My First Chinese New Year

The fireworks have stopped. All but one of my favorite noodle shops has reopened. The old man barber down the street has started to cut people’s hair again. I got a letter in the mail that was sent over two months ago. The new teaching semester at school has begun. Is the New Year celebration […]

Chinese Caption Contest #453

“Global warming: destroying penguins’ earth-shaped umbrellas for centuries…” What do YOU think it means?

The Beijing – Tianjin Bullet Train

Remind me to tell you this awesome train story from Italy some day! It involves 20 teenagers, 20+ American-sized luggages, a closed train bathroom, and a 6 hour train ride. Actually, don’t remind me of that. Never ever remind me of that. Feel free to remind me of the bullet train I took from Tianjin […]

Chinese Food 101: Basic Ingredients

“Never eat Chinese food in Oklahoma.” – Bryan Miller Agreed. I would add Wisconsin to that statement as well. To get the best, most authentic Chinese food, you need to know what you’re looking for. If you’re not from China and you’ve never been to China or Chinatown you might lack this ability, but not […]

Chinese Caption Contest #449

What the crap is this!? I know it doesn’t have any Chinese characters to help try to figure it out, but I still can’t even imagine… This is all I came up with: “Santa’s New Pet of Choice” or “The Big C Gov’t has finally banned reindeers” What do YOU think it’s for?

My Favorite Songs, Albums, and Live Shows from 2009

If you couldn’t tell, I love music. And I’ve only come to really love it in the past few years… way too late in the game, I tell you. In my opinion, appreciating and enjoying music is an art that can help you in numerous ways. For example – music increases brain function. It relieves […]

And then it was Christmas…

It’s Christmas night, and there I sat… in my apartment, by myself, watching The Muppets Christmas Carol. I had worked all day (teaching about Christmas to Chinese kids), went to a grand dinner with a Chinese friend (more on that later), and had a nice long Skype conversation with my family back home (who was […]

My Job in China, Explained

Well, I can definitely answer the question “What’s your job going to be like?” better now than I was able to a few months ago. Honestly, it’s not all it was cracked up to be. Don’t get me wrong, it got me to China and I’m surviving just fine. It’s just… that it’s still a […]

Chinese Food 101: Basic Cooking Utensils

The honorable and upright man keeps well away from both the slaughterhouse and the kitchen. And he allows no knives on his table. – Confucius Disregarding Confucius’ advice on keeping well away from the kitchen, I decided to chronicle my cooking adventures here in China with an ongoing series of blog posts on Chinese food. […]