These always look way bigger up close

The time had come for Gerald, Katie (H2O president and fundraising guru) and myself to take flight to Uganda. We departed Los Angeles on a sunny afternoon in June on an Emirates non-stop flight to Dubai. Emirates airline is owned by the Government of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), so all international flights connect in this desert metropolis, situated on the Persian Gulf, before carrying on to final destinations. We were to stop in Dubai for a long layover, get on a connecting flight that would make a brief touchdown in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia then head on to our final destination, the capital of Uganda, Kampala. The total flight time would equate to a whopping 23 hours and 10 minutes.

Dubai is one of the seven United Arab Emirates

Katie and I were under the impression that we’d have to find a comfortable bench to sleep on at the Dubai airport while waiting for our connection… 14 hours later! Then, after we had already checked our bags, Gerald filled us in on a shocking piece of information. Apparently, Emirates offers a “sleep transfer” to customers who have booked the earliest possible departing flight from the originating city that day. A sleep transfer? Hubba wha?

A sleep transfer is obtained from the Emirates Customer Service desk at the airport of departure or the Dubai airport. The transfer includes a room at the Millennium Airport Hotel Dubai, food vouchers for dinner, breakfast and snack, and a shuttle to and from the airport. Amazing! Just another reason to love Emirates… if you weren’t already loving them for the comfortable seats, unlimited access to movies, TV shows, music (really good music) and games to keep one entertained for hours upon hours, the best food an airplane could offer, lights on the ceiling that look like stars when the cabin lights are off, the super friendly (and quite attractive) flight attendants, and, last, but definitely not least, the free flow booze for the entire flight.

We arrived in Dubai around 7:30 PM the next day. We were feeling jet lagged, but excited to be on the ground in Dubai. United States passport holders aren’t required to obtain a Dubai visa, but unfortunately, not the case for our Ugandan buddy, Gerald.

After Katie and I zipped through immigration with our sleep transfers in hand, Gerald was stopped and told to take a walk to an office away from the main passport check area. We waited for about 15 minutes before an unhappy Gerald cleared immigration. He didn’t really want to talk about what had happened, but later shared bits and pieces of what went down. Airport officials questioned him about his comings and goings then scanned his eyes. Kind of sucks, but hey, that’s the world we live in today. There was no time for sulking! We were in Dubai!

I look like a turtle when I'm packin my video cam & tripod

Gerald & Katie still smiling upon arrival in Dubai

After we checked in to our hotel rooms, we met in the dining room for dinner then booked a two-hour night tour. Although we were insanely tired and just wanted to sleep, we had to take advantage of our short time in Dubai. We scarfed down the meal and ran back to the lobby in time for our 9:30 PM tour departure. I highly recommend one of these tours to anyone passing through Dubai. You get a snap shot of the city and quite a bit of UAE trivia to go along with the visuals.

Our bus driver/tour guide started off by telling us that he’s not a tour guide, he’s a bus driver… alllllright. This dude knew how many rooms and bathrooms were in every single hotel we passed. Quite impressive. But one fact that really stuck with me was when he said that 10 years ago, Dubai was a desert. No development. Now this place is a mecca of luxury condos and homes, resorts and skyscrapers. Pretty wild.

The first stop on our tour was the beach where we had a great view of the Burj Al Arab, the sailboat looking hotel, as well as a massive lit up mosque. There were lots of people on the beach, I assume, trying to find solace from the blazing heat. Dubai is probably the hottest place (temperature wise) I’ve ever been. When you walk outside, it’s like someone is blasting you with a hair dryer non-stop. Very intense heat. I’m not quite sure how I’d fare in Dubai if I had to live there, but a little A.C. definitely goes a long way.

Burj Al Arab aka a hotel that looks like a sailboat on the gulf

Mosque

The next stop was the place most folks associate Dubai with… that crazy looking island shaped like a Palm tree. The first time I saw an aerial photo of this Palm Island, I could not believe what I was seeing! Not only does Dubai have an island shaped like a palm tree, but another one shaped like a map of the world called… well, The World.

The Palm is one of two Atlantis resorts in the world (the other in the Bahamas). People come from all over to vacation here and spend one-on-one time splashing around with dolphins. I personally could find better use of my vacation funds, but if you’re a high roller, might as well shack up at this place for a night or two.

Aquarium, Atlantis The Palm

Atlantis The Palm

Aquarium in Atlantis The Palm

Father & child look at the sharks in the massive aquarium at Atlantis The Palm in Dubai

Gerald & Katie walking through Atlantis

The tour/bus guide/driver man let us walk around Atlantis for about 15 minutes or so, before piling us back in the van and heading over to the place I really wanted to see, the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa. Now, I had been to the tallest building in the world back in 2008, the Taipei 101, in Taipei, Taiwan, but when this Dubai skyscraper opened in January 2010, it surpassed Taipei 101. Now I can say that I’ve seen the two the two tallest buildings in the world!

