Tag Archives: chinese
Orient-ation
Nate James’ Orient-ation is a new China expat blog. He’s heavy on descriptions of daily Chinese life (as he gets, uh, oriented), like this one: The waitress comes out with the plate, steaming hot, mouth-watering. Your nose picks up the … Continue reading
Priorities
Some of Stick’s students will be receiving their red scarves in a Children’s Day ceremony next week. I believe they’re called honglinjin (or is it honglinjian? Not entirely sure). You see them on Chinese schoolchildren all the time. These red … Continue reading
Take Care Knock Heads
In Beijing, it’s hard to get away from the Olympic improvements. I think the changes are somewhere between using the good china for company, and completely reinventing your wardrobe, habits and personality to attract some guy from history class. (Not … Continue reading
My English Name Is Voldemort
Thanks to Sven (who does not foster age-inappropriate crushes) for the title. I asked one of my classes to write about their Chinese names. What’s your Chinese name? Who choose your name? What does it mean? Are you named after … Continue reading
Twelve Kwai Of Trouble
Stick and I went back to our possible hutong home, mostly to see if we could find it on our own. We were successful, and I fell even more in love with the neighborhood. The area is Brick Factory Road, … Continue reading
Undiscovered Powers
Basic Chinese is my new superpower. I’ve been making a lot of progress with vocab and the hellish tones, and I’m starting to feel like Matt Parkman on Heroes, magically given the ability to hear what people around me are … Continue reading
Demolition
I like this street next to my school because it’s a very active street of small shops, raised up a few steps from the street, the way I imagine a medieval town would have been. Unfortunately, the road functions like … Continue reading
Office Adventures
In the office the other day… Sven: I’m off to class to have mad fun with our apathetic teenagers! Carol: Good job! Did you learn that word from David? Sven: What? Meg: He said “mad fun” not “ma fan“. (Chinese … Continue reading
Yanjing
My specs had a tragic accident today. After Sven helped me out at school with a superglue temporary fix, I went to the specs store to get new ones. We get Stick’s contact lens solution at a little glasses shop … Continue reading
Politics In The Market
Although I’m still mourning my old veggie market, I’ve found a nice new place down the street. I miss chatting with my patient veggie lady, but this new shop is pretty good. The produce is fresh, the shop’s clean, the … Continue reading
