The Journey of my Life.

The Journey of my Life.

Explore. Find happiness. Follow your dreams.

The start of a new chapter (FINAL blog post)

Travel. Explore. Find happiness. Go after it.

Remember, reflect and learn from your experiences...

At first I didn't know what to expect when going on this trip.
See new things, have fun, meet new people, and then come home.

But I'm NOT coming home.
Someone else is coming home.
A new me.

It's scary to think when I get back I won't be going back to school but I plan to live life to the full every day and seek what makes me happy.

It's a small world.
Whether you live in China or Canada you will cross paths again with good friends.
As my students said at the end of my last class in Yangshuo...
"The world is a ball and we will meet again eventually"

I'm sad to go. But happy to have came.
As a great student of mine named Ben told me last night...
"Happiness is accompanied by sorrow, and it would turn sunny after rain as well."

The things I've done and the people I've met have truly opened my eyes.
The world is your playground. Don't always settle for what was put in front of you.
Go out! Look for more!

Sorry for the deep and philosophical posting but I think in reflecting on my experience I realize that I have found a new level of happiness and joy that comes from surrounding myself with the things I love.

What makes me happy?
Helping people, dancing, leadership, teamwork, friends, family, health.

What makes you happy?

I hope I've inspired you.
Travel. (Don't make excuses! Everyone has a reason NOT to leave home. Just go!)
Explore. (Leave your comfort zone! Be open, be adventurous, live with locals, try new things.)
Find what you love. (What makes you happy? Explore! Find these things and go after them.)
Be happy. (Smile!!! it's contagious :o)

For all of you who commented that you want to travel, explore and find yourself, I support you all the way. Maybe we can meet up before you go! Keep me posted on YOUR adventures!

Toronto family... I miss you...
China family... I miss you...

I will see you both very soon.

- Mikey
(Getting ready to go back to Canada, planning to come home to China.)

VIDEOS GALORE... last blog? maybe 2nd last...

This is my last set of videos.
ONE more blog to come to wrap up my journies... for now.

This is Hope.
He is a ninja.
He beat me in a handstand contest.
I cried... he laughed.
He is only 9 years old.
This boy has lots of potential.
GO hope GO!!!


Bboy Battle on our vacation to Guilin (from Yangshuo)
BBoy Piecez (me) and Bboy Stussy VS. Guilin Bboys

Devil sticks master: 48 year old peter from USA practicing on the streets of Hong Kong

When there are no local bboys in a town (Huangshan)
you must make due with what you have... yourself!!!
HOTEL HOUSE DANCING SESSION!!!!
Is this normal...? Or is Mike crazy? Both?

This is the WORST voice dubbed cartoon I've EVER seen.
Holy monkey, I wouldn't want to be a kid in Vietnam...


Mysterious BBoy Monkey on the busiest street in Yangshuo (obviously... next to KFC)
I'm not sure why I'm posting this one...(runs away embarassed)

BBoy Piecez and BBoy Stussy hitting the streets.
BBoy routine from the new crew in Yangshuo
"How Ren Laeia!!!" (local Yangshuo Bboy battle slang)

Mysterious James Brown impersonator at LOOVE Bar.

My students performer for the whole school.
I taught them this song!!! GO kids GO!

"Hey Mikey!"
"Yea?"
"Go jump in the lake!"
"... okay!"

Huangshan the land of beautiful mountains and bad spelling

Spelling comes second?
This was a reassuring sign to see before getting on an airplane.
This is my new QQ #!
Add me on QQ if you have it!!!
Keep in touch China friends, I miss you all! :o) This is a meal I had in Huangshan with a family that sells art in a small shop. I went from buying 2 pieces of art to talking with their son for 2 hours to help him practice his English to having dinner with their family! THIS is why I love China, feeling at home in someone else's home.
What are you smiling at?
(I'm pretty sure that building was smiling at me. We had a smiling contest. I won.)
After the staring contest was over I sat atop a pavillion alone at the top of a hill and a man came up to me. He tried to steal my watch. I ran for 15 minutes to get back to civilization.
All is well in the universe. Moral of the story? Don't get robbed.
I think someone needs help spelling....Old School Beauty.Full day of climbing a mountain... painful and sweaty
reaching the top... Visa....... i mean... priceless!I love days like this!!! I love the SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!
(my face as I watched the sun set at the top of Huangshan mountain)
inspired by song: Sean Escoffey: I love days like this (house remix)
When something is in the way of your goals...
Go the road less travelled :o)
and you will reap great rewards (in this case a beautiful sunset.) I don't even know what they were trying to say here... any guesses?
Zing!
Swish!
I'm concerned that anyone might follow these instructions.