World's tallest building, Burj Khalifa

That just about wrapped up the tour. With no clean clothes or toiletries, one had to get creative for the next day’s attire… having been in the same clothes already for a day and then some. But thankfully there was a small gift shop in the lobby and I was able to buy a toothbrush (with USD, but given change in UAE currency, the dirham). I probably got about four hours of sleep total due to the time zone change… OK, and I had to stay up for a bit to see what Dubai TV is all about.

All toilets come with a spray thingy

When I woke up, I opened the hotel room window and, once again, got blasted with hot air. I wanted to snap a photo of the metro station because I was fascinated that the cars are NOT operated by humans. They’re completely computerized. The way of the future my friends, the way of the future.

View of metro station (blue lights on right) from hotel room

Appreciating English when traveling abroad

We got to the airport early so that Gerald could buy his family iPods and other electronics from the massive duty free. I ended up making a few purchases myself on the return trip, but more on that later. We boarded our Uganda bound flight and set off. The next ground we would step on would be that of Africa.

Boarding plane to Uganda

International Certificate of Immunization

In preparation for traveling to Uganda, I need to get a few immunizations. This is standard procedure when traveling to developing countries to protect oneself.

I asked a friend who traveled to Uganda a few years back which shots he got and he did the whole kitten caboodle including Hepatitis, Menactra, Polio, Yellow Fever and Typhoid. Upon entry to the country, he doesn’t remember having to show proof of immunization. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website provides a list of recommended vaccines based on each area of the world traveling. The most stressed vaccine for Uganda is Yellow Fever.

Once the vaccine is administered, proof of immunization is given in form of a little yellow booklet approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) that lists all of your vaccines, dates administered and doctor’s signatures. My plan was to take all precautions to ensure not contracting a life threatening disease.

Now… where to start? Where to go? Who to call?

Luckily, I have health insurance, so naturally, I would think that calling a primary health care physician is a good starting point. Wrong. Since immunizations like Yellow Fever aren’t commonly requested by the average person going to a family practitioner, the receptionist automatically tells you to call your local health department. The problem is, the local health departments are run by the city/state and they don’t take insurance.

I phoned the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services and learned that the consultation fee is $30 and Yellow Fever vaccine is $95. The lady on the other line assured me that since they don’t have overhead costs to run the clinic, using their services is more likely going to be less expensive than going to a regular doctor’s office.

However, through my insurance company, Great-West Health, I have a $20 co-pay and preventative heath care covering 100% of cost for immunizations of Rubella, Hepatitis A & B and Tetanus-diphtheria (TD). The insurance company said that I could go to a health department clinic and mail the receipt to Great-West, but there’s no guarantee that I’m going to be reimbursed and the money paid to the clinic. However, those funds could possibly be put toward my deductible. When people start throwing around words like possibly, maybe, most likely, probably, I usually equate that with either, no, or a major pain in the ass.

So began my quest to find a doctor covered by my health insurance to administer these immunizations. The insurance company sent me a list of primary care physicians as well as infections diseases doctors. When I called the primary care physicians, I was repeatedly told to call the health department and most of the infections disease doctors did the same. If I started off the conversation with… I need to be vaccinated for TD and Hepatitis… I’d receive an immediate sense of assistance. But as soon as I uttered the words, Yellow Fever, I got shut down. Call the health department!

After much Googling, I found a list of “Yellow Fever Vaccination Clinics.” Still many of these clinics do not accept insurance, but a few doctor’s names were listed and some happened to be in my health insurance’s network.

On that list I found Dr. Karine Gaboian over in Glendale, CA who’s in my insurance’s network of providers. And for the first time, after mentioning Yellow Fever, I wasn’t shut down. Then the receptionist told me she’d have to place an order for the vaccine and I needed to call back after 2 PM to schedule an appointment. When I called back, she told me she placed a note on the “office manager’s” desk to check the inventory of Yellow Fever vaccine… not quite sure why I needed to know this… but fine. Then proceeded to ask me which other vaccines I needed.

Sidenote: When you tell the doctor where you’re traveling, they’ll know which immunizations to you need.

When I began to spout off names of vaccines she said, you know, Yellow Fever isn’t covered by insurance. Awesome! Because that’s why I’m calling you.

I made one final call to another doctor on the list whose receptionist was the most helpful person I’d talked to all day. Right out the gate she said, Yellow Fever is not covered by insurance, getting it at this office will be expensive, you’re better off going to a clinic. Fair enough.

An hour later, I’m at the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services where there was no wait and the cashier took both Master and Visa cards.

I ended up getting a total of six vaccines:

Hepatitis A……$35 (will need to get one follow-up shot in six months)
Hepatitis B……$40 (will need to get two follow-up shots, #2 in a month, #3 in six months)
Polio & Diph-Tetanus, TD, Tdap……$15
Typhoid……$60
Yellow Fever….$95 (yowza!)

Add a nursing assessment fee of $31 and the grand total comes to a whopping…. $276!

Let’s just say I’m going to be realllll bummed out if I get ill while in Africa.

