After months of thinking about and planning on attending some upper crust law school, I've finally come to the conclusion: I need $50,000+ in debt like I need a hole in my head ( Read more... )

"To yield is to be preserved whole. / To be bent is to become straight. / To be empty is to be full. / To be worn out is to be renewed. / To have little is to possess. / To have plenty is to be perplexed. / Therefore the sage embraces the One / And becomes the model of the world ( Read more... )

I can’t get over how good the food is in China. Or, rather, how bad the food is in the United States ( Read more... )

Yesterday was one of those days that make me glad to live in Nanjing ( Read more... )

McKisco knew what ideas were, and as his mind grew he ws able to recognize and sort an increasing number of them - but faced by a man whom he considered "dumb," one in whom he could not feel personally superior, he jumped at the conclusion that Barban was the end product of an archaic world, and as such, worthless...Being drunk, he rashly forgot ( Read more... )

I had dinner last night with two expat friends and two Chinese at a small local restaurant. It became all too clear to me, in the course of our dinner, how much Chinese and anglo expectations about service differ ( Read more... )

A cold has been going around Nanjing, and I caught it. I try hard to be sanitary, but the chopsticks in the school dining hall are not safe to use -- you have to reach into this box to grab them. And who knows what hands have been in there before you ( Read more... )

I made the rounds last night with an expat Austrialian, hopping as the kangaroo does from one watering hole to the next. We visited two music clubs, one with a desperately out-of-tune rock band and a 25RMB cover and the other with regulars singing the Chinese equivalent of Frank Sinatra ( Read more... )

I have returned to Nanjing today 1000 RMB poorer but carrying sacks of fabric purchased at Shanghai's bizarre bazaar of silk, wool, cotton, and mildly disturbing synthetic blends ( Read more... )

Summer has finally ended in Nanjing. With daily highs hovering in the 60s, it's time to put on our jackets and enjoy the crisp fall air ( Read more... )