They are watching...

Thursday, January 7, 2010 – 2:48 A.M. CST (Local) – BEIJING

Hi again!  It is now quarter to 3 A.M. local time here in Beijing and I can't sleep!  I managed to get about four hours in so far but I thought I would try and update real quick.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to respond to many (or any) comments because they have many blogging sites blocked - but I should still be able to post.  Just don't tell anyone.

Alright I have no idea where to begin so I am just going to plunge in.  Our colleagues William and Borja were waiting with smiling faces after we went through customs yesterday which was probably the best feeling of the trip so far. Leah and I weren't entirely sure they knew which flight we were on and we hadn't officially confirmed they were going to pick us up. Needless to say we were a little apprehensive. After formulating several gameplans in the event they weren't there, it was a relief to know we weren't going to have to implement them.  It was also a great relief to talk to Borja who is taking the driver's seat for our tour and essentially hosting Leah and me for the next three weeks. 

A little bit about Borja.  I met Borja several months back during our We Day bonanza (that's a good word to describe it right now).  We were able to hang out a little and he explained to me a little bit about his life.  Born in Spain, raised in Holland, has lived in China for just about 5 years now (he is 25) and is recently married to a girl of Chinese/Korean (I think) decent.  I hope to meet her soon.  Borja's Chinese is surprisingly good – though he is modest about it – and is a very REAL person.  The two hours we spent with him earlier this evening has given us a greater perspective of the task at hand then the past four months.  It is also nice to know that he has a fantastic grasp of the situation and presents it to us in a very blunt and unassuming manner.  Leah and I both work best when things are not sugar-coated for us.

What we NOW know:  We have 10 schools booked!  Borja has been able to secure several more speaking engagements INCLUDING three in a city where William and our accountant Victor are from in Northeastern China.  The name of the city escapes me but apparently they make a lot of steel there so in my mind I have already likened it to Pittsburgh – a city I have never visited but have somehow managed to form a memory of.  Funny how that works.   Maybe it's transferred like a memory from the pensieve in Harry Potter.  I digress…

I think the biggest challenge at this point is going to be introducing these children to a concept that is very foreign to them: thinking on their own.  Borja explained the schools here as very disciplined no-nonsense environments that are very mechanical and deliberate with their curriculum. That way of learning is very much in contrast to the message our organization and workshops attempt to foster, though I would also argue the two methods to be complimentary.  A steady regiment of both deliberate and freeform education, I believe, promotes disciplined creativity which can be beneficial to all professions.  Mostly Borja is just excited to have us here – as a pretext for engaging schools that were not previously committed to fundraising for FTC.  The three of us will be going to schools in Hong Kong (a place none of us have been) and most likely will be presenting a brief summary of our involvement in China to employees at the Disneyland offices for Club Penguin – as a way for them to better understand the philanthropic undertakings of their corporation.   

Lastly, Big Brother is watching.  Everywhere.  And just like a sibling, interferes with everyday life.  I haven't been here for that long but government involvement in everyday life is VERY apparent.  From the minute we walked out of the airport and saw hundreds of people shoveling the streets to get rid of the snow to walking into the hostel and staring at a machine that reads your body temperature and alerts an authority if you have a fever (remnants, Borja said, of the Bird Flu that raised alarm several years ago).   It is also very evident in regards to the internet.  The Chinese proxy doesn't allow for facebook, youtube, blogger, etc.  It also didn't allow me to view anything from CNN.  It is a strange feeling waiting for a website to load knowing that either a person or a machine is deciding whether or not I should be allowed to view the page I am trying to access. Also,  as I have just experienced, I must be careful about what I say- apparently using the terms "freedom" and "American Hero" (two very commonly used expressions in my personal everyday chats) will lose you g-chat and g-mail privileges. I hope they let me back on so I can send this out!

Until the next time, friends!

