Last week I got two small, baby turtles from a street vendor. Their names have alternated from “Emeril and Dolce” to “Elmo and Remington” to “Bebop and Rocksteady” (follow the link if you are not of my generation/are Chinese) and are currently “red turtle” and “green turtle.” They are sleepy things, usually sitting [...]
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“How’s my class?” Melissa asked when I walked in. “Last week they told me that they made you mad.” I didn’t remember being upset, but the office probably remembered Nana’s whirlwind return yesterday, steaming mad and muttering invectives in Chinese under her breath. The episode ended with her curt dismissal of a [...] Even from the very beginning of our trip in Beijing over a month ago, I’ve had a distinctly different experience as an expat than the other Americans in the CTLC program. Obviously the glaring difference was that among all of us, I’m the only one who shares the skin color of the native Chinese [...] Although today was our school’s celebration of Teacher’s Day, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you so at first – my first class of the day were little terrors, making mincemeat out of my lesson plan and forcing me to raise my voice throughout most of the class. NaNa, their regular English teacher, [...] Even though today was the first day of real teaching, I didn’t start till 3:25, so without any serious obligation to wake up early I slept in. This did not work so well when the loudspeakers started blaring. An announcer’s strong voice boomed throughout the school, followed shortly by martial music. I reluctantly got [...] My love affair with taxi cabs has ended, because I think I left my wallet in one last night. Coming back from Ikea, Kami, Hunter and I jammed into a taxi cab with all our Ikea stuff (mostly Hunter’s). While juggling everything in the backseat and getting out my wallet to pay, I must have [...] It’s my lunch break and I don’t have long to type, but it’s been a few days since you heard from me and I imagine that if your names together begin with an H and a Y then you might be a bit anxious for a more substantial update – so I’ll just try to [...] I think I feel some cultural fatigue or ennui coming on. Not sure why. I did just spend the evening alone in my room tonight trying to figure out a lesson plan for an evaluation tomorrow morning, and maybe that contributed to it. I’m also kind of hungry but I don’t want to go out [...] The internet goes on and off here – the wireless connection that my roommate and I had been jacking into has been missing since noontime. Posting could be infrequent; I’ll try to continue writing on an offline blog and update in the sporadic chances I can. I was reading something today about culture shock and culture [...] I’ve been awake since 3:00 AM on August 2nd, and considering that it’s 8:30 PM August 3rd right now that makes me pretty tired. Most of the time was spent sitting on my ass in a plane, though, with ample time to think and ruminate on the implications of travel. The reality of leaving America finally [...] |
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