The other night I went to a TED talk (which I’ll be writing more about later). Halfway through this foreigner joins us. I never met him but he seemed to know many of the people there, and he joined in
Makin' it Rain (with Chinese Characteristics)
Like I’ve said before the weather here has been pretty hellish. Shanghai has broken all sorts of weather records and Hangzhou has been named the hottest city in China right now. (And I get to live here. Yay.) According to
Getting Discouraged with the HSK
As of today, I have 2 weeks until I take the HSK 5, a chinese language test. I’ve been technically preparing for months, but only seriously for the past 6 weeks. Every day I try to do some exercises, take
Living in the Inner Circle of Hell (aka Southern China Summers)
I’d like to establish the fact that while despite growing up in New England, I’ve lived in my fair share of warm places. I lived in South Carolina during summer (with a car with no a/c), stayed in very tropical
You Never Know What's Going to Happen
One of the benefits of sticking around this summer is spending time with people I probably wouldn’t see otherwise. Case in point? Last night I went out with 6 former students. A few had just graduated, but most had graduated
My New Roomie!
Yep, for the first time since college I have a roomie again. I’m moving to the big city of Hangzhou and shacking up with my friend Jason. I wrote about him a few times on my blog already. We met
Not as Bad as I Thought
I usually travel during the summer, and have never stayed in Lin’an during a holiday before. I was a bit disappointed I had to hang around town, but it turns out that only 3 weeks into summer, things are going great.
The Life of a Hermit
After all the hullabaloo of everyone leaving I decided to get all crotchety and become the Lin’an hermit. I only had one week before I was going to move to Hangzhou for the summer, so I decided to go full-blown
Is Communication Fate?
As my Chinese is getting better, and I’m making more chinese friends, a thought has been taking shape. Is ease of communication an indication of who I should be friends with? Let’s face it, speaking chinese with me is not
F&$% You, Chinese!
Summer’s officially arrived and what am I doing everyday?! Studying for the HSK level 5 Chinese test. And not just studying but studying my ass off. I’ve never studied for something like this, and frankly it’s pissing me off. I’m