About a month ago, our apartment was broken into and the thief got away with our camera (and almost a laptop.) Now, a thief has struck again. The missing goods this time? My bike. Getting your bike stolen in China is almost a rite of passage. I couldn’t find any
Just When You Think You've Seen Everything…
Went to the school store to buy some soap today. Nestled in-between the regular brands (like Safeguard) we found a new option for our buying pleasure. And buy it we did. And just so you know, U.S.A. scent turns out to smell like old ladies. The package was actually pretty
Behind the Scenes of our Book Trailer
It’s only 3 weeks until the release of my new book, The Fuzzy Philosopher, and we are hard at work behind the scenes. These days you can’t release a new book without making a book trailer. A book trailer is like a movie preview, only for the book. Some are
Rolf Potts Traveled the World. What Did You Do?
What seems like just a few weeks ago, I was reading about Rolf Pott’s decision to travel for a long time no luggage. He was preparing to travel the world, the entire world, for 6 weeks with not a stitch of luggage. No backpack, fanny pack or even a plastic
Chinese Graffiti is Cool
When I see a tree with someone’s initial’s carved into it, I get really mad. Carving a tree trunk is a good way to kill a tree, it’s rude, and it looks really stupid and junky. But I don’t mind when I see someone carving words into bamboo. Maybe it
Got an Hour? Watch this Documentary!
I recently watched this documentary and thought it was worth sharing. It’s called Please Vote for Me and it’s about kid’s running to be class monitor. You see, every class in China has a class monitor. It’s like the class president and the monitor is responsible for keeping the kid’s
Chinglish: Signs in Parks Edition
Here are some classic signs I’ve seen in parks and other public areas.
Drawing a Crowd
Walking in Hangzhou the other day we noticed a gathered crowd. A crowd in China is nothing to get too excited about, sometimes even we cause a small crowd to gather when we eat dinner outside or go clothes shopping. But when we see a crowd, especially in a park,
Birth Control in China
Here’s a special entry for all you ladies of child bearing years living in China. (If that category doesn’t include you, please feel free to skip. I’ll be back to my chinglish/history type articles soon enough.) When I lived in America, I managed to talk my Ob-gyn into giving me
More Chinglish!!
I keep thinking I’ll run out of funny packages and signs at my university. But China seems to have an inexhaustible well as I keep finding plenty!