Hey! Well, this is it. I’m headed out tomorrow. I’m done with a year teaching English, done with a year in Jishou, soon-to-be missing the mouth-numbing food of Xiangxi. A week ago, I was nervous. There’s an uncountable amount of things that can go wrong on a trip like this. Some days, things as simple … Continue reading The First Pedal Strokes
First, a small diversion from climatological difficulties: Some mornings, a minor leak in the u-bend of my kitchen sink would leave a trail across the floor. It didn’t matter much while the winter air stayed dry and conducive to evaporation, but then the spring humidity hit. For 4 consecutive mornings the puddle got bigger, and I finally got the nerve … Continue reading When Plumbing Fixes Don’t Go Quite as Expected, And: What if Corporations Weren’t Horrible?
Note: If you haven’t yet tried to understand the perspectives of Baltimoreans who are not white and upper-middle class, please do that. Then I’ll try to contribute to an understanding of America, Reaganomics, and Injustice, based on my reading of Gustave Speth’s America the Possible. It’s a lotta text today, but please stick with me ’cause I’ve got something … Continue reading WEEKLY POST: Reaganomics and Injustice in the Light of Baltimore
We’ve just passed the 6th week of a 16-week semester, and the ground–or should I say road?–is coming up fast. There are too many things to read, write, and study. Can I put off grading for a few hours to read these travelogues and this treatise on new economic models? Will I really find the time to study my Chinese … Continue reading The Start of Planning and the Merchants of Doubt
The training started today, on a bike four sizes to small. Continue reading First Bike Ride of Spring
I’ve been in China for almost eight months now, and I have never once seen a young, able-bodied person ask for charity. The beggars I see on the street often prostrate themselves on the street and grovel, waving their disability for everyone to see. (For more on the stigmatization and abuse of disabled people in … Continue reading WEEKLY POST–The Countryside: A Photo Journal
Chinese Definitions from Pleco Chinese-English Dictionary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengyu Continue reading On Being Lost: Part 3
Technical difficulties have forced an extra-late and extra-low-resolution version of this post, but here it is. Let me know what you think. Continue reading On Being Lost: Learning Languages
Re-entry (Or: The wonder of distance) The energetic current of passing period echoed through the rusting yellow bars of the classroom’s windows. I glanced out at students laughing in the first day of spring, unfocused thoughts tingling my brain. Was it really this easy? Alex, my American boss, told me at the end of a hurried training … Continue reading WEEKLY POST: Re-entry
I’m back in Jishou after 2 months of travel. I’m working on a longer-form essay right now, one that I’ll likely break into a few posts over a few week period. I’ve been reading a lot of smart people’s views on the future, and this essay is meant to couple a synthesis of some of the … Continue reading A Translation: Death and Family in El amor en los tiempos de cólera/Love in the time of Cholera
360 by bike 