Tag: Shanghai
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Do As I Say, Not As I Do: On Learning Chinese/ Teaching English
I’ve been told I’m a good teacher. I’ve been teaching English for nearly a decade now and know how to nurture a reluctant super-low beginner out of their speechless shell and into proud conversations in English. I’ve taught study skills using write synonym sheets and audio files, so many times that I could teach a…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Summer Nights
Shanghai summers are deeply unpleasant. Temperatures tend to hover in the mid 30s, with weather forecasts adding ‘feels like 45+’ just below the technically correct temperature. Humidity has been around 85% lately, which, really, honestly, is pretty freaking awful. We have the dehumidifier running nearly non stop in the living room because if we…
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On Language Burnout After a few too Many Countries
It’s a funny thing starting an expat/travel blog sixteen years after you started travelling/living elsewhere and failed to do anything else with your adult life except, well, travel and be an expat. For one, you’re not as freshly enthusiastic as those who are venturing out on their first big trip or landing in their first…
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(101 Things about Shanghai) Work/Learn/Chocolate
Things have been somewhat unsettled here on the Eastern Front since getting back from Myanmar. Aside from the unnervingly deafening death rattle of the cicadas everywhere above you in the trees, the heat has been hovering in the late 30s with a bazillion percent humidity. We bought one of the top 5 small dehumidifiers,…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Fake Books
One of the things about living in faraway lands that can be frustrating for a nerd like me is the frequently limited access to English books. In Turkey, they were quite pricey but I bought them anyway. A girl has needs, you see. I had to leave 75% of them behind when I left (there…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Sidewalk? You want to walk on the sidewalk? Whoaaaa!
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Fast Food for Sino Taste Buds
One of the things I’ve noticed in my years of living elsewhere, is that multinational fast food places seem to try really hard to court their local markets by attempting to mould their products into something vaguely resembling the local tastes. I remember seeing a Mc Turco in Turkey, which was some sort of…
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Compare and Contrast
I’ve been stupidly busy this week, between finishing up my year’s marking (done!), trying to find brand new, unmarked, unfolded American dollars for our trip to Myanmar on Friday (the junta is fussy about money and they don’t have ATM machines or take credit cards anywhere), and trying to assemble a first aid kit in…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Plum Rains
Last night around 10, my immune system decided it felt like inviting a cold around for a visit. Just as I was readying myself for what ought to have been a full night’s sleep, my nose went awry and my eyeballs hummed. This alone would have been fine, except that when I finally dozed off…
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What I Do
I haven’t spoken much about my job here. I have another site for that; if you want to subject yourself to much rending of garments and gnashing of teeth you can go there for the finer details. On a much broader level, I thought I’d introduce you to what I do. There is a widely…
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I’m #8! I’m #8! I’m #8!
In China, anyway. Andrew at Go Overseas.com has just sent me a purty li’l badge for me to attach to the lapels of this site. If only I could figure out the code for lapels. If someone could tell me how to permalink this thing (somewhere other than just my writing page where I gave…
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Boxha Cafe in the rain
In the interest of creating mental escape routes for the rainy season, I’m starting a new category exclusively for cafes in Shanghai to duck into out of the rain. Since I’m off til mid-September (mostly- I do have exams and papers to mark this week) and don’t want to become completely house-bound, bed-ridden and 500…