The cool things you come across in Shenzhen... Dozens of people dancing in a public square at nearly 10:30 at night. This city has a great vibe.

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@darkcloudsilverlining
The cool things you come across in Shenzhen... Dozens of people dancing in a public square at nearly 10:30 at night. This city has a great vibe.
I shot some video this evening of the masses of people trying to get home after a hard day's work here in Shenzhen. Most of them get off work at 6 p.m. This is a pedestrian bridge that spans a major, busy street.
-----
Shot & posted on June 24, 2014
Gasping for Air (Conditioning)
(Shenzhen, China) -- I'm not sure what they were waiting for exactly. But the managers of my apartment complex finally opened the pool the other day.
How very Chinese.
We're in a "subtropical climate," meaning it's "hot as hell" even before you factor in the humidity, which must hover around 99% most days until Mother Nature finally wrings-out the atmosphere, as heavy as a used wash cloth. And it's been this way since I arrived in mid-May.
Yet in China, everything must be done according to an official schedule. It doesn't matter that it's been "summer" here for a long time. They're not opening the pool until we're close enough to the summer solstice to satisfy the person in charge. Apparently we recently got close enough. So the pool's open if you'd like to take a dip --- except it's not free, even if you live here.
I'm told it'll cost you 15RMB per hour. That's about $2.41.
I was close to jumping in these past few days. I woke-up Saturday morning to puny air conditioning. What actually caught my attention was that I got really hot while ironing a shirt and didn't get cool even after turning-off the iron.
"Maybe I've hit the wrong button on this remote," I thought, fumbling around, pushing buttons marked only with those beautiful Mandarin characters. What they mean, I haven't the faintest idea.
But faint I was about to do, I feared, as the apartment became unbearably hot then and throughout the next day.
Call me a wimp. Call me a privileged American. But my DNA just isn't made for this heat. My people came from Sweden. My body starts sweating when the air gets above 72.
Thank goodness I have a responsible landlord. He came yesterday from Hong Kong to assess the situation for himself. I think maybe he thought I'd hit the wrong Mandarin-labeled buttons, too. But unfortunately it was way more complicated than that.
Something was wrong with the air compressor. Not only that, it's located one floor above my apartment. So the maintenance man needed to find someone home to fix it.
My landlord got in touch with the lady who lives above me. However, she was on her way to the airport and wouldn't be back in town for a week.
He then knocked on someone else's door upstairs.
"But the tenant is resistant to open the door," he reported back.
My landlord went to an appliance store and purchased a new air conditioner, certain that the old one had died. He said it would be at least two days before the store would deliver it. Then it would take another three or four days for a repairman to be assigned to install it.
It wouldn't be an easy job, either. Because they couldn't access the apartments above mine, someone would have to lower the repairman from the rooftop of this high-rise down into a shaft, where he'd have to drop several floors to install the new compressor.
Simple things in China take time. I was bracing for something like this to take forever.
I didn't even bother taking a shower when I woke-up this morning, as my eyes burned from the sweaty fingers rubbing them. I knew I'd no more than get out of the bathroom than I'd start stinking again.
It really is that hot, the sweat that instantaneous.
But today a miracle happened. Two groups of people didn't follow the official schedule. Just after lunch, two deliverymen came with the new air conditioner and compressor from the store. Then around 3:30 this afternoon, a man with a harness around his chest and stomach knocked on my door.
I motioned toward the new boxes. He wasn't interested. He walked toward the old air conditioner, still in place in the wall, and motioned for me not to plug it in. I said OK. He left.
Soon, I heard noises above my apartment. Someone must have lowered him in!
He came back, turned-on the old AC unit and felt for the stream of air.
It still didn't work.
He went upstairs again. I heard more noises. And a few minutes later, he re-appeared at my door.
He powered-on the old air conditioner and motioned for me to come over and feel. It was cool again!
Unable to communicate verbally, we sat here like the strangers we are while he made sure the AC wouldn't shut down. Judging by his voice and smile as he made his necessary phone calls, I think he was quite proud of himself.
And he should be.
Thanks to him --- and undoubtedly his boss --- by not following the usual schedule, they made a huge difference in someone's life. I'm no longer feeling nauseous or faint.
I'm no longer gasping for air.
------
Posted June 17, 2014 at 8:51 p.m. China time.
Dateline: Shenzhen, China
I've now been in Shenzhen for a little more than a week. I arrived on the night of Thursday, May 15, 2014.
Here are some pics I've taken so far. This is the view of the mountains outside my apartment window.
