My God I have a lot of photos from China. Let’s put them up!
Category: Hangzhou
[Photo Dump!] Fake Paris
Oh Dear God, More Chinese fake cities.
The story, and prophecy, of O (part 2)
(Confused? This is a continuation of a post from the 2nd of December. You can find it here.) Where we last left off, O was ripping the landlord a new one. To no effect, because soon O slammed the phone down, looked at me with fury and said “Come! We’re going to the police station.” O explained…
Getting trolled in class
If I am to be perfectly honest, I would say that my students at work fall into a perfect bell-curve when it comes to their performance and outcome. It isn’t particularly better or worse than the students I would find in other countries. As expected, most students come in, are able to do the work, don’t really…
On completing one year in Hangzhou (part 2)
(Confused? This is a continuation of last week’s post) The point that was really lost to the redditors is one about the aesthetics of the city. I guess the problem with the point I was making is that it is subtle, and most subtle things seem to be lost in reddit, where everything seems to…
On completing one year in Hangzhou
So the end of October marked the year anniversary of my moving to Hangzhou, two weeks after I moved to China. My post about China was difficult as I am still a little unclear about how I feel here. When it comes to Hangzhou, however, I have much stronger opinions. I learned that I had such…
Other people’s wedding photos
Those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t see, take wedding photos.
On being Estonian
I’m not Estonian. Not at all. Back in my DC days I would desperately try to avoid talking to getting fleeced by Greenpeace. Unfortunately, you can only stare at the ground for so long, and when you look up the guilt peddlers are there waiting, smiling their shark’s grin. The fuckers. I would attempt to get…
Crazy Aapple Land
A long time ago me and my firend decided to go see fake Venice here in Hangzhou. It was a good time, and I even did a blog post about it. But on the way there we saw a mysterious gate, and we both were completly uninterested in what was on the other side. However,…
The G20
At some point way back in middle school I did something stupid and braty (something which I can no longer recall) that managed to alienate me from anything even closely resembling a social safety net for a number of years. By the time this all had simmered down I had bloated to nearly 300 lbs…
Pet squirrel
The same day I went that I went to West Lake and the Leifang Pagoda ended rather late, and I ended up strolling through a part of downtown after sunset. There were a lot of people out, one of which was a guy with a pet squirrel. Yea, that’s right, on a leash and everything….
Two Chinas (not really)
The Chinese are not unaware of the bad reputation they have. But there is a lot of denial about it. In a class about manners students are always quick to say that it is unacceptable to spit in the streets. It often comes up with my prompting it. And of course, when I ask them…
Locus Horribilis 