Simpson's Paradox

Edit: No, I didn’t add that in photoshop! This is real sign at a bar by Houhai. It was midafternoon when we passed, though, so we didn’t stop to see if it was true.

I told my dad about our new hutong home. He said I could live even closer to the Forbidden City but I’d probably have to become a concubine.

Nate James’ Orient-ation is a new China expat blog. He’s heavy on descriptions of daily Chinese life (as he gets, uh, oriented), like this one:
The waitress comes out with the plate, steaming hot, mouth-watering. Your nose picks up the intense aroma. The flavors. You’re seething
Then she places it…IN THE CENTER OF THE FRICKEN [...]

Some of Stick’s students will be receiving their red scarves in a Children’s Day ceremony next week. I believe they’re called honglinjin (or is it honglinjian? Not entirely sure). You see them on Chinese schoolchildren all the time. These red scarves are a mark of distinction for high-achieving students of good moral character, and receiving [...]

PayPal isn’t letting me withdraw any money since they’ve cleverly detected that I’m using the account in China. I still know my mother’s maiden name and my secret numbers, but the customer service guy says that’s not quite enough, and to prove that I’m really really me, I have to receive a phone call at [...]

After Saturday night KTV with the CNReviews crew, on Sunday Stick andI met up with Heather and Will. They’ve been living in our complex since the fall, although we hadn’t met. We know some of the other teachers in their school, in fact my old TA was transferred away from me to Heather’s school.
But I [...]

???, I just wanted to let you know that I do have a copy of a certain novel, whose heroine shares my name. I’ve got The Thorn Birds right here!

I’ve got Scarlett on the other side to keep my laptop in ideal typing position. Oddly enough, they’re exactly the same size.

Stick and I saw this car on Saturday when we were walking down to Houhai from our NEW APARTMENT.

“Wash me” in three languages. I love Beijing!
We kept walking down along the lake to the Starbucks. It was just a few months ago that we were ducking into that Starbucks because Stick couldn’t feel his feet… [...]

David beat me to the punch on this one, but I wanted to make sure you didn’t forget your vade mecum. Whatever that is.

I’m exhausted after a few very full days, I’ll post properly tomorrow. I had dinner and KTV tonight with the awesome CNReviews team, Elliott Ng, Min Guo and David Feng, and talk turned to checking blog stats and search terms, so I can’t possibly go to sleep without checking my own info.
It turns out the [...]