Category Archives: China
UnFriendly Olympics
In China, you really can’t get away from the Friendlies. They’re on t-shirts, hats, sneakers, pins, backpacks, keychains, earrings and necklaces. They’ve been made into charms, toys and giant paper-mache effigies at the airport. Back when we had CCTV9 in … Continue reading
Yantai Moment
It’s always hard to explain living in China. The guys at Talk Talk China have started a quest for a perfect metaphor to describe ex-pat life. Last night, Zorro and I set out separately, cellphones in hand, on a scavenger … Continue reading
….with Chinese characteristics.
When I took this photo, I was mentally composing a moving post about watching the change of seasons on the Yantai beach, and the weather returning to the winter weather that I saw when I arrived, and how I’ve had … Continue reading
Yantai Disneyland
Yesterday Zorro and I were walking by the beach, and we saw what the boardwalk area looks like in the off-season. Do you see Mickey and Minnie on the window? It’s Yantai Disneyland! Who needs seatbelts? I know a deserted … Continue reading
Teaching Magic
A few months ago, Jay sent me a huge box of Magic cards. I had a brief dream of setting up a Yantai Magic league, but that was quickly squashed by scheduling problems. My Chinese students were already overscheduled with … Continue reading
Young
I have a one-on-one student, let’s call him Young. He started with me a few weeks ago, his mom specifically requested a female teacher “to help him catch up” because he was “falling a bit behind” in Zorro’s English classes. … Continue reading
My Parents Are Leaving
On my parents’ last night in Yantai, I took them to the New Hut Place for dinner. This is a local restaurant, famous for being exactly halfway between Zorro’s house and mine, that passes the Tupperware Rule (Tupperware Rule: If … Continue reading
Yantai Attractions
Dear Montclair Art Museum Staff, My mom wants you to know that she only touched this statue after my dad, Zorro and I begged her to and tried to convince her that her hands are doing way less damage than … Continue reading
Weird, Weird, Weird
It’s weird weird weird to have my parents in Yantai. The adult-daughter (or is it adult/daughter?) thing is still new to me, and being the navigator, planner, translater and responsible party is just so weird. I need new vocabulary to … Continue reading
Tiananmen Square
In between making my parents take me to an Outback and a Pizza Hut, we visited Tiananmen Square. Last week when Zorro and I were in Beijing, the taxi driver told us to go see the flowers in Tiananmen Square. … Continue reading
