English summer camp started last week. I like my girls, and I’m glad that I have a job, but I still feel a little bit bad for these kids. They don’t really get a proper vacation, sincea break from regular school is a chance to take extra math lessons, tae kwon do classes, English lessons, [...]
Last night, Dave, Zorro and I went to play pool. Actually, they played pool and I cheered. I tried to take pictures, but as soon as I took this one, an employee told me not to. (I was thrilled when she repeated it in English and I asked her if they served cocktails at the [...]
I watched Lord of the Rings the other day, and I started to really miss my D&D group. That’s a nerdy compliment to my RPG friends back home. And then Dave came by with Superman Returns, and even though it wasn’t so great, I started to miss playing Abberrent. Evan, my old GM, would never [...]
The other day I was doing a unit on countries and nationalities with my Korean students. We’re using a British book about Pierre from France, Carlos from Spain, Ivan from Russia and so forth. I realized it wasn’t too appropriate for them, so I added Midori from Japan, Lakshmi from India and Kim from Korea.
I’d [...]
One of the cool things about living alone is that my kitchen is full of little bottles of grapefruit juice, single-serve yogurts, instant noodles and beer. And that’s it. One of the less cool parts is that after I finally bought a new DVD player, I had to hook it up myself.
I’ve never had [...]
The thing is, everything in China relies on context.
It’s kind of like when you meet your boyfriend’s friends and they’re all “Remember that time? Hahahaha!” while you’re all “Hi, I’m Meg”. They use these half sentences and references to other things, and even an awesome girlfriend just can’t keep up.
In Norse mythology, each line [...]
So someone at our office took this picture of our boss, Will, and someone printed it out and someone made little thought-bubbles of Will-isms and someone glued those bubbles to the picture and someone enlarged the picture and someone drew a little mustache and horns on Will and someone stuck it up on the [...]
Last night I was at the local “Western” coffeeshop with my coworker Dave. Dave’s got a bit of a crush on our waitress, and since I met her at my old school, I introduced them and then drank my beer while Dave told her how good her English is. Things were well on their way [...]
My local supermarket, whether as a response to Wal-Mart or an object lesson in globalization, has started stocking Herbal Essences shampoo and Clean&Clear face wash. I’m not really into brand names, but it was great to see a logo I recognized. Also, a lot of Chinese lotions, face washes and sunscreens have a weird whitening [...]
Since I complained so much about Chinese dinners when I first arrived, I think I’ll tell you about a fun Yantai dinner.
A few nights ago, Dave, Zorro and I went out in search of Japanese food. Our coworker Ron told us a place to go, and can I just mention how funny Chinese directions [...]
