Lao Shi

On any given evening the Ling Dian salon is a bustling hive of grooming: hair is washed, nails are painted and body parts vigorously rubbed. The salon employs an army of workers; walking to and from school I see them hovering around the door or slumping in barber chairs waiting for customers, like a Chinese […]

A few weeks ago I celebrated my birthday, and though I was down at first (see thoughts on homesickness…), the day ended on a happy note.
I had been debating for a few days whether to even tell anyone it was going to be my birthday. I felt self-conscious advertising it, as if I was asking […]

I would like to take a moment to remember Sven Nykvist, who died several days ago at the age of 83.
Nykvist was most famous as director Ingmar Bergman’s cinematographer, though he worked with many directors over his prodigious career. Images of his films are seared into my memory, and I did the best […]

Last night I had the opportunity to try some local specialties at an upscale restaurant in the Xujahui district (neighborhood) in Southern Shanghai.
Historically Xujahui (pronounced Shoo-Jah-Hway) was a Jesuit community, and there are several Christian sites in the district, including a Cathedral. If I passed by one of these sites I didn’t notice it, […]

I miss having a gi-normous kitchen stocked with familiar equipment and a willing culinary partner to cook with and for, but I have been doing my best in this rinky-dink kitchen with crappy Ikea pots and pans. I love Chinese food, but eating out all the time drives me bonkers and usually leads to an […]

Look: I dressed up as a pirate to kick off my students reading Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island!  I told the kids that I was “Capt’n Bob,” their substitute teacher, and taught the class in character.  I put on a special pirate voice, which killed my throat and really cut down on student participation (I […]

Last week brought chilly, damp weather, an internet outage and a birthday, all of which left me feeling especially dislocated from home.
In the beginning, pangs of homesickness came on suddenly, and seemed mostly related to self-doubt and anxiety. I questioned my decision to uproot and move here, worried about making friends, felt lonely and distant […]

The Heathens went out to hear jazz last night in Pudong.  The space wasn’t ideal for music listening, as the stage was actually in the center of the bar, so there was a low din of drink mixing and ordering throughout the set.  The music was more of an ambient back-drop to what otherwise would […]

Usually when people call me and speak Mandarin I say over and over again, “I can’t understand you,” in English.  I say it slower and slower, hoping that they’ll get it, but usually they seem confused, I become frustrated and then one of us hangs up.  So I was quite proud of myself when, alone […]

I am starting to learn Mandarin! A colleague in the Chinese track at my school introduced me to a language partner last week, a young woman named Amy, who does not use English in her day-to-day job, but would like to become a tour guide, and wants to improve her spoken and written English. Amy […]