Simpson's Paradox

While my taxi this morning was stuck in traffic, we were passed by a horse-drawn produce cart. I wasn’t surprised to see it, but did it have to be going faster than I was?

The Muslim Noodle Shop just got better. I think I’ve mentioned that I love this place, partly because the food is almost always delicious, partly because it’s cheap, but mostly because the staff doesn’t laugh hysterically at my attempts to speak Chinese. They actually go out of their way to figure out which dish I [...]

My kids showing me a song and dance they learned in Chinese class… then getting camera shy.

Stick and I just spent almost 150 RMB on imported cheese.

If you liked the Great Wall Of Cereal, you should see the security-tagged booze selection at the Auchan.

Auchan is a French-owned grocery, which means they have bread that tastes like bread. Stick and I were buying a loaf when the baker shouted at us to wait. I wondered if bread was yet another item that [...]

“You should teach them to put their finger under each word when they chant, so the parents will know their children know English,” one of the TAs suggested yesterday. She went on to explain that this is not reading, and any further attempts by me to teach the children to read will not be appreciated.
She [...]

This is a flashcard from the English book my students do with their Chinese English teachers. I don’t know which is more telling, that someone chose Mickey Mouse as the emblem of America (instead of, say, a map) or that, on closer inspection, that’s not really Mickey.
So the symbol my students are keying to [...]

This is a not-so-typical dinner for us. We actually didn’t get ice cream here… we were still too full from Sizzler. Oh yeah!
(This is downstairs in the Xin Dong An mall next to the Wangfujing Bookstore, follow the signs for Food Forum, or look for the happy people eating delicious ice cream.)

“I think we take this one three stops to Line Squiggle Squiggle Curve Dot.”

This is a typical dinner for Stick and me… vinegar peanuts, cold garlic cucumbers, spicy peanut chicken (gung pao ji dian – all foreigners very like), and fried egg and scallion rice. No dinner is complete without a couple bottles of Yanjing beer!
It’s not quite Andiamo’s, but it’s pretty tasty.