How many hours until I leave for China?!?!?

Trip Start Jun 25, 2006

Trip End Aug 16, 2006

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Flag of Canada Vancouver, Canada
Saturday, June 24, 2006

Wow, time DOES fly! It's hard to believe its been three months since I got home from South America, but here we go again - off to China tomorrow. Although I still haven't had any direct contact from the university I'm supposedly studying at for all of July, this time tomorrow I'll be on a plane Shanghai bound. The plan you ask? Well, you see I'm going to Shanghai and then...well then...huh, I guess thats as far as I've thought it through really. I've basically left myself today to get organized, but how far wrong can it really go (although last time I was in China Bush Jr. tried to start WWIII and SARS shut the entire country down)???

World Urban Youth Forum What?!

Why so busy you might ask (or you might not, but I'll tell you anyway).

01 - Sasquatch Fest 1

The last ten days of my life have been utterly consumed by the UN Habitat World Urban Forum, and more importantly the World Urban Youth Forum held the three days before. Nearly 400 youth from over 40 countries and all five continents got together to discuss youth and development issues in preperation to represent those issues at the third UN Habitat World Urban Forum. The youth forum was essentially an unofficial advisory group to UN Habitat and in theory the recommendations to come out of it will be passed up the chain as official recommendations from the larger forum. This was all held in Vancouver and attended by nearly 10,000 people from over 100 countries over the past week. While I'll save you the details, it was one of the most inspiring, eclectic, and motivating gatherings of positive people I've ever been a part of - even if at times frustrating in being wrapped up in some of the beaurocracy seen in events and organizations of this magnitude.

This month also saw me heading down to Washington State for the Sasquatch festival (cooooooool) before writing my level II CFA exam (ouch) while working a couple days a week landscaping to scrape enough cash together to make this trip happen. At any rate, busy arse month to say the least and here we go!

Onward

I'll leave ya here, but hopefully I shall be able to access this thing to update once and a while. In all reality compared to past trips I'll be back before I (or you) know it. Next update from the other side of the pacific,

Shawn_(back)in_China

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02 - The Gorge Amphitheatre - Sasquatch Fest	03 - Policy session, World Urban Youth Forum	04 - Crashed the Gov of Canada WUF reception	05 - Me and my good friend Sammy from Uganda
06 - Rodrigo presents at the WUF youth roundtable	07 - WUF youth rally draws attention

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Comments

bcass on Jun 25, 2006 at 05:25PM

small world?
hey shawn! have a wicked time in china k! i'll miss you! but okay, i'd just like to say, that the two asian guys in the foreground of the picture you took of rodrigo are two of the guys that i was volunteering with all last year... and of all the people at the WUF, what are the chances that they would be in that picture?? haha! well, the mom just made some breaky, gotta run. bye for now!

mdavie on Jun 26, 2006 at 09:26AM

Beijing
Hey buddy, missed your message. When you get into town give me a call 139 1119 6142. I'll be all over China in the next couple weeks, we might be able to hook up to rip it up in other cities too. Plan for the next couple weeks is Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Beijing, Shenzhen and Chongqing. Let me know where you are planning to be.

Cheers
Mike

lonelycupid on Jun 27, 2006 at 04:55PM

Getting near to me,eh?
Hey Shawn, it's An! How is everything going these days in China! I still stay in Vancouver untill the end of this week.You are staying very near to Vietnam. Why won't i travel to China to meet you? :-), it must be fun! Take care and enjoy your time there! Talk to you soon!