Things Are Different Here, Part 1

Eggs: Eggs are sold by weight and they are sold in plastic bags, as opposed to cartons that cradle every little egg. You can buy them either in the shell or naked. There is even a hook on the back of shopping carts made to hang delicate bags full of eggs. [...]

Lights Out

Yesterday we were without electricity and running water for the whole day. Sometimes that happens in America, too. I remember once when we lived in Washington DC, I came home to find that we had no water. Here is the conversation I had with a Water Department employee:

“Do you live near 4th [...]

The Trouble with Old Wong

We are back in Jinzhou, our home for the next several months. We are starting to feel like high school seniors. The administration treats us like children, but it is okay, because in a short while, we will be gone. The rest of our colleagues have signed on for the next semester. [...]

1.3 Billion Strangers on a Train

It was worse than I could have imagined. We travelled for 16 hours on hard seats, and sometimes without any seats at all, and we lived to tell the tale.

Let me start from the beginning. When we got to the train station, Josh figured out how the lines were moving and he figured out the [...]