Archive for April, 2010

Wicker Furniture

Originally uploaded by pepperperkinsarcher

China’s version of a sidewalk sale. I am still on the lookout for a more laden hand cart. All those chairs on the sidewalk were piled onto the hand cart. It’s amazing to see.

Ode to Spam

Oh, spam I thank you
Without you I would have no
comments.
You are my most frequent visitor.
Oh Spam, I thank you.

Welding

Originally uploaded by pepperperkinsarcher

Chinese welding doesn’t necessarily involve protective eye gear or really protection of any kind.

Yesterday I saw a man on the top of a ladder and his friends were moving him a foot at a time so he could fix some wires.

Never a dull moment.

Wow, I don’t know where I’ve been recently (especially being a Geography teacher) but Shanghai has surpassed all other cities to become the most populated city in the world. This is a difficult number to get sometimes as census data is hard to get in some places, but each site I looked at listed Shanghai as #1. I was still living under the illusion that Tokyo held that place, but it has dropped way down. It has even been passed by Seoul. Who knew!?

Here are two different lists:
Wikipedia
1 Shanghai 13,831,900 China
2 Mumbai 13,830,884 India
3 Karachi 12,991,000 Pakistan
4 Delhi 12,565,901 India
5 Istanbul 11,372,613 Turkey
6 São Paulo 11,037,593 Brazil
7 Moscow 10,508,971 Russia
8 Seoul 10,464,051 South Korea
9 Beijing 10,123,000 China
10 Mexico City 8,841,916 Mexico
11 Tokyo 8,795,000 Japan
12 Jakarta 8,489,910 Indonesia
13 New York City 8,363,710 United States
14 Wuhan 8,001,541 China
15 Lagos 7,937,932 Nigeria

According to Megacities the list is: http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/bigcities.htm
1. Shanghai
2. Mumbai
3. Beijing
4. Sao Paulo
5. Seoul
6. Moscow
7. Delhi
8. Chongjinq
9. Istanbul
10. Karachi
11. Mexico City
12. Jakarta
13. Guangzhou
14.Tokyo
15. New York City

No matter how you look at it, Shanghai is first and New York and Tokyo aren’t top 10.
Where have I been?

Jordan was in trouble so I made him grade papers- Just Kidding.

Jordan asked if he could grade some papers. He thought it was fun for awhile.

So, I remember in grade school we moved into a new school. I was in 2nd or 3rd grade when this happened, which was about 26 years ago. On the day of the big move we packed all our stuff from our desks (books included) into a paper bag and walked the 1/4 mile or more to the new campus. I was just thinking about America today and wondered if parents would be upset that their kid had to walk or had to carry their books that far. Are we creating a generation of wimps?

Storks Again

Originally uploaded by pepperperkinsarcher

Who decided that a scavenger was going to be the bird to bring babies to new parents. I’m going to have to look that up.

Okay, so I looked up information on Storks and babies at this site: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-connection-between-storks-and-babies.htm

You should check it out. I still find it odd that a scavenger who in Africa is associated with vultures would be in lore with bringing babies.

DSC_0523

Originally uploaded by zieak

Ryan took this picture of me walking with the lions during our trip to Zimbabwe. It was amazing. These lions were 13-14 months. We were able to spend over an hour with 3 lions while they enjoyed their morning walk. We were able to do this through the ALERT program at Antelope Park that is trying to help improve the odds of the continuation of the African lion. I didn’t know before this trip that the African lion population has decreased drastically in the past 30 years. So much in fact that it is now on the vulnerable/threatened species list.

The lions go through 4 stages in this program before being fully introduced in the wild. We were also able to handle cubs and watch other lions hunt.