>

Tue - January 11, 2005

Books and planes

Posted at 10:02 PM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Cigarette case=camera case

Posted at 04:55 PM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Mon - January 10, 2005

Coming of Age Day

Posted at 12:58 AM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Sat - December 18, 2004

Johnnie's coming

Posted at 08:14 PM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Mon - November 22, 2004

Seoul-PC signs

Posted at 03:22 AM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Sun - November 21, 2004

Seoul-Coffee shops aplenty

Posted at 02:33 AM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Thu - November 18, 2004

Seoul-Motel Couple

Posted at 12:38 AM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Tue - November 16, 2004

Off to Seoul

Posted at 12:54 PM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Fri - June 4, 2004

It's all over

It seems I have all but disappeared from the face of the earth for the last month or so, but it's all for a good cause. Because today I have officially completed my TEFL training here in Haimen City, and by this time tomorrow, I will be in Shanghai for a much needed week-long vacation.

Posted at 06:35 AM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Mon - May 17, 2004

Haimen week 2

The peace and tranquility I experienced the first few days abruptly ended by the end of the week. The students were back from vacation, and classes started on the weekend to make up for the holiday they took during the week, and life for me would never be the same.

Posted at 08:12 AM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Sun - May 16, 2004

Crazy Haimen Internet

The internet access here in Haimen City is sporadic at best. I have a DSL connection in my room, but the speed is relatively slow, at about 200 Kbps. That compares to the 6 Mbs I get at home, and everything suddenly moves at glacial speed. All my QuickTime and RealOne videos streams weren't coming through, so I had to adjust the players' setting down to 128Kb for streams to play properly. But the speed really isn't much of an issue, I'm getting by just fine with what I have.

Posted at 12:19 PM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Sat - May 15, 2004

The fat lady across the street

In my last entry, I talked of how things here are inexpensive, because there are no tourists. One exception is the laundry shop directly across from our school.

Posted at 07:08 PM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Fri - May 14, 2004

Haimen City week 1

I'm staying in the dormitory wing of the Dong Zhou Middle School, an elite school in Haimen City. I and the other foreign teachers stay on the ground floor, while the upper floors are for students who are here for boarding school. I was told it costs the parents around 20,000 yuan a year to put their kids here, not a small amount by China, or even by many other countries standards.

Posted at 07:01 PM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Sun - May 9, 2004

to Haimen City

Last time, I said Haimen City is a Yantze River across from Shanghai. It sounded close at the time, but it's really not, as I had to learn the hard way.

Posted at 01:30 AM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Mon - April 26, 2004

You just never know

All this time I've been planning a trip to Tokyo and Seoul, or a revisit to Europe, I had never once thought about going to China. I mean, is China even considered a vacation for someone from Hong Kong?

Well, the answer is a "yes" and a "no." Because later in the week, I'll be going to China--for 5 weeks! So the "yes" is because I'll be going during my vacation, and the "no" is because I'm not going there for vacation. Confused? Read on.

Posted at 08:12 PM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Mon - January 12, 2004

Off again

Posted at 03:39 AM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Fri - November 28, 2003

Pajama party

What you're about to see may disturb you: Normal, healthy people, young and old, parading the streets in nothing but their pajamas. That's exactly what we saw when Johnnie and I went to Shanghai in September.

It started out by accident. We sat in the Starbucks at Yuyuan sipping mocha while looking out the window. When suddenly, a man in pajamas and slippers passed by us. It totally caught us by surprise; alas, Johnnie couldn't get his camera out fast enough to take a snapshot before the man disappeared into the crowd.

Posted at 09:44 PM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Wed - November 26, 2003

Airplane chills

On the first plane home, the folks at Korean Air decided to show an instructional video on relaxation. I was reading my book at the time, so I paid no attention. Suddenly, I felt the fat Japanese man next to me wavering in his seat. I took a look at him and saw he wasn't the only one doing it.

Posted at 04:01 AM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Thu - September 18, 2003

Incheon revisited

Once again I'm in transit at Seoul Incheon International Airport. It was last October when I was here sitting in the Internet Plaza waiting for my flight. I'm now at the exact same spot with the same PowerBook going online while blogging about it. Everything looks so familiar with this picture.

Posted at 05:25 PM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Wed - September 17, 2003

Falling behind

It seems like only yesterday I came back from Shanghai (actually, it was last week), and already I am getting ready to go back to the states tomorrow. I haven't even had a chance to blog about my last trip--though I did take notes on my Palm--or to post online some really cool pictures Johnnie took of Shanghai.

Posted at 01:10 PM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Tue - September 9, 2003

Shanghai morning

Posted at 05:52 AM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Thu - July 3, 2003

US$160 to Tokyo - Go or no go?

Posted at 12:35 AM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Wed - June 18, 2003

No trips for me

Posted at 01:36 AM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry

Sun - June 8, 2003

Travel bug

I am being bitten by the travel bug big time. It has been 8 months since I last flew, and with the strong presence of SARS in Hong Kong in recent months, I feel like I am trapped here and cannot get out. Now that SARS is waning and I have earned enough credits at work to take at least a month off, I am planning where I should go for another extended break.

Posted at 12:47 AM in category

| Comments | Complete Entry