The Tourist Will Illuminate My Intention

Right now the computer we are using puts a lot of web pages into Chinese characters. For the most part you can tell what you're supposed to do, especially with websites your familiar with, but every once in a while you need a translation. This reminded me of a really stupid game that was popular about five years ago, which involved translating a block of text into a foreign language, then

Language Barriers

One thing I can say about Wuhan: it's not the sort of place that immediately charms you. Not the scenery, not the people-- no, not even the food, which is the city's biggest selling point. Wuhan is known as "real China," and if that's the case I can't say I really understand the people who have come here to teach for a few months and now, years later, are getting married, settling down, and

So Maybe I Was Wrong

My last post can be completely disregarded. Contrary to what I thought (ie that a bunch of 13 and 14 year olds would really hate their stupid English teacher), it turns out these kids love foreigners (I assume they love foreigners and not just me). All I have to do to get them to pay attention is walk to the front of the room, then they sit up straight and shut up. And when I say they love me/

I Hate Me

So, since I never leave things to the last minute I am currently preparing a lesson plan for my first middle school class. Actually, I am preparing a lesson plan for my first EIGHT middle school classes, since I have four today and four tomorrow, and they are all doing the exact same thing. That means eight identical one-hour sessions over two days, with fourteen-year-olds, aka the worst age on

When All You Know About A Person Is His Moldy Underwear, It's Hard to Make A Good First Impression

We've almost got the apartment clean-- just the bathrooms and kitchen need to be done. The entire saga will be documented more fully later, but needless to say it has been a grueling and disgusting task, involving piles of dirt, moldy underwear, and unusable closets. During this time, we've developed a strong sense of dislike for the person who left the place such a mess. After all, we had to

The New Fish

So last night we went out to a little get-to-know-you thing with some of the other teachers here. There's Susan, the Australian woman who came here via Nepal, Brad and Jean, a couple from Alabama and the Philippines respectively, and Dan, yet another teacher from the Philippines. There are actually more teachers here from the Philippines than anywhere else-- so far I've met two, and two more who

Candied Corn

So we ate the chocolate popcorn, and it was actually pretty good, although it looked disgusting.



One of my students also gave me some candy, and it had a corn candy in it. When I say corn candy I mean it was candy shaped like a cob of corn, and-- it actually tasted just like corn on the cob. Steamed. We had tried corn on the cob here, and it was quite gross (tasted old), but apparently the

The Transformation Has Begun....

This morning I held an umbrella under one arm, a plastic glass of soy bean milk under the other, and walked across a street busier than the intersection by Overwaitea at rush hour, pausing between cars, without batting an eyelid. Oh, and did I mention I was using chopsticks to eat a breakfast of spiced noodles at the same time?

I kick ass.

Strange food update

We've found where the jerky is kept, and I look forward to getting the squid jerky (Mitch directed me to this stuff way back in grade eleven, and since then I've extolled the virtues of squid jerky without actually ever having it again, so I hope it's as good as I remember. But in the meantime, here's some more strange food we've come across.....


Potato chips... how about potato cookies?


I

Chinese news is much better

Sure you might not get the full story on everything or hugely diverging opinions. But you also get stuff like this

It's a good thing they never lie

North Korea has said that they're going to abandon their nuclear program. It's the dying wish of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il's father. Which you'd think would be pretty cool, except for Kim Il Sung DIED IN 1994. Which means that since then North Korea has started a nuclear program two to three times depending on who you ask, getting further every time until joint sanctions from the United States,

If cell phones cause brain cancer, then no one needs to worry about the Avian flu

Some of you may be familiar with the book "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," which is, in my opinion, probably the most insightful book on the nature of society that has ever been written. There is one section that talks about the "Shoe Event Horizon," which is an economic theory that essentially states that when people are depressed they look down, see their shoes, and to cheer themselves up

Chinese New Year Never Ends

So, I kind of assumed that by March people would be a little tired of Chinese New Year and maybe the fireworks would stop. After all, last night was the 28th and they went CRAZY-- it looked like a war was going on outside our apartment. But here it is, March first, and they're still going at it, albeit not as strongly. It turns out that fireworks have been banned here for the last seven years. So

Chinese Delights

Food in China: Not Chinese Food

For quite a long time I've been told about how the Chinese food you get in Canada is nothing like the Chinese food you get in China. This is only partly true, because so far the Chinese food I've gotten here is the same as in Canada in that it is primarily noodles and rice, and it is greasy. That being said, it's pretty good.

The first few meals we had here were