If there is such a place as furniture heaven, I was there yesterday.  In my effort to explore this vast country, and more specifically, the region I live in, I accepted an invitation to go to Jiuzhou (pronounced Joo-high).  This place is known for it’s cheap, antique Chinese furniture.  Well someone there got the memo ‘cause it ain’t so cheap but we did manage to find some relatively good deals. As I’ve said before, I have zero sense of direction, but luckily I have a compass on my iPhone which I actually used a lot yesterday. However, I soon realized…

If you hadn’t noticed, I write about Hong Kong a lot in my posts.  For me, Hong Kong is so vibrant and alive; you can just feel the energy. At the same time, it has this other, beautiful nature side that includes beaches and hiking.  Now where I live is nice.  But it’s like comparing Manhattan to Hoboken.  There is a joke that goes something like this: Why are New Yorkers always depressed?  Because the light at the end of the tunnel is New Jersey. I might be a tad dramatic, but you get the idea. Well, things changed for…

It was so humid walking home from school today and the air was so thick that it was like walking through butter. And it has just begun.

All of my clothes are purchased with Hong Kong in mind…  I am hopeless.

The weather here is starting to get steamy.  It gets ridiculously hot and humid here and on top of it, sometimes it rains.  I might have mentioned this before, but a funny thing happens in the streets of Shekou during this time.  Because of the sticky weather, the men pull up their shirts halfway and walk around like this.  Now, look, I am not one to judge – okay, even I had to laugh at that one – but as far as different cultures, I usually just try to go with it.  It’s a when in Rome type thing.  However,…

Being an upper grade teacher usually involves field trips.  For me, it’s akin to going to the gym.  I don’t like the preparation, but once I am there, I am usually glad I went. This was the case for my most recent overnight field trip on Lantau Island. As a rule, I try not to talk about my job too much.  It seems that some teachers tend to talk about their classrooms just a bit too much for my taste.  I mean, as a teacher I don’t usually want to hear about it; I can’t imagine how boring it must…

English translation: You love your cell phone. What’s surprising to me is that the Chinese language isn’t that difficult.  The grammar is actually very straightforward.  For instance, if I am going to Hong Kong tomorrow the structure is ‘I tomorrow go to Hong Kong’ – subject, time, place, verb, object.  I am simplifying it, but that’s the gist. For me though, there is one aspect that makes it very challenging: Pronunciation.  Sure, some of the words seem similar -natian, jian, tian- but take for instance the word ‘nali’. Depending on how you say it, it means two different things. One…

There are two Chinese men in my apartment and one is half-dressed… it’s not as scandalous as it sounds, unfortunately.  They are the workers I hired to paint my place.  And you probably thought things were just getting interesting for me over here! I have been sticking close to home lately, just working and hanging out with friends.  It’s been an introspective time for me personally.  I am really looking forward to coming home this summer.  I literally can’t wait to hug my nephews and have my mom make me a sandwich.  I do love my mom.  Oh!  And head…

I am finally starting to feel like myself again as I slowly recover from last week’s bout of China Blues, and as such, I have made a series of decisions that have been both good and bad.  I will start with a bad one. Country Strong.  Okay, I have a game that I call Punch.  Essentially, you get a pass to punch five people in the world that annoy, irritate, grate on you… you get the point.  Now, you actually don’t get to physically touch this person.  That would be assault.  However, the idea is that you could approach this…

“With enough courage you can do without a reputation.” That is one of my favorite lines from ‘Gone with the Wind’ and it doesn’t hurt that Rhett Butler delivered it. I thought about that line when I was thinking of chopping off my locks.  For anyone that knows me well, I am pretty vain about my hair.  I get it done regularly; it’s the one thing a person wears every day.  So why not take good care of it?  Kind of like your teeth in that sense. Speaking of teeth, I had the most ridiculous toothache of my life this…