Steve

Plane to China: Take 2

Tuesday, January 05, 2010 - 8:24 PM EST

SOMEWHERE OVER THE PACIFIC – Hello again. As with my previous flight I am starting to write you just before the halfway point.   This time we are high above the Pacific and I feel like I have exhausted and/or dismissed all of the options available to me on my AirCanada TV in front of me. Am I worried?  Absolutely not.  I have my book to read, I have you to write to, and thanks to my dad's generous donation of his iPod (and with the help of some friends) I have been able to bring my entire music library, which is enough to keep me going for about 40 days.

Currently, I am jamming to Atanas Illitch's album "Conscious of the City" with the title track playing.  I am certain most of you are unfamiliar with this CD and that, I must admit, saddens me.   It was an album often played in the Schrage household when I was younger and reminds me of warm summer days with my dad cutting the grass wearing short shorts and a Coca-Cola tee.  Albums like these reinforce my desire to build an extensive music collection – and make me feel less guilty about spending a quarter of a paycheck on music and movies at HMV (that's another story). 

Previously, I passed my time watching the movie "500 Days of Summer" which, as several of my friends predicted, I very much enjoyed. I also, on recommendation of my brother Billy, listened to U2's album "The Joshua Tree" all the way through.  Well, I slept through most of it but it was just what the doctor ordered.  Thanks bro.

Despite mentioning that I have dismissed all of the options available to me on ACTV, I am actually very pleased with the selection of movies available to me.  Several interest me, including "The Dark Knight", "Gran Torino", and the latest Harry Potter – all of which I have already seen. The remaining few are light comedies that I am just not feeling right now.  Hah.  You know it's a long flight when I have time to write out an entire conversation I am having in my head.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other things to discuss.  Combining my previous notions of the Chinese and the many varied warnings I have received about their culture I find them all to ring predictably true.  Already, I have experienced the forewarned "hawking of a loogie" in the urinal at the airport, and currently a man is standing up and staring directly at me – as he has been for the past 10 minutes or so and has done several times already during the flight.  Leah tells me to get used to it.  Leah has been blissfully excited by the quantity of "cute little Asian babies" running around the plane.  I must admit, I find their stares much more tolerable than those of their senior counterparts.

Alright, I think that is good for now.  I anticipate many more unusual cultural quirks in the coming days and can't wait to share them with you!

OH! Also!  A big shout out to my buddy Nick Frat who had the foresight and initiative to call me while I was waiting in the Vancouver airport to report the good news that the magnificent university in Ann Arbor has picked a successor to the Athletic Director Bill Martin in David Brandon – former CEO of Dominos Pizza.  I am excited and optimistic for the future of Wolverine sports and can't wait to see what Mr. Brandon has in store! 

Plane to Vancouver/China

Tuesday January 5, 2010

9:30 AM EST EN ROUTE - Hello web world! Greetings again from 36000 feet in the air over middle of nowhere Canada!

I am currently en route to Beijing by way of Vancouver and am just under half the way through my first flight of 5 hours. In Vancouver I will be boarding a plane that Leah and I, after twenty minutes of calculating, estimate to be about 10 hours long. Not too bad. All in all we should be spending over 25 hours in transit and will be arriving around 4:00 PM in Beijing, 1:00: AM Toronto time.

That is if my calculations are correct, which, at this stage, I would hesitate to bet even a pencil from the pencil machine in Mr. Ancypa’s office on.

Thus far I have been jamming to the XM Country channel (awesome), and grazing a book recommended to me by my friend Jason called “Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norell” – a thousand page fantasy novel about magicians in early 19^th century England – which has managed to grab my attention fifty pages in, makes me feel good about bringing such a lunk of a book with me to a different continent!

In other news, I AM GOING TO CHINA, and I have no idea what to expect or what to do or say when I get there! We are being greeted by two in-country representatives from Free the Children and will be staying in a hostel recommended by the Lonely Planet travel guide. I am excited. Those of you who spent some time up north with me the past couple of weeks will know that I have been attempting to learn a few phrases in Mandarin to help me once I land. I am sure it will come to no surprise to any of you that when I tried them out with my Chinese roommate Xin, the blank stare I received back reminded me of a student being called upon to answer a question about a book that he never read. Fortunately, after I translated back into English what I was trying to get across she kindly helped me with my intonation and even taught me a few more, which, at the moment seem to escape me. Oh well, Bu shi – right Uncle Marty?