This is a beautiful tree-lined street in my neighborhood.
Last weekend, I suddenly found myself standing near the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
This is a pedestrian bridge I had to cross while visiting Shenzhen's Nanshan District. The lights are pretty spectacular in person.
~ Zoom, Zoom! ~ Mazda 3 is Outta Here!
Someone FINALLY bought my car. What a relief! Next stop... China!
We met at a bank to make sure they weren't sketchy.
These dudes are literally trying to figure out how to call the dealership in Cleveland, where the boyfriend of the woman who wants the car works. Needless to say, I -- the inexperienced one at selling cars -- ended-up having to hold THEIR hands.
The old boys pulling-out of our apartment's driveway, heading back to Cleveland with the Mazda 3.
Posted & Pics Taken: May 2, 2014
Windy City Lives-Up to Name!
Just in time for my arrival, temps plunged from the upper 60s to the mid 30s as winter wouldn't give-up, even in mid-April! The wind became intense. And snow began to fall in the evening. Even though it was freezing, I couldn't resist walking around.
"The Bean," formally called Cloud Gate, sits in Millennium Park. The sculpture is by British artist Anish Kapoor.
The underbelly --- or underbean? --- of this sculpture is particularly dazzling.
The buildings outside this area of the park, bound by Michigan Avenue, give one the feeling of Central Park West in NYC.
Large grassy area near the amphitheater where musical acts perform in Millennium Park. Something about the curves of the architecture kept nagging at me.
It soon hit me --- this looked like a Frank Gehry design. And the next day, I found out, indeed it is.
The Prudential Building, where Newsradio WBBM has its studios. Notice the thick, towering transmitter on top. It's across from Millennium Park.
Lake Michigan, just blocks away from Newsradio WBBM, can be seen from windows in the newsroom.
These guys appeared to be picking-up buoys.
Trying out the zoom on my new little camera. Impressed!
Turning away from Lake Michigan and looking back towards the city, there's a great view of the Sears Tower, as it continues to be called by millions of Americans, even though it was formally re-named Willis Tower in 2009.
Back at Millennium Park, a sculpture with video. A changing collage of human faces appear on both slabs:
Other direction:
So the two faces are looking at each other. In warmer weather, this is a fountain, which kids flock to in order to splash around. Crown Fountain was designed by Jaume Plensa of Spain. (Video of water surrounding and coming out of the towers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDQK7Nl5dM4)
A kaleidoscope of shapes. Millennium Park.
The hotel where I stayed. I got a good deal by searching trivago.com. Wonderful views from my room. But the room was disappointingly small, especially considering what Trivago says they normally charge for it. Also, because it's been plopped-down at the intersection of the Chicago River and Wacker Drive, it's hard to figure out where to park. So this Swissotel forces you to use valet parking, even after I asked to park my car myself. I don't like that at all. And I had a much better experience before in Chicago staying at the Hyatt.
View from my room right before huge snowflakes began to fall. The Chicago River is below.
Awesome lamp/chandelier in a conference room in the building to the left of my hotel room. With your naked eye, you can clearly see the workers inside.
Snowflakes visible at the top of the image.
Posted: April 16, 2014
Chicago Trip
Mobile phone snapshots from Matt's business trip to Chicago on Monday and Tuesday. What a fabulous city!
View from the hotel of the Chicago River with Lake Michigan in the background. Beautiful sunshine but freezing temps Tuesday morning. Only 27-degrees in mid-April!
The famous Chicago Theatre across the street from the ABC building where ESPN Radio Chicago and WLS-AM have studios.
I always stare at these two buildings when I'm in Chicago. The cars with their rear-ends exposed to the air fascinates me. The building with the sloped roof at the bottom rear of the buildings is Chicago's House of Blues.
Famous Cubs baseball announcer Harry Caray may have passed away in 1998, but his restaurant lives on.
View of Millennium Park, with the Chicago Library on the right, on a snowy Monday evening.
This is where I ate Monday night, Tavern on the Park. Amazing steak and Irish potato cakes!
Came across this firehouse while walking back to my hotel. Since it's very close to the Chicago River, which is only a block or so away, firefighters here know how to SCUBA dive and, according to the sign, use a "fast boat" to rescue people from the freezing water.
Fallen firefighter memorial outside the firehouse.
Tuesday morning view outside my hotel room. A dusting of snow from the night before along the banks of the Chicago River.
View from State Street toward the Chicago Tribune building, near the center of the cluster of buildings seen here.
Posted: April 16, 2014