Tag Archives: travel

Why Travel In China Is Like Being the Protagonist In A Fantasy Novel

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 … Continue reading

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Cheddar, edam, brie, gouda

When I’m traveling, I tend to blindly assume everything’s going to come out all right. There won’t be mice in this bathroom! Of course we’ll get off this island! Sure this is the right bus! But traveling with Zorro is … Continue reading

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Communist Credit Cards

Wal-Mart is launching a new credit card in China. This is especially interesting because China seems to really be a cash economy. According to the Wall Street Journal’s article, less than 5% of Chinese consumers have credit cards. Most people … Continue reading

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罗马, 意大利

I mailed a letter to Stick yesterday. The clerk took a look at the envelope, on which I’d slowly and painfully copied out ??, ??? onto the envelope. If speaking faster and mumbling more is the key to spoken Chinese, … Continue reading

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Best Asian Diarist

I was nominated as Best Asian Diarist on the Asia Blog Awards! It’s awesome to see that people are reading and liking my blog and it’s not just Stick hitting refresh to inflate my counter and make me happy. I … Continue reading

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Lost On Liu Gong Island

Yesterday, Dave and I set out for Dalian… which turned into Weihai when we found that the ferry times had changed. I wanted to see Weihai to find out what I gave up for my new school. Just kidding, guys! … Continue reading

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Travel In China

Tonight I had my adult students. Now, I don’t really like teaching adults because they have all the idiosyncrasies of my middle school students (refusal to speak above a whisper, inability to separate “L” and “R” but an insistence that … Continue reading

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Airport Goodbyes

After our awesome Beijing adventures, we sent Jeff home. Did you catch that? I said we, because Fresca has extended her trip for another two weeks as she tries to decide whether and when to teach here! Jeff and I … Continue reading

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My friends are here! / Step 2 of 10,000

This morning as I was drinking coffee and watching Travel In Chinese on CCTV9, a sleepy Jeff came into the living room. “I’m up, I’m up.” He said. “You don’t have to set off fireworks to wake me.” I turned … Continue reading

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Chinese Food

I can’t even begin to describe my culture shock! There’s a market near my new home in Yantai full of stands selling fruit, noodles, vegetables, breads, dumplings, seafood and any other kind of food you can imagine. For a few … Continue reading

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