Now, perhaps to the most pressing question on your mind, what the heck am I doing in China?? The short answer, “speaking to elementary school kids” doesn’t seem to cut it for most people. As some of you may know, my speaking tour called “Think We” is sponsored by Disney’s Club Penguin. As a way for them to further their already generous philanthropic contributions in the countries they operate, they have decided to add a speaking tour to travel to English speaking schools in these countries in efforts to engage the youth through active and charitable lifestyles. That is where Leah and I come in.

To be honest, we have no idea what to expect. We are going to schools with “a high level of English” but Leah and I are preparing for a loose interpretation of that statement and are in the process of slowing down and making clearer our current presentation.

Thus far, we have five schools confirmed, and will be in the country for 25 days (returning the 30^th). We expect to have additional schools confirm while we are there and potentially could see up to 12! That has been the nature of our tour so far – finding out sometimes merely days prior to an engagement – and fortunately is also what we have been preparing for since September. It also leaves us with the opportunity to do some sightseeing - an activity which Leah has more experience than me and which we both eagerly anticipate.

I think I will end it here and attempt to write some e-mails that I need to catch up with. Maybe I will pick this up again on the longer flight, maybe I won’t. Either way, you won’t see this at least until I touch down in Beijing! Zài Jiàn!

We Day Madness!

Hello friends and family!

It has been a very long time since I have written and there is so much new to say that I am just going to quickly spew some verbal vomit all over this page in hopes that you can pick some of it up. After that disgusting metaphor… here goes…

I have my tour! My tour is called "Think We!" and it is sponsored by Disney's Club Penguin – which is a safe online environment for elementary school kids. It features penguin characters and moderators so that children are not subject to inappropriate content. My tour partner's name is Leah and she and I have spent the past month and a half or so gathering information and putting together our hour-long keynote address to be delivered to our main audience of elementary school children. It has been a considerably difficult task for myself as I have not been in a disciplined elementary school atmosphere for quite some time and I am learning to re-familiarize myself with school rules as well as re-learn how to deliver a presentation to a younger audience. Although it has been challenging, I definitely have found it rewarding and I am excited to put it to use at our first scheduled gig shortly after our second "We Day".

For those of you who don't know what a "We Day" is, it is essentially an event that Free the Children puts on to help inspire youth to commit themselves to acts of social justice throughout the coming school year. I just arrived back in Toronto from a trip to Vancouver where we held our first of three We Days. In attendance (and on the stage) at the Vancouver We Day was: His Holiness The Dali Lama (Big hit, the Lama), Sarah McLachlan , Jane Goodall, Mia Farrow, K'Naan, and Jason Mraz, along with my roommate Spencer West and several other Free the Children speakers.

We are putting on our second We Day here in Toronto on Monday and we are expecting a crowd of about 16,000 youth who get to MISS SCHOOL and come to participate in this pretty hip event. While the lineup in Toronto isn't AS incredible as that of Vancouver, it is still pretty impressive: Robert Kennedy Junior, the cast of Degrassi, Elie Wiesel, and Justin Bieber are among the list of presenters.

It has been pretty hectic around the office for the past couple of weeks as the majority of our staff has committed much of their time to putting these events on. I was assigned to the "Honoured Guests" team in Vancouver and was responsible for entertaining some of the presenting sponsors of the event including entrepreneur and We Day Chair Lorne Segal and some of his very influential friends from all over the world including Texas and … Italy! I was able to practice my Italian with some of them! It was great. In my suite as well were representatives from the Brooke Wade Foundation (including Mr. Wade himself) and from Environmental Packaging Technologies. I even got to meet the Mayor of Vancouver who will be in office for THE OLYMPICS! Heyooo!