But to take my safety to the next level, I walked out with a prescription for anti-Malaria pill, Malarone (the most expensive of the anti-Malaria, but you’re guaranteed to NOT hallucinate). 30 pills for $40 with insurance – without about $152.

And a prescription for Ciprofloxacin, only needed when diarrhea strikes. 12 pills for $10 with or without insurance.

I sent a copy of the travel immunization receipt off to my health insurance company today in attempt of reimbursement for the Hep. A & B and TD vaccine. I’ll update this post with the end result when all is said and done.

In regards to how I’m currently feeling at the moment (one day later), my arms are quite sore from the injections. I have difficulty lifting my arms over my head and I was feeling a bit run down today. It’s normal to feel feverish and achy after getting the Yellow Fever vaccine, but hopefully this won’t continue much longer. However, I should expect to feel like this for the next few days.

If you’re looking for information about travel vaccinations, here’s a helpful website that answered some of my questions, Healthy Traveler.

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I am very excited to announce that I will be embarking on yet another international journey next month.

I’ve never been to Africa and up until recently, I didn’t know much about the continent’s history. A spark of interest was ignited by my friend Gerald, who I met while studying at Fudan University in China last year. He will be doing the honors of being my host while I’m in his home country, Uganda.

But this trip is not just about pleasure. The sole purpose is to install safe water filtration systems in homes and school classrooms. I was fortunate enough to help Gerald start his non-profit organization, Helping2Overcome, or H2O, earlier this year. When you hear Gerald’s story, you’ll understand why I felt compelled to lend a helping hand.

As soon as the Helping2Overcome website is fully functional, Gerald’s Story will be posted there. Until then, you can read it here…

Kanungu is located in the southwestern region of Uganda (orange shaded area).

Gerald Mbabazi is from the Kanungu District of Uganda, Africa. Located in the southwestern region of the country, the terrain is made up of hills and mountains. Water only exists in valleys and where run off from mountains collect.

Growing up in Uganda, one learns quickly to always boil water before drinking. Failing to do so will lead to horrible stomachaches followed by agonizing diarrhea. Gerald says the last thing that needed to happen when he was three miles away from school was an urge to use the bathroom.

At nine years old, Gerald’s responsibility was to walk a mile with a 20-liter container on his head to retrieve safe water from a well. This particular water source provided for 3,000 people in the village. He vividly remembers laundry day because he had to make 10 exhausting trips to and from the well.

Once he arrived at the well, there was always a long line of people waiting to fill containers. He says reaching the spout was like a test of survival of the fittest. Sometimes his sisters would stand nearby to cheer him on as he made his way to the front of the line. He always felt as if he was in a race and filling the container with water for his family was the gold medal.

Carrying water in Uganda

When Gerald was 13 years old, his parents told him that a global service organization, Rotary International, was coming to Kanungu to build a gravity water system from water on a mountain over 20 miles away. He couldn’t believe that he would finally have access to filtered, pure water, within arms reach.

Sure enough, a few months later, a fresh water tap was placed right outside of Gerald’s home. No more carrying the container over the mountains and through the hills.

Gerald says that the best gift in the world was waking up each morning with a smile on his face because he knew that he didn’t have to go the dreaded distance down the valley to collect the water. Instead, he’d have water fights outside with his sisters.

Looking back, he realizes that access to safe water not only ensured good health, but also built friendships. Kids were able to spend more time playing together and less time traveling to and from the well. And now, everyone in the village had something to talk about… water!

A small group from the U.S. and Sweden will be heading over on June 16th. We’re raising money up until the last minute, so if you’re feeling generous, send a check on over to:

H2O: Helping To Overcome, Inc.

P.O. Box 487
Modesto, California, U.S.A.
95353

Or make a donation via PayPal (although they do charge us a small fee) using this email address:

H2O's 1st Annual Run For Water on June 12th

info@h2overcome.org

Or even better! If you’re going to be in the Modesto, California area on June 12th, sign up to participate in H2O’s 1st Annual Run for Water. The downloadable registration and sponsorship forms can be found on H2Overcome.org under the “Make A Difference” tab.

After a month in Africa, I’ll head up to France and the UK to visit friends. I can’t believe I will have been to Shanghai and Kampala before Paris or London. No idea how that happened.

And as always, I’ll be writing about the experience and posting photos and videos, right here on Ambassador Doodle!

Sun sets on Coachella 2010

If you get in a car and drive two hours east of Los Angeles, you’ll find yourself in a desert. Why would anyone ever want to venture to the desert, you ask? For the Coachella Valley Music Festival, that’s why!

The annual event is three jam-packed days of bands from all over the world, performing to music fanatics both new and old. The festival gives those who didn’t have the time to hit up individual concerts throughout the year (or two years in my case) a chance to see those bands and then some in one weekend.