Listen to the mountains. Reflect. hahahaha. This can mean whatever you want it to mean.
Self explanatory. Rules were made to bent.
MORE unity in China! The UNITY tree at Huangshan mountain!
Living on the edge.

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to share with you another blog entry of my most recent solo journey to Huangshan a mountain in Anhui province of China. I hope these pictures help you to realize the beauty of this amazing place. It was a great place to contimplate life one last time before coming home on the silence of China's most beautiful mountain. I'm going to post a lot of pictures in this blog including mountainy goodness and bad spelling hilarity of this amazing place.

Enjoy and see you all soon!

Back home August 4th!

love

- Mikey ikey

Goodbye FOR NOW. A journey well begun is half done.

1 week left until I'm home.
See you soon my friends.
Enjoy the last few blogs (maybe only 2 more after this)!

Ghost stories by the Yulong River under the stars.
My last goodbye to my LAST class. See you soon my friends and I know you will all make it!
Dream big.
Since goodbyes weren't enough from the group above they made me a going away present.
Can't wait to reunite Chinada!!!
the OFFICIAL crew (last night in Yangshuo partying it up ALL night at LOOVE bar)
My AWESOME 10 minute sleep at LOOVE bar before hitting the airport to Huangshan.
I always keep my cell phone, my rose and my ninja sword on me in China... just in case.

UNITY in Yangshuo.
Ready to swim folks!? The current of the Yulong River may be strong but nothing can stop this Chinese fashion statement.
Stussy starting the BBQ next to the Yulong.
This journey was one of my last nights but one of my best memories. Thanks bro.Swimming anyone?
How about some of my famous river chicken?
(BBQed by me on our ghetto stone BBQ)

Haircut on the streets. (check out my barber's shirt!!! Pimpin!!!) Kong. Another great new friend from Yangshuo.
Kong has the kindest heart but struggles to learn English. Kong came to Yangshuo to learn English by working at a bar. I was there when he went through some tough times but I supported him all the way and spoke with him as much as possible to help him practice his English. I know you will find your way bro!
My LAST school!!! *tear...
(School # 5 out of 5 that I taught at in 3 weeks)
This sign is proof of why they need great english teachers like me.
haha. oh... I mean...
I love my school!
Why do topics always have to end in the gutter when teaching adults?
Hilarity and learning all in one!
2 girls from ANOTHERr class I taught. One of the smiliest groups I've worked with so far. This was the last time I saw these 2 girls. I hope their smiles go on for miles!

I'm going to miss you Yangshuo.

I've been gone 2 days and I already miss my Yangshuo family...

Mark, Nina, Stussy, Stussy's friend, Tina, Kong, Emily x 2, Willow, Oman, Billy x 2, Mr. Wonderful, Lily, Carol, Snake, Julie, Rebecca, Fang Fang, Ben, Sophia, Smoch, Thomas, Mike, Faber, Evonne, Milk, Justin, Vicky x 2, Kelly, Ms. Helen Wu, Kirk, Mr. Lee, Hope, Zoe, Aaron, George, Nina's brother, Nina's mom, ALL of the students & teachers from all of my schools: Omeca / Landscape / Nanning / Xie Jie / Xie Jie West, the BBoys of Guilin, all my dancing students, all the people who I met who I don't remember your names x 100's... see you soon.

- Mikey ... at Huangshan mountain ( missing home... Yangshuo and Toronto).

PS mountain pictures coming soon.
I just needed to do a proper last, goodbye post and salute to Yangshuo.

