A Totally Impractical Guide to Changing Everything All At Once (Again)
October 11, 2015

A Totally Impractical Guide to Changing Everything All At Once (Again)

I should be studying right now. Four units into the first module of a master’s degree in applied linguistics, I’m painfully wrapping my head around the idea of a lexeme’s paradigm (not to be confused with a gangsta’s paradise, though I will admit that I …

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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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I’m Learning Vietnamese, Y’all: What You Really Need To Know When Learning a New Language
June 18, 2014

I’m Learning Vietnamese, Y’all: What You Really Need To Know When Learning a New Language

I’m Learning Vietnamese. I Think I’m Learning Vietnamese. I really think so.     So I’m learning another language. I’m adding Vietnamese, slowly and poorly intoned, to my slapdash mental collection of half remembered words and phrases from a dozen countries. I may have mentioned this once or …

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More Things That Are Ridiculously Easier in Your Own Language: Food!
April 7, 2014

More Things That Are Ridiculously Easier in Your Own Language: Food!

  The other day, we decided to order dinner in from a kebab shop in our neighbourhood here in Leicester. The menu was online, but it wasn’t linked to any of those nifty websites that also let you place your order and pay in advance. …

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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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What The Hell Am I Doing Here: Notes on End of Year Work Festivities in Shanghai
December 29, 2012

What The Hell Am I Doing Here: Notes on End of Year Work Festivities in Shanghai

  It’s Saturday and I’m at work. I’ve been here since, oh, 8 o’clock this morning and at the rate things are piling up, I doubt I’ll ever leave. Teaching on Saturdays is a new thing, something that was explicitly written into my contract as …

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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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Dear Language, I Guess I’m Just Not That Into You: Notes on Being the Worst Student Ever
November 12, 2012

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 ever so slightly frowny, I’m coasting on barely 3 hours of restless sleep. I thought …

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Who Needs A Comfort Zone Anyway? Building Character Abroad: The Employment Edition
October 12, 2012

Who Needs A Comfort Zone Anyway? Building Character Abroad: The Employment Edition

Back when I lived and worked in Canada, employers generally expected me to be qualified for my job. They wanted the certification from year-long+ accredited courses, plus, say five years of verifiable, solidly referenced on the job experience. This was difficult when I was 19, …

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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 …

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