Fight the Power
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Impractical Shanghai
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I’ll See Myself Out: Notes on That Time I Square Danced to Chinese Punk Music in the Park
09 May 2013 3:07 PM | 4 Comments -
I’ll See Myself Out: Notes on Stuff, Self, Place and Ridiculously Sudden Life Transitions
25 April 2013 11:56 AM | 13 Comments -
I’ll See Myself Out: Notes on Being a Tired Hermit With Possibly Unrealistic Expectations
15 April 2013 12:27 PM | 17 Comments -
I’ll See Myself Out: Attempting Shanghai Nightlife (for Burnt Out Recluses)
19 March 2013 1:36 PM | 18 Comments -
It’s Beginning to Look Not Even Remotely Like Christmas: Faking Festiveness in Shanghai
25 December 2012 4:41 PM | 13 Comments -
Notes on Not Running Away Again: Dealing Sensibly With a Shanghai Winter
30 November 2012 2:25 PM | 18 Comments -
You look very terrible, Miss Mary: Unsolicited Advice for the Laowai
19 November 2012 4:44 PM | 15 Comments -
Managing Your Plague in China: Brief Notes on my Stupid Cold
15 November 2012 1:09 PM | 8 Comments -
Strangled Gasps of Creativity (or Why I’ll Probably Never Be a Published Author)
05 November 2012 10:58 AM | 28 Comments -
The Grass is Always Less Hazardous on the Other Side: I’m Cheating on China in my Head Again
29 October 2012 12:27 PM | 22 Comments
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Learning Archive
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Dear Language, I Guess I’m Just Not That Into You: Notes on Being the Worst Student Ever
I’ve got a cold and I’m cranky. With my hot, cotton-wool stuffed head expanding outward through my eye sockets and nasal cavity, and my sad little lips fever burnt and…
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Notes on working in China (the bossing-teachers-around edition)
As you may have heard, I have changed jobs. By this, I mean I am no longer unemployed. Or at least, unemployed in the technical sense. I have a day…
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Gardening in Shanghai and Other Indoor Sports
Doug said this morning that he really wouldn’t put it past me if I started raising chickens in the flat. I wondered if the neighbours would notice or care if…
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Notes on Scuba Diving in Thailand (and Elsewhere) for the Non-Amphibious
When I was about five years old I had a dream. It was one of the very few I ever remembered after waking up and is probably the only one…
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An Impractical Review of Matador U’s Writing Program
I don’t tend to write reviews. Of anything. Any attempts usually end up with me just blathering away about mops and privilege for 1500 words, accompanied by unrelated photos. However,…
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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,…
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And You May Ask Yourself, ‘How Did I Get Here?’ (Let’s Talk About Privilege, Shall We?)
About five years ago, a friend of mine in Istanbul sent me a questionnaire about privilege, which I dutifully filled out and posted on my Livejournal. I was, I…
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Pan-Fried Goat Milk Paneer with Chilies, Garlic and Ginger
Yesterday’s goat milk paneer recipe may have ended on a cliff-hanger. That final photo of the cheese cloth wrapped bundle of freshly drained cheese was only the beginning of the…
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How To Make Goat Milk Paneer (and a few meditations on place and purpose)
I’ve been back home for just over a week. The skies have been all sparkly and bright blue and the sun shines so brightly that, well, I have to…
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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…
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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…
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3 Short Scenes from the Chinese Classroom: Why I Probably Can Never Go Home Again
Scene 1. ‘Happy April Fish Day, teacher!’ My students are knee deep in plastic snack-sized dried fish wrappers. It’s April 1st. There’s a huge grocery bag three quarters full…
