ROACHES ( Read more... )

we get a lot of stares here, especially sue (sophmore from notre dame) and i because of our light hair (and my pale skin which, i'll have you know, is an ASSET in china), but one man on the street came up and grabbed my arm and started talking to me in chinese. this prompted the other sue (49 years old, looks/acts like 35) to make the statement ( Read more... )

i just went downstairs to visit another teacher's barbeque...as i entered the room i was bombarded by screeching college students all begging me to take pictures with them. i extracted myself from their frantic grips and made my way out to the grill, where sue was grilling things that we thought were hot dogs but turned out to be weird fish-sticks ( Read more... )

damn it's hot. i went to class at 8 this morning and all it took was for me to write a short poem on the board for my shirt to be soaked through with sweat. so right now i'm seeking refuge in the only air conditioned room in my apartment and eating dried orange stuff which i think is mango. buying food at the grocery store here is always kind of ( Read more... )

well this computer is in chinese so i can't really tell if i'm updating right now or not, but i'll just forge ahead blindly. kind of like what i've been doing for the past week! yesterday we woke up at 5 am, i repeat 5 am, to take a 9 hour busride through the chinese countryside to Zhanjiang. it was sad to say goodbye because i'd made friends ( Read more... )

last night many things happened: i learned that the proper new york term for women is "biddies", i had a long chat with a middle aged australian women and a chinese bartender, i smoked a cigarette starting from the wrong end, and i wrote my first ever drunk email. sue and i decided that we wanted to go out to the bars in stanley, the village that ( Read more... )

this will be a quick one because people keep poking their heads in and saying, "oh, sorry!" but in their minds thinking, "#$^#@ girl, why doesn't she get off the computer! i have important international business to conduct!" plus orientation starts in 15 minutes. i'm actually really excited for it, how nerdy of me. yesterday i felt like a ( Read more... )

well after two flights, a train ride and a taxi, i made it to the maryknoll house in hong kong in one piece. it's currently 6 in the morning but my body thinks it's 6 at night so i'm wide awake and hungry for dinner. sue and i got to the house last night and ate dinner with some other teachers and a priest. one of the girls, sophia, will be in ( Read more... )

alright, folks, i've finally given in and started one of these. it's facebook all over again. mostly i want to have it as an easier way of keeping in touch during my various frolics abroad ( Read more... )