China Expat Life

Close To Home

I tend to read a lot of news about China, and as anyone that reads any amount of news must feel, I tend to become desensitized to it all. China news, like news the world over, tends to focus on the negative, the crime, the corruption, the crazy… Because of this self-censorship, I breeze past …

May 6, 2007
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Back From Dalian

Well, I’ve returned from the savage lands north east of the wall, and despite my inlaws doing their very best to stuff me to the point of explosion, I survived. I’m going to say this once, to be clear about things… NEVER TAKE THE FUCKING BUS IN CHINA. As I mentioned post-previously (c’mon, that’s kinda …

May 5, 2007
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Returning To Dalian

I’ll likely be offline for the next few days, as later this afternoon I’m packing myself into a sleeper bus for the 15-hour journey from Suzhou to Dalian. Though I’m always quite keen to go back up to my old stomping grounds in 东北, and Maggie’s thrilled to see her father for the first time …

April 28, 2007
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No Sham, All Rock: Shamrock Open Mic

Right, so as I mention last post, Suzhou finally has a venue for any wannabe musicians to come out and get heard. I “opened” the Shamrock Open Mic Night last night and it was a modest success. With no advertising, I fully expected to be the only one going up to play – something I …

April 24, 2007
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Open Mic Night In Suzhou

The masochist in me has long been craving the sick-nervous feeling I get when I play in front of an audience. Despite playing for years, I’ve only minimal talent. This, however, doesn’t curb my interest in belting out a few tunes any chance I get. Just before coming to China I was living in the …

April 22, 2007
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Put Down The Chalk & Pick Up The Language

My road through the Chinese language has been a bumpy one full of roundabouts and dead-ends. In the more than two years I’ve been here I’ve not had any formal Chinese education, and I’ve really no excuse for it. I’m often praised and then quickly chastised by Chinese co-workers on my level of Chinese. When …

April 22, 2007
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Bring On The Easter

It took until my third Easter in China, but I’ve finally celebrated the holiday with some amount of pomp and circumstance. Sadly there were no chocolate eggs, but I did manage to pull together a sampling of some of the Easter food Maggie might experience had we been in Canada. We managed turkey (though it …

April 8, 2007
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Road To Wedlock VIII: Thai’d The Knot Pt. 2

… continued from Part 1 Where were we? Right… Koh Chang – or rather, the journey there. I’ve travelled most the various forms of mass transit in Thailand, and when possible I’ve avoided the VIP tour bus solutions. I’m not entirely sure why, maybe because I heard packs were commonly rummaged through in the luggage …

April 7, 2007
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Road To Wedlock VIII: Thai’d The Knot Pt. 1

It’s been over a month since we returned from our honeymoon in Thailand, but I’ve only just found the time (or rather the patience) to wade through the hundreds of photos I took and pick out the ones to put online (and to print for our little honeymoon photo album). So, without further adieu，here is …

April 7, 2007
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I’m Not Kid Friendly

I often relay to people the story of my flight over to China back in January of 2005. I had travelled quite a bit at home and abroad, but had never set foot in the Middle Kingdom. My total combined knowledge of China at that point was a rough hash of info compiled from reading …

April 4, 2007
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