Traveling the World

I have to apologize now, as Picasa hasn’t been working for me for quite some time. As a result, I can’t post new pictures here unless it happens to be one that Picasa allows me to see. I’m really angry at this idea, but Picasa won’t let me see any of the eclipse pictures, so the best thing I can do for you is to give you a link and let you see it yourself by clicking here. So here is my story:

I was awoken at 6:45am by the rustling of my girlfriend. She promptly woke up and began getting ready as if she were planning to go out. Around 7:30, I ask her what the hell she’s doing, especially since I’m the one normally awake at that time, and many hours before her. She replied, “You forgot, didn’t you? This morning is the eclipse!” The night before we partied a bit, so I was still a bit slow. I said, “oh yeah,” and got out of bed.

My girlfriend has never seen an eclipse before, let alone a total solar eclipse. I guess it’s just my luck that we had the opportunity to see such an amazing event and didn’t have to leave the park in front of our building! As it approached 8am, we began to see hundreds of people swarm in the parking lot and in front of the building. For the last week, people had been selling special glasses for 4rmb ($0.65) to watch the eclipse, but I didn’t buy them because I thought my $150 sunglasses would be much better. To my dissatisfaction, a Chinese woman nearby approached us and began talking. She shared the 4rmb glasses with us, and I began using it as a filter for my camera.

After that, I realized the best way to get amazing pictures was to use my sunglasses on top of Lily’s sunglasses, and then my camera behind them both. You can tell the difference between no filter, one filter, and two filters just by looking at my pictures. From then on, my pictures were much clearer and precise. The sky became increasingly dark, making the air a bit cool and weird. There is an ancient Chinese story which says eclipses are the result of a dog trying to eat the sun. I don’t quite understand the meaning, but it makes eclipses out to be the bad guy. I used this to my advantage by making ghost sounds and other things to scare Lily.

As the moon approached the sun and eventually cut off all light, the entire sky became pitch black. I know it’s a once in a lifetime experience, but I just didn’t feel like it was amazing. I took the pictures and did what I could to make my girlfriend enjoy the experience, but it just felt like another day. After the moon passed over the sun, I saw on the opposite side of the building there were amazing patterns in the sky. I rushed back to my apartment, only to find the sky had returned to normal. The eclipse was over. I cursed myself for not staying out there and taking pictures as the moon finally allowed the sun to send light to us once again.

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