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Took the boat from Parikia to the islands of Delos and Mykonos. The boat ride to Delos was just over an hour from here. There was something magestic about the island, even from miles away.

Woke up this morning to peejay’s phone call! Got dressed and got everybody together for crepes. Since I had the chocolate banana yesterday, I went for for the ham and cheese today. It was so good. so mediterranean. so right.

Ouch! Kyra suffering.
Originally uploaded by Carcura

Everybody is hung over. So we got to the museum. Absolutely loved the pieced together frescos. There was one of an ancient greek woman bending over in her traditional linen with her hair up. beautiful.

Cycladic frescos fro Santorini at the Museum.
Originally uploaded by Carcura

Did a little shopping, had the best corn on the cobe ever, and came here before we catch the bus at 2:20, then the fairy at 5:00, then back to Paros.

I LOOOOOOOOOOVE corn!
Originally uploaded by Carcura

I’ve been away for a few days catching airplanes, changing airports, and hopping on fairies. Somehow I ended in Santorini and here I am writing a blog in an internet cafe. Okay, I didn’t somehow end up here, it was planned months ago, but the whole thing is so real it’s hard to believe I’m here. Santorini is as beautiful as the photos I’ve seen, but no photo really captures the vibe and energy here. It’s hard to explain, but feels almost like a city in the sky.
Today we hiked a volcano, stopped for a swim in hot springs, and rode donkeys up a cliff.

Here’s me in the middle of the volcano hike.

Couldn’t stop singing, “ride that donkey baby!” (pretty bad)

Gang Long Studio Featured in Tattoo Mag.
Originally uploaded by Carcura

Love at first sight.
Originally uploaded by Carcura

Sketching out the design.
Originally uploaded by Carcura

Black ink and shading.
Originally uploaded by Carcura

Ouch!!!!! Really hurts at the base.
Originally uploaded by Carcura

Orange, on first.
Originally uploaded by Carcura

Then, purple.
Originally uploaded by Carcura

Tat. in action.
Originally uploaded by Carcura

The sun is finally out! The gods heard our prayers and the sun graced us with its faint presence. We somehow worked up the confidence to visit “Le Spa” downstairs at “Le Meridian” for Paul to get a haircut and me get a shampoo and blowdry. A classic “lost in translation” in the making. Paul very carefully gestured to the hairdresser what he wanted…short in the back, smooth it out with the sides, and texture it on top. He looked at him and said, “yes, yes, sir” in total confidence, as if he had understood every word. He then proceeds to grab his scissors and go straight for the front and chop chop, it was gone! Picture time standing still and in slow motion I run from the waiting room to save Paul from the scissors, but it was too late. When I got to the chair, I could see tears in Paul’s eyes, but he handled it like a champ. We somehow got it together and salvaged what was left and both realized that things could have very quickly gone terribly wrong, especially since we would be on our way to a business meeting in less than an hour.

I went up to the room, did my own hair, we got dressed and went down to the lobby to meet with the Zoom clients. Ten minutes later, they arrive and we are off to lunch at M on the Bund. The couple were in their late thirties, early forties, but both very nice and we very quickly connected. May said she did her schooling in Syria, then Canada, and she just had a five month baby girl and is just starting to get involved in her husband’s company by doing public relations and sales for the company. Serges is Armenian, has an engineering degree from Switzerland, and spent most of his early career engineering manufacturing machines for Rolex.

Had lunch, out on the patio and talked a little about their capabilities and told them a little bit about Zoom. My understanding is that their company is somewhat of a middle person. They are a liaison between the client whose objective is to save money by going to china, and the manufacturers in china. The biggest selling point they offered is that they are hands-on with quality control and that they are reliable because they have relationships established with vendors here in Shanghai and this helps with quick turn-around and with better pricing.

After lunch, they gave us a tour of their office, which is about ten minutes away from the French Concession. Nothing special here…just an office space with about eight cubicles and two glass offices. Serges brought out some samples they had done that consisted of several leather watch boxes. This gave us an idea of the quality, some pricing, and some materials they use. The general impression that I get is that they just started out and have only explored gift box manufacturing, but are willing to expand into other objects.

We stopped by their apartment, which was about five minutes away from the office. They live on the 20th floor, in a three bedroom apartment that looks out onto a small park. The exterior of these large buildings looks old and worn, but the interiors are brand new. The apartment came furnished with new hard floors and recessed lighting in the ceiling. Their rent is a shocking $1200 a month, which is how much we were paying in Houston.

Came back to the hotel to change and head out to dinner at T8 Restaurant. It was the perfect way to end the day. People were out walking and the caffees were packed with people. The weather was clear, the vibe was hot, and the city pulsated with red lights. This is what Shanghai is all about, red lights reflecting on people’s giggling faces in the night.

So we were back in Zaozhuang today. Woke up at 5:00 a.m., got breakfast and were on the way to the airport at 6:00 a.m. We boarded the plane and arrived to Xouzhou at 8:30 where we got picked up by Victor and the driver, who was cacking the flem from his flu all of over us. Found out that it’s flattering in China to burp and cack and spit loogies. After a long hour and a half, we were at Lawrence at just after 10:00 a.m. and waited for the crane til about 11. This crane arrived with a team of government officials and army guys. We set up our shots and within an hour were done with Lawrance.

When we arrived to Armanda, it was lunchtime and Mr. Ahmad insisted that we wait for the workers to finish. We went up to his office and waited for about fourty-five minutes and without asking, they brought us two Pepsis. Armanda was so difficult to shoot…half the factory was under construction and the roads surrounding it where we could park the crane were either on the edge of the building or very far away. We started the first shot with the side view, but it was too close. Mr. Ahmad suggested that we do it from the front. We moved the crane to the front and we ran into power lines and a lot of construction on the front. We found a side street a little further on the side of the factory and managed to get a pretty decent shot.

Paul came up with me the last time I went up. It was his first time to face his fear of heights. He wouldn’t look down, but I was happy that he had the courage to get up there with me.

We got done with the crane at around 3:30 p.m. and went with Victor and the driver to lunch at a place where you choose from pre-prepared dishes in a fridge and they cook them for you. Instead of reading the menu, you basically look at a live menu. Ordered some dumplings, fried fish, fried rice, and shrimp on skewers. The food was surprisingly decent, but very salty as always.

We went back to Lawrance to pick up our ticket reimbursements, which had to go through a series of signatures and thirty minutes later we were back on the road to catch our flight from Xouzhou airport. The same lady who charged us for extra pounds in our luggage last time gave us our boarding passes. By now we practically felt like death. Apparently China has no environmental regulations outside the big cities where all the factories operate, so the air is dense with chemicals and pollution.

After the trips to these small towns, we began noticing that most chinese people are completely ignorant to sanitation, viruses, germs, etc. People in China are constantly coughing, sneazing, and clearing their throats. The cities are crowded with people and germs, and the suburbs outside the city are crowded with factories and pollutants. The past two weeks Paul and I have been taking turns getting sick, even though we’ve been going out of our way to make sure we don’t. It’s everywhere and inevitable.