpose it to indulge Spanish vices (smoking, gambling and boozing). The cable car to the top of the Rock was fantastic and the view was great, even if it was a bit overcast. The monkeys were literally everywhere and they were quite ambivalent to my presence. I rather like the small walking streets, it gives off the best of small town and big city feel. I walked all the way out to Europa Point, which apparently is something not a lot of people do as it is not that easy. I spent a lot of time walking on roads I probably shouldn't have walked on, but it turned out fine. And when I got to the point, there was a rather ornate mosque that was a gift of the Saudi royal family (I think).

March 24
Today was an eventful and excruciating day. Excessive winds caused a change in my transportation from landing at City of Tangier to landing at Tangier Mediterranean, which is 50 miles away. I ended up in Morocco about 4 hours late (The misery of waiting in airports is nothing compared to the misery of waiting in Ferry terminals). When I finally met my tour guide Aziz we had to rush through the tour, although Aziz was less talkative than I expected. I did get a chance to see where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic and I got to ride a camel and visit the Pillars of Hercules. When we got back to the Kasbah, Aziz pawned me off on his assistant, who was a little bit suspicious. He took me wandering through the Kasbah until we got deep into it, far away from others and I got spooked and led us back to a more populated area. Out there, the assistant met a "friend" who talked off on the side while looking at me. I stand by my suspicions. Eventually the assistant dropped me off back at the Ferry Terminal with 2 hours to wait for my ferry back to Spain. This time we had to land at Tarifa instead of Algeciras, so I didn't end up getting back until 1am. Ugh.

Hawaii - SCUBA Certification

I spent the week with my family on the Kona side of Hawaii getting SCUBA certified at Jack's Dive Locker in Kailua. It was a pretty good trip, although diving isn't the easiest thing to pick up initially, especially breath control, but I passed and got my Open Water Diver certification. Diving in the tropics is pretty nice as you don't need to wear nearly as thick a wet suit and the fish life is much more vibrant.

(This post was written well after the fact. I got my Advanced Open Water certification in August 2011 in Monterey, CA. The water was significantly colder, but not as cold as I expected. And I rather enjoyed diving in the kelp forests. I think cold water diving has much more interesting plant life whereas warm water diving has much more interesting fish life)

China - Day 88 - China Retrospective

Wow, I made it. There were times that I seriously doubted whether I would last here, but I did. I don't know how I could write something cohesive about my experiences in China, so I'm going to resort to bullet points:

Things I'm going to miss:

• Being able to find milk tea everywhere
• Food being inexpensive and tasty
• The very impressive workshop at Allied
• Being good at basketball
• Exploring the city with my friends as an isolated group in a huge city
• The Shanghai Metro System and high-speed rail to Hangzhou
• Baozi and jiaozi. It's going to be hard to go back to eating Ling Ling
• Very kind and generous personal interactions

Things I'm not going to miss:

• Being stared at all the time everywhere I go
• Having to debone meat as I eat it
• Everyone smoking everywhere all the time
• Littering, spitting, people urinating everywhere
• The lack of personal space
• Monsoon weather
• Only having instant or overpriced coffee to drink
• Chinese "Beer" - an insult to beer
• Being functionally illiterate
• Not being able to drink tap water
• Everyone's lack of concern for safety
• Everyone's general disdain for strangers
• Getting the run around from my company when it's time to get paid
• Not being able to get a straight answer out of anyone
• Feeling like I'm risking my life every time I cross the street

Things I might miss or might not:

• People pushing/cutting in line - It's incredibly rude, but I'm good at it
• Never having to pay for a meal - Never being allowed to pay for yourself does get a bit insulting after a while
• Grocery Stores - They have some delicious surprises and some of the most foul "food" I've ever seen
• People watching - People act very differently in public than they do back home
• Chinese fashion - everyone tries to stand out and ends up looking silly
• Chinese ambition - People seem much more ambitious, but less creative here
• Strangers telling me I'm handsome - On one hand, it's very flattering. On the other, it's a very creepy way to start a conversation on the bus (which happened to me twice).

China - Day 87 - Going going back back to Cali Cali

Of course, the travel gods of China would make it difficult for me to leave. After Dr. Sun generously offered one of the company cars to drive me to my hotel in Shanghai, it was an hour and a half late. Why, you may ask? Because the street outside my apartment had flooded. After we finally hit the road, about an hour into the drive, we hear some knocking and have to pull off the road to check it out. I was worried that I wasn't going to make it to Shanghai, but the problem turned out to just be the under-engine plate guard, not a major problem. We fixed it with some rope and continued on to the hotel.

The flooding in front of my apartment building. I wasn't kidding.	While we were getting the car checked out I played with the mechanic's dog. Playing with dogs is the same in any language

The hotel turned out to be in the boonies, nothing like the area around airports in the states. I think it qualified as the Chinese suburbs. Either way, I was kinda disappointed. I checked into the hotel and I actually had a pretty nice room (free internet even). However, I didn't see any other guests there, which was a bit disconcerting (I later heard them having an argument later that night). I wandered around the area looking for dinner (eschewing hotel restaurants, which was a good idea in hindsight), but the pickings were slim. I grabbed some modest street food and retired to my room to watch far much more TV than is probably healthy for me.

My glorious 11 kuai (about $1.50) dinner.

China - Day 85 - Goodbye Xiasha

I wish I could say it was a tearful goodbye, but frankly, I'm glad to get out of here. My last day at work was a pretty good encapsulation of my summer and my experience in China. I spent most of the morning watching the Canadian contractors working on a test workpiece and chatting with them as the machines worked. When it came time to change fixtures we learned that the pallet changing vehicle had been fooled with, rendering it inoperable, so the rest of the day was shot. Later, I went to collect my final salary and was met with a number that was significantly lower than what I expected to be paid. The company had included a number of charges on my salary that shouldn't have been based on my contract, but it took a call to Denise, the program coordinator, to get them removed. I had accepted the fact that I wouldn't be making much money this summer, but to be nickeled and dimed like that really left a bad taste in my mouth. In an about face, I had dinner with the president of the company where I had a surprisingly nice steak and a nice conversation. These conflicting treatments by the company are a perfect example of the duality of my experience in China. And the cherry on top of the sundae of today: the power was out in my apartment when I got home (It was turned back on 15 minutes later after an annoyed phone call).