I'm a week away from finishing my first academic year as what can loosely be described as a university teacher in China. Someone told me that I should write some kind of retrospective/memoir, but that sounded like far too much work. I mean, I'm on holiday in a week. I've begun the wind-down and I'm feeling far too lazy for any actual writing. So, in lieu of me working, here are a few of my students' odd comments and …
Jack finished his last class and coming out the door he lit his first cigarette of the day.
At his apartment door, Jack crushed his fourth cigarette and took the fifth inside. He checked his phone messages. Then he stepped back out and lit number six and headed to McDonald's.
Although Jack loved Mcdonald's coffee, he did not much care for McDonald's itself, or KFC for that matter. 5,000 years of continuous civ…
I've been resisting the idea of doing a "goodbye China" post for awhile now, just as I resisted the idea that I was leaving China.
I remember clearly what it was like the summer before I left America. Those initial emails, the excitement, the trepidation. The realization that my options were a) go to grad school, do the same thing I'd been doing for the past four years, or b) go to China. Do something new. I circl…
Whenever I journey home for a visit, I'm certain that I push the limits of friendship and familial bonds with my constant weaseling of "in China..." into far too many conversations.
Out for dinner, I may casually mention how much cheaper dinning in China is. Walking down the street, I'll drop a remark about how clean and uncrowded it is, and how no one is j-walking or spitting. And god forbid that some well-intent…
Be sure to start at the beginning with "The 7-Year Laowai: Part 1 – Introduction", or see all posts in the series here.
A foreign affairs officer once said that to renew the contract "the teaching must be really excellent".
If they wish to sing that particular song, then I'll let them, as long as we understand something: your position here is not based on teaching ability, hiring you wasn't based on it, and th…
Be sure to start at the beginning with "The 7-Year Laowai: Part 1 – Introduction", or see all posts in the series here.
Seven years of my life are gone. Looking back, it doesn't seem that long, but I guess it was a long time. I always find myself nagged by a single, ugly feeling: that I wasted my time. That no matter what I did, I never used it wisely enough. For all the stress my rebirth in China brought, there w…
As someone who has just shown up in Japan by way of China, this China via Japan series over on Going Loco in Yokohama is pretty fascinating to me.
China via Japan Pt 1
China via Japan Pt 2
China via Japan Pt 3
It looks like there might be more installments of this series coming up, so stay tuned.…
Should any Beijing Laowai have a free schedule tomorrow and wish to support a fellow foreigner in his bid to show a national TV audience that he's got some guanxi too, while also helping raise awareness for a charity that secures micro loans for poor rural women, please read the following from American expat, Henry Winter:
I am competing in a national TV reality show called "Win In China" [site in Chinese] - it's a …
Return to Top ▲
Tom
Travis
Ryan
Rick