圣诞快乐! 2006-12-24 ...Means Merry Christmas! In Pinyin it’s written Shengdan kuaile, pronouncing the es as short “uh” sounds. It’s fine weather for it: about 20C (70° F?)...
Murse 2006-12-20 Evidence that I am gradually becoming a different person: I have started to carry a murse. Or a man-purse, if you prefer.I’ve taken to hauling...
Foreigners 2006-12-19 Lately it seems foreigners are everywhere in Xiamen. We’ve only been here four (five?) months; how is it possible we missed all these foreigners already?Maybe...
Weather Report 2006-12-18 Cool and clear, mid-50s F, windy. Pollution levels are near zero, especially after the heavy rains last week. Altogether it feels very much like a...
我们没有煤气 2006-12-16 One of our British friends generated an algorithm for determining the time to complete any given task in China:“Imagine the longest possible time you think...
“You’re the First Foreigner I Ever Met” 2006-12-14 This past weekend, while walking Bismarck through Huweishan Park, I met my first Chinese person who was meeting her first foreigner. Other expatriates had similar...
What’s to Like 2006-12-05 Learning the language Discovering that the Chinese name for most James Bond movies uses the phrase “Brave Escape” The food, duh Take-no-prisoners kitchen appliances, like...
Like Oregon, But Not 2006-12-04 Hey Transplants to the Pacific Northwest! Remember your first winter in [Oregon | Washington | British Columbia | SE Alaska]? Remember how, after about 60...
Unremitting 2006-12-03 Was it only three weeks ago that Jenny twisted her ankle? Because today she went for her second run since the accident. My wife could...
Kindergarten 2006-11-29 For various wha-acky! reasons I’m tending the XIS kindergarten for an hour a day. This is actually a really easy gig: I'm basically babysitting. The...
Black as Midnight on a Moonless Night 2006-11-26 Jenny’s mom is visiting from Oregon for about 10 days...and while the highlight of her visit is the, y’sknow, visiting, part, we’re sorely glad for...
Laid Low 2006-11-18 The health ish just keep piling up here in Phoenix Villa. Friday at about 10:30 a.m. I began to feel achey/chilley/sore all over in a...
中山医院 2006-11-13 Minutes out of the shower yesterday our house phone rang. Jenny and Bismarck were out for an early morning jog, and I was a little...
Welcome Back 2006-11-11 I’m given to understand culture shock comes in stages. I don’t know what those stages are and I’m kind of loathe to find out. But...
Unexpectedly Homesick 2006-10-29 Jenny was out of town this weekend for a swim meet in Beijing. (She coaches the XIS HS swim team, such as it is. And...
Dust and Construction 2006-10-23 Life is slow and frustrating in Xiamen lately. Warm and dusty. I’ve about had it with nothing working right, shoddy design, and everyone basically being...
Home 2006-10-14 We’ve been back in Xiamen for a week now. This set me to thinking about my own peculiar notions of what constitutes “home.”First (and this...
Don in Tha House 2006-10-09 Jenny’s dad was in town for the weekend. He arrived about two hours after we got in from Singapore, so we just waited at the...
Back in Xiamen 2006-10-07 Jenny and I returned to Xiamen yesterday on remarkably uneventful flights. The meal they served (at 9am) was actually (gee I hate to say it)...
Singapore Insomnia 2006-10-06 So I was lying awake in Singapore, thinking about a post-to-be-created that ran something along the lines of “why the summer of 1988 was so...
Malaysia Dispatch 2006-10-04 We're back in Singapore after a couple of days in Malaysia, specifically Tioman Island. I have only the vaguest sense of where Tioman Island is...
Sentosa Island, Original Sin, Night Safari 2006-10-01 A lazy day yesterday but also, perhaps, the most touristy. I slept late and in the afternoon Vicky took me (and Nima) to Sentosa Island,...
Black and White 2006-10-01 We are staying in Singapore with Jenny’s friend Vicky (and her dog Nima), who grew up here, in a family typical for this environment: her...
Singapore Dispatch 2006-09-30 Singapore is the anti-Xiamen. Leaving China necessitated two forms, two passport reviews (and stamps) four lines, and more than an hour of waiting and paperwork....
Damn that last post was long 2006-09-24 Wasn’t it?Today was just like that, except last night we were up all night crazy itching because of mosquitos. I foolishly left the windows open...
Typical 2006-09-22 I think I’m entering the phase of culture shock where daily life has become mundane. It is no longer surprising or fun to ride with...
East-West (东西) 2006-09-16 The Chinese name for House (the TV show with Hugh Laurie) is “Hooligan Doctor” (流氓医生, Liumang Yisheng). Alias is “Double-Faced Spy Woman” (双面女间谍, Shuangmian Nujiandie).A...
