Posts Tagged ‘wedding’

So, I’ve been back in the U.S. for 5 days now. I’ve spent most of my time working and catching up on project. Just now I finally got my email inbox down to zero, so I’m celebrating by writing a blog before getting something to eat and continuing with my work.

I finally finished up all the blogging work from the summer China trip, which you can check out on narom.net. Lots and lots of videos and photos. I also put up all my wushu footage from this trip (I didn’t take a ton this time around, and am holding off on putting up Xie Zhen Hao’s nanquan for the time being) on my wushuzilla youtube channel. Here is the playlist, in case you want to sit here and watch it:

Here are my goals for this weekend:

1. Finish up the Mandy Rockefeller website
2. Finish designs for the Ali Carter website
3. Finish pending work for the TVCC website
4. Finish designs for the HKB website
5. Finish updates for the Mona website
6. Get my bike to James’ place so that everything is in one location
7. Organize all my stuff so that it fits in to two suitcases for when I go to Idaho
8. Finish writing up the wedding plans
9. Work on my wushu training plan for the time I’m in the Bay Area
10. Organize my finances
11. Get on a normal sleeping (11-7), work (9-5) and training (7-9, 6-9) schedule for next week.
12. Get all project tasks lists organized for next week
13. Write a blog about how I travel (per Pierre and James’ requests)

Hmm .. that probably seems like a lot.  But I think it is do-able.  Jiayou Mark!

On a personal note, it seems that not everyone is aware that I’m getting married in September.  So, this is just to make it official: Yes, I’m getting married in September.  Her name is Ruhi.

My future plans are as follows (since no one seems to really check my facebook or alivenotdead status notes):

08/01 – 08/24: Bay Area (work, wushu)
08/24 – 09/10: Idaho (work, wedding (9/9), training)
09/10 – 09/12: Seattle (work)
09/13 – 09/21: Haiti (work, honeymoon-ish, service)
09/21 – 09/23: Los Angeles (visiting)
09/24 – ??/??: China (by way of either HKG, PVG or PEK, tbd)

We will be living in Xi’an for the next year or two (or ten).  We should be back in the U.S. in the spring. Ruhi has been living there for the past 8 years so we have a place already.  I will continue with my freelance work and training in wushu (hopefully at a good location).

Our wedding ceremony will be a small one with just family and a few close friends.  Next year we will do a “tour” of various locations and invite our friends and family to a reception dinner where they can meet us as a couple.  Cities on our list to visit are Seattle, San Francisco/Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, Hong Kong and Beijing.  If you live in one of these cities, we will probably let you know early next year (either by blog post or email) when and where the dinner is and how to RSVP (or something like that).

We are doing it this way because, well, we don’t really want a big ceremony.  Plus it is on a Wednesday and in Idaho, so most people wouldn’t be able to attend anyway.  And the venue is not big enough for a lot of folks.  Not to worry, I’m sure we’ll be posting up our photos and videos online soon after.

And thats it.  I got stuff to do today so I will say adios.  Have a good weekend!

This blog entry is being written for Wushu West’s website, wushuwest.com. However, since I’m the one writing it, I thought it might be of interest to other folks too. If you would like to learn more, please visit the Wushu West website.

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Edit 7/28: I’ve added photos and video to this entry. Many photos courtesy of Pierre Combes. Thanks Pierre!

Thursday, July 24, 2009

Our bus ride from the Shaolin Temple to Xi’an was pretty interesting. I’ve taken buses across parts of China before, but not quite like this. A tour bus is much more comfortable than one of the long-distance coaches that you can take here. Our journey took us through some mountains that ran parallel to the Yellow River. Some of the views we got were just breathtaking, and I was able to grab a few shots that don’t do it justice.

We stopped a few times along the way to get gas or relieve ourselves, but 6 hours later we arrived in Xi’an. Now, I should mention that my time in Xi’an wasn’t spent with the Wushu West group. As a result, this blog isn’t so much about what they did. I will ask one of them to write up what they did in Xi’an, but if the previous requests for blogs are any indication, don’t hold your breath.