Since I was out of the country for the 2009 fest, I missed what would’ve been my sixth consecutive year. When I saw the line-up for this year, I knew that I had to make a comeback and my BFF Eleanore was ready to make hers too. A few days before we set out for the desert, my buddy from New Orleans, Francois, asked if he could jump on our Coachella band wagon and I always say the more the merrier!

Day #1 – Friday, April 16th

We checked in to our funky little Brady Bunch lodging establishment in Downtown Palm Springs called the Desert Hills Hotel. After eating lunch at a spot on the main drag recommended by a lady strategically placing lawn ornaments and wind catchers by the dozens in front of her home, we began our journey… our long, long, long, journey to the Empire Polo Field, which is located 3o minutes away from where we started.

In front of wacky lady's house with lawn ornaments

Downtown Palm Springs!

We hit insane traffic when attempting to park. Then we were victims of the massive crowd waiting to enter the venue when volunteers taking tickets ran out of the 3-day pass bracelets! WTF? I’m still rather bitter about this because in my opinion, if you’re paying $300 for anything (which thankfully I didn’t have to pay, but WHATEVER), you shouldn’t have to wait in a line for more than 5 minutes. And if you know how many tickets sold… ugghhh… enough to SELL OUT the event… WHY wouldn’t you have enough bracelets available?

Stupid line on Friday for Entrance/Wristbands

We finally made it!!

ANYWAY, we entered the festival in time to catch the end of She and Him. People seem to love this duo made up of actress, Zooey Deschanel and some guy who doesn’t have a first name called M. Ward, but I don’t really know what the fascination is all about. I mean, she’s super cute and all, but I don’t think they’re doing anything epic. Different folks, different strokes, I suppose.

Passion Pit

Now, Passion Pit is another story. These guys are so amazing. Hearing “I’ve Got Your Number” on KCRW a few days after returning to U.S. prompted me to purchase the album, Chunk of Change. Everyone in the crowd was singing along and dancing during the show. THEY were epic.

I attempted to see La Roux in the Gobi tent, but crowd was so out of control, I could barely hear them let alone see them. So crazy. This is when I realized exactly how many people were at the event… the whole recording breaking 80,000! It was impossible to move from one act to another mainly because people looking for somewhere to sit just plopped down in places that were meant for walking. Slowly but surely I made my way over to Pretty Lights in the “rave tent” before backtracking to Grizzly Bear for their final few songs.

Imogen Heap

I got a good spot for Imogen Heap. She’s a one woman show and half her equipment wasn’t working. Poor thing. She Scotch tapes microphones to her wrists to sample sounds from percussions then sings while playing the piano. She had an additional keyboard that wasn’t hooked up properly. People started leaving. We stuck around for an audience participation song before my party started getting antsy. Amazing voice, great songs, probably not the best live.

Popped in to catch the last few songs of Little Dragon‘s set. The lead singer, Yukimi Nagano, is a doll. Not only does she have a great voice, she’s a joy to watch. I couldn’t get “Feathers” out of my head for the rest of the night. Then another song, “Empire Ants” – a collaborative effort with the Gorillaz – replaced “Feathers” during the Gorillaz festival closing show on Sunday night, but more on that later! Little Dragon is awesome and they made my list of bands to see on a bill of their own.

Back to the Outdoor stage for Vampire Weekend who never disappoint. The band is fun, their songs are fun, everyone had fun.

As soon as they wrapped, we ran over to the Mojave tent with 20 minutes to spare for securing a spot for Fever Ray. The crowd was already insane and just as the show began, some douchebag hipsters (feathers and bandanas in hair and all) decide to push their way through the mobs of people and stop right in front of us. I managed to push myself back in front of them. Then this “Peter” joker decides to answer a call on his CrackBerry (with a cricket sounding ring!) and proceed to yell at the person on the other line. Seriously dude, seriously? What a tool.

The Fever Ray posse dress up in costumes when cranking out their dark electronic… almost mystical sound. Swedish singer, Karin Dreijer Andersson, sported a Hunchback of Notre Dame type outfit while the band was clad with cardinal hats and tribal garb. There was so much fog and so many people obstructing my view, it was difficult to take in the aesthetic of the performance. However, after the first song, a dude near me started tweaking out… like falling all over the place, looking like he didn’t know where he was, not responding to people, tweaking out. At that point I realized, whatever Fever Ray was doing up there was clearly working. A fascinating spectacle I’d like to see in a different setting. The video for “When I Grow Up” captures a small portion of what they got goin on.

We took off around mid-night to beat the crowd. On the way out we heard Jay Z‘s melody of top hits. We were getting into the car when we heard “Empire State of Mind” blasting from the venue and a woman’s voice who wasn’t Alicia Keys. Francois later Googled and found out that wifey Beyonce sang the duet.

Day #2 – Saturday, April 17th

Can’t start the day without a good meal, so we popped over to Cheeky’s… as did everyone else in Palm Springs. Their logo is two monkeys procreating, but that’s not what makes Cheeky’s amazing… and it’s not the hour and a half wait either… it’s the Pimm’s cups and breakfast quesadillas.

