Tom Pears

This site is now several years old and the content is constantly being amended using WordPress

I’m a fairly active retiree born in 1946 with too much to do.  During the summers, I play daily at the Squirrel Island Historical Society.  We have a college intern who manages the space.  The building is located on an island of 100 summer cottages off Boothbay Harbor Maine.

I’m also lucky enough to be involved with another small historical group at Camp Kawanhee in Weld, Maine.  We hired our first intern in 2017 and she has been followed by interns in every year since. We have a beautiful building and have collected a huge amount of material relating to the history of this 100-year old Boys camp.

Questions? Best way to contact me is at tpears@aol.com  Be sure and put the subject of your communication in the subject line as your initial email will arrive in spam and I have to dig it out.

Next, I want to talk about Cycling.  It appears a little out of order with the next entry,  Beer but I’ll put it here in the interest of trying to maintain the illusion of respectability.  In order to drink the amount of beer I enjoy – and stay alive – I have to exercise.  My preferred form is Cycling.  Because I live along the coast of New Hampshire in the winter, I can’t ride enough during winter months so I go to places like Cancun, LA, Portugal and ride for 10 days during the snowy months.

Beer.  What can I say?  In 1966 I was in college and someone whispered “Computers” in my ear,  just like “Plastics” in The Graduate film.  I have been blessed to play from Visi-Calc to Lotus.  Now the same with Beer.  I started with Coors, Sierra Nevada and now there are wonderful beer bars and breweries in every town.

The Rest is just that, whatever does not fall under the above headings!

Summary  

This was my first trip to China.  I went 9/6/19 and returned 10/3/2019.  Please read along. I really loved the trip and hope to go again in 2020.

Detail

I have been fascinated with China for years.  I started reading seriously about it 15? years ago.  My wife and daughter and I went to India in November 2018 to attend a wedding.  The 14? hour return trip Delphi Newark gave me the confidence for the first time that with proper planning I could survive  my hyper activity on a long flight.

Right from the get go I had the idea of seeing the people in China, not just the sights.  This prejudice of people and ideas over Monuments and Museums has been a theme of my recent trips.  I have a friend who works in Albania,  In planning a trip to visit him in 2017 I said “No museums, no forts, no churches.  just pick interesting Albanians you have met and lets have breakfast lunch or dinner with them.”  I loved the trip.  Of course we talked to some Ex-pats.  But you get the point.  Lets try to involve with the people who are living in the country and what they are thinking/doing.

I do not speak Chinese.  Any serious involvement with locals will have to be ex-pats or highly educated residents.

I thought I better put two pictures on this page, just to give the reader something to look at. Since I road a bike 10 days out of 28? I better put in a bike picture. But it should be of me. But I don’t take selfies while riding! So at least you get me in riding gear at lunch:

One more from a collection of over 1000. How about this:
It is taken on one of the last days of my trip. I am in Shanghai. This is in the Tianzifang area in the French Concession where I mainly stayed. The young lady is taking a selfie which is such an integral part of China and Chinese people. It took me about 30 minutes in line to get into this 8 block area of small shops and walking around you are just carried by the flood of humanity. The day was a national holiday and everyone was out on the streets. Mainly the signs are in Chinese but this one in English? Must have been some marketing research involved.

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