Category Archives: Shiyan

Hey, look, a useful post

Here’s some handy tools I’ve stumbled across in my journey to becoming a Chinese speaker, fluent or otherwise: http://babelfish.altavista.com This nifty little website can translate all sorts of languages from one to the other. To see the Chinese characters you … Continue reading

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Is there life without coffee?

Day one without coffee. No shaking yet, no headaches. It’s going well. But it’s cold. So what to drink? A few months ago, back in Cape Town, I met a girl from Xi’an. On cold winter days she used to … Continue reading

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Why ‘d you have to go and make things so complicated

Shiyan is like Cape Town. Often, unless you’re busy, there is nothing more to talk about than the weather. It’s a fairly pleasant day today, except for the bone chilling temperature. 4 layers in shirts, two in trousers, am I … Continue reading

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Ups and downs

A wise old sage once said “Don’t piss where you eat”. Funny how some old sages manage to cross cultural barriers. I guess wisdom is universal. I’ve befriended a fellow teacher who teaches Pinyin to the very young kids here … Continue reading

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Posting from Shiyan, China

Ok, I’ve been getting some interesting referrals, so if you landed here because you were looking for travel related information… you’re sort of not in the right place. Some time ago, er… August I believe it was, I was at … Continue reading

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To Wuhan and back

I really need to invest in a little digital camera. But if I do that I really need to invest in a computer. And If I do that I really need to invest in an internet connection. And to do … Continue reading

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It works well-ish

Right, having spent a good two hours in the dark, cold office on the fourth flour of the building which lights are noise activated, I have finally managed to sort a workable blog. It’s easy to post, easy to read, … Continue reading

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Yet another installation

East of West and far from home is having some issues with it’s own home. I want the impossible really: dead simple, but amazingly good looking. So I’ve settled for a midway. It’s not so good looking and it’s not … Continue reading

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Too much thinking

Being organised is a terrible thing. After literally a month of falling around, not knowing which classes to teach when, not knowing what to teach, and not knowing what the level of English is that I’m supposed to teach, I … Continue reading

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Time. Fun. Flying.

It hasn’t really been 2 weeks since my last entry, it’s just on my last attempt, about a week ago, I had an exceptionally long and detailed entry; and what happened? The network conked out and I lost it all … Continue reading

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