Goodbye China ! Hello Ireland !

by Chris

Wow ! I can't say enough good things about my month in China. I got to do a lot of lacrosse stuff, made lifelong friends and had a complete blast.

And instead of flying home, I took a zip line into the abyss !

Ok, I actually flew home via London. I've been home for almost a week, and have been sick as a dog.... one of the few drawbacks sometimes to traveling. I've had plenty of time to look through my pictures and laugh again at the fun times I had, and the people I sadly left behind...

Like Tom, Office Linebacker

and my cubicle mate BL

Although all hope was not lost, I brought some of China back with me. BD and I flew to London together, then after he spent a few days there at a tournament, he hopped over to Dublin for a few days. We got to do some stuff around town and of course......work.

BD checking in with Tom in Beijing via video conferencing....very hi-tech

Also got to show BD the facilities where I coach at UCD

We met up with Team Ireland midfielder Leonard ( whom some of you in NY will remember from our March trip)

Len, BD and I had lunch in the Wicklow mountains at Johnnie Fox's and talked lacrosse, big suprise. We drove the narrow, winding mountain roads to Glendalough, to see the ancient monastic settlement and the enjoy the scenery.

and, of course, throw the ball around.

Glendalough, as always, absolutely beautiful.

Playing lacrosse near the lake attracted the attention of kids of course, so we showed them how to play and let them try it out....great fun.

A spectacular afternoon. It was great having BD in Dublin, especially after his hospitality in Beijing.

So whats next ? Well....after another week of downtime here in Dublin, Kelly & I are off to Finland for two weeks for the European Lacrosse Championships....whew.

One last parting shot from China.... This is what it looks like when you strap yourself to a wire and throw yourself off the Great Wall of China. Flaco was the only one of us who had the sense to actually film it.

Great Wall Ball

by Chris

Talk about a great road trip ! On Sunday a group of us hired a van for a trip to the Great Wall at Simatai, about 120km from Beijing.

Brian, Will, Halliday, Chai, Tom, Jess & myself walking up to the wall from the parking lot. Hey this isnt so bad, nice paved road. That didn't last long.

Did I mention that at Simatai its basically all up hill ? The stairs are uneven, but it was a beautiful day for a hike/climb.

The part of the Wall we were going to hike has 14 towers and 49 gazillion steps

This is the least visited area of the Wall in the Beijing area. Its the furthest from Beijing and not as tourist friendly....although the locals are extremely friendly.

above, Brian explains lacrosse to one of the many curious passersby. Thats right, we all brought our lacrosse sticks...more on that later.
The scenery is breathtaking...mainly because you were climbing stairs the whole time.
Several times the boys stopped to play ball with the locals. We even climbed up on a guard tower and had a catch...until Flaco lost the ball over the side...and it bounced into Mongolia.
above, Chai & Tom soaking it all in.

below, Flaco wondering if he can climb down and get the ball.

below, we told Flaco that since he had lost the ball, he had to go in this cave and come out with either a Panda or a Dragon....he found neither
There are people all over the Wall trying to sell you water, beer or "I climbed the Great Wall" stuff...but they are all very friendly. below Brian sits and talks with some new friends.
We all took tons of pictures. make sure you click on one or two to see them full size...beautiful

Do you see the horse shaped cloud in the picture above ?

This guy is gonna be suprised when he wakes up.

We stopped for lunch at a restaraunt a 5 minute walk from the wall. We were the only ones there.
Flaco, Chris, Halliday, Chai, Tom, Brian & Jess

The food was AMAZING, look at this stuff !

Eggs, dumplings, Kung pao, beef, eggplant and cold beer

Tom armwrestled everyone at the Great Wall (at least 3) including our waitress who beat him handily.
She was very fond of Tom after that and insisted on helping him digest by rubbing his belly.

Brian & Jess didn't even notice.

After a long day hiking, you can take the cable car down...not on this day We had other plans anyway...the ZIPLINE ! Wooohoooooo !
From the Wall, across the river to the bottom of the valley..about 30 seconds of fun.
As part of your zip line ride you also get a boat ride to the parking lot.

Upon returning to Beijing, we met up with friends at a Chinese Muslim restaraunt for more food, beer and good times. What a truly great day.
Only one week left in China, this has been one hell of a trip.
Thank you China...here's a hug for ya

Beijing Week Four

by Chris

Sorry about the lack of activity lately.

The Great Firewall of China gives me problems sometimes when I try to access the ol' blog.

The Fourth of July in China proved to be an eventful evening. I met up with some of the local lacrosse guys after work and went to Tim's Texas Roadhouse !

Yeeeehhaaaawwwww !

My pictures are a bit fuzzy a) cause i was drinking beer and b) cause i didnt want to be the guy taking pictures with a flash like a tourist

Besides drinking 42 pitchers of beer and playing long distance darts, one of the coolest things was that the music was off of a laptop with iTunes...which our merry little band had control of !

