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CRIMES
CRIMES April 2005 Wednesdays are bad days for me, because not only do I have my psycho-kindergarten classes, but I also have my C12 class. This class has only four people who spend most of the time talking to each other in Chinese. Seven weeks ago, on the first day of class, they had …
FORBIDDEN SPEECH July 2005
FORBIDDEN SPEECH July 2005 During one lesson in my adult class, we were discussing the mafia, and I joked how it was the IRS who finally brought down Al Capone. I explained how the mafia was so powerful that they could intimidate witnesses, so even although everyone knew Capone was a criminal, they could not …
CHERRIES
CHERRIES June 2005 It’s cherry season in Dalian now. Everywhere we look, the fruit sellers’ boxes are overflowing with the tart red fruit. Because our street is lined with fruit sellers, the passage of our time is marked in the seasons of fruit. When we first arrived, it was strawberries and pineapples, there was a …
Panama City
Panama: Panama City Panama CityWe arrived at our hotel in Panama City around 9 pm and met Shanu there. Please do not picture the Holiday Inn. Hotel, on our budget, means a spartan room with beds and a bathroom. The mattresses are thin, the sheets are ragged, the floors are tiled, and the other furniture …
ROOM WITH A VIEW
A ROOM WITH A VIEW March 2005 On our second day in Dalian, the people from the school picked us up to take us to our apartment. Our apartment is on the third floor of a six-story building, which is situated on a terraced hill. There are 61 steps from the street up to …
THE CAR IS ON THE SIDEWALK
THE CAR IS ON THE SIDEWALK November 2005 Hello Everyone, So Sera and I have been in Dalian now for eight months and we have adapted pretty well to our temporary life here. China is much different from the States, but of course that’s largely a good thing for us. I privately rejoice whenever I …
The bus to Shangri-La
THE BUS TO SHANGRI-LA February 2006 For the last couple of months, I’ve been tutoring a little Japanese girl named Marin. She lives with her parents in the Shangri-La Residences, adjacent to the ritzy Shangri-La Hotel. Marin’s father is working in China for a few years, so Marin attends 4th grade at the Canadian international …
BEIJING
BEIJING October 2005 WELCOME TO BEIJING, Population 15 millionWe arrived in Beijing at daybreak on National Day. We would be staying in Beijing for six nights and planned to see all the attractions that self respecting tourists should see. My parents and Zac and I had left Dalian around 8:30 the night before and spent …
Dalian Coast
DALIAN’S COASTAL AREAS
FISH FACTORY
FISH FILLET FACTORY FUN February 2006 One of the things I knew about China before I came here was that it had lots of factories. “Outsourcing” was often the scapegoat for unemployment in America, and China, with its vast supply of cheap labor, was inevitably mentioned as one of the culprits. I had imagined China …