Good and Bad 2006-09-11 Good Bad Slightly sweet popcorn Slightly sweet beer Owners of small dogs Small dogs Old guys doing inexplicable Chinese exercises like walking backwards uphill while...
Weather Report 2006-09-11 The heat finally broke this weekend, but the humidity didn’t. Taiwan helpfully dispersed a typhoon, but Xiamen has been receiving a steady dose of light...
Doggy Play Date 2006-09-09 Yesterday we met with Megan, the former ESL teacher at XIS, and two of her friends at a beach south of the university. (We had...
I Can’t Believe it’s Been a Month Since I’ve... 2006-09-07 driven a car eaten a burrito bought a book listened to a radio ridden a bicycle drank a draft beer seen my family read a...
Clothes Shopping 2006-09-04 I’ve been clothes shopping lately, trying to fill my wardrobe with school-appropriate clothes. Before we left Portland I thought myself to be “about the size...
Rain; School; Intestines 2006-08-24 I'm delivering this post from a cybercafe, so apologies for the brevity. We've had two days of rain and the weather has cooled pretty substantially....
I’m Surprised by Many Aspects of Xiamen 2006-08-12 The smell of XiamenI was completely unprepared for the novelty of odors in Xiamen. I knew it might smell "bad" or "strange" but couldn't have...
Arrival: Xiamen♥ 2006-08-09 After about 25 hours of transit we are finally in Xiamen. Flights were all smooth, after a delayed departure from Portland. The delay actually worked...
T-Minus 48h 2006-08-05 48 hours until the plane departs...and we're having to cancel last-minute goodbye breakfasts with old friends because every hour is now accounted for. Problems have...
Empty Rooms 2006-08-01 After unloading the majority of our possessions in Ellen's garage in Bend, we returned to clean the apartment. Apartment cleaning usually inspires bittersweet feelings (nostalgia...
Last Call For... 2006-07-27 Fuego Burritos Arcadia Beach Terwilliger Drive Grand Central scones Balloon sculptures shaped like Cookie Monster Black Butte Porter All my family less than an hour's...
Ditch Digging 2006-07-27 In late 1998, I had a vision about energy. This was at my last archaeology job, in Southern California. I was "monitoring" a large construction...
(Financial) Success, As Portrayed in Movies 2006-07-12 The audience knows the female lead is a Successful Person because she works in a busy, brightly-lit office in the cool part of town. The...
Is It Wrong That I Actually Like... 2006-07-11 old apples when they get dry and wrinkly? watching Jaws over and over and over again? leftovers (especially pizza!) that sit out on the counter...
Stuff 2006-07-06 We are literally hip deep in the process of deleting all our stuff in preparation for the move to Xiamen. The office is hardest hit:...
Thoughts on watching Drugstore Cowboy and its “Making-Of” featurette on DVD 2006-06-28 Portland probably changed more in the 17 years between 1989 and 2006 than in the 18 years between 1971 and 1989. You couldn't film a...
The Meditative Properties of Commuting♥ 2006-06-16 I rode the bus in today early. I get a lot of thinking done on the bus, but it's languid, unfocused thinking. Conscious dreaming, but...
Anchor Babies 2006-06-15 So the Washington State Republican Party declared its hostility to the 14th Amendment. They have gripes with the part that reads "All persons born or...
Story Problems 2006-06-14 “Basically I took the client's email with all the requirements and turned it into a workflow diagram. It was like doing a story problem. That's...
Decades 2006-05-17 About twenty years ago, my family took a vacation to the Pacific Northwest. This was the first time I had ever seen the ocean (age...
FREE BEER 2006-04-25 ...or rather, free ice cream. Today was "free ice cream" day at Ben and Jerry's, apparently a phenom of some sort. [sidebar: the local Ben...
Born in the Twilight 2006-04-05 Today's Salon features an interview with William Easterly, who criticizes U.S. foreign aid as stuck in a top-down model that hasn't worked since the 1960s....
Wires and Code 2006-03-29 I love when a site unexpectedly shows me a little bit of code. I found this one on wired.com, of all places, in an article...
Innovation 2006-03-19 In 1934, a swim coach at the University of Iowa speculated that breaststroke swimmers could gain a significant time advantage by bringing their arms and...
Reading about bicycles is like... 2006-03-12 ...swimming about thirst...thinking about dreaming...baking about penguins...dancing about airplanes...sitting about jumping
Barbers ≠ Surgeons 2006-03-06 Once upon a time, barbers were surgeons. This offends modern sensibilities but there’s a logic at work here: after all, they use approximately the same...
The Better Airline Ticketing System™ 2006-03-06 Why can’t we book airline flights the same way we route TCP/IP packets? An airplane ticket is kind of like a guarantee. You tell the...
Being Unable to Sleep 2006-03-05 Awakened at 3:40 am by a dream about frustration...once I’m awake I tend not to fall asleep again. Luckily it’s Friday and I’ll be spared...
