Writer. Traveler. Tea Drinker.

The paper the students use for class is very low quality. It is more akin to newsprint then actual paper and is quite see-through and rips easily. (In fact, all the students use tape as white-out. Because the paper is so cheap the tape pulls off the top layer which gives them a reasonably clean [...]

Have I said yet how nice my students are? They have just returned after a month and a half long break and many have brought us presents. Of course this being China the gifts are not what you might expect. No paperweights or apple magnets with a little cute saying. No, they come bearing Chinese [...]

We have now officially been here for six-month and it feels equal part much longer and much shorter. In a short half a year period I have taught my first semester of school ever, traveled hundreds of miles all over China and managed to feel comfortable in a culture which is completely different from my [...]

A week ago, as I was picking up a package at the international office I was told there was “good news.”
“We want to move you to a nicer apartment!”
The thing is we already have the nicest apartment so I was immediately suspicious. “We’ll talk about it later,” I said and ran back home to tell [...]

The first day we arrived at the university we now we live we woke up early and took a walk out the Big West Gate (dà xī mén in Chinese). This is what we saw:

It was a big shock that first day because it seemed so dirty and so foreign. Later, we were told that [...]

I don’t want to brag or anything, but we just found out that the students voted Ryan and I as the top 2 foreign teachers. Okay, I lied. I do want to brag.
Yes, those of you who know me too well might be wondering why I mentioned Ryan at all. You know that I’m egotistical [...]

That’s it. Classes are over, school is out. In 2 weeks we’ll be taking off for sunnier locations (western/southern China) but until then I have a lot of work to do. Namely, I have to grade finals.
The way the grades here work is that 40% of a student’s full grade is daily participation while 60% [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]