Things have changed a lot in my little boonie city since I first arrived. It used to be I would go out to a dirt/rubble road (with chickens and dogs running freely) to a little shack or food cart to get my dinner and pray I didn’t get food posioning
Top 10 Most Influential People in China (Times 2)
In my speaking class, I did a Top 10 Most Influential People list. I started with a list of the top 10 from a magazine, which listed mostly Americans (such as Steve Jobs, Oprah, and Mark Zuckerberg amongst others.) Then I asked them, in small groups, to come up with
The More Things Change…
I’ve been a bit lax on my blog recently, but that’s not because I’ve been bored. Quite the opposite in fact. This semester began 3 weeks ago, and despite having a 4-day weekend, things have been non-stop crazy. I’ve been at this school for 3 years already, so you would
S*%$t's About to Get Real
I think it has flown under the radar in the western media, but here in the East there is one topic on everybody’s minds. The worsening relationship between China and Japan. It all started because of a stupid island dispute. China says they own it, and Japan disagrees. (The Chinese
Another Weapon in the Language Learning Arsenal — FluentFlix
A few months ago a new start-up Chinese learning company called FluentFlix contacted me wondering if I would try, then review, their new website. (I give kudos to their research team if they managed to find my blog.) I finally got around to checking out their website, which just launched
And So Begins Year 4
The thermometer is still hovering near 100, but I finally have to face the facts, that my summer is officially over. Tomorrow begins the first day of the 2012-13 school year. And I’m having a hard time realizing that the fun is over. Can you blame me? In the past
Hanging Out With Foreigners
I want to write about hanging out with foreigners, which might seem a strange topic to you. The fact of the matter is that for the past 3 years I haven’t spent much time with the other laowai (foreigners). At school there are so few, and aside from one or
Chinese Mountains Rule
Here’s the thing I love about mountains in China. In addition to being a tall piece of land we love to climb, they have so much history. Even the small mountains around my school are filled with hidden graves, small temples and other things built over the decades. In America,
Across the Bridge is Some Darn Tasty Noodles
If you are an avid reader, with a really good memory, you’ll remember that I have been to Kunming before, two and a half years ago. I didn’t write much about the city, just one entry on the amazing park, because well, we didn’t do much. At the time, I
Prepare to Drool
One day, in my intensive Chinese course, my teacher said we were going to take a little break and watch a movie. “It’s not really a movie, but a show about he special foods in China,” she explained. A break from speaking Chinese and watching a documentary on food?! Sign