Yes, that’s right! I’ve been keeping it under wraps, but I’ve been asked to speak at the big portrait conference in China, Photo Asia 2009! It is coming up and I leave next week! I’m so honored and excited to be asked to go and look forward to the adventures I’ll be having very soon in this foreign land.
I’ve been preparing for some time, and my program has been updated to reflect the differences in culture, language, as well as allowing for translation (someone will be translating what I say as I speak). It’s been quite an effort to get the program ready and I really hope that the attendees love what I’ve prepared.
Now as the day is almost here for me to leave and fly to China, I’m getting antsy! I have so many things I want to do while I’m there, not to mention how excited I am to go to a place that is completely different. With as much traveling as I do, not too many places actually seem all that different from the next. And most foreign countries have a language that I can at least sound out or at the very least I can see a word on a sign and look it up in a dictionary to see what it says.
However, China is completely foreign to me and that gets me excited. Today I bought a travel phrase book to help me say things like “hello” and “thank you,” and also found and downloaded some iPhone apps where I can trace Chinese words and it will tell me what they say. I figure these things are needed just for me being able to get around, but also I’ve found that when I travel, that people are very kind and helpful if you can at least say “hello” and “thank you” in their language.
I’ll put more up here while I’m there (depending on the internet connection I can find), but here’s some news releases on some Chinese news sites announcing the event and exhibition:
• News.Cultural-China.com
• Sina.com
Well, I’ll keep you all posted. Stay tuned, America! 🙂
— Bry
How exciting! They are going to think you are a giant! Happy traveling! ;>)