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Flying home reminds me of the moment I saw Colette looking stress at my supremely late plane.

We planned our joint trip to become teachers in China, throughout the process realizing that while we hadn’t seen each other in almost 2 years, we’d see each other quite a lot. So, we planned our flights to meet in Minneapolis to have someone to talk to as we crossed the Pacific ocean into specifically China. However, my connecting flight from Philadelphia arrived in Metropolitan Minneapolis at the last minute buzzer for boarding. Everyone on my plane connecting with me (there were about 8 ) was frantically looking at their watches hoping that we’d hold our next flight from taking off. As we got out of the gate, there were 2 oversized golf carts ready to drive us to freedom (or the next gate).

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Found in , china, stories 2 Comments »

Xian zai, wo bu shi waiguoren. Wo guo hui jia. Wo hen gao xin yingwei wo hen wo mama he baba, dan shi wo ye hen xiang zhong guo. Shenme shihou wo hui qu zhong guo? Wo bu zhi dao. Wo yao hui zhong guo. Zai jian zhong guo.

Now, I’m not a foreigner. I went back home. I am very happy because I really missed my mom and dad, but I really miss China, too. When will I go back to China? I don’t know. I want to return to China. See you soon, China.

Found in , china 1 Comment »

I haven’t written about a good Chinese idiom in a long while, not because I stopped learning, but instead, I have just not been learning idioms. I have been building my vocabulary to impress the Americans at home. Today, however, I am able to present you with a beautiful one.

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Found in , china, words 2 Comments »

When China isn’t polluting or putting torches on buses, they like to get down and dirty on some athletic competitions. Ping Pong’s name likely comes from the Chinese name, ping pang qiu, which is ping pong ball in english. This continues the trend of sports having qiu in the name of sports (lanqiu is basket ball, etc). Here it is played like it is much more than the family sport I have come to see it as.

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Found in , china, entertainment 6 Comments »

UPDATE: I have received my tickets or confirmation of E-tickets. There were more steps, but I don’t feel like documenting them. But, I am glad to know that it is over and I will never purchase anything from Elong again.

As many of you know, I am leaving Wuhan and China in just a few weeks to come back to Sunny Philadelphia. What you don’t know is what a pain it has been to get a ticket home.

Part 1 of the problem came when it came to my attention that my boss had no idea when school was ending or when we could actually leave. After some confusion and arriving upon maybe June 5, we were told that the 25th is the first day we could go.
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Found in , china, stories 6 Comments »

I am glad to welcome a guest post from my friend Sarah, who recently spent a lot of time in Wuhan visiting me. Please show your appreciation for her work and look for her to start her own blog of hilariously awkward situations.

We are in Wuhan, where Lee has been living and teaching english for the year. The kids in class laugh at how tall I am and our names have changed from “Sarah and Katy” to “Carol and Sadie”, though I might have been “Shirley” today.

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Found in , china, guest 3 Comments »

After the earthquake, rounds of donations were taken from all different groups of people I know; school, coffee shops, probably even bars. The next logical step was to put 3 foreigners on a ridiculous TV show, so the international opinion could be on Wuhan TV 7.

Three days before filming, one of the actors from the show came to our school to discuss the program with us, Avril and one of the principals. He said that we would be brought up to the stage and each asked 1 question, which he then asked to gauge our reaction. I was told to come up with a suitable slogan that sounded good in English and Chinese to promote the community coming together and being strong.

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Found in , china, entertainment 4 Comments »

Saturday, May 31, the Olympic torch was to pass through the city I live in, Wuhan en route to Beijing. Earlier in the week, while with my sister, I thought I would skip out on this event due to the crazy amount of people that would definitely be in attendance. But as it got closer, I realized the significance of the event and when Linda asked me to attend, I knew I should.

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Found in , china, entertainment 4 Comments »