I finally found some time today to get out and take a few pictures. Of course, i picked the most gray, cold and polluted day since i’ve been here, but i still took pictures. They aren’t great by any stretch of the imagination so when it’s a more clear day i will get out there and find more things to take pictures of.

Also, as a side note about photo-taking… I get really self-conscious when i go out to take pictures. I don’t know why this is. Any photographers out there want to give me some pointers on boosting my confidence when taking pictures of random people and buildings? I feel like taking pictures of people will offend them. The camera i carry around is probably more expensive than everything they own, so that automatically makes me feel like a terrible person. I need help.

Ok, enough complaining about my issues with being a photographer… just go look at my photos.

Below are some comments on life from Wes Seeliger and i’m going to let it speak for itself. I got this from Jud.

“I have spent long hours in the intensive care waiting room watching with anguished people, listening to urgent questions: Will my husband make it? Will my child walk again? How do you live without your companion of thirty years?

“The intensive care waiting room is different from any other place in the world. And the people who wait are different. They can’t do enough for each other. No one is rude. The distinctions of race and class melt away. The garbage man loves his wife as much as the university professor loves his, and everyone understands this. Each person pulls for everyone else.

“In the intensive care waiting room, the world changes. Vanity and pretense vanish. The universe is focused on the doctor’s next report. If only it will show improvement. Everyone knows that loving someone else is what life is all about.

“Could we learn to love like that if we realized that every day of life is a day in the waiting room?”

What if you walked around your neighborhood, your work, or your local Publix with no shoes on? What if your feet were blistered and bruised, black and swollen because you didn’t own a single pair of shoes?

For the past 3 days i have been thinking about this and those thoughts have driven me to be a part of this amazing initiative to change the lives of 50,000 people living in poverty. Believe me, if you had been walking around barefoot and someone suddenly gave you a free pair of shoes, it would change your life.

The goal is 50,000 pairs of shoes in 50 days. It starts today. It can be done. Together, we can put a serious dent in the battle against global poverty.

The process for giving has been made extremely easy and fast. All you do is go to www.50000shoes.com and click on the “donate” button. Or, you can just click here.

$5 (FIVE DOLLARS!!) buys 2 pairs of shoes and all donations are tax-deductible.

I really hope that you will take 5 minutes, give 5 dollars, and change someone’s life. I hope that 50,000 people will walk differently, live differently, and experience a new kind of love because we chose to live out what we so often talk about.

And now to really put things out there… if you choose to give, come back here and tell us. I want to see this little community of biscuet.com readers really make a difference.

Lastly, Here’s a little piece about the organization that is sponsoring this challenge:

“Nashville-based Soles4Souls™ facilitates the donations of both new and used shoes, which are used to aid the hurting worldwide. Since its inception, Soles4Souls has distributed more than 3.5 million pairs (or one pair every 23 seconds) to people in 61 countries, including Honduras, Romania, Thailand, and the Sudan. The charity has been featured on CNN Headline News, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, ABC News, FOX, CBS, and hundreds of regional outlets around North America. Soles4Souls is a 501(c)(3) recognized by the IRS; donating parties are eligible for tax advantages. Visit www.giveshoes.org for more information.”

If you had the opportunity to significantly impact the lives of 50,000 people living in poverty that you may never meet…

would you?

Friday night i ate at a restaurant called The Tree in the Sanlitun bar district in Beijing. The Tree is a very cool and trendy restaurant. I highly recommend the Hawaiian pizza. This restaurant could have easily been in a city like Nashville or Atlanta.

As we walked out i was talking to my friends and i was watching the traffic because i didn’t want to get hit by a car. As i crossed the street i looked up and there it was… a beacon of joy that gave me hope for the future of China. The picture below is what my little eyes saw as i gazed up from my world of dodging cars and people…

In case you’ve just joined us, this is the Apple logo, which signals to Apple lovers like me that i have found an Apple store. This is just one more reason that Beijing rocks!

I’m a people watcher. I love to watch other people and imagine what their lives are like. Could they be a teacher? A student? A business person? Where are they from? Why are they here? Who are their friends? What’s their history? I love to imagine the answers to these questions in the midst of common situations.

Last night i was in a nightclub in the heart of one of the coolest districts in Beijing. I was celebrating a friend’s birthday. Just before the nightclub adventure, we were in a small, uber-hip western style restaurant/bar. It was a phenomenal environment that i hope to visit again soon. Ok, back to the nightclub. As soon as i walked into this club i thought, “WOW! This is awesome!” It was absolutely amazing. Huge couches and tables were lining every wall, the lighting and furniture was super trendy. Going through a back door led you to a large room with fun 80’s music and a DJ (black guy = bonus points) and people dancing everywhere. My friends were all around me dancing and while i was enjoying their company my mind would occasionally slip into, “people watching mode.” I love to observe. But, in the middle of one of these slips a friend leaned over to me and said, “Are you not having fun?” The room was loud and smoky and crowded so all i managed to say was, “yeah, it’s great.” But what i was really thinking was, “There’s no other place i’d rather be!” It was awesome. No, i’m not much into nightclubs or bar-hopping or any of that, it’s just not usually my scene. However, in those moments i realized for the first time that China truly is a changing nation. These kids were hip, modern, fun-loving, music-loving, 20-30 somethings. This is the crowd i can relate to and build relationships with and truly share life with. I was encouraged to see this side of China. I was also encouraged because i made a few new friends that i hope to hang out with more often if we have time. In the middle of a crowded room filled with crazy dancing, cigarette smoke, and drunk people i couldn’t have been more happy to live in this city with these people.

I have plenty more stories about Friday night that will challenge you, shake your understanding of awesomeness, and then make you wish you lived here. But, this post is getting far too long.

Dear Beijing, Thank you for being awesome. I love you, and your people!

-Biscuet

What are Chinese students saying about Obama? Check out this video…

Thoughts?

I know, that question is as rude as asking a middle-aged woman her weight and age. But, you know, sometimes i just like to throw things out there to see what happens. I’ll be ok if the comments on this one stay at zero. But, is there anyone willing to answer? Who did you vote for? Why?

Yep, that’s right… i get a kick out of using pictures of my friends in my powerpoint presentations. It’s so much better than just searching through Google for generic photos. And when i tell my students that those people are my friends then they really love it! Not to mention, while i teach i get to see familiar faces. It’s a lot of fun, hope you great friends don’t mind…

Something that i’m still not used to is the way that people throw money onto the counter when dealing with any type of cashier. In America we are taught that it is polite to hand our money to the cashier. But here, they will pull bills out of their wallet and throw them onto the counter, sometimes one at a time if they are counting out the exact amount. Sometimes they just throw the whole amount onto the counter. But don’t think this only works one way… often the cashier will throw your change on the counter. I know this is small, but it’s still something i’m trying to see as not rude, only different.