Francois & I @ Cheeky's

The parking situation at the Empire Polo Field was still shit. EVEN after we followed the same GPS detour route that saved us about 2 hours the previous day. Thankfully the line to get in was faster than Friday, although there were still two checkpoints for bags. That I’ll never understand.

Up first, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. We probably would’ve skipped these folks had we not been inspired when hearing one of their songs on the drive over. What a kick ass group. They kind of remind me of The Arcade Fire by having enough band members to populate a small village. Here’s a shaky little video of them performing “Home.”

Arrrr

The XX followed. I absolutely love The XX, but if you know their music, you know that most of their tunes are really mellow. And at 5 PM on a Saturday afternoon at Coachella, sometimes you want to hear something that’s going to keep you going for another five hours… so the fire coming from the roof of the main stage sort of stole the band’s thunder. They sounded great, but probably not the best forum. However, they seemed to keep Jay Z and Beyonce entertained as images of them watching were projected on the jumbotrons.

Main Stage roof on fire during The XX

The XX

The XX

Francois and I rushed to the front of the stage to prepare for U.K. boys, Hot Chip. I freakin love Hot Chip. What a great show. We were up in the hot, sweaty mix the whole time and both of us got smashed by crowd surfers.  If you missed their performance, you might as well call your time at Coachella a bust. Here’s a video of “Ready for the Floor”… and you’ll see toward the end where we almost get smashed by yet another crowd surfer.

Hot Chip

Since we were already close to the stage, as soon as Hot Chip finished, everyone behind us pushed to get to the front for MGMT. We weren’t trying to be in the danger zone for another act, so we weaseled out of there as quick as we could. Francois left to watch Major Lazer and I stayed for MGMT. Another stellar performance!

MGMT

Francois sent me text from the Mojave tent saying that the Major Lazer show was bananas and I had to get over there. As soon as I reunited with Eleanore fresh off the Faith No More show, we headed over to check out this Major Lazer.

Yeahhh… soooo… something about a lady wearing a tutu in a handstand on top of the turntables…. pardon the lack of better words… poppin her kooch in the DJ’s face… wasn’t quite doing it for me. The crowd was reallllllllly into it though… especially when the DJ dropped Ace of Base’s “All That She Wants.” Then “The Major” brought out a ladder and was yelling, “ARE YOU READY FOR THIS!? ARE YOU READY FOR THIS!?” Eleanore and I looked at each other and said, “NO!”

My crew was starting to fade and I had to drag them to Flying Lotus who neither of them were familiar with! I know, a travesty. LA native, Steven Ellison, was bringing the bass and everyone in the Gobi tent was feeling it. The lighting was kind of crazy making it difficult to snap clear photos, but the Apple on his laptop and laser light projector next to him made for some artsy images.

Flying Lotus

We decided to take a chance on Devo…. yes, the “Whip It” DEVO. This act was the BIGGEST surprise of the whole festival. These guys have been performing together for years and it really shows. They didn’t miss a beat. High energy for every song. Their new stuff is really catchy and of course they busted out the Devo Energy Dome hats for their old songs. We were really impressed and loved the show!

Devo

Devo

I made the clan, who was beyond ready to leave, watch a few Sia Furler songs to close out the night. The ear wrenching noise of Tiesto coming from the main stage was so loud that every time Sia ended a song, her and the band would break into booty dancing. So ridiculous. She on the other hand has a voice that touches the soul and a personality to go along with it.

Sia

Day #3 – Sunday, April 18th

Eleanore had to get back to San Diego to catch a flight for New Orleans, so we splashed around in the pool then had brunch before telling her bye. Jake’s Ready-To-Eat right next to Cheeky’s makes a damn good white sangria. We had a good ole time entertaining ourselves with those while waiting for our table.

Pool time at Desert Hills in Palm Springs

El & I at Jake's

Day 3 was by far the easiest day for parking and entrance. Don’t know what they did, but someone needs to take notes for next year.

Florence and the Machine AM-AZING! One of my favorite shows of the weekend. Just watch the video.

Florence and the Machine

If you know me, you know that I’m a massive Strokes fan. Most of the boys are working on solo projects these days including lead singer Mr. Julian Casablanacs…. or Mr. Casablancas, if ya nasty! I was so happy when I learned that he’d be at Coachella because I managed to miss his month-long residency in LA. He only did one Strokes song and that was a good thing because the song just didn’t sound the same… not to mention I felt like he was cheating on the other guys… just kidding… kind of. But I really like his solo album, Phrazes for the Young, and he was just as entertaining as any other time I’ve seen him play with The Strokes. He thanked the rowdy crowd multiple times for being awesome and for all the gifts thrown at him including packs of cigarettes, CDs, among other things. Julian also did something awesomely “inappropriate” by playing his spin of “The Christmas Song” from SNL. Genius!

Julian Casablancas

Julian Casablancas

Julian Casablancas

I caught the end of Charlotte Gainsbourg’s set. She’s a very talented artist, but to hear realllly mellow music in the middle of the day at Coachella… zzzZZzzz.

