This is a very silly photograph of my Chinese roommate and I. She’s very very tall and very sweet. She will be graduating from PKU in July and then going to Columbia for graduate school in mathematics.

Upon re-acquaintance with the Chinese timeline, I stopped reading “Understanding China” for a moment (which has thus far proven very palpable and useful), looked up, looked around.   I crawled out of bed, sporting the scraggly/rainy day/don’t care look, and grabbed my program folder.   June 4th, the day I land in Beijing. June 4th, […]

Becoming ever truer, my “Student Note” released by the college to my hometown newspaper ran in this week’s paper. While I was grabbing some water, I noticed this puppy, freshly clipped and plunked onto the fridge. Poorly edited on my part.

A dear friend sent this to me. Relevant.

John Bryan Starr’s Understanding China: A Guide to China’s Economy, History and Political Culture

It reads: Microbrewing Beijing is undergoing a brewing revolution with a number of micro-breweries offering a welcome alternative to the ubiquitous Yangjiang and Tsiangtao beers.

My father pointed me in the direction of this great website. For those of us that need to think very hard about our experiences to come, rationalize our safety, and therefore calm ourselves down, this is a great website. Seating plans for all major airlines with lists of amenities and reviews. This is a screenshot […]

“I never know where to go on vacation/because I live in Vacationland” and/or my translation, I just don’t go on vacation (ain’t nobody got $$ for that). This is with the understanding my trip is not a vacation but a week and a half long intensive course, BUT still.