Blogs from Jiangxi, China, Asia - page 3

My friend Ding arranged a rental car to take my two students and JCI graduate student Lulu to Gaoling Mountain for a morning. In the small village, Dongbu, at the mountain base we heard there is now a small museum about the special kaolin clay. Excited to do research for my kaolin article.... read more

Summer 2013. Nearly eleven weeks in China. A week visiting friends in Shenzhen/Guangzhou and then working in a Jingdezhen studio.... read more

I’m not quite sure why I’m still keeping up with this now that I update so frequently on FB, but I feel like I’ve committed to seeing this through to the end. I felt for sure April would drag by. After all, I didn’t have any big holidays to look forward to, no big plans to go anywhere and nothing to go and see. But here I am at the beginning of May planning my return ticket, my return plans and overall planning my last two months here. There’s definitely mixed emotions. I can still feel the dual feelings of wanting to stay another year (where else can I find a job that pays my rent?) and wanting to be somewhere familiar (everyone just stop looking at me!). I feel encouraged that my students don’t want ... read more

Spending China's biggest holiday alone feels quite miserable, honestly. The only tiny perk is that I get to eat "weird" things that are so "normal" to me. Nanchang food is not really "normal" to me, and I'm often craving the Korean and American cuisine that I'm so used to. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of American food either, but suddenly very normal things like butter and cheese are nowhere to be found, and making "normal" food is quite a challenge even with the McCormick's spice stash I brought from Chicago. Like mashed potatoes with butter. Or vegetable soup. My favorite thing to make would be chicken corn soup, Amish-style. But today I thought I'd try chili. Hearty chili on a cold day... a simple pleasure of life. I'm even willing to settle for ... read more

Happy New Year everyone! Ok, so Christmas and New Year's has come and gone, both in their special way. I certainly didn't spend them in a traditional way, but they also weren't spent angsting over what I couldn't do or who I couldn't see. For Christmas, I actually spent that day and the days before struggling though various blackouts of electricity and, of course, no water. Having no power sucks. Having no power when it's almost freezing out sucks even more. Thankfully on Christmas Eve I was blessed to have a wonderful party to attend which got me out of my apartment from 7pm to 1am. A friend of mine, Esmeralda, had been planning this party since the beginning of the month and it definitely showed. I had helped a little bit with decorating her apartment, ... read more