Living in China as an expat, I got a surprising education from my college students about Singles’ Day, which is sort of like China’s version of Black Friday. On November 10th last year, I began an English class at the Chinese university where I was teaching with an American culture lesson. “Who knows which American […]
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Cripple’s Guide to International Travel: Backpacking 10 Countries on Crutches
This was my experience traveling on crutches: two months, 10 countries, one new set of arm muscles, and many lessons learned. I did something this summer I never thought I would do – and that I had never really thought about anyone doing. I traveled through 10 countries on crutches, with a broken leg and […]
Pollution, Communism & China: Teaching the Documentary “Under the Dome”
This post is about my experience discussing communism and pollution with my Chinese university students after showing “Under The Dome,” a Chinese documentary about pollution by journalist Chai Jing, in my classroom. This was a bad week for people in China who like journalism. This was the week when a cruise ship sank on the […]
Ship’s Log: A Cambodian Adventure I Didn’t Mean to Have
This was what I would call a travel mishap that turned into an adventure: On a boat, in Cambodia, by myself. It could have been much worse! 1:20 p.m. My tuk-tuk driver leaves me where he probably thinks I want to go: in front of a quiet guest house occupying a few yards of land […]
What I Learned Teaching About My “Hot Brother” in China
A couple of weeks ago, I started class with my Chinese college freshmen students by talking about western families, and one student wanted to know if I had any siblings. I said yes, I have one. Siblings aren’t as rare here as I had expected before I moved to China (despite 34 years of China’s […]
Curfews, Students Named “LeBron,” & More About College Life in China
I had no idea how different college life in China was from the US – until, at age 24, I got a job as an expat teaching English to students at a Chinese university. My first three months teaching English here have been quite a learning experience – about myself, about Chinese culture and about […]
A Toast to Finding Myself in China… and to Beer
The smell of this nutty brown ale, lovingly shuttled home from a weekend trip to Beijing, is achingly familiar. I’m swirl the bottle, letting the aroma fill my nose, with a sip already around rolling in my mouth. I mean that sincerely – achingly. I think some homesickness is setting in, and this almost hurts. […]
The Truth About Culture Shock and Why I Love It
My first month after moving to China was not a blissful honeymoon. It was a month of confusion, nerves, and stress – the good kind and the bad – peppered with lots of fun. (Like the mouth-numbing peppercorns in nearly every dish here – surprising, not entirely comfortable, but intriguing.) The amount of work that […]
Learning Mandarin in China: “No Really, I Don’t Understand”
One of my best and favorite phrases I’ve learned in Mandarin – and definitely the only one I use in every single conversation, even though it takes my pride down a notch – is this: “Tīng bù dǒng.” It means, “I don’t understand.” Before I expat-ed myself to China, learning such a phrase seemed like […]
Patience.
I’m working on many things. One of them is moving to China. Another is this site.
