After work last night, my boyfriend came over. He had something in his hands. “I got you a gift,” he said. “You did?” “Yeah. I have one too, it’s really comfortable,” he said handing me a bag. Umm, thanks? Having a multi-cultural relationship can cause many problems, but boredom and
Snow Day!
As I live in Southern China winter temps hover around freezing, but snow is rare. Our winters are more dreary, freezing cold, damp days then the clear, crisp days I’m accustomed to back in America. And right now my New Hampshire hometown has gotten pummeled with snow. More than 2
Making Noodles and Dumplings: A Photo Essay
One of my new classes invited me to their dumpling party to celebrate the New Years. Eating dumplings and noodles is tradition to bring luck to the new year. As students don’t have a kitchen at their disposal they rented one to use at a nearby restaurant. It was my
Best. Final Exam. Ever.
I think tests are meaningless. Students cram right before (or make a cheat sheet) and the minute the exam is over, the promptly forget just about everything they learned. But I’m a teacher and need to play in the system that requires final exams. But instead of a test, I
Writer. Traveler. Tea Drinker. Year End Wrap Up and Most Popular Posts
Christmas is over, the semester is wrapping up, time for a year-end wrap up! Chris Guillebeau, over at the Art of Non-Confomrity advocates doing a yearly review to keep track of all the things you have accomplished in the past, and all the things you hope to accomplish in the upcoming
My Delicious Racist Dinner
Last year, on Christmas Eve, the foreign teachers were invited to a special Christmas buffet held at a nearby 5-star hotel. The meal is normally 600 rmb, a kings ransom (to put it in perspective, 600 rmb covers 6-months of my water and electricity bill, or an entire year cell
Looking for that Old Christmas Feeling in China
When I lived in America to say I was burned out of the holiday season would be an understatement. I was tired of the consumerism, tired of the holiday pressure and tired of feeling like a total glutton eating all the delicious food that was laid in front of me.
The Modernization of a Chinese City
If you want to get a taxi you need to stand on any street and just start waving frantically. Lin’an, small city though it is, has plenty of taxis. The problem is finding one that will actually take you where you want to go. You see, taxi’s here are more
Adding Another Place on the 'Must-See' List
I got another interesting China Vimeo movie to show you. This one, called Ordos, is about a group of skater who went all around this newly built city in Inner Mongolia skating all over the place. The city had millions of dollars poured into it, creating the infrastructure for a
My Favorite Apps for Working and Living in China-Part 3
This is the third and final post recommending apps for living and working in China. In case you missed the others, you can find Part 1 here, and Part 2 here. I’ve already covered Chinese specific apps for daily life, and apps for learning chinese, but what about non-specific apps