Some of our group, Charlie on drums and Jeff on vocals, took this to the next level by jumping on stage and putting on a concert...real drums, fake vocals

I don't know why signs crack me up so much. I've seen a bunch of great ones but didn't have my camera. Here's one at the roadhouse.

Not Men....just Man....

We left the roadhouse and walked down the street to catch a cab...right near the new US Embassy, the largest embassy in the world. Pretty cool looking when its all lit up huh?

On another day, we went out after work to welcome Will (striped shirt) after his first day. We had pizza and beer at Kro's Nest, then went to the Saddle...a mexican joint where we added Tequila to the mix.

The problem was we had ridden our bikes there straight after work.

Tequila + Beer + Bikes = Riding home with Sombreros on ringing the bicycle bells and speaking Spanish to the local Chinese people.

On yet a different night, I decided to cook a good Irish meal for my roomies...I advertised it as "Irish Night" complete with Guinness and Cider as beverages. Problem was, once we got to the store we couldnt find any of the ingredients i needed.

So we had German Night instead !

With the help of my amigo Flaco (Wills new name since the bike ride) we whipped up a very hearty meal of bratwursts, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and bread.

below, coworkers eating dinner...Chris, TtotheE, Flaco, El Hefe and Boomer

I have more pictures to post and will have a lot more after this weekend. Saturday I am going to the Forbidden City and on Sunday the whole gang from the office is taking a private charter bus to the Great Wall...wooooohooooooo !

Plus, I'll be posting about Boomer's 38th Birthday Blowout Bonanza yesterday.

17 Million people and Me !

by Chris ( Ai Chen)

Its customary for foreigners in China to adopt a Chinese name, usually given to you by Chinese friends. The girls in my office came up with my name, Ai Chen. I'm not going to shed my Western given name yet, but I like my new name.

I wonder which one they'll put on my Tombstone when I'm crushed between two buses during my morning commute?

As you can see in the picture above, I ride my bike through some pretty intense traffic on my way to those buildings in the distance.

I hope you enjoy these pictures, many people died so that I could take them.

In other news....The Ozogs had a Baby !

Kateri Lily Ozog - born 9:17am July 2nd - 7lbs 4oz - 19.75 in

Ozoooooooooogggggggggggg !

Congrats Jesse & Kristina !

I live in Beijing.

by Chris

I've been in Beijing for 12 days. I feel like I live here...except I've lost my wife !

This past weekend I played in my first lacrosse tournament in China. The biggest tournament of the year here is the Beijing Tournament with teams from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, China and a team from California.

I played on a team of American ex-pats who live and work in China...team name : The LaxPats

It was very hot (mid-nineties) and very humid. Except for the fact that I almost died from heat stroke we did very well...in fact, we won the whole tournament.

On day two of the tournament, roommate BD and I were hungry and went looking for food in some building near the fields. We wandered into a hotel/conference center and ended up exploring the basement...until we found the employee dining room and kitchens. BD, being ever resourceful, just walked into the kitchen and started ordering food in Chinese.

Even more remarkable was the fact that they made it for us ! They arent open to the public and we certainly arent employees...a little confidence carries you a long way in China.

above, Chris eating his breakfast that BD willed into being. Fresh hot flat bread, eggs, some sort of shredded potato and a glass of soup with capers in it...freakin delicious.

There was a pool near the fields so our team decided that before the championship game we would have a dunk and a swim. It was hot.. I attribute the one hour we spent in the pool to our victory in the tournament. We had a few beers and cooled down as best we could.

The LaxPats relax and soak up the sun.

Other big news this week was that I got a rental bike!

She might not be the coolest bike, but she gets me to work in about 20 minutes.

The bike ride to work (and home) is an adventure every day, below is the start of the journey. I can't take pictures of the rest of the journey or I would be run over by a bus or the thousands of other bicyclists. This week I'll find a safe spot to pull over and take a picture of the morning traffic madness.

This is the building I work in. Its very nice and in the heart of the Central Business District.

Friday was the last day of our company intern, Justin, from California/Hong Kong. He sits right across from me so I'm gonna print this picture out and pretend he's still there.

I also made my inaugural trip to the Supermarket with roommate Tom. We went to a western style store, a french chain called Carrefuor.

The place is huge !

Good Christmas, a whole aisle of Dumplings ! Woooohooooo !

We've had dumplings every day since that trip...until we ran out.

Total number of dumplings eaten in one week : 182

I'm not even joking, my roomates and I can put away some dumplings, especially if we've had a few beers.

We boiled the dumplings then friend them in sesame oil...and had lots of dipping sauces.

The most popular sauce has been the brown vinegar/soy concoction we now call swinegar.

One day, I was looking for the salt in the kitchen.....I found it.

A big sack of MSG...lol

Ahhh China...what other wonders do you hold in store ?

Next update - My first trip to get a haircut and pics from my weekend exploration.