Here is a look around a Chinese truck/rest stop:

I was actually just in Xi’an 8 months ago during last year’s China Wushu Nationals (perhaps you read my blogs back then?) so it was very familiar to me. I really like Xi’an a lot for its combination of new and old, and my time this trip didn’t change that opinion at all.

We were all staying for the night at the super nice Grand Park hotel, located just across from the South Gate of the city. The view was fantastic, since we were on the 9th floor, and the amenties were spectaular, especially in comparison to the hotel at the Shaolin Temple.

The first evening we ate dinner together at the buffet downstairs in the hotel. Very good food, very fresh and lots of choices, so everyone was pretty happy. The normal rate for that dinner is 118 RMB, and the rooms run around 800 RMB, so I think the tour group definitely arranged a discount.

After dinner some of us went for a walk around the South Gate. We saw some street vendors and performances, and then walked by a wine store that James said was stocked with some of the best wines in the world. He said that very few wine stores in the U.S. would be able to have the selection of wines this place had. One bottle was over $14,000 USD! A little pricey, if you ask me, but James is the professional wine expert, not me.

Ruhi had also met us in Beijing. She lives in Xi’an and had gone there a few days before us. Since we will be living in Xi’an after getting married I wanted to check out the apartment and see the neighborhood I would be moving to. First we went to see her place and then we grabbed a quick foot massage, which I slept through entirely. Then I went back to the hotel and slept.

The other funny thing that happened is that we randomly ran in to an old student of Ruhi’s, named Phoenix, who works at the hotel. I guess living in Xi’an for 8 years means you tend to randomly run in to old friends.

Friday, July 25, 2009

This is the day where paths diverged. Everyone else spent the day going and seeing the Terracotta Warriors, the South Gate or the Goose Whatchamacallit. I had some errands to run (first of which was to post up that blog entry that we were alive) and then I went with Ruhi to Xi Gao Xin (West High Tech Zone in Xi’an) to get measured for a ring. We also went to a nice place for a quick bite. We did meet up with the Wushu West group during both lunch and dinner.

Here are several photos that Pierre took of their trip to the Terracotta Warriors. Enjoy!

The lunch was at a nice dumpling restaurant next to the Bell Tower. Amazing dumplings, of which I took many photos. Here are a few:

At the lunch two things happened.

First, it was Travis’ birthday. He turned 7 years old, so we had a cake and a song for him. He seemed to enjoy it.

Second, there was a performance/competition by children of employees of the restaurant. It actually got started as everyone left, but while they were testing the sound system, this boy played a flute song that was freaking amazing. I uploaded a video of it, but I’m not sure I will be able to post it here until after I leave China. Be sure to come back to check it out in a few days.

Edit (7/28): Here are two videos of him playing. First is a mic check, and second is the end of his actual performance.

It was actually a competition of story telling. All the kids (about 10 of them) were judged on how well they recited a story that was pre-written about dumplings. The skills ranged from super nervous kids reading from the paper, to well-composed, confident children that had arms movements and great vocal skill.

Ruhi and I stayed to watch it after everyone left for the next leg of their tour. Here are some videos:

And here is one of one of the girls singing. Believe it or not, I think it is English.

We had to pick up the ring and run a few other errands. We finally met up with the Wushu West folks again at their dinner stop: hot pot near the city center.

The meal was good and afterward we all piled in to the bus and headed across town in terrible traffic to the train station. This was my second or third time at the Xi’an train station so at least I wasn’t super overwhelmed. I have to say that it IS a bit more disorganized than the Beijing West station (or the central one, for that matter).

After a while we were tour-guided in to the terminal and made our way to the train. Once again it was an overnight trip to Beijing. We watched some videos on my laptop (Futurama, Bolt) before going to bed.