I live in a place with bars on the windows. In this terrible, ugly concrete building with exposed, rusty, smelly pipes. The ongoing battle is staving off the stench of the burping pipes- stale, dirty water. Opening the windows helps. It’s warm in Anyang, even at the end of October the temperature still climbs to [...]
Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category
Bars on My Windows
Posted in China, Musings, tagged anyang, China, living, pollution on October 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Blueberry and Mango
Posted in China, Musings, tagged China, chips, food, pizza on October 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The honeymoon is over, China. It lasted quite a while- over two weeks of new sights, new sounds, new smells. Two weeks of gorging myself on rice and steamed vegetables and instant coffee and peach juice before trudging down the gray dust-coat, crowded street to buy the fresh vegetables lost its exciting flair. I’ve been [...]
Chinese Spicy Goodness
Posted in China, Musings, Travel, tagged China, cuisine, dining, food, spicy on October 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I’m happy that I can honestly answer my students “yes” when they ask me (multiple times) if I like Chinese food. It’s delicious and not at all like the shit American Chinese food you get at places like King Buffet. They must dummy it down for our bland taste buds. Turkey, stuffing, corn, apple pie… [...]
I Am Super Teacher!
Posted in China, Musings, tagged China, College, ESL, teaching, University on October 8, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Due to a flaw in the Chinese education system, students are taught to read and write English at a young age, but no time is spent on speaking the language. Enter the Foreign Teachers Brigade of Anyang Normal University! Their are five of us, besides Chris and myself there is a girl from The Philippines, [...]
No, I Don’t Mind Walking Down the Hall with an Open Cup of Urine
Posted in Adventures, China, Musings, Travel, tagged China, Foreign Expert Certificate, hospital, Visa on October 6, 2008 | 1 Comment »
“5:17 AM. 72 degrees. Time to get your asses out of bed so you can get your Foreign Expert Certificates!” the loud, robot-woman voice announced. 5:17. What a terrible time to be alive. Chris, myself, and one of the other new foreign teachers had a 2+ hour drive to the capital of the Henan province, [...]
The Epic Tale of Zhŭ
Posted in China, Musings, tagged characters, China, Chinese language on October 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Chris, being the good nerd that he is, has decided to learn the Chinese characters. We’ve already gotten ourselves a tutor to help speak the language, but learning to read it is much different. See, to my very western mind, learning to speak and read another language go hand in hand. As you learn to [...]
Bon Voyage
Posted in China, Musings, Travel, tagged China, Travel on September 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »
“It just occurred to me that this is you’re last 24 hours in a free country. Oh my god!” My mother was very surprised at that realization.
And it still hasn’t quite hit me that in a little over 12 hours, Chris and I will be boarding a plane to China. I don’t know quite what to [...]
World’s Largest Cheeto
Posted in Musings, tagged Algona, cheeto, world's largest chee-to on September 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday I saw some friend’s of my mother that I hadn’t seen in several years. At least four if not longer. And they used to baby-sit me, which made it weird for me in a way. In these sorts of situations, I’m not sure how to behave, considering just a visit to my parent’s house [...]
Ni Hao, Kai-Lan!
Posted in China, Musings, tagged cartoons, Chinese, Kai-Lan, Ni Hao, nick jr., nickelodean on September 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Chinese lessons for me have taken a new turn. The past few days I found myself awake by 10 AM so I rewarded myself with a bit of TV. The 10 AM slot was new to me so I consulted the TV Guide channel and to my happy surprise, Ni Hao, Kai-Lan was [...]
Build-a-Pig
Posted in Musings, tagged genetically modified foods, Hyper Games, pigs, pork, This American Life on September 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
So I made it back to Minnesota all safe and sound. And I was never so happy to see the crappy mattress on the floor that serves as my bed at my parent’s house. After one week straight of interrupted, fitful sleep, that familiar mattress in my familiar room where I had the sweet sound [...]
