9 Things I Won’t Miss About Life in China
Given the difficulties of flying with a pet during a pandemic, I’m not sure when I will be able to leave Hefei, my home of the last year and a half. It’s no secret that China is not my favorite place. Actually, it’s the one country I knew without a doubt that I did not want to live in. Ever.…
COVID-19: Then and Now
Over the course of this pandemic I had the pleasure of being interviewed twice for the Fancy Face & Friends podcast. Our first conversation took place while I was traveling for Lunar New Year in eastern Europe. At this time, the virus was still being referred to as a novel coronavirus. Our second conversation took place after I’d returned to…
Teaching in China During COVID-19
Teaching in China this spring has been quite the experience. The semester began, as scheduled, on February 10th. Instead of physically returning to campus after the month-long Lunar New Year holiday, we started teaching online. The epidemic prevention period in China, AKA “Coronavirus Lockdown” was already a few weeks old by then. From late January until just recently, all across…
Using the Internet in China…the Frustrating Truth
If I’m honest, there are quite a few things that annoy me about living in China. The Chinese don’t understand my need for personal space. They stare at me ALL OF THE TIME. Don’t even get me started on the spitting… I could go on, but I won’t. But by far the biggest frustration has been the internet. There hasn’t…
How to Visit the Three Gorges Dam Without a Tour
Scroll down if you only care about HOW to visit the Three Gorges Dam on your own. But keep reading if you’re curious about WHY I even bothered. It is no secret that I have a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with travel within China. I don’t like crowds, something very difficult to avoid in a country of 1.3 billion people.…
Black and Living in Asia
Here’s the conversation Nicholas “Fancy Face” Harris and I had discussing our experiences living in Asia as Black people. He lives in Taiwan. I live on the mainland. Although we technically live in the same country, in a lot of ways our experiences have been vastly different. You can read more about my experiences living in mainland China below: teaching…
What Inquiring Minds Want to Know – My Life in China
During my travels this summer I was often asked about living in China. People tended to have a lot of the same questions. I figured that you might as well. So in honor of returning to China this week, here my answers to the most frequently asked questions. Why did you move to China? Short answer: A job Long answer:…
How to See Shanghai By the Seat of Your Pants
Some people are planners. Some people are pants-ers, meaning they fly by the seat of their pants. I’d say that I’m about a 40/60 split. Whether in regular life or travel, I wing it most of the time. For my recent trip to Shanghai, I totally pants-ed it. China is not my favorite place so it’s no surprise that I…
