Pri-VET English world, Guangdong is suddenly very cold. I went outside today and immediately ran back up to my apartment to grab my big Wisconsin hoody. I thought it certainly must have reached a historic low... I just checked and its 67 degrees outside... What's happening to me? I should be embarrassed. My friends in Wisconsin would laugh at me. People are wearing jackets, jeans, and scarves outside. You would think it's about to snow. I mean it IS kind of windy, that doesn’t help right? Weatherman says we should be leaving this ice age by the end of the week [View Full Entry]

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Konichiwa iroppoi people! Holiday is over and I am living again on the far side of the moon. I did get to have a peak at the western world for a week and it was BEAUTIFUL. I went to Tokyo Japan for five days just to check it out and see what all the fuss is about. Well the fuss is about approximately 35 million people living the good life in the world’s largest metropolitan economy (thanks Wikipedia!). Tokyo in three adjectives.... Clean, Massive, Modern. I only saw one cockroach the entire trip... AND it was outside. The city of robots [View Full Entry]

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Hello Aliens, Sik jaw faan may? Where is that large automobile.... Anyway I am in the midst of another holiday. I have about two weeks free for Mid Autumn festival and National Day. The communists just finished tossing themselves a big party because it was their 60th birthday on October 1st. Currently there are firecrackers exploding in the street outside my window and small puffs of smoke floating by my balcony. These are not your typical American firecrackers. They are heart attack inducing, earth shaking bombs. You know those super loud fireworks they use only at professional displays i [View Full Entry]

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Aloha Earthlings, I have sat down to write this blog entry three times now. I really hope I get through it this time... I’m not sure what to write anymore. The ‘strangeness’ of my life isn’t strange anymore. I have to think about is interesting, when it used to be painfully obvious. Life as I know it involves eating pig spine, dealing with typhoons, flirting in Cantonese, and putting on long sleeve shirts in 70 degree weather (SO COLD!). Okay... that does sound weird. They tell me the seasons are changing but I don’t believe it. We have gone from really [View Full Entry]

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Greetings Comrades! The past week was one of the better of my life. I ventured out to an isolated ancient Chinese city deep in the mountains of Hunan called Fenghuang. The journey was epic. Short of writing a novel I really can't recite all the stories and experiences I encountered along the way. Hopefully a few of my pictures can capture your imagination better than this babble. The adventure began last Monday morning. My alarm laughing loudly at my daily morning rage. I showered quickly and fumbled around in the dark shoving what clean clothes I had into my backpack. Late [View Full Entry]

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Hola everyone! I've been in China nearly two months!! Didn't I just write a post about my first month in China? For that matter it seems like just last week I was serving at Peppino's in Madison, crazy. Well the last week or so has been relatively tame, no typhoons, no scary late Cretaceous spiders, and no more toliet hugging bird flu. I've had a chance to slow down (just a little) practice my chinese and continue eating things I'd rather not. I'm becoming better friends with people I work with and making some new friends as well. They are trying [View Full Entry]

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Ni Hao friendly people, I'm still alive and kicking in the PRC. Sorry about the lack of an update as of late. I had a really busy week of school and then I managed to get sick with some nasty little bug that really put me out of commission. Happy to report that I am feeling a LOT better and should be in tip top shape in no time. If I had to guess I'd say it was caused by strange hybrid mix of heat, stinky tofu, and 1000 year old eggs. I will probably never know... BUT 1000 year old [View Full Entry]

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Hello people out there, An entire month has past since I arrived in China. I really can't believe it, I feel like I got off the ferry from Hong Kong yesterday. I met a backpacker just passing through China and he kept asking all these wide eyed questions and I realize I'm becoming the experienced veteran now, very wierd. Well it is starting to sound cliche but I had a crazy week! I experienced my first Typhoon, saw a once in a lifetime eclipse, and went city hopping down to Zhuhai again. I keep getting busier and teaching is in full [View Full Entry]

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Hi America, I have been in country for three weeks now. Life is going exceedingly well. My stomach can finally handle the mysterious street vendor dumplings I can't seem to keep away from. I'm finding teaching to be quite an adventure in itself. Finally just the other day I took a quick trip to Guangzhou and met a load of europeans (good luck Eddie). I'm getting taken to less "show off the big white American" type dinners, so now I have to order my own food and pay for it too. Ordering food is a total crap shoot if you don't [View Full Entry]

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Hello friends! Life continues in China. A new week has gone past and I am settling into my new enviroment even more than before. I have been running around like crazy from place to place, maybe even more so than the first week. Also I've been trying to dig a little deeper into the culture trying new foods, attempting to speak chinese, and exploring Zhongshan. I have learned that being a new American resident in a city of 2 million Chinese and about a dozen at most Americans means getting shown off A LOT. I have had a 'showing' at dinner [View Full Entry]

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