We set out for Da Dong Roast Duck Restaurant last night, our second trip in Hugo and Diana’s visit. (Hugo may not be so fond of living ducks, but he loves them on a plate!) When we went inside, we said hello to some other foreigners. They were a camera crew, setting up to film […]

At first, I don’t think Diana believed me that “margarita” is Chinese for “not beer” but after a rainbow of tasty random cocktails around town, I think she did. These ones are at Fish Nation, a yummy British pub near our hutong house. If you want the kind of margarita with salt and tequila, Mexican […]

Often I hop into a Beijing taxi, only to get out again when the driver refuses to take me where I want to go. I thought this was a reaction to my bad Chinese but as I understand more and more, I’m stunned by the reasons the drivers refuse to take me.
When we lived in […]

At first, I don’t think Diana believed me that “margarita” is Chinese for “not beer” but after a rainbow of tasty random cocktails around town, I think she did. These ones are at Fish Nation, a yummy British pub near our hutong house. If you want the kind of margarita with salt and tequila, Mexican […]

Last night, I went shopping with Diana on the little streets by Qianhai. There’s a gorgeous old street, lined with craft and clothing and tea stores, and one place selling nothing but decorative matchbox covers.  There’s also a stinky-tofu vendor down at one end of the street, so we didn’t investigate those shops.
In some places, […]

My friend Hugo likes to laugh. I mean, he really likes to laugh. He can’t tell a joke because as he’s telling it, he thinks of how funny the punchline is, and laughs too hard to keep talking. He’s a professor’s dream student because he always laughs out loud at the semi-funny jokes classicists […]

When I saw this on the first sign a few days ago, it was pretty funny, but now I think it’s a trend.

I think it’s the two colors and the lovely font that really do it.
Edit: Stick thinks I may not have been clear enough that this mojito is down the other place.

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Sorry for the recent blog schizophrenia! I think I’ve got most of it worked out now…
My PayPal adventures became less funny when they decided that I didn’t really pay WordPress for domain forwarding, and canceled the charges as an added benefit for my security. I’ve called a few times and sent 4 or 5 emails […]

Hugo and Diana are coming to Beijing next week! I’m so excited! Hugo and Diana are our college friends, we picked our Amherst apartment mostly because we’d live across the parking lot from them. And Hugo was Stick’s roommate most of the time I was in Yantai. I love them so much that if I […]

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… […]