What Does it Take For a Girl to Get a Passport Around Here? Adventures in Being Canadian Abroad

What Does it Take For a Girl to Get a Passport Around Here? Adventures in Being Canadian Abroad

I’m still Canadian. I say this with a certain degree of relief because, well, until yesterday my passport had been in the hands of the Canadian Consulate in Shanghai and I was getting a very strong impression that they were on the verge of revoking 

Mapping the Amorphous City: I Attempt to Plot a Walking Tour of Shanghai

Mapping the Amorphous City: I Attempt to Plot a Walking Tour of Shanghai

  One thing I have learned from two years of writing here (and from approximately 30 years of writing in general) is that I can be factual, accurate and interesting- but never all three at the same time. Most of my university career was spent 

Amber Roshay Moved Back to the US and Wrote About it (And Also Wrote a Book That We’re Giving Away Here)

Amber Roshay Moved Back to the US and Wrote About it (And Also Wrote a Book That We’re Giving Away Here)

Some of you might remember the lovely Amber Roshay from her interview last year. She was the one whose students had prepared an awesome and very emotional surprise party for her. She’s also a very good friend of mine- one who happened to leave Shanghai and move 

Confessions of a Fauxmad: Notes on Really, Really Wanting a Home

Confessions of a Fauxmad: Notes on Really, Really Wanting a Home

In the past few decades, I’ve lived in approximately 8 cities in 6 countries on four continents. That tally doesn’t include the hundreds of hostels, sofas and floors I called home for most of my early 20s. In the past decade alone- my more settled, 

Notes on Memory and Context (and the Decontextualization of Travel)

Notes on Memory and Context (and the Decontextualization of Travel)

  I have a terrible memory. When I actually stop to think back on my life, to specific moments or sequences of time and events, I often draw a blank. Or if not a blank then a whole bunch of fuzzy blotches punctuated by non 

How Not to Travel in China During the October National Holiday

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 

Pan-Fried Goat Milk Paneer with Chilies, Garlic and Ginger

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 story. Paneer is a beautiful thing, and goat paneer has surprised me by being even 

Notes on Going Home Again

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 

Further Adventures in Chinese Baking: Chocolate Coconut Cookies

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 

Baking in China (and other improvisational activities)

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 

14 Notes on teaching English in a Chinese university, in the middle of a quiet burnout and impending unemployment

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 

Breaking Free: The Karmic Irony Edition

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