A vacation in a vacation

I am one with the animals.
Bored on a bus...
While some choose to sleep, I choose to entertain myself!
In the process of entertaining myself I met a new friend!!!
A little kid who was as smiley as me but didn't speak a word of English.
We played peek a boo, hand games and shared pictures for 2 hours.
The next picture shows when my new friend got off the bus a few stops before ours.
Oh the joy of children!!!
The first step to success is to try.
Never give up.
A present from one of my students after I left yet ANOTHER school after a week of teaching.
Plant a seed now and watch it grow into a great oak.

:o) Dumplings anyone?Spell check anyone?
Silly in Guilin. (on vacation while on vacation. nuttyness!)
Battle scarS of teaching English. Beware of sharp blackboard edges!
I clearly didn't learn my lesson after cutting myself the first time. Milk drinking milk.
Student = Milk
Drink = milk
Our evening hang out 9pm to 3am EVERY night.
LOOVE Bar crew (minus a few).
Clear out the tables, bring on this dancing! (and the sweaty tshirts!)

Landscape foreign language school, last day of classes.
Look at the kid on the far right at the bottom!!! His name is Hope.
He is my favoritest!!!! He is also a circus ninja (video coming soon...)
Here is a pic with me and my students (and the super cool little kid Hope.)
His name is REALLY Hope. No lie.
I feel the positive energy of this kid and I am confident Hope will be happy and successful.
Soooo much potential, only 9 years old!!!
(wait until you see the video of him in ninja action... to be posted in a few days)

Students caught in the act.
Vandalizing my blackboard before I arrived to class.
As you can see, I've been brushing up on my art skills through teaching.
Look out Picaso!My 9 year old student Hope in circus ninja action (video clip coming soon...)
Hungry cat.
Be careful what you ask for!!!
This is what students drew after I told them to draw a picture describing the word "dangerous". OHHH the innocence of 10 year olds.

Have you ever been on vacation and felt at home?
That's how I feel in Yangshuo.

I felt so at home here that when I left this last weekend to take a break from my teaching and go to Guilin I actually missed Yangshuo. Not only did I miss Yangshuo but people who live here saw me off and asked when I what time I would arrive back. Well now I'm back and the adventures have continued. After bboy battling in Guilin, being silly in the streets, eating local noodles and having a blast I'm back home in Yangshuo.

Here are some photos from the last week of my new class, my new friends and my new experiences. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Word birds!

Enjoy the heat!

love love and love

- Mikey in his 2nd home (yangshuo china.)

PS I really loved ur comments in the last entry, hugs to you all for taking the time.
much love.

Okay. I lied... Yangshuo is OFFICIALLY my favorite place in the world

Happiness.

This is the best way to describe what Yangshuo has brought to my life.
And for those of you who know me I'm already a pretty happy guy but after teaching an English summer camp for 1 week to Nanning city's foreign language students my life has changed.

Out here I've never been busier but NEVER been happier.
Daily schedule: 7am wake up, 8am to 1130am class, 12noon lunch with school, 1pm to 2pm prepare lessons for the next day, 3pm to 6pm class field trip, 7pm Breakin class (after school with kids), 8pm Popping class (after school with kids), 9pm to 3am party and breakin practice alll night every night with Bboy stussy. If I started to write some of the stories it would literally take DAYS so I don't want to bore you with words, check out the pictures below.

Stories will come in the next bloggeroo.
This girl made my year.
No wait... actually... maybe she made my life.
I don't know whatever she did... she made me cry.
When we said goodbye for the last time today she showed me something that she had made to remember our experiences learning English together.
You truly CAN make a difference in 7 days. (see necklace picture below)

The kids have finished their classes for the week and gone back to the city of Nanning.
It's been 2 hours since they left. What am I going to do!?!!?!?!?
After taking hundreds of pictures on the last day of class I began signing notebooks, tshirts and ... hands ! That's right, ink poisoning or not I left my mark on these kids.


The newest BBoy crew in Nanning from class # 3. Class # 2 had about 6 bboys as well.
Make me proud guys!!!

