Writer. Traveler. Tea Drinker.

One year ago today I was getting off a plane in Shanghai to begin my Chinese adventure. One year ago I was waking up only an hour after I fell asleep, feverish and confused in my surroundings due to extreme jetlag. One year ago today I was walking into stores and marveling at all the [...]

The bulk of my time has been spent teaching students and yet I haven’t really talked much about it. The semester is just about over and all in all, I feel like it has been an huge success and I am looking forward to teaching another year. In fact, the last week has been quite [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

One of the many classes I’m teaching is writing. What is great about writing with non-native English speakers is they don’t know the tired clichés and common word usage we are all so familiar with. Instead, they put together words in new and exciting ways which aren’t exactly correct, yet they are not exactly wrong [...]

Teacher Day. It sounds like another “Hallmark” holiday. In America, I think they do have a teacher’s day in which you are probably suppose to buy a card and give your teacher a shiny red apple. But here in China it is serious business. Teacher’s Day is practically a national holiday with the government and [...]