Lao Shi

China is about seven weeks behind me and I’m back in Brooklyn, sifting through notes from students, looking at photographs, trying to organize all the bits and pieces and memories I’ve brought with me and finally be home. I have neglected this task for some time, in part because emotions still linger, in part because […]

My last day in China a colleague said to me: “I haven’t gotten a chance to read your blog yet, but I’ve heard you have a problem with Christians.”
Is that what comes across here, that I have a problem with Christians?
I don’t have a problem with Christians per se, and I stick by this. […]

Because I have a compulsion for completeness I need to disclose an act of self-censorship on this journal:
Several weeks ago I removed a post from January 3rd in which I mocked a colleague’s blog, a first grade teacher who wrote in December that she was happy her students knew that the true meaning of Christmas […]

Shanghai’s Old City district represents the second part of what John Edwards would call the “two Chinas” – a poor, un-modernized and un-Westernized neighborhood just off the heart of the glittering skyscrapers and shopping areas of downtown Puxi, and bordering the tourist attraction of Yu Yuan Garden.
Here, life takes to the streets, as most of […]

This past week my resignation officially became public news at the school.
In typical school fashion, my students heard the news through rumor and gossip before I officially announced it to them. I sent an email to members of the administration venting my frustration at this, as I found it distressing for students to learn […]

I wrote a short piece for the online magazine Gen Art Pulse about quality places to go and hang-out in Shanghai that are not overly touristy. If anyone reading this blog plans on visiting Shanghai, which you should, because, despite my frequent venting about the frustrations of living in China, Shanghai is an amazing city, […]

Oftentimes cabs around the LQ refuse to pick up Westerners.
Specifically around rush hour, when the cabs race from the Zhang Jiang Subway Station to the Living Quarters and back again, they only like to take Chinese passengers. I’ve never been denied a ride across the river in downtown Puxi, where Western tourists and ex-pats are […]

An article in today’s NY Times on Guangzhou (capital of Guangdong Province in Southern China) reported on how the increase in the city’s wealth has brought with it a rise in crime, in particular from gangs on motorbikes. To fight the crime wave the city government has instituted a ban on motorbikes and motorcycles that […]

As I write, my bathroom is in a state of utter disruption.
On Monday I received a call from Living Quarters HQ telling me workmen would need access to my apartment today (Wednesday) in order to make some repairs in the bathroom. Apparently my pipes are leaking through the ceiling of the apartment below. Didn’t seem […]

Thanksgiving Church sits on “the river,” which is actually a canal, along which runs a paved path that is my favorite place to visit in the walkable vicinity. A four lane road runs alongside the canal, so it’s not particularly quiet, and construction sites border it on all sides, so it’s not very beautiful, unless […]