Tag: Teaching

It’s been a while, Shanghai
November 30, 2017

It’s been a while, Shanghai

  Well now. Shanghai. Yo. I’m flying in to Pudong International sometime tomorrow afternoon, after nearly four years away from China. I don’t tend to return to cities or countries I’ve lived in: It’s been nearly ten years since Istanbul and seventeen since Cape Town. …

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Notes on Resuming my TEFLtastic Educatrix Career (with Toddler in Tow)
June 25, 2015

Notes on Resuming my TEFLtastic Educatrix Career (with Toddler in Tow)

Earlier this week, I found out that this particular blog of mine had somehow made it onto the improbably mammoth and random Top 2300 Travel Blogs list, clocking in at number 18 on the Teaching English Abroad category. Aside from calling it by the wrong …

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A Totally Impractical Guide to an Out of Body Weekend in Jǐnán
March 27, 2013

A Totally Impractical Guide to an Out of Body Weekend in Jǐnán

  After a few months’ hiatus from my ongoing whirlwind Tour de Chine (the Academic Route), I’m back on the road, hopping trains like a nerdy hobo and wearing butt-shaped grooves into creaky university chairs all over this fine nation. This past weekend, I went …

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You look very terrible, Miss Mary: Unsolicited Advice for the Laowai
November 19, 2012

You look very terrible, Miss Mary: Unsolicited Advice for the Laowai

I’m still sick. Not sick like last week when I was horizontal and feverish, with my nasal cavity draining like Victoria Falls. No, this week I’m exhausted from working all weekend, sleeping terribly, and breathing in the disconcertingly opaque and smokey air all morning. According …

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A Totally Impractical Guide to an Emotionally Stunted Weekend in Hefei
September 24, 2012

A Totally Impractical Guide to an Emotionally Stunted Weekend in Hefei

The first time I went to Hefei,  the glorious provincial capital of ayi-central Anhui, about 3 or 4 years ago, I stepped off the D-train after four squishy hours onto the platform and was carried along in the swarm (because really, in China, in the train stations, it …

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A Totally Impractical Guide to an Intellectually Dirty Weekend in Nanjing
September 14, 2012

A Totally Impractical Guide to an Intellectually Dirty Weekend in Nanjing

I often (well, once every few months, which is technically often in geological terms) get emails from people asking me for advice on what to do in, say, Random Chinese City I Mentioned Once In a Post. Although I feel slightly honoured that someone actually …

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Notes on working in China (the bossing-teachers-around edition)
June 3, 2012

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 job now, and it isn’t teaching. Nope, I’m back in the director’s chair again.   …

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Saying Goodbye AGAIN: The annoying heartbreak of being a teacher that nobody warns you about*
May 28, 2012

Saying Goodbye AGAIN: The annoying heartbreak of being a teacher that nobody warns you about*

*I was going to title this post Apostrophe to the End of Term (or, Isn’t it Byronic, don’t you think?) but decided it would be way too obscure and nerdy and not even all that clever. The cleverness factor would have been bumped up several notches, however, …

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I May Have Just A Wee Bit Too Much on My Plate
May 14, 2012

I May Have Just A Wee Bit Too Much on My Plate

It’s just after 7:30am on an inexplicably cool morning. Shanghai is invisible under the fog. It’s just as well as I’m still in bed, under several layers of duvet, strong, lightly milked coffee in hand. I may or may not be staring at the wall …

18 Comments
Hello, Dalian! A Totally Impractical Guide to That City up by Korea
November 3, 2011

Hello, Dalian! A Totally Impractical Guide to That City up by Korea

And by impractical, I really mean it this time. I have absolutely no information that might be of use to you here, unless you get sent up for work at the very last minute, as I did, and need to know where you can get …

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Notes on my Supposed Unemployment: The September Edition
September 30, 2011

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, well, I lied. Kind of. I am unemployed, by the day-job definition of employment. At …

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A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #14: Amber Roshay- Teacher, Writer, Traveller
June 1, 2011

A Totally Impractical Expat Interview #14: Amber Roshay- Teacher, Writer, Traveller

Welcome to the 14th edition of the expat interview series. This one is slightly different from its predecessors in that it comes from a woman who is actually a friend of mine here in Shanghai. Yes, Virginia, I actually do also exist in the physical …

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