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Beer garden for Spoon. Those guys are legends.

Phoenix was insane! The Frenchies mentioned that their lighting tech and costume people weren’t able to make the festival due to the Icelandic volcano. Lead singer, Thomas Mars, had the festival tech turn on the “house/crowd” lights so they could see all the fans. I don’t think they could believe how many people were out there. I have never seen a crowd so large at the Outdoor stage. None of us could figure out why the band wasn’t put on the main stage. The crowd stretched all the way back to what I call the Spring Break area. And EVERYONE was standing up and dancing. Don’t see that much anymore. Big time fave of the weekend.

Standing near the "Spring Break" area for Phoenix

Tom Yorke’s new project, Atoms for Peace, followed on the same stage. “Atoms for Peace” is the title of the beautiful song I’ve been hearing on KCRW and a lot of their songs follow the same path. Wonderful and nice way to wind-down the weekend.

And last, but not least, the almighty Gorillaz. The show opened with a pirate costumed Snoop Dogg projected onto the big screen doing his part of the second track “Welcome to the World of Plastic Beach” from the Gorillaz latest album, Return To Plastic Beach. The wind and string instruments played while mini-movie visuals enhanced the performance on the monitors. Then Yukimi from Little Dragon joined the group for “Empire Ants.”

There it is! Coachella 2010. If you’re still reading, congratulations! You will now be rewarded with some photos that I need to share… just because…

BRO-CHELLA! Stupid... yet amazing...

Dead Mouse Head chic

Massive Origami Crane

Coachella 2010

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February 8th, 2010 edition of the New Orleans metropolitan area newspaper, The Times Picayune, sold more copies than any other published in its 173-year existence.

Every news organization reported on the New Orleans Saints massive Superbowl 2010 win as being uplifting, a feel good moment, a symbol of inspiration, a sign of hope and a gift to the people of New Orleans… I could not agree more.

As a Mississippi Gulf Coast native who lost the house that I called “home” for the first 25 years of my life, words can not describe what this win has done for the morale of the people from where I come from. Believe me when I say that the Superbowl was WAY more than a football game. Beyond the destruction of Hurricane Katrina and the struggle to rebuild a new home within a new home, this game was about a “nation” of people WINNING. We NEVER win. Ever. And now we’re winners! And EVERYONE knows that we’re winners.

I’ve never been a huge football fan. Yes, I enjoy the occasional Sunday NFL viewing party, but this past season was ridiculous for New Orleans Saints fans. I went home for the holidays in December and when walking around the streets of the Crescent City, the camaraderie in the air was so distinct. Everyone was fired up about the Saints. And now the city is finally in the spotlight for something other than murders, racial tension, destruction, lack of competency… because WE WON! And we won BIG!

But with every win there are losers… and haters! People who “don’t understand the big deal, it’s just a football game” or who are confused by “Who Dat.” We don’t expect you to get it and we’re OK with that. But, if you’d like to prepare yourself for next season, you better ask somebody!? Or you can just watch this video clip and my BFF Eleanore will explain this “Who Dat.” Laissez bon temps rouler!

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New CNN travel website, CNNGo, has finally launched!

While I was in China, I did a bit of writing for the site including a story about living with a Tibetan family in Jiuzhaigou located in Sichuan province. Read the article by clicking here.

View my photo album by clicking here.

And here are two videos…

Enjoy!

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Jiuzhaigou National Park - Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan Province, China - July 2009

My year as a visiting scholar at Fudan University in China came to a somber end on July 24th 2009. The skies of Shanghai were gray and the humidity was being a champ by enhancing the smoldering summer temperature. The heat made lugging my three massive suitcases and three carry-on bags to the taxi that much more challenging. Thankfully, Jue and Alejandra were able to escort me to the car where I gave them both one heck of a final hug.

Just as it’s played out in a movie, rain began to fall as the taxi sped its way to the airport, and with those raindrops came my tears. Why is it that the cab ride to an airport after saying good-bye seems like an eternity?

So I’ve been procrastinating posting my final thoughts on my “scholarly” year in China, mainly because I just don’t want it to be over! But now that I’ve had two months to gather my thoughts, I must now reflect on the life changing journey that made me open my eyes a bit wider, test my patience to the extreme, partake in social activities never considered (who knew the first time I’d ever play beer pong would be in Shanghai?), recognize language as a tool of survival rather than a form of communication, and ultimately, engage with people from every corner of the globe.

Adjusting back to Western living in California has been… interesting… to say the least. Numerous people have shared how much they’ve enjoyed following my stories of adventure here on Ambassador Doodle. I can’t even being to express how much this means to me because much time was spent writing, uploading, editing, hyper linking, video inserting and updating with an attempt to give you, the reader, a glimpse at China.

Access to Ambassador Doodle was done with the help of a friendly Virtual Private Network (VPN) thanks to government censorship of the internet in China that does not allow access to WordPress blogs (of which this site is hosted) causing the blogging process to be 10 times slower than normal. Hearing that I was able to put a little pep in your step or ray of sunshine in your day makes all of the time I spent on this blog worthwhile.

