Category Archives: Yangzhou
Shepherd
The other day, I had a new student called Shepherd. I always ask my kids how they chose their English names, for every mumbled explanation that it was assigned in primary school English class, there’s a great story about identity and personality. Shepherd … Continue reading
Everybody Rise
Everybody Rise is a lifestyle-porn New York adventure with a likeable protagonist, a middle-class girl pretending to the world of deb balls and multimillion-dollar getaway cottages. I love lifestyle and manners novels, with a blatant escapist love for the gorgeous, the exclusive and … Continue reading
Bing Kafei
I have an electric kettle in my room, so one of the first things I bought was a package of those Nescafe instant coffees. They’re nice, of course, but not even the most optimistic expat could mistake it for brewed, fresh coffee. Fortunately, … Continue reading
Retro Point-and-Click “Theropods” on (The) Absolute
I have a new post over on The Absolute, talking about Therapods. Theropods is a simple point-and-click adventure game about a cavewoman battling dinosaurs, but the game is surprisingly adorable. Our story opens when a peaceful evening at the neolithic campfire … Continue reading
Anne of Arkham Asylum
Inspired partially by Julia’s post about getting all the Anne of Green Gables books on the Kindle, and partly by a chat with a coworker about Prince Edward Island (Australian coworker: They’ve assigned me to teach a class on Canadian life… … Continue reading
Essential Chinese: Frappuccino
I recently learned that xing bing le is Chinese for Starbucks’ frappuccino. This is pretty exciting because I recognize each character from another context, so I feel like I actually understand the whole, as language and branding, not just as sounds … Continue reading
Montclair Filament
I started reading Elisabeth Egan’s A Window Opens shortly before I left for Yangzhou, but for some reason, moving to China and immediately losing my suitcase put me slightly behind on my reading and blogging. I mean, I could have just … Continue reading
Marco Polo
Detail of a photocopy of a map drawn by a previous expat teacher. I paid extra for an iPhake with a workable map app, but I really like the idea of a hand-drawn map of the city’s highlights, and maybe … Continue reading
A Song of Bing and Huo
I’ve been reading A Song of Ice and Fire, mostly thanks to SuperDan’s recommendation, which means I’ve been lying in front of my room fan in my underwear, trying to remember what being cool felt like, and reading about how winter is … Continue reading