In Toronto I'll be on the Seating, Parking and Transportation team where it will be my responsibility to help direct 300+ school buses and students into the Air Canada Centre all before our 9:00 start time. We have acquired the help of about 600 volunteers spread throughout the building and my tour partner Leah has the unenviable job of coordinating and organizing where they belong. This weekend for me will be spent mostly at the venue where I'll be organizing our group of volunteers and arranging where they belong and then helping out where I am needed – other teams will definitely be needing assistance in preparation for our ONE load in day on Sunday.

This whole production has been incredibly educational to be a part of. Despite our job descriptions ranging from website design to tour speaking to marketing, we have all shifted roles to help put on this incredible "rock concert" for social change along with over 20 other celebratory events and dinners scheduled throughout the several days. Despite the average age of our office being about 24 years old, we have managed to carry out this event with impressive professionalism. Of course there have been some minor hiccups (The Dalai Lama arrived a half hour early and wanted to speak longer, registration table issues, curtains falling minutes before an event, etc.) and many stressful moments, much of the finished product has come across smooth and polished. It has been exciting to be a part of and (knock on wood) I hope Toronto's We Day goes as smooth as Vancouver's.

In other news, I have had some time to see a good deal of Toronto on the weekends – I met K'Naan one weekend, I went to the Canadian National Exhibition and saw Pitbull with a friend from U of M, I was introduced to the Canadian rock band Blue Rodeo and attended one of their concerts, and every weekend I have been to the Sports Centre Café to watch college football (GO BLUE!) and the Tigers and now HOCKEY when I get a chance. Wings play today in Sweden!!

I am root root rooting for the Tigers… if they don't win the division it's a shame. And I hope to come back home to Michigan next weekend as it is Canadian Thanksgiving and I'll have a four day weekend! I need to connect with Leah though and we need to figure out what our schedule is like so that we are prepared enough to go on the road as soon as I get back.

Lastly, Leah and I intend to blog often throughout our tour and perhaps create another blog specifically for our tour experiences. We are very excited about the opportunity for travel that this tour presents to us and know that we are going to meet very interesting and exciting people all over the world. I look forward to hearing from you and I hope write soon about the success of our second We Day!

Week Three

Hello again!

Wow! It's incredible to think that I am already beginning week three here! Time flies when you are (busy and) having fun, I guess – And man have I been (busy and) having fun…

I am beginning to get the hang of the structure of the organization and each day I feel more and more comfortable with the ideas/concepts we are trying to relay. Yesterday after work we put on a "Free Stuff Giveaway" at a local park. Here is the story... In order to get the hang of facilitating discussions throughout the summer we practice our facilitation techniques on each other. One of our modules calls for groups to “Take Action” so in the spirit of participating and actually doing what we encourage other people to do, we had different groups create action plans and then carry them out. The group I joined was already well underway and had decided to collect “stuff” from staff that they don’t want or won’t use anymore and we brought it to the park after work for anyone to take. It turned out to be a huge success.
While in the park we met randomly with a youth group that was giving away free food and water for the same “just because” reason. It worked out incredibly. The park that we went to was full of … characters… and it was a very good opportunity for me to practice explaining our organization to many people who have never heard of it before – including some of the world’s biggest skeptics – even though we were really just there to give away free stuff. It turns out I am not half bad at explaining our concept and design (to help show people that they are capable of making significant positive impacts on the world around them) and that with some help and fine tuning I may even be able to bring it to people all over the world! With that note…

I Found out what my Tour is!! And that deserves its own post…

So Steve moved to Toronto, eh?

These Canadians really do like "eh", it's funny.

Hello friends and family!

As some of you may or may not know, I picked up and took off to Toronto last week for a two year stint with an organization called Me to We.

What the heck is Me to We you ask? Well, I am still in the process of figuring that out, but Me to We is considered a social enterprise - we sell books, music, a domestically made line of clothes, workshops, and tour speakers (me!) all with the objective of teaching the everyday citizen how they can make a difference in the world they live in through a variety of different mediums. We help them to examine their passions, think about what needs to be done, and then teach them to tools to go about doing it.