Preparation Is For Suckers

In late August 2008, just before I set off for Shanghai, I was given a kind memo from an American friend who had been working in China for three years… “There’s nothing that can prepare you for living in China.” And this was probably the best pre-China piece of advice that I had been given.

The Red Pill or the Blue Pill?

There are two routes that one can take when venturing to China for an extended period of time….

You can submerse yourself in Chinese culture; surround yourself with Chinese friends, try to speak as much Chinese as possible, eat Chinese dinners. Basically avoid everything you know and love from your homeland to get the full China experience.

Or, you can live the expat life; make friends from all over the world where English is the common spoken language (most of the time), scour the city for the best Western food and entertainment, do hobbies that you’ve always wanted to do back home but never had the time (like swing dancing, stand-up comedy, band member, film extra, etc.). Heck, you can even start-up events and organizations that you enjoy in your home country that is lacking in China.

Academics SMACKademics

I feel as though my year in China did not enhance or improve my skills as a journalist, but more so as a sociologist. Trying to understand why people from other countries interact the way they do, eat the way they do, communicate the way they do, get on the metro the way they do. It’s hard as a journalist to write about someone or something if you have no clue about their daily habits or lifestyle. I can honestly say that I didn’t really have a clue as to what was going on in China until about six months in. The logic of queuing for a train even though everyone boarding has a ticket, the validity of an official signed document being worthless without a red star stamp, the pushing and shoving to the vegetable scale at the grocery store, or better yet, having to bring one’s own grocery bags to the store for check-out yet unlimited free plastic bags available for use in the produce section. In the beginning, this sort of behavior and way of thinking was perplexing and often frustrating. After a while, I began to, more or less, adapt to these types of cultural differences.

If I Knew Then What I Know Now…

Being thrown into a journalism school at one of the “top” university’s in China only to discover that the staff doesn’t have a clue as to what to do with you… wasn’t exactly the best introduction to academia in China.

As it turns out, there were quite a few people like me at Fudan University (the only difference being that I wasn’t paying for my tuition). You turn up excited to follow through with tasks and goals that you’ve set for yourself only to learn that what you thought would be available to you (i.e.; Chinese language classes, courses taught in English, proper equipment necessary for producing news packages, etc.) doesn’t actually exist. Then every time you walk into “your” department’s office, a look of sheer burden crosses the person’s face sitting behind the desk. Basically, what I learned as an “academic scholar” at Fudan is that no one cares what you do while you’re at the university, as long as you don’t ask anyone for help. If you stick to those rules, you’ll fit in just fine.

The best professors at the School of Journalism at Fudan University are (hands down!) Hong Bing and Lu Ye. Both of these professors are proficient in English and provide a wealth of knowledge about the history and development of media in China. Both have strong connections to media outlets in Shanghai, which contributed to a revolving door of esteemed guest lecturers. Without these two classes (taught via the LSE Global Media and Communications double masters program), I would have been much better off as a Chinese Language student.

On the other hand, I have to mention the outstanding hospitality that I received from other schools within Fudan University such as the Department of Sociology and the School of Economics. Before the spring semester began, I collected course schedules from all of my friends in English taught programs. I was adopted by Chinese Economy masters program and welcomed in their Thursday afternoon language class. Leslie 老师, 谢谢！

Revelation

A lot of native English speakers in the world (Americans in particular) don’t realize how common it is for people of other nationalities to speak more than two languages. For example, in my student housing building, most people spoke English, their mother tongue and Chinese. I wish that I had been more serious about learning a foreign language in high school or my early college years. Surely, if I knew I’d end up in China, I would have started studying Mandarin a long time ago.

The Adventure Continues

There are so many stories and photos that I’ve yet to post on Ambassador Doodle.  I am extremely happy to announce that some of my stories have been published on the newly launched CNN travel website, CNNGo.com. Type my first and last name, “Dara DiGerolamo,” in the search box and you’ll see my stuff.

I was fortunate to take a three-week trip around China before heading back to the U.S. and I’m in the process of pitching some of those stories to publications and blogs. Depending on how that goes, you might see some of those stories up here sooner than later. I’ve also gone on a California Coast adventure since returning to the U.S., so look for a post about that as well.

As for my next step… stay tuned!

Keep your feedback coming and thanks again for all the support!

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Slinging solar eclipse glasses at Raffles in People's Square

There was quite a bit of hype leading up to the solar eclipse that was to be the first of its kind in this part of the world in 500 years. I even bought an eclipse T-shirt from eno! But unfortunately, Shanghai got the worst of the weather on Wednesday, July 22nd and we didn’t see much of anything. Thanks though to my buddy Kemi for inviting me to the 2010 World Expo site of the Austrian pavilion. Nothing like eating massive sausages and sipping on Chinese beers at 9:30AM on a weekday. Check out these videos and photos that captured the moment…

During…

After…

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Gay Pride is a new concept for many in China

Out and proud was the sentiment at 294 Xinhua Lu in Shanghai, China on Saturday afternoon. Outdoor lounge and restaurant, Cotton’s, played host to Mainland China’s first ever gay pride celebration.