I never spoke to this girl much because she wasn't in my class but she had the biggest and brightest smile I've ever seen.
Unfortunately this picture doesn't fully capture it because she's "smiling for the camera" but when you smile at her and she smiles back it could make anyone's day!
Bboy Stussy (yellow shirt) and his MC friend. We hung out EVERY night, went to LOOVE bar, took over the 2nd floor for breakin and popping and partied till the break of dawn. As soon as I met these guys we were family. Some of the coolest guys I've met. In order to teach kids you need to be a kid. I think I fit that role quite nicely.
This kid had NO idea what this shirt meant. I explained it to him. He ran away. I laughed.
This is the CREW. Bboys for life. (notice SMOCH in the middle with the fan. good boy SMOCH!)
This is what it's like to be a foreign teacher in a Chinese English school (lights, camera, action!)
Me and SMOCH!!!! SMOCCCH!!!!! This kid was great. He didn't really speak English at all...but his name was SMOCH!!! Everytime I saw this guy we'd do a secret handshake, yell at eachother in jibberish and laugh like crazy. I think he learned a lot...Try learning 120 names in 7 days.
Now that's a challenge with matching t-shirts, smiley faces, and black hair for all!
That's right folks in China you eat the WHOLE chicken. Bon apetite!
Boiled chicken blood. Yummers in my tummers.
This guy was awesome... he had a speech impediment but I would always take the time for him and smile even when he was struggling. A brave soul this young one and ALWAYS pushing himself to be in the action.
The things that dreams are made of. MMMmmm... My first (and last) pig's brain soup.
(I love how they called it "pigs mind". It sounds so much more elegant!)

Material things are just things. This is my bed in Yangshuo.
Here is the only place in the world I am happy sleeping here. All you REALLY need.

Class # 2 (my 1st group of students, 34 in total.)
A great story that I will never forget is once we switched classes and they moved me to class # 3 I managed to sneak on the bus for class # 2 on the 2nd day after the switch. As soon as I stepped onto the bus the kids started clapping and screaming for joy.

I'm going to miss these little buggers!

False advertising? or Genius marketing strategy? I think we both know it's genius.

Not if I can help it!

Some interesting people I met: Tina, Emily, Willow, Justin, Tai Chi Teacher, Fang Fang, Nina, Mark, BBoy Stussy and ALL of his friends, Julie, Helen, Mr. Lee, a homeless guy who wanted to learn english songs (and I taught him), 5 store owners who I RANDOMLY ended up giving bboy/popping lessons, all the kids, all the teachers, TONS more people that I could name for DAYS!!!! In 7 days you can start a new life.

Yangshuo. I knew a place like this existed.

Peace and UNITE!

- Mikey making Yangshuo home base.

Long awaited videos!!!! (Fast internet in Yangshuo ROCKS!!!!) like the mountains... wait those ARE rocks. okay... i'm done

After 2 days on a boat ride with nothing to do you start to get... creative.

These ducks were ROCKIN out.
I'm not sure if this is more funny or amazing...

A baby battle I've been meaning to post for a while from southeast asia.
I repped hard and put my hand in chicken shit mid-battle.
On a positive note... my set was DIRTY... get it? DIRTY!!! hahaha...!
Kid took me out with his elbow breaking concrete suicide.
I asked for round 2 but I think he was trying to hold back his tears.
Tough kid. convincing battle strategy

PS My first day of english teaching was UNFREAKINGBELIEVABLE.
I'll tell you about it later though (you still need to catch up on my last few blog entries!!!! :o)

Hearts.

- Mikeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Bearded in Bangkok

Monks caught in the act.
A new speciality in Laos: ant butter.
The only light I had in a small town in Lao with no electricity.
Are YOU afraid of the dark? Because I sure am.
speechless.
After I whiped that silly grin off my face in the picture above I jumped off that waterfall.
and lived to talk about it! Swish!
Niagra falls ain't got nothing on Lao.


relaxing. volunteer book. cereal. the journey of my life. (overnight train in Thailand)

Sometimes I wish I never saw this. Other times I wish I never took a picture of it.
Sharing is caring friends!
House dancing with old Thai ladies. How do I get myself into these situations.

