Writer. Traveler. Tea Drinker.

Not only is it the end of a new year, but the end of an entire decade so I thought I’d jump on the year/decade bandwagon and reflect about my life for a moment. (Forgive the self indulgence but really this website is called beckyances.net so you should expect it by now.)
So where was [...]

When American’s want to parody what Chinese sounds like we (offensively) say “Ching chong wing wong.”
When we want to parody Swedish we say “Smorgish, borgish, upsadasee.” (a la Swedish Chef.)
When we want to parody Italian we say “Now dat’s a spicy-a meatball.” (Sorry Italian people, you can blame commercials in the early 90’s for that [...]

There are many strange and exotic things for sale at the local fruit stands. One such item was this strange thing (pictured on the right). We saw it in a number of fruit stores yet we never bought it because…well, we had no idea what it was.
The other day in class one of my students [...]

It might not be an official holiday here in China (I do have to work) but I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

At the beginning of the semester I asked my writing students to keep a weekly journal. Well, I’ve just spent the past week reading the journals. It was a lot of work (about 900 pages) but I loved reading them. I got to know some of the students much better (even the ones I am [...]

Ryan, Lynn and I went out yesterday to do some errands. I needed my bank card pin number changed (because I forgot it…duh!), Lynn wanted her boots shined, and Ryan wanted to get some decorations for Christmas. We also wanted to buy a Christmas present for the head of our department to present at our [...]

To know me is to know I love popcorn.
The first 6 years of my working life I worked in a movie theater and there are only two kinds of people that work at a movie theater; those who hate popcorn and those that love it. You can probably guess which category I fall under.
My favorite popcorn is [...]

At the end of class on friday four students stayed behind to talk to me. It is not uncommon for students to hang out for a few minutes, but it is uncommon on a friday afternoon when usually they run out the door.
After they told me they took part in a cake decorating contest last [...]

Being an avid reader in a country that doesn’t use your native language can be a problem. To get good stuff to read I either have to download it, have it shipped to me, or go to a big city and spend a bunch of money on imported books.
None of those options work well for [...]

Everything here in China is cute.
You probably think I’m making a generalization but look at the evidence, would you.
Exhibit A: Packs of tissues you have to carry around to use as toilet paper (which is not provided in bathrooms here).

Exhibit B: If you think it’s just the small pack of tissues that is cute, think [...]