Although no parade with men in tighty whities or ladies shaking what their momma gave them took place on streets of Shanghai, there were enough fabulous drag shows and hot body contests to make up for it.

Local neighborhood folk looked on through the rainbow banners draped around the outer fence of Cotton’s while boys and girls with rainbows painted on their faces danced with each other and same sex couples participated in a marriage ceremony.

Pride activities took place everyday last week leading up to the big bash at Cotton’s. The events were going smoothly until mid-week when police told venue owners that the appropriate permits had not been obtained to house film screenings and theatrical performances. The cameo appearance by government officials was a bit puzzling and frustrating for event organizers, but the minor set back just made the gay community more eager to throw a successful event on Saturday.

Over 15,000 RMB raised by raffle ticket sales went to the Chi Heng Foundation based in cities throughout China. The non-profit organization promotes safe sex awareness while also helping children living with AIDS and HIV.

Exploding Pandas Productions filmmakers, Xing Zhao and Dara DiGerolamo, spent the week profiling figures within China’s gay community for a documentary. When available, premiere and screening information will be posted on Ambassador Doodle.

Shanghai’s first Gay Pride showed to be a success without major interruption from local authorities or cranky neighbors. Until next year, keep those rainbow flags waving, China!

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F1 fans in Shanghai

When I open up a newspaper, the last section I glance over is the sports. I didn’t know much about the popularity of sports in China until I got here. More specifically, when an editor from the Shanghai Daily dropped by one of my classes last semester and was asked by a student to list the top sports in China. She said…

1. Ping Pong

2. Basketball

3. F1

F1? “What the heck is F1,” I asked myself? In a whisper to the person next to me, I inquired about this mystery letter/number code. I was told that F1 is short for Formula One. OK, great… I still have no idea what that means. Then I discovered they’re super turbo race cars. All I could think about was the hilarious Will Ferrell film “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” where mockery of the race car industry could not have been portrayed better. The bash factor is taken to such a level that any fan of this sport (NASCAR in particular) would be slightly ashamed.

Shortly after I learned about the popularity of these speed of light cars, I started noticing F1 advertisements in magazines and on ICS (the TV station that I worked at briefly last year). One night, I had the TV on as background noise when a program came on that profiled F1 drivers. I distinctly remember the story of a young guy named Lewis Hamilton who had shattered world records. This F1 thing sounded kind of cool after all.

F1 is popular in Shanghai mainly because in Jiading, a district in Shanghai county located an hour from the city center, a Shanghai leg of the F1 season takes place. During the Chinese Grand Prix Shanghai, thousands of people flock to the racetrack with their picnic baskets, professional cameras and earplugs.

The Fudan International Student Association organized a group trip to the April race and my friend Alejandra and I both bought student discounted tickets for RMB 200 a pop, which allowed entrance to the races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The ticket put us in the ‘J’ section of the course that did not provide a seat, but a spot of your choice on a grassy hill. The student organization arranged for a bus to take us from Fudan to the venue on Sunday for RMB 35. However, a free shuttle was also available for ticket holders from the Shanghai Stadium, just south of the city center, each day of the event. Since Alejandra and I both had work to do, we opted to go with the students on Sunday.

When we stepped off the bus, we were welcome with strong gusts of wind and gray skies. A mob of people slinging ear plugs surrounded us. Ben, president of FISA, suggested that we buy the RMB 3 earplugs from the slingers because the price inside of the venue goes up to about RMB 20. My friend and classmate Francios (guess which country he’s from) who is a massive F1 fan had warned me the night before about the loud screeching sound of the race cars. He said that the sound level is so loud at times that if your ear drums are not protected, they could possibly be damaged. When he bought his RMB 600 ticket to the Sunday race, he scored a pair of heavy duty looking headphones with the purchase. Aside from having a sound minimizing function on them, they also had a radio dial that would transmit the race commentators discussion. AND they had the Shanghai Circuit logo on them, which makes for a good souvenir. I had to have a pair.

A few of us bought these headphones for RMB 100 and were bummed out when we learned that the radio reception was terrible. Ehhh… at least they came with an adapter so they’re useable with any audio player.

Before the races began, some of the drivers made an appearance on a stage near the venue’s main entrance to greet fans and sign autographs. I managed to shoot a little video without getting crushed by the super excited crowd.

Shortly after the meet and greet, the races began and everything was going great until it started to rain. By the end of the day, equipped with umbrellas and plastic ponchos, we were completely soaked. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was well worth it though. Here are few more videos and some photos from the day.

Porsche Carrera Cup Asia

First Lap of the Formula 1 Grand Prix Final

Formula 1 Grand Prix Final

A car that didn’t quite make it to the finish line

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