Furthermore, 50% of the proceeds made from all of the Me to We products go towards offsetting the already low administrative costs of their sister organization Free the Children - an organization that I used to be a part of at St. Joan and whose primary objective is empowering youth to help their peers throughout the world - specifically those in third world countries who are forced or sold into labor markets and rarely properly compensated for their work. Still with me?? Basically, thanks to Me to We when my mom and her 5th graders at St. Joan raise $500 in a garage sale, ALL of that money will go directly to the children in need.

Our main goal is to help people to realize their social potential. And to switch from an attitude of "Me" thinking to a collective "We" attitude. (I think the idea came from our generation being dubbed the "Me generation" and we refuse to accept that).

So I arrived last week after some border crossing issues (apparently Canadians don't like foreigners coming in to take their jobs) and I have had three full days on the job. The people here - my coworkers - are incredible. I woke up every day excited to go in to the office and find out what crazy things they are going to throw at me. My first couple of days consisted of: a Global Leadership Council (where I played the part of St. Joan of Arc amidst a table of Einstein, Ghandi, Socrates, etc attempting to create a new world order), a series of workshops and team building exercises which I might be using in my presentations, I was introduced to the producer of Hotel Rwanda, gave my own "I have a dream" speech (which revolved around baseball), annnnd flow charts of stress levels measured in the shots of alcohol you are going to want to take.

The atmosphere in the office is incredible - the energy level is so high I am going to need an injection of caffeine or something similar every hour just to keep up. The "organization" of the organization would make my organizational study friends uncomfortably proud: It is basically orchestrated chaos. The driving factor is the blatant desire and will of all the employees to take initiative and accomplish what needs to be done regardless of the obstacles. It appears to be chaotic, but in the end it turns out to be a well-oiled machine. One is free to stop what they are doing and jump to something else if it is more pressing, deadlines are more like guidelines and are usually always met.

It's a concept that when I try to explain it most people would say to me: Steve, that's good in theory but life doesn't work that way... But the fact that it DOES work here is a great testament to the quality of people working here and the underlying "core values" that are plastered in every room throughout the buildings.

Alright if you made it this far, first of all, Thanks :-). Secondly, the city of Toronto is awesome. I live in a spot called Cabbagetown on the east side of the city (about a 20 minute walk to the Eaton Center). There are people EVERYWHERE (which makes sense in a big city I guess) and some of them are crazy - I had a door-to-door hobo knock on my door and ask me for a Looney. I wish I had a mirror to give him.

I have already seen a Blue Jays game (they lost to the Red Sox 4-1 on Friday) and I went to "Hip Hop Karaoke" which quite possibly was one of the funniest things I have seen maybe in my life. Picture a white, world of warcraft playing, four-eyed, engineerd singing hardcore gangsta rap. Yeah I know it's tough - I didn't think it was possible until I saw it with my own two eyes. Funny thing was they were usually pretty good! It was hilarious.

I have found that the workers here despite (or perhaps IN spite) of their heavy weekly workloads enjoy indulging in a drink or two on the weekends - an activity I can certainly support.

In the coming weeks my main priority will be to write my speech(es) and figure out A. who my partner is going to be and B. what tour I am going to be a part of. I really don't have a say in either of those two things but the speech I have free reign over.

The second week of August I will be taking part in the "Academy" where I will be a student learning leadership skills and action plans along with over 200-300 students mostly from Toronto. This is put on by both Free the Children and Me to We. Come September I should be on tour (crazy, right?) and then it's off and running.

OOOK... that should be enough for now. I hope you are able to see how excited I am about this opportunity and I am very happy I was able to stick it out and find something I can throw my back behind. (Thanks Mom and Dad!)

I already know that these next two years are going to be full of crazy times, incredible people, and great stories. I can't wait to get goin'!

I love and miss you all, PLEASE write back.. I would love to hear what everyone is up to and how ya'll are doing! God bless America!

