Tiffany Butrum

Tiffany Journeys East




Ni hao!



Travel Blog Posts


In Memorium

Published: January 16th 2013Asia » China » Guangdong
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Tiffany Journeys East
January 17th 2013

Your heart, everyday, poured out into my life raced through every room curled into every corner and set my world alight with the joy of knowing you. I will love you always. t... read more



新年快乐!

Published: January 3rd 2013Asia » China » Guangdong » Shenzhen
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Tiffany Journeys East
January 3rd 2013

Happy New Year, everyone! My New Year’s Eve was spent working, but I did spend New Year’s Day with friends. Yesterday my coworkers and I had a team building exercise. In China, it's important to foster friendships with one's coworkers, so several times throughout the year a company will release a small budget for the employees to get together and do something fun. Our 'team building exercise' included a stop at a, well, I don't know what to call it. It's a place where you can reserve a table to play board games. In the city, apartments are too tiny for large groups to hang out so most people do everything 'out.' This particular place was a converted apartment. We had what had formerly been a bedroom fitted out with a table and chairs. The employee ... read more



So this is Christmas...

Published: December 24th 2012Asia » China » Guangdong » Shenzhen
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Tiffany Journeys East
December 24th 2012

Last Saturday was my company’s Christmas party, though not in the sense you might think. It was a party for the students at which the teachers and staff were the entertainment. About a week ago I was asked to choose a song to sing at the party. I told them I’d sing White Christmas. It’s short and easy to sing. They informed me that a young student who played the piano would accompany me. A few days later I was told that the boy didn’t have time to learn a new song and that I’d be singing ‘Silent Night’. He already knew that song. Friday, the day before the party, he and his overbearing mother brought in a keyboard so that we could practice. As soon as he begun to play I knew I was in ... read more



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Tiffany Journeys East
December 19th 2012

Well, where to start? I returned to the U.S. in 2010 to find a lagging economy that just didn't have room for me. Fortunately for me, my parents did. It was an eventful couple of years. Loved ones were added (two friends gave birth to two baby girls) and others were taken away (my grandmother, a family friend, and two of our canine companions). There were surgeries, long recoveries, and an even longer bathroom renovation. And the story of how I finally got my Z visa could fill a book but I won't waste time with it here. It was with mixed feelings that I bid farewell to my family yet again and boarded a plane bound for China. My reintegration into Shenzhen hasn't gone as smoothly as I would have liked. I'm working in Nanshan, ... read more



The King of Fruit

Published: August 21st 2010Asia » China » Guangdong » Shenzhen
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Tiffany Journeys East
August 21st 2010

Well, I've been living in China for two years now, a venture that will end in two weeks, and I had yet to try the oh-so-pungent King of Fruit: Durian. I'll admit, I was being a chicken about it. Last week, while at morning tea, some Chinese friends convinced me to try a durian pastry. It was odd, but not disgusting. I felt very proud of myself. But then my friend told me that the durian in the pastry had been mixed with sugar, flour, and other fruit and that fresh durian was much different. I felt obligated to try it before I leave for the States. For those of you unfamiliar with durian, here is a little bit of info: "Widely known and revered in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits", the durian is ... read more



Vientiane

Published: August 16th 2010Asia » Laos » West » Vientiane
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Tiffany Journeys East
August 16th 2010

Tuesday, 02/02/10 We got up very early to have breakfast then returned to the hostel to wait for our van. There was a tiny black puppy living at the hostel named Tommy and we had fun playing with him while we waited. The people in Laos really seem to love their dogs. In Shenzhen, dogs are either food or a status symbol. Our van arrived on time and it was a bumpy, hot, yet mercifully short three hours to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. It was so oppressively hot in the city that we thought longingly of the cool breezes in Luang Prabang as we lumbered up and down the streets with our packs looking for the hostel we had found in a book. We couldn’t find it. And although we had the address no one ... read more



It was worth a try, I suppose...

Published: August 12th 2010Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng
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Tiffany Journeys East
August 12th 2010

Monday, 02/01/10 The plan for this day: Get up at 8:30am. Have breakfast then rent bikes and cycle to Poukhem Cave before the hot part of the day. What really happened: We got up at 8:30am but didn’t leave the guesthouse until 9:30am. It was already really hot outside. We went to Z bar again for breakfast (and to look at the cute waiters) then walked over to the bike rental place across the street. Neither of us had our passports on us or the US$200 for a deposit required if no passport was present so we trudged back to the hostel around 11am. We were so full of muesli and eggs that we laid down and crashed for a couple of hours. We went back out, rented the bikes, and set out. I still wasn’t ... read more



On to Vang Vieng

Published: August 12th 2010Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng
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Tiffany Journeys East
August 12th 2010

And now for a long overdue completion of blog entries for my winter break trip to Laos. I still haven’t gotten that stupid disposable camera developed, so there won’t be any water pictures. But I suppose there’s no guarantee that any of those pictures are any good. So here we go… Saturday, 01/30/10 It was time to get on the road again. We got up early and ate at the cleverly named Craters which was decorated with bomb shells and various other weapons. Then we boarded a van for Vang Vieng. This van wasn’t as plush as the last, but Kim managed to snap up the coveted front seat and I jumped into the very back. It was slightly better than the completely restless trip from Luang Prabang to Phonsovan, but it was still very uncomfortable. ... read more



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Tiffany Journeys East
July 27th 2010

My time in China is almost at an end. Soon I will be leaving for the States (September 8th, everybody!) and leaving behind many friends and warm memories of a strange country. Most of my 外国的 friends have gone home either for the summer or permanently. If I do go out, it’s with my 中国的 friends, but none of us have much free time. I’ve been working about 60 hours per week, so I haven’t had much time for any fun. I don’t have many amusing stories for my blog, but I’ll do my best. One of my favorite students this year has been Amy, a nine year old girl with an upper-intermediate level of English. She’s a quirky energetic child. When I first started teaching her I couldn’t figure out what she liked. She didn’t ... read more



Bye Bye Kim!

Published: July 3rd 2010Asia » China » Guangdong » Shenzhen

As the end of June approached, Kim prepared to go home. Her sister, Lisa came to spend a month with her, first working then traveling. For the past year it was our tradition to have dinner every Sunday night. Before Kim and Lisa left for their trip we decided to have one last tadoo at one of our regular haunts, the Doublestar Café and we capped it off with a trip two floors down to Coldstone Creamery. Last Wednesday Kim and Lisa departed for the U.S. Now, if I see a hilarious chinglish t-shirt or experience a particularly frustrating ‘china’ moment, I can’t just send her a quick text. We both arrived in August of 2008 and we both returned in June of 2009. Then we returned to China within a week of each other a ... read more






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