Simpson's Paradox

I have no idea how I went from running to the mailbox each afternoon in hope and expectation, to utterly forgetting to mention this, but… I have a travel piece in the March-April issue of Adventures For The Average Woman. It’s about my trip to Liu Gong Island with Dave, and it looks much better [...]

Andrea just sent me a bunch of fantasy books and I’ve noticed a certain similarity between my reading matter and my life. Some of the reasons overlap with Sinoplice’s brilliant “Why China Is Like An RPG”. Travel in China, like fantasy books, offers an escape from a monotonous life. Money is counted [...]

Dave came back to Yantai for a day before heading home to New York.

Most nights, I go to dinner with my co-worker, Zorro. (Dave, we miss you!) He’s really fun, loves talking about our students, and he’s been really helpful with my Chinese. Of course, when we go out, no one will listen to my Chinese.
Waitresses can understand my halting Chinese when Zorro’s not there, but when [...]

Barbara, one of our students, invited Dave, Zorro and me to come to KTV with some of her friends. Now, I am no stranger to getting mildly intoxicated and belting out a Human League duet, but a Chinese Kareoke bar is a little different than at home.
First, you get your own room so you don’t [...]

I really wanted to go see the Niu Jie mosque in Beijing, mostly because I was curious what Chinese-Muslim architecture would look like. It was on my list of cool places places to see when I went to Beijing with Fresca and Jeff, and with Stick, but we ended up not making it either time [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]