Love,
Steve

PS - I have an unlimited International Texting Plan! My phone number is (647) 884-3219. I realize that most people don't have this type of plan but if you send me your numbers I just may send you a random text letting you know I'm still alive :- )


K bye.

Warm Weather & Basketball Fever

GROSSE POINTE -

Hey all!

Well, it is now March and I am still living at home in a basement that floods every time it rains. I guess if you asked me last October if I expected to still be here in March I probably would have said "I hope not" but in all actuality it is working out pretty to my advantage. My mom still cooks for me and we get in mean games of Euchre basically everyday. Also, Metro Detroit is the best place to be come this time of year for two reasons in particular: Weather and Sports.

After a long winter of cold and raininess, when the sun starts to peak out from behind the clouds it's as if God is waking up from hibernation and saying "Alright, let's play some ball". I have been able to go out and toss the baseball and football around a couple times, while at the same time watching absurd amounts of hometown sports. Currently, the GPN Girls Varsity team is on it's way to the State Quarterfinals after winning the Regionals last night. The boys Varsity play GP South for the District title tonight. Meanwhile, Michigan looks like a tournament-bound team while my brother and MSU are a potential number 1 seed in the NCAA Tourney.
-Could it be any better?! -

Of course...

The Red Wings are number 1 in the Western Conference and the Pistons have been on a roll since A.I. hurt his back. Not to mention the TIGERS have been playing down in Lakeland, and there is constant talk about the Lion's first round draft pick this year... which inevitably they will probably butcher -but that's ok! We can talk about them!

-Wow, Steve, that's great! What more could you ask for??-

Well I don't need to ask! Michigan Men's hockey is ranked #3 in the country and St. Patrick's day is next week, followed by the greatest weekend in sports - the opening round of the NCAA tournament (which I need not remind you, ends with the Final Four in Detroit).

Needless to say, life here is pretty exciting. My brother and sis have been in and out because they are on spring break and I hope to go visit them soon. Betsy is pretty busy with school and work while Billy boy is busy with the MSU squad as they are making their run. Hopefully I will be able to jet up to the Riverhouse soon in order to buckle down and get some work done. Like my shirt says - Life is good.

Get at me and let me know how you're doing!

Cheers!

Stevo

Coach, you goin' all Coach Carter on us?

GROSSE POINTE –

Hey all!

La vita continua here in Grosse Pointe as I am now 23 years young. Crazy isn’t it? For my birthday my family took myself, my godparents (and JD), my buddy Bryan, and my grandma out to Buddy’s Pizza to celebrate. It was a grand ol’ time. My main birthday present was four tickets to go to see A Bronx Tale at the Fisher Theatre. It was a play in one act by one man (Chazz Palmenteri)! Ross from high school, Cat from Padova, and Jenny from Florence all lucked out and got to come with me. We had a pregame spritz (naturally) a postgame venture to Fishbones and then capped off the night (late) with another spritz at the house. All in all a very fun night.

As some of you may know, I am now an assistant coach for the boys’ freshman basketball team up at Grosse Pointe North. I am coaching with my longtime buddy and basketball teammate, Bryan Bennett. We are learning with the kids on how to coach but fortunately it appears pretty obvious to us what the kids need to work on (basically everything - including academics). We have started off 0-2 with losses to De La Salle and Detroit Community. While we weren’t surprised about the loss to DLS, we played Detroit Community to the bitter end, falling 40-43. We are excited about our game Friday (today) 4:30 , at Chippewa Valley – you should come!

Unfortunately, I missed the game vs. Detroit Community yesterday because I was meeting a potential employer in Canada (exciting!). The meeting went well and I hope that a position might open up in the near future. In the meantime I am going to continue coaching and hopefully start substitute teaching while actively carrying on my job search. This weekend I am planning a trip to Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo to see some friends before they all go home for Christmas. I am hoping to get to the DIA for an art exhibit sometime soon, and really enjoy what Detroit has to offer during Christmas – it’s a lot!

Keep in touch let me know what ya’ll are up to… Go Norsemen!

STEVO