So here’s a recent situation of my friend. She was working in a school for little kids and had been there for years. She had to deal with some bureaucratic bull we all go through, but as hers was a private
An Unexpected Semester
I had decided, more than a year ago, that this year would be my last year. I’m not going to leave China, but I’m going to leave the city I’ve called home for the past five years. So I made
Guess Who's Into (a) K-Drama!
Yes people, it’s true. I’ve had many false starts over the years, but I finally got into a k-drama. (K-drama stands for korean drama.) Now, I won’t go so far to say I’m a k-drama fanatic or anything, because I’ve
Aaaaaaand, it's leaking
I know this is, like, the most boring blog series ever, but I’ve somehow written about my leaking bathroom several times now, so I thought I’d write one more update. So last you heard they re-routed my hot water from
Yes Virginia, Chinese People DO Protest
Yesterday in my Weixin “moments” (similar to ‘the wall’ in Facebook) a number of bloody/riot pictures started showing up. Men clutching their bleeding heads, hundreds of people marching down the highway and other pictures which aroused my curiosity. Then
5 Signs I’ll Never be Chinese
Recently I listed 10 signs that you have lived in China too long. Initially strange things that I’m now used to after living here for 5 years. But what about the opposite end of the spectrum? What about the common
Some More Chinglish
I’ve been sticking close to home and haven’t come across too much chinglish, but of course it’s unavoidable. I’ve noticed for the most part, chinglish is being cleaned up and now the humor lies in the context, not necessarily the
Untangling the Complex Chinese Term "Laowai"
One of the first terms that every foreigner learns after landing in china is 老外 laowai, which means, essentially, foreigner. Even if a foreigner eschews every single other chinese word, they cannot avoid this one. That’s because it is hurled around
"Chinawood." Exploring Ancient China through Movie Sets
In college I moved to Los Angeles and spent my last semester working in a movie studio. Being an intern my job was sometimes to run around delivering things, and as a result I ended up waling around almost all
The Friendly Way to Call Other People in China
On Facebook I recently linked to a Ted.com article about how speaking different languages affect your brain. In the article they use an example of Mandarin and how people address the family. In China there is no generic grandma, grandpa,