As I wrote before, North Korea seems to like making models of sites and I like making fly-through videos of models. Here are two more videos of models. I’m not sure of what. Something industrial. Maybe the steel factory? Here’s the second video. Typically when they showed us models like this they described how they represent a time Kim Il Sung visited the place, even if his visiting probably contributed[…] Keep reading →

Part of my series of videos on North Korea from my April 2012 visit, for now unedited and in the order I took the videos. Today’s videos are of our visit to a North Korean steel factory. They told us we were among the first foreigners to visit the place in a long time, maybe ever. We loved visiting this place. That we got to tour right into the heart[…] Keep reading →

Part of my series of videos on North Korea from my April 2012 visit, for now unedited and in the order I took the videos. Today’s videos happen to cover infrastructure. Pyongyang Roadside This video shows the view out of a tour bus of a typical Pyongyang street. You can see the (in)famous Ryugyong Hotel, a subway stop entrance, and Pyongyang’s typically empty roadways. You can hear our guide’s voice[…] Keep reading →

The other day it rained and I skipped playing ultimate frisbee in Shanghai. It reminded me of playing in college and after. In the Northeast of the U.S., especially in late fall, leading to Regionals, it rained and snowed a lot. Weather didn’t change that you simply went to practice. We practiced and played in snow, wind, rain, etc. I played disc the year I lived in Paris, taking a[…] Keep reading →

Entering a public bathroom in China means your clothes and hair will smell like smoke all day. It feels barbaric to me. Does that overstate things? It just gets to you after a while. I can’t believe how smoky they get. Do you get the same feeling?

Last month on my way home from Shanghai I got some great customer service. On a fifteen-hour flight, a human touch can make a big difference. Also, since I don’t eat meat and tend to eat more than what the airline provides, she brought me some undistributed extra food from business class. I think it helped that I always use Doctor Joshua Spodek for reservations — I didn’t go through[…] Keep reading →

My five months in Shanghai have been my longest time away from home in a long time — probably since my year in Paris about twenty years ago. And I was even home for a week in August. I could write a lot about what I like about home, but I’ll keep it simple with the top few. Sleeping in my own bed Mom’s home cooking for Thanksgiving Nieces and[…] Keep reading →