In a land of red parched stone that doesn’t feel like America, only the ice cream shops and hamburgers evoke the U.S. to me from that southwest corner of the country. The backwoods feel of the canyons makes it easy to forget Continue reading
Category Archives: Travel
There is no time
No time to speak the truth fully. No time to have every single conversation. No time to stop all the evils in the world. No time to say goodbye properly. The reality is, suddenly it’s time to move into a new house. It’s time to say goodbye to my hosts with so much still unsaid … Continue reading
Night vision
One of the best ways to get a sense of a place is from above. Continue reading
Clocking a different time
The moment I landed in Seattle I missed the grandeur of New York, and the moment I returned to the Big Apple I missed the openness of the West. Last night, hearing that the Seahawks beat the 49ers and are heading to the Super Bowl, I understood and rejoiced with the fans, because I have a connection with their city now. Continue reading
Goodbyes – 北京,再见
再见这个污染城市,再见挤死的公交,再见常路过的华堂超市,中央电视台.再见这里的朋友,感谢他们的热心照顾!这一连串的精彩经验我无法一下子都接受.我只能告别,至少留个美好的纪念. 我不要像少年派一样发现他的好伙伴二话不说就消失了. 我不想说再见,但是只有离开才能到下一步.北京,我会想你. Farewell to this polluted city, overcrowded buses and subways, and the CCTV tower I see every day. Goodbye to the many friends I have met over these two months, as well as the many interesting characters I have encountered. Goodbye to jianbing at night, badminton on the weekends, doufunao in the mornings. … Continue