Tag Archives: Chinese life

Nuren Jie

Yesterday, Stick and I went exploring at the famous Lady Street (Nuren Jie). They have some gorgeous flower stalls, manicure and massage places, and lots of clothes shopping. The shopping was kind of like a less pushy, more expensive Silk … Continue reading

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Grave-Sweeping Day

My first year in China, Grave-Sweeping Day wasn’t an official state holiday, but this year it became a government-approved day off from work. Lee In China explains how to celebrate this holiday, (no fireworks are involved): Today is a national … Continue reading

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I work with two other Americans, Sven From Tennessee and David The Teen Idol (the students love him). We were in the teachers’ office today, enjoying the pleasures of full-speed English, when David The Teen Idol mentioned he was on … Continue reading

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World War Z

From the people who brought you non-fiction Terry Pratchett: Naturally, Stick’s now the proud owner of this copy of World War Z, which is a novel about, um, when zombies take over the world. Subscribe to Violet Eclipse by Email

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Page Not Found

I’ve been searching YouTube for a filmclip of today’s torch ceremony for the Beijing Olympics FAN! blog, but something in my search terms keeps giving me a Page Not Found. When I get the 404, it blocks anything else on … Continue reading

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Fengtai Scavenger Hunt

Sunday afternoon, Stick and I went out to find a list of fruits and vegetables for his class on food words. He was planning to bring in examples of the kids’ vocabulary words, to give the kids a break from … Continue reading

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Sven The Monkey

The real reason for YouTube’s inaccessibility doesn’t have anything to do with that place with the mountains, it’s actually due to this video of my new co-teacher Sven impersonating a monkey. Subscribe to Violet Eclipse by Email

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Happy Meal

“When we first started dating, did you ever think we’d go on a romantic date to McDonalds?” Stick asked me. We were in line at the Kan Dan Qiao 24-hour McDonalds, getting milkshakes in what is likely to become a … Continue reading

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Beijing Protests

Some of my more brilliant comments didn’t end up on the show’s podcast, so here’s what I said the first time: We already see China as an economic power, we don’t need the Olympics to show us that everything in … Continue reading

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Olympic Regrets Podcast

I’ve having trouble linking directly to the episode (seems like some parts of the BBC’s site are accessible but others are 404), but if you go to their podcasts page, you can get the March 27th episode, called “Is China … Continue reading

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