Free Jazz

I gotta be honest, this is really getting me down. The inability to interact with the outside world I mean. For as long as I can remember I've been told how lucky I was to be born in America. About how and why America was great. And I soaked it all in and parrotted it back out. As I furthered my education I learned a little bit more, things that weren't covered in the shiny ad-campaign-education I grew up with, and I became a critic (self criticism is one of my strengths.) I acknowledged those good parts that had been drilled into my head from elementary school, but I asked about those other parts that weren't talked about. I was uncomfortable with the discrepancy between the ideals that we advertised and the realities of our history. And that is pretty much where I stand today; I think it's important to acknowledge those realities, own up to them and take appropriate action to make amends and prevent recurrences. However, (I'm going to end with a quote, of myself from this very blog several months ago when it was still really cold) "I really didn't appreciate central heating until I didn't have it anymore."

I took a trip to Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain) a few weeks back. Here are some pictures. It was bee-yoo-tiful. And a really good time. On the way home we stopped at Hong Cun, a village that has preserved nearly all its old architecture and whathaveyou. I mean, they've wired in the internet and all, but it's as close as possible to visiting a Chinese village of 500 years ago. The Academy Award winning Wo Hu Cang Long (a.k.a. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) was filmed there. Maybe the coolest thing I've seen in China yet (and it'll be hard to top.)