20 Ways to Have Fun in Beijing

on October 14, 2011
Friday means it’s time to plan some fun stuff for the weekend. Of course, we hope to see you at Aizai tomorrow, but for the rest of the weekend  and for weekends to come, I wanted to share my go-to list of fun things you can do in Beijing.  (Those who attended the seminar last [...]

How Expats Survive in Beijing (part II)

on February 18, 2011
I liked Kara’s post about these questions so much that i stole them and decided to answer them myself for this week. So here goes: 1. Is it easy to live in Beijing? Why or why not? I find it pretty easy to live in Beijing. I’m completely mobile, I have enough Chinese to get [...]

How Expats Survive in Beijing

on February 15, 2011
Late last week, my daily reading of random articles about China brought me to this article. Beijing Today interviewed different people about their experiences in China as expats, and as I read, I found myself comparing my experiences with theirs and wondering what you, dear readers, would answer.  So I’ll answer the questions for myself, [...]

Unstuck

on December 15, 2010
As Kara and I get ready to go back to the States for Christmas, I’ve been thinking about re-entry and about how much has changed in the last year. One of the most difficult aspects of living overseas is being away from friends and family. We all miss being able to just hang out with [...]

11 Signs that You’re Beyond Culture Shock

on September 17, 2010
It’s a fabulous idea to write down your thoughts every once in a while when learning to live in a new country.  That way, you’ll find little gems when going through old notebooks, as I did recently to find a list I had titled “How do you know you’ve adjusted?” Here are some of my [...]

Expat or Tourist?

on August 6, 2010
There is a ridiculous arrogance that we expats tend to develop. You know what I’m talking about: the arrogance that makes you scoff at the excited tourists in line for the same tourist attraction as you. Their amazement is silly, immature, totally uncool. My arrogance was exposed this week in Hong Kong, though I too [...]

Expat Legend: Getting a Kitten

on August 2, 2010
Sometimes you hear a story that is just too good to keep quiet about, and in China the truth is often stranger than fiction. We call these stories Expat Legends. They are a bit like urban legends because they usually happened to a friend of a friend and maybe aren’t 100% verifiable, but they ring [...]

Getting Your Chinese Driver’s License, Part 1

on July 12, 2010
Update: If you are looking to drive in China, I’ve put together an ebook called The Definitive Guide to Getting Your Chinese Driver’s License. This guide is a step-by-step walk through of the whole process and it is based upon my personal experience getting my driver’s license in Beijing in the summer of 2010. Click [...]

Thoughts on Returning to Beijing

on July 6, 2010
As our plane descended toward the PEK airport last night, after spending the weekend in Singapore, I had the strange feeling of coming home. It’s strange because I usually expect “coming home” to refer to landing at MSP. The other day, Kara realized that whenever she talked about her friends, she was referring to people [...]

Clap On (*clap, *clap)…

on June 28, 2010
Living overseas has it’s consequences. It’s natural for human beings to adapt to their surroundings. I know from experience that China changes you. The only thing is, you don’t realize those changes until you find yourself in awkward situation caused by some quirk you picked up while you were away. When you return to your [...]
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