It seems as if they more my students become aware of western culture, the weirder their english names are. When I started the weirdest names were like, “Cookies” and “Chanley” but now I’m getting so many odd names that make those look positively white bread. Here are some of the Read more…
It’s impossible to believe, but I am beginning my tenth year in China. It also means it’s my tenth year as a teacher making it the longest job I’ve ever held. Despite that, I almost never think of myself as a teacher. When someone asks me “what do you do?” Read more…
When you travel in a city for more than a day it is almost always worth getting a local subway card. They are usually nominal in price and they make traveling around so much more convenient. The simple fact you don’t have to stand in line at the ticket machine Read more…
How funny it is writing this blog. So many thing I write one time and expect them to just kind of fade into the vault. But life isn’t like that and one of my former blog posts is rising from the dead to teach me a new lesson. Three years Read more…
If you are like me and planning a trip to Paris in August you might feel pretty dejected. The constant advice you will hear from source after source is DO NOT GO to Paris in August. There are two reasons for that: Hot and too many tourists The city shuts Read more…
OMG y’all I’m a vlogger! That’s right, I thought it was time to take Badminton Becky to the next level and start a vlog. After all, sports is very much a visual thing and while I love, love, love writing, some things have been harder to express without visual help. Read more…
Unless your still using dial-up internet in the backwoods of Montana, you must have heard about the new movie Crazy Rich Asian. Based on the book by Singapore-American Kevin Kwan, it is the first all Asian cast in 25 years and is a big step for diversity in Hollywood. By Read more…
So I’m back from my 2+ week holiday in Paris where I wandered the streets, sat in cafes, ate as much bread, cheese and meat as a human possibly can (and cakes and ice cream) and even saw a few friends. Basically, my summer traveling was a total success. As Read more…
Thanks to my super amazing job, I have 11 (paid) weeks of holiday this summer. Most of it I spent here, in Xiamen, as I organized and finished a badminton training camp for foreigners. (You can read a blog post–and watch a video–about it over here.) But I haven’t had Read more…
I’m still not totally used to living in a tropical climate. I’m used to seeing flowers in winter and melting in the summer I’m still surprised every year when I see tropical fruit growing on the street. Xiamen has mango trees everywhere, and this time of year the fruit is Read more…