House dancing on the streets of Thailand. Not as good as Toika but it'll have to do for now!!!

That's right. I got it dreaded.
Trying to keep a low profile out here

Dear Family, Friends and random blog checkers!

Quick blog.
More pictures then talk.

Leaving Thailand today after much bboying with locals, and great food.
Entered a 1 on 1 bboy battle here and it was amazing, thanks to bboy Gonza for showing me around and letting me enter last minute, good times in random local thai clubs.

Hip Hop / bboy and english teaching in Yangshuo here I come!!!

Chow for now!

- Mikey Mike spreading UNITY Asia like wildfire

Southeast Asian Experience (Nam and Laos)

Post card sceneries in Laos (not a post card... YET!).

Lady cutting raw meat in a Vietnamese market within centimetres from her dirty bare feet.
She was also made some pretty stinky "toe" fu.
Steak anyone?
Me riding speckles the elephant through the jungle.
Who knew you could stear an elephant by tugging it's ears!

Sliding down a waterfall in Laos.
and YES... this IS as dangerous as it looks.
Don't worry only 4 people died last week doing this. (kidding!!!...???)

Elephants pooped in the waterfall.

(note to reader: this poop was excremented post waterfall swim.)

Question Mark!!!!

Shop keeper in Vietnam hard at work.

Sometimes you gotta suck it up and be a man!
(I promise I chose this bike only due to a lack of options! seriously!)

This is a disturbing display of dog transport.
I don't think they were being shipped to Disneyland
:o(
Homey... ? Horney... ? Either way it's funny.

This is the picture of ANOTHER kid I battled in a small village. This time in Laos.
Video on it's way (as soon as I find some faster internet connections!!!)

That's right folks.
I'm rocking out in South East Asia and it's been a CRAZY adventure.

Unfortunately, Vietnam wasn't my favorite place. So to all those who warned me, I learned my lesson. I sweated like a pig, people stared angrily, I got spat on, people laughed.
Good times.

A tuk-tuk (cab) driver horked a nice one on my shirt after he decided to decline our services because the group I was with wanted a FAIR price for our late night ride home from the bar.
I in fact had nothing to do with this price negotiation. I didn't care about the extra 2 dollars we would've paid for his cab. However I was the closest in spitting range so I was granted with his horkey treasure splat on my shirt. Yummers.
Oh how I love Vietnam.

Luckily I was only there for 2 days.
The people of Laos however are suuuuuuuuuuper friendly/awesomely awesome
(and luckily I spend an entire week travelling across Laos!)

Lots of adventures have gone down there too, quite an extradinary place for active citizens.

Some of the crazy adventures in Laos:
1. Bike ride deep into local villages off the beaten path.
This was great! I wonder why all the little kids were laughing at me... oh yea!!!
I was riding a bright pink girls bike with a pink basket and a constantly ringing bell.
Shucks.

2. Solo tube ride down a river with an intense current (got split from all people who came with me with no money and was eventually saved by a little girl from Laos who could swim like a ninja. Unfortunately she wanted me to pay her for the save but all I had were the clothes on my back. So that's what she got. Not satisfied after I told her money wasn't an option she pointed at my hat. It happened to be my Funk Fanatics breakin crew hat. Please give a warm welcome to the newest member of the Funk Fanatics crew, Bgirl... Laos Fish!)

3. Elephant Ride (pictures provided. Our elephant's name was speckles!)

4. Waterfall sliding (this was more stupid then it was fun. It's the type of place that stays open for tourists until someone dies. Luckily I was not that person. Woo hoo!)

The only reason I am making this post is because I'm soooooooo tired and moving is no longer an option.

Southeast Asia Total Travel Time: 40 hours on a bus in 5 days
(and counting)

See you on the other side of the world!

PS look at a squirrel for me... I miss squirrels.
Ohhh and um...

PPS Eat a bowl of cereal for me...
Here's the fractional bowl mix break down:
3/10 mini-wheats
2/10 wheetabix
4/10 life
1/10 shreddies

Seconds anyone?

- Mikey