http://www.lostmeridian.com Time for Risk Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:01:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've used the North Face Backtrack 50 for the last two years. It is an effective pack system designed for world travelers that is built with quality materials and is designed to withstand a fair amount of strain over a prolonged period of time. It is also the ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2009/11/06/gear-review-north-face-backtrack-50/ For the past three months, its been my pleasure to be instructed in one of the world's most important languages by individuals who love their discipline, and more importantly love their jobs. 谢谢, 大家！非常感谢你们给我一个美好的夏天。 For my tribute, here's a small series of portraits featuring the teachers and my classmates in action over ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2009/09/12/chinese_teachers/ Second time back to Summer Palace (Yi He Yuan) and once again I'm none the wiser. Throngs of people, high heat — what do you expect from Beijing in July? This trip was an outing sponsored by my language school. I about dodged out of it but my classmates ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2009/08/05/summer-palace/ I love Beijing for its virulent growth. You won't find a city with as many construction cranes dotting the skyline. As others have said before, it is the fast changing nature of the city that makes Beijing a place unlike any other. For its beauty and the ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2009/08/05/beijing-through-the-looking-glass/ Friday was a much welcomed reprieve from our normal class schedule, or so we thought. Our teachers planned an excursion to 大觉寺 (Da Jue Si) — a thousand year-old temple located about 1.5 hours outside of Beijing. Their goal was to advance our exposure to Chinese culture and ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2009/07/02/da-jue-si/ Right, so by now you know that Faye works at a Montessori Kindergarten. Periodically, I come to visit in order to a.) see her in her place of work and b.) take photos of her children for scrap-booking purposes. I enjoy the opportunity mainly to see her ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2009/04/17/the-childrens-house-part-2/ A confession — the Olympics were not an event I "seized" in the traditional "live life to the top" sense. In many ways, I might as well have been in Siberia watching it on a small black and white TV screen. I didn't fling myself into the mob at ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2008/08/26/the-2008-beijing-olympics/ Right, so Singapore is impressive. Darn impressive. I've been on the small island nation of 4.6 million people for around a week. I don't have any great pictures to share. It's like the city is one big polished super mall. Really sleek, shiny, always something to grab ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2008/08/24/lion-city/ On Tuesday, Faye and I were sitting in Monty's Steakhouse having dinner with two friends. Monty's is in Shanghai. We had stopped there for 12 rainy hours before our flight to Southeast Asia took off. Before I get into that, let me back up a little bit. Shanghai ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2008/08/13/one-night-in-shanghai/ Faye and I headed to Beijing's art district for something of an usual photo shoot. The style is hard to put your finger on — it's part Goth/Emo/Scene. The simple reason for this odd combination was that we simply didn't know what we were doing and just wanted ... http://www.lostmeridian.com/2008/08/03/qi-jiu-ba/