Tag: China
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How Not to Travel in China During the October National Holiday
For about a month, our conversations went something like this: “How about Thailand? If we fly in to Phuket, we could catch a ferry to X and go diving for 3 days…” “No, no- what about the decompression time after and before the flight? I’m not keen on getting the bends. And my passport only…
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Notes on my Supposed Unemployment: The September Edition
Remember how I’ve been going on and on for months about being unemployed? How it felt weird to be so suddenly unstructured and aimless after decades of chronic employment? Yeah, well, I lied. Kind of. I am unemployed, by the day-job definition of employment. At 6am most days, there is nowhere I need to be…
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Why, No, Red-Black is Not My Natural Hair Colour: How to Try to Look Half Decent in China
I’m a rather low-maintenance kind of gal, generally. It takes me about two minutes to get ready for going to work, maybe five for going out. In Turkey, I succumbed temporarily to the subtle yet persistent societal pressure and for a while ringed my eyes with black pencil, brushed on mascara, owned three different colours…
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And Now For Something Completely Different: Impractical Shanghai Revisited
When I started this blog a year and a half ago, I really did intend to be at least vaguely useful in my writings about Shanghai. I think I mentioned one blind massage place (still excellent, by the way), a few Lanzhou la mian joints (also fabulous) and one half decent cafe. After a while,…
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A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #15: Miranda Ward of A Literal Girl
This one has been a long time coming. Today I bring you the lovely and talented Miranda Ward of A Literal Girl. Poor Miranda’s interview and photo folder lay dormant while I was off galavanting in the wilds of Sri Lanka last month, neglecting most of my (perceived and actual) internet responsibilities. It’s awkward to…
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Notes on Going Home Again
One thing I’ve learned over the past seven years of blogging is to not post when you are sick, exhausted or pissed off. If you are sick or exhausted, it inevitably comes out in a strained, rather incoherent stream. If you are pissed off, the tone is all wrong and you’re likely to offend (even…
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Further Adventures in Chinese Baking: Chocolate Coconut Cookies
I think the Plum Rains have started. This has been the driest year so far since we arrived in Shanghai in early 2009, though the low lying grimness hasn’t eased up. When I first moved here, I lived in a 4-story lane house out in the wilds of Pudong. My laundry line was a…
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A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #14: Amber Roshay- Teacher, Writer, Traveller
Welcome to the 14th edition of the expat interview series. This one is slightly different from its predecessors in that it comes from a woman who is actually a friend of mine here in Shanghai. Yes, Virginia, I actually do also exist in the physical world. I am not composed solely of ether and urls,…
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Baking in China (and other improvisational activities)
A few weeks ago, we came across a hand-me-down counter top oven on www.unclutterer.com and decided to test it. Not a toaster oven. Not a microwave oven. An oven oven. The kind that can, like, bake stuff and roast stuff and grill stuff. But I knew I was better off grilling in one of those…
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14 Notes on teaching English in a Chinese university, in the middle of a quiet burnout and impending unemployment
1. Two weeks ago I renewed my gym membership, which I had let lapse about six months ago. Sometime last Autumn, I had figured that the five flights of stairs I had to climb 8 or so times a day between classroom and office were enough to keep me going through winter, combined with…
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Breaking Free: The Karmic Irony Edition
Somewhere out there, Alanis Morrisette’s lawyer is counting the number of times today I have muttered something along the lines of, isn’t it ironic, don’t you think? Somewhat akin to rain on your wedding day, or maybe finding a dozen forks when all you need is a knife, on the eve of being filmed for…
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A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #9: Hector Lakemonster
Welcome to the 9th interview in the series. It’s been an interesting ride so far, and a good excuse for me to step back and let others take over for a while. My thought processes had been cloudy and dark for quite a while, stupidly mirroring Shanghai’s grey skies. Winter is passing though, and we’ve…