Author admin
A ROOM WITH A KITCHEN
A ROOM WITH A KITCHEN (AND A BATHROOM!) September 2005 On Wednesday we moved out of our little apartment with a view to our grand new apartment. One of my adult students, Charlie, had been determined to help us ever since he heard we were going to move. We quite gladly accepted his offer which …
meet dalian
“Mom and Dad, meet Dalian.” September 2005 For the past week, my parents have been staying with us here in Dalian. They arrived at the Dalian airport on Sunday evening. I had invited one of my adult Chinese students, Charlie, to accompany me to the airport since Zac had to work. Charlie was thrilled, and …
6 months down..7 to go
6 months down…7 to go August 2005 We’ve been living our life of chalk and chopsticks for six months now. Our first semester at school is complete, and this week we finished up the exams, passed back their reports, played some games and said farewell to the kids we spent 2 hours with every week …
WINTER SNOW
FIRST SNOW OF WINTER December 3, 2005 Winter fluttered onto Dalian last night. This morning, we woke up to about 2 inches of snow and 28 degrees Fahrenheit. As we trudged along the slippery sidewalks to school, it reminded us of the day nine months ago when we first arrived in Dalian and it was …
NEW YEAR EVE
NEW YEAR’S EVE BARBEQUE December 2005 On the last day of 2005, we celebrated another year gone by with two of our good Chinese friends. We planned to go to a Korean restaurant, make cookie dough, throw firecrackers out the window, and watch a pirated Batman Begins DVD. We felt it was a suitably eclectic …
MOON CAKES September 2005
MOON CAKES September 2005 Today is the Mid-Autumn moon festival. Although the festival technically celebrates the end of the summer harvest, the coming together of family, and the worship of the immortal woman on the moon, the festivities are manifested mostly through the consumption of bean-paste filled moon cakes. For the past few weeks, shops …
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
A TALE OF TWO CITIES August 2005 For a while, I had been grumbling about how teaching ESL was, for the most part, quite intellectually boring. Few people major in English for a love of grammar, and I was no exception. I dreamed of teaching Shakespeare in a U.S. high school; I remembered teaching Chinua …
REVENGE OF THE BEAN PASTE
REVENGE OF THE BEAN PASTE June 2005 The closest I ever came to culture shock in China was the first time I went to the supermarket. Or, I should specify, the animal section of the supermarket. There are pig trotters, chicken feet, all sorts of internal guts and sacks, knuckles, heads, legs, wings…and those are …
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 …
Typhoon Matsa
TYPHOON MATSA August 2005 It had been rainy in Dalian for several days, and on Monday morning, there was a torrential downpour. By Monday afternoon, our school cancelled classes for the rest of the day and Tuesday because Typhoon Matsa was supposed to reach the northeastern coast of China. But seemingly from the time school …