1223 Beijing time Beijing Capital International Airport — Less than an hour until my flight. I think I might even be boarding soon! But I’m in a small cafe in the corner of the gate, which is tucked in the basement below all of the other terminals. My return to the U.S. has not begun […]
Save for some toiletries, my bags are all packed. The apartment is tidied. I have to say goodbye to everyone at the office tomorrow morning and change my yuan into dollars, then it’s off to Beijing Capital. Some friends took me out to dinner at a delicious Xinjiang restaurant, and then we went to our […]
I’m enjoying the Beijing night one last time from my balcony. I haven’t sat out here in forever, it seems, which makes me realize how long I’ve been here — long enough to undergo changes in behavior. Sitting on the balcony at night right before I went to bed was one of my favorite things […]
After coming back from our big adventure to the Hanging Monastery, we rested for a bit at our hotel. We decided we weren’t very hungry but should eat anyway around 8 p.m., so we went to the hotel next door. It had a pretty nice restaurant (we had eaten there the night before). We ordered […]
The last intern left today, so now it’s just me. Just tying all the loose ends… I finished my last article today and turned it in, so I can finally say that this internship is over. I organized all of my work files on my computer and cleaned out the random accumulation of junk on […]
According to American media ethics, good journalists will never accept gifts, money or other sorts of compensation for their work in an attempt to remain unbiased. Thus, I thought it was really qiguai (weird) when my roommate was given 100 yuan for covering a story on kids of government officials. Then a few weeks later, […]
Chris, who likes to say he’s half-Italian (because I guess he is), started craving fettuccine alfredo one day, which made me start to crave some pasta. I love pasta. It’s a good thing northern Chinese cuisine favors noodles. So one day after work, we decided to venture out across town to the nearest Annie’s, a […]
Just back from Datong. I need to go meet a friend, though, but here are a few thoughts: Datong, briefly: It’s nasty and dirty. China is, in general, but Datong is nasty and dirty in a different way. Shanxi is infamous for its coal mines, and the dust from the coal supposedly blankets the whole […]
Actually, there isn’t anything ! about Qingdao. Wait, no, there is one thing, and here it is: The one good thing about Qingdao: I found an ice cream place that serves ice cream on a waffle cone — three delicious scoops for only six kuai! And on our last night, I tried to get some […]
A couple of weekends ago (man, that was a long time ago), Chris and I took Pang Li out to eat Mexican after he helped us try to get train tickets to Dandong. I was really craving a burrito that day. Ironically, I ended up getting two tacos once we made our way out to […]