"You must do the things you think you cannot do." | Eleanor Roosevelt

Archive for 2009

Well I’ll be damned

Sunday, December 27th, 2009 Posted in Chinese Culture, Living in China, Teaching in China, Travel | 3 Comments »

My knitting was delivered to me (for Y20) today by a man I'd never met. Ellie, a member of the hostel staff, came with me and helped me pick it up so I could find the guy alright. ...

Further adventures in Yangshuo

Friday, December 25th, 2009 Posted in Chinese Culture, Living in China, Travel | 3 Comments »

And adventures they were! Wednesday, I planned to ride my bike to Moon Hill, about 8km outside of Yangshuo. By lunch, I hadn't left yet, so I ate lunch at the Buckland cafeteria with a bunch of teachers and students. ...

Yangshuo: The Return of the Laowai

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 Posted in Chinese Culture, Living in China, Travel | Comments Off

I thought "The PRC Strikes Back" was too negative a title, so I skipped straight to the third one. Things I love about Yangshuo: My Corona is served with a lime. Hearing, "Oh, you son of a bitch," in its natural habitat: a ...

Pushing my luck

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 Posted in Homesickness, Living in China, Travel | 1 Comment »

I don't know how this keeps happening. But I won't question it. The school has scheduled Grade 1 exams for next week Monday and Tuesday. This would mean, given Christmas, that the only day I have to ...

Forgot to mention

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 Posted in Living in China, Travel | Comments Off

I also have a new post up at the Lost Laowai blog, regarding travel scarves and their myriad uses. Go check it out!

Christmas spirit

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 Posted in Homesickness, Living in China, Teaching in China, Travel | 1 Comment »

Look what I found at the local bakery last week. I could not resist taking my picture with these girls. I was so happy to see Christmas decorations that I actually giggled out loud while I was looking for my ...

Spam nonsense

Thursday, December 10th, 2009 Posted in Tech/Site Issues | Comments Off

I've been getting about one spam registration a week; a user registers to comment with a spam-obvious name and a gmail account. As such, I've decided to nip this problem in the bud and installed a better spam-catching registration ...

Today’s ten thousand things

Monday, December 7th, 2009 Posted in 10,000 Things, Homesickness, Living in China, Teaching in China | 2 Comments »

- Before class, one of my students asked me what my Chinese name was. I said it, but told her I didn't know the characters. She tried to write it down, but we couldn't find the character for ...

Foreign culture lessons; new links

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 Posted in Teaching in China | 1 Comment »

I've posted a new entry all about my recent-and-future lessons called Foreign culture in the classroom at the Lost Laowai Blog. It's my second post over there - please go check it out! I've also added a few new links ...

No Thanksgiving in small-town China

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 Posted in Homesickness, Living in China, Teaching in China, Travel | 1 Comment »

I had no formal Thanksgiving this year. Dinner in the cafeteria included potatoes, though, which sort of counts. And I told one of the Chinese teachers, who knew about Thanksgiving, that I was thankful for the opportunity to ...