My housemate’s baby has arrived. I just talked to the father, and the kid made his first appearance at 8:20 AM this morning (June 3, 2016), about five or six hours after letting everybody know that he was ready for the world. (Mother went into labor at between 2 and 3 AM). He’s a boy.
As an old bachelor, without children, I don’t have any experience of someone having a baby near me. I have a large apartment which is shared with a Chinese couple, expecting a baby. The baby is due in two weeks, and I asked the future mother if there was anything I could do. . . “No.”
So I asked for the husband’s phone number, just in case, and she said that he wouldn’t understand me anyway, but she gave me the number. So this morning at 3 AM I hear some rustling around, doors opening, etc. She says, “Maybe we will go to the hospital.”, “Anything I can do?”, “No. My husband is getting the car.” I told them not to worry, I will make sure that all the doors are locked . . .
I am very attached to this couple. So how long do I have to wait before I call the husband for an update? So what do you say to somebody who is waiting . . . especially if they don’t speak English? Sheesh !
Hopefully everything will come out OK and I’ll get good news in due course.
Media Note
The Department of State encourages all U.S. citizens overseas to vote, and offers non-partisan assistance online and through our embassies and consulates around the world.
U.S. citizens can now request their blank ballots electronically. Depending on your state or county, you can get your ballot by email, fax, or internet download. To start, U.S. citizens should go to www.FVAP.gov to fill out a new Federal Post Card Applications (FPCA). Even U.S. citizens who are already registered to vote or who have voted in previous elections should complete new FPCAs in 2012 to ensure they receive their ballot via the fastest delivery method possible.
The registration process for overseas voters has changed in many states this election cycle. Deadlines and eligibility rules for voting in state and local elections vary by state and are rapidly approaching, with some deadlines less than a month away. Additional information about absentee voting for U.S. citizens abroad can be found online at www.FVAP.gov or travel.state.gov.
The State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs will be available live during a twitter Q&A with @TravelGov on August 28 at 9 a.m. EDT to answer questions about how to vote while abroad. Representatives from the Office of Overseas Citizens Services and the Federal Voting Assistance Program will be on hand to answer questions about registering to vote and submitting a ballot from overseas.
U.S. Citizens are encouraged to submit questions in advance to @TravelGov, using the hashtag #AskState. Questions may also be tweeted live during the Q&A.
This effort supports the Department’s 21st Century Statecraft efforts, complementing traditional foreign policy by harnessing the digital networks and technologies of an interconnected world.
Teaching English can be fun. This little song teaches a lot of English. It can be very beautiful when sung in two part harmony.
Guiyang aspires to be the “Big Data Valley” of China, with a high tech expo highlighting many of the developments here. China Daily, USA Edition, has complete coverage at: http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2016-05/26/content_25479827.htm
My students Wang Min and Bai Zhong Jun attended the conference and helped me talk to the exhibitors. 
Wang Min loved to play with the Virtual Reality Three Dimensional Glasses. When you view the world through these glasses, it takes you to a differenct world and a different reality. When you turn your body around, you are looking at a different world behind you, but in fact you are standing in the middle of a conference.
Photo taken the day prior to opening day.
From May 25 to May 29, a Guiyang hosted the China Big Data Industry Summit and China ECommerce Innovation and Develpment Summit. I attended the confernce with two of my students. Wang Min is a student studying Hospitality Manageent at Guizhou Normal University and Bai Zhong Jun is a student of Software Engineering at Guizhou University.
Sign advertising the event
These signs are everywhere in Guiyang.
The Big Data Conference in Guiyang brought companies from all over China and from around the world. Companies that were represented include:
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The Big Data Conference had good attendence by State Owned Businesses which can provide services and financing to companies with interesting projects, projects that can employ Guiyang’s technical labor force. A small stream can grow to a river and an ocean. Guizhou Province of China aspires to become the “Big Data Valley” of China. The private and public comapnies represented here suggest that this is very feasible.
African-American youths see the true China
By Yan Dongjie (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-05-22 16:35
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2016-05/22/content_25410946.htm
It is not often that I reference China Daily because this web site blog (at www.tourguizhou.com) is about foreigners in Guizhou. Guizhou Province of China is magnificent . . . in the friendly people, the beautiful landscape, abundant water resources, clean air, minority cultures and an incredible variety of local foods. So when I read a headline referencing the “true China” it really set off a little bell. In the USA people always ask me, “What is it like in China?”. My answer is always the same . . . “China’s a big place. It’s better to ask me what it’s like in Guizhou, or Guiyang.”
I really wanted to read the article because I don’t know how to describe the true China either. My impression is that about half of the country is still quite rural, with a big percentage of people pulling themselves up out of the rubble that was The Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. It is a rapidly growing techno society and a sleepy rural place as well. It is on the move, or not. It depends on your bias going in, and what you are shown, and what you choose to see. So I really was curious about what the author and the hosts came up with in describing the trip of “African-American youths”. You have the link now and can read the article yourselves.
So if I wanted to show Chinese people the True America, what would I show them? Perhaps I will try to lead a group to the USA and attempt to show them the “True America”. What will it be? The African American youths were shown Beijing and Shanghai. That would be like showing Washington DC and New York City, only, and calling it the “true America”. What a bastard view that would be.
So the question stands, what would I show them? Well it would be difficult in two weeks to show the true America with any degree of granularity. For sure, I would want to show them New York City and Washington DC. I would also want to show them a pro football game, a college basketball game, a minor league baseball game, Flint, a jazz bar, Harvard, Northwestern Michigan Community College, a small midwest town, some National Parks, an NRA sponsored shooting range, a primary school class, a church service, a medical research hospital, Detroit Recorder’s Court, a township board meeting, a Donald Trump rally, West Point, a Boeing Corporation jet plane factory, … hmmm. Two weeks might not be enough time!
Does anybody else have any ideas about “the true America”?
I volunteered to help teach a class of 7 to 9 year old Chinese students. They are just beginning English. This picture shows what I think they should know, if they learn nothing else from me.
Guizhou now has the biggest radio telescope in the world. It will be operational soon.
The world’s largest radio telescope is almost finished – and it’s going to try to make contact with extra-terrestrial life.
This fascinating video and stunning photos show how close the 500m wide Aperture Spherical Telescope, or “FAST”, is to completion.
The structure, in China, will be operational by September and key components have already been tested.
Spanning 1,640ft in diameter, the telescope is a £125 million initiative that has been under construction since 2011 in Pingtang County in China’s Guizhou Province.
The structure is being fitted with 4,500 shiny panels following a successful dry run of its hardware last November.
FAST is three miles away from the nearest inhabited town, meaning it will have the perfect radio silence needed to listen to listen to the skies above.
Officials moved some 9,000 from the region to make way for the radio telescope, which will be the biggest of its kind.