China Expat Life

My Baby’s Bendy

Today is the 7th day of the 7th month in the lunar calendar, and as such is the Chinese Valentine’s Day (乞巧节, qi3 qiao3 jie2). There’s a couple different myths that surround the origins of the day, and I can’t be bothered to repeat them here. For me, the significance of today is that it’s …

July 31, 2006
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My Bestfriend’s Wedding

My bestfriend’s married. Wait, let me say that again… Cory Is Married! I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this marraige thing for the last few weeks but I’ve not come any closer to reaching any sort of enlightment about it. What I’ve been trying to do is understand the significance of the day …

July 24, 2006
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Waxing Candles

So it happened. I knew it would, I’m not naïve. I had, however, assumed it might come at 30 +, but nope… 29 is the magic number when you switch from candles that denote your age to the more euphemistic two or three that mark your transition to “old”. Yesterday I entered the last year …

July 18, 2006
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Dalian Is A Beautiful City

I’ve lived here in Dalian for about a year and a half and in that time I’ve heard the following line more times than I care to count: “Dalian is a clean and beautiful city.” It must have been written in the “How to Properly Promote Dalian to Foreign Visitors and Residents” pamphlet that’s handed …

July 8, 2006
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You Down With RMB?
Yeah, You Know Me

没有钱?没问题. 如果你住在中国和你是外国人, 快块不太困难获得. I’m not sure why I decided to write that in Chinese. Mostly to see if I could… and I couldn’t. I mean, the grammar is likely off and I needed to look up those last four characters. The statement is true though. For those that don’t understand (English, or Chinese)… what I …

July 5, 2006
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HoliDAY & A Ticket To Ride

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” Well, I am was officially on holidays. Michael Corleone’s words have been ringing in my head all day. Yesterday, after emptying my desk, I was sure I was done with teaching for the summer, but such was not in the cards. I’ve just …

July 4, 2006
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Kaifaqu: Well Developed

In my roughly year and a half of living in the Dalian area I know I’ve mentioned Kaifaqu 开发区 a half dozen times, but I don’t think I’ve ever done the place proper justice. I love it. It’s everything Dalian claims to be but isn’t. It’s clean(er), has more greenery and less people. It’s quaint, …

July 2, 2006
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Oh… Canada!

Hey, so it’s my nation’s birthday today. Good on it for making it to… what is it now… 139 years old. After proudly exclaiming to Maggie this morning that it’s Canada Day! (and in turn having to explain that means it’s Canada’s version of National Day), she informed me of the origins of my flag. …

July 1, 2006
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Respokenly Bespoken

I've always been rather impulsive with the things I want to say. This blog tends to be a written testament to that, as I've more than once just spouted off on something with entirely too little thought as to where I was going to go when I got into the idea that was trying to …

June 26, 2006
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‘Push Me Pull Me’ Media

Since I was a kid I have always had a pretty active interest in both the world around me and the world inside me. I would consider myself somewhat well-educated, somewhat well-read, and somewhat well-intuned with my spirituality. I’m by no means claiming to have mastered any of these to any remarkable level… just somewhat.Lately …

June 24, 2006
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Fu Jia Zhuang

After several weeks of planning to go for a walk down by the coast on our mutual day off and continually being foiled by the weather, Maggie and I got our chance to get some fresh air yesterday. Though we had intended to do a bit of a hike along Bing Hai Rd. (滨海路), from …

June 18, 2006
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666: Number of the Beast

“Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls …

June 6, 2006
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