Better late than never

One of the best parts about being out here is the chance to get into some good sport. The Gaelic Club out here is great fun, and everyone agrees it's nice to have one night a week to get away from people talking shop and sharing pints, and have a good run around. It helps that we're not terrible either. Despite the fact that I hadn't heard of the sport a year ago, I was lucky enough to get to a half-respectable level. I mentioned our trip to Thailand in October and the wonderful time that was for the All Asia Gaelic Games, not knowing at the time that it was in fact the largest amateur sporting event in Asia. Pretty neat.

Anyway, a few weeks back Shenzhen hosted the All China Gaelic Games, and competed with teams from all around, including the big three, as well as some lesser known cities. A few of us spent the entire day before the games literally assembling the goals, chalking the fields and building all the advertising billboards. I mean we literally put together the entire tournament, it was pretty impressive to witness how the guys on the team arranged factories to build out goals, put together player packs, organize hotels, and various entertainment venues. Pretty neat process, but to the better point, Shenzhen came in second overall, upsetting several cities (Shanghai included) and nearly defeating Hong Kong in a really great match.

It was a great little weekend. hmm.. I guess that's all for now.

Breakfast on a Foggy Sunday

Some rather nefarious character tipped off the weather gods of my return back to Shenzhen, as I was greeted with a Floridian level of humidity and cloudy grey days, when I had heard tell of sun and 60's prior to my touchdown.

The return to the warmer weather is welcome though.

I plan on a more engrossing post sometime in the near future based on a conversation I had back in the states. I have only begun to examine the kind of life I live at this point in time, and how two completely different lives are separated by a mind-numbing flight. more on that later.



I was going to share with you my delicious breakfast this morning, but for some reason blogger isn't doing too well uploading the photos.... you've all been spared my mundane photos for now....

This is what the best meal I've had in Shenzhen looks like

Couldn't tell you what it was, because I have no idea, but someone said something along the lines of a carp.
We caught 7 fish that afternoon at this little fishing place outside of town. They cooked up 4 for us, 3 for dinner and one to take home. These fish were pretty sizable too, made for amazing eats. As the sun started to go down we decided to have the people there cook em up for us, asked for three different styles, and let them work their magic while we relaxed in our little bungalow, to share time with eachother and the mosquitos and other various creepy crawlies that dwell in the late summer air.



Hell of a day really, sit by the water in your own little bungalow, have a couple Tsint Tao's, look at the water, try to catch some fish, then eat em right where you caught em. Nice.



It was a much needed break, we've been working full throttle getting this company off the ground, our first job takes hold this week, and we're in the process of organizing a seminar for about 100 people to educate and sell our services. It's sexy putting on your suit and being toured around the function rooms of the Ritz, the Marco Polo, and various other 5-star digs in Shenzhen. What's not sexy is the cost, and we are rolling thin on the funds, our first job will be a nice breather as it takes care of our rent for a couple months. It's not just welcome, it's absolutely necessary for us at this point.
It's exciting and worrisome at the same time, but with our first little victory, we'll be able to breathe and stay out here a couple more months.

Weekend Update

Who doesn't fondly recall snowcones? Except for the end, when it was kind of a purple/black slush mess.

Well Molave caught everyone a bit off-guard and hit full typhoon status right before making landfall. We caught the brunt around 3 am as the eyewall came directly over Shenzhen. Yes, it was Saturday, but none of us would have been able to fall asleep anyway. 37 stories up, a typhoon is a whole different animal: the wind is unbelievably loud, rain is forcing itself in wherever possible through sills, air conditioner vents, so on and so forth. It was really quite something, the roads competely flooded and trees were down everywhere, we even saw an unfortunate VW with a rather large piece of flora digging into its hood.

Pretty neat stuff.

On more topical notes, the Anemoi Partners are moving forwad into some interesting directions. The SCLI programs all remain up and running, and the curriculum is beginning to take shape. Our teacher Jess is learning quickly by Shenzhen standards, and is slowly becoming more dependant with time. It's exciting and frustrating at the same time. We learned some hard lessons this summer with our applicants, and will not make those same mistakes again, the only problem is that again isn't until this winter and next summer. "The meantime" is what makes life all the more difficult. We were not slated to last more than 6 months sans some cash flow. SCLI's real potential for revenue will not be realized until November at the earliest, and that is where life gets tricky. Our other directions are mum at the moment, but I am happy that the boys are moving projects in a direction that better suits our core skill set and allies us with more established figures in and around China.

It looks like I will be applying to teach English (while not a terrible thing, it was something I had told myself I wouldn't have to do), and I'm excited to imagine what I would be like in charge of a class. In fact, I think a lot of people are... maybe not excited, let's say, amused and slightly scared, of what I would be like as a teacher/mentor. As I seem to be saying a lot on this blog, the next few weeks will be interesting, it seems the current day never is.

This is the sound a tibia makes

The expatriate community around the south of China is largely comprised of Britainers, Aussies, Irish and the like.  Rugby is therefore, a big deal.  A really big deal.  We ventured out to Hong Kong last week for the Sevens Tournament, and saw celebrations on a scale I never really thought possible.  Every city has at least one rugby squad, comprised entirely of expats and sponsored by at least one Irish pub in their city.  

We were recently invited to travel up to Guanzhou with the Shekou Dragons (The Shenzhen expat rugby team of which Tom is a part of) to watch them take on their Guanzhou counterparts.  We had a hotel set up and one of the Guanzhou players owned an Irish pub directly next to this hotel, which made everything easy.   Everything was going well, and the game was 5 minutes from stoppage time when a thunderous, ungodly, unforgettable crack rang out from the pitch.  A few screams followed, and everyone went silent.  The largest guy on the Shenzhen team had decided rather than take a hit and go down, to run through two rather beastly Guanzhou boys (as he had been doing quite consistently all afternoon).  Luck had apparently turned her back on this maneuver however, and both his tibia and fibia decided staying whole was no longer an option.   

There are some places I would not mind breaking a large bone, downtown Boston perhaps, and there are places I wouldn't dream of it, maybe rural Africa or China. Guanzhou is really not very high on the list either.  This sentiment was apparently shared by the other members of both squads who flew through their contact lists and phoned up Hong Kong.  In an amazing display of comraderie, the other players organized to have him sent to Hong Kong and have his leg set by a sports injury specialist out there.  It was an impressive display and highlights perfectly the way people are taken care of by their peers in those type of situations.  

For Reference:  Guanzhou is located about an hour by train from Shenzhen, and was rated one of the mot polluted cities in China recently.  It seems that around here the sun only comes out on special occasions, and the combination of pollution and humidity make for an interesting fog/smog situation that keeps the days pretty grey out here for much of the time.  I am told that the rainy season, which will be beginning very soon, should help to reduce some of this, but it is really odd experiencing this level of pollution.