Leicester is For Food Nerds: A Tangentially Culinary Introduction to an Unlikely Place
August 4, 2014

Leicester is For Food Nerds: A Tangentially Culinary Introduction to an Unlikely Place

Leicester (lɛstər/ les-tər) isn’t exactly on the global culinary map. It’s barely on any map at all, except perhaps one detailing manufacturers of, say, sturdy meat pies or Indian sweets.     Rumour has it that people have traveled vast distances to get a big …

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A Totally Impractical Guide to Camping in England With a 4 Month Old Baby
July 3, 2014

A Totally Impractical Guide to Camping in England With a 4 Month Old Baby

Last weekend, we borrowed a car from our crunchy granola car-share group in Leicester and drove to somewhere in Derbyshire (pronounced, approximately, Darbəshr, in case you aren’t intuitively British*) in the cold, grey rain, for a fine weekend of family camping, frantic trail cycling (which we …

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A Totally Impractical Guide to Roughing it in the Wilds of Vancouver Island
September 6, 2013

A Totally Impractical Guide to Roughing it in the Wilds of Vancouver Island

For those of you used to my usual summer missives replete with food porn photos and freshly gleaned insights and wild tales from exotic locales such as Morocco or Sri Lanka or Myanmar or Indonesia, I fear I am letting you down. And for those …

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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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A Totally Impractical Guide to a Sudden Jaunt to Liuzhou, Guangxi
December 17, 2012

A Totally Impractical Guide to a Sudden Jaunt to Liuzhou, Guangxi

Over the past decade or two, I’ve become quite adept at rolling with the punches. Most of my jobs have called for finely tuned improvisational skills and I’ve had plenty of opportunities to hone them. The other night, I dreamed that I was told I …

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A Totally Impractical Guide to 6 Underachieving Nights in Hong Kong and Macau
October 9, 2012

A Totally Impractical Guide to 6 Underachieving Nights in Hong Kong and Macau

This is one of those times when I have, in theory, at least 4 blog posts worth of things to write about but haven’t the wherewithal to even try to shove it all into one, much less 4. Bear with me then, as I attempt …

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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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A Totally Impractical Guide to Morocco: Casablanca!
July 21, 2012

A Totally Impractical Guide to Morocco: Casablanca!

I’m not just here to give you completely useless information about China, no. Every so often, I do get out and go to other countries. Today, I’m in Morocco. Yes, just like that. I’m sneaky that way. Ladies and gents, I give you the most …

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2nd Tier City, 1st Class Hotel: A Totally Impractical Review of Hangzhou Oakwood Residence
April 2, 2012

2nd Tier City, 1st Class Hotel: A Totally Impractical Review of Hangzhou Oakwood Residence

As you may know, my Super Secret job with the linguistic CIA sends me all over China to do covert linguistic operations. If I told you more about what I do for a living, they’ll kill Noam Chomsky. We can’t have that. What I can …

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Hey Zhou: A Totally Impractical Guide to Hangzhou and Fuzhou
January 19, 2012

Hey Zhou: A Totally Impractical Guide to Hangzhou and Fuzhou

I’ve been on a bit of a ‘zhou bender in the past month, flitting around the Eastern seaboard of China with two 4-day stints in Hangzhou and one down in Fuzhou. Given this, I should be writing a top ten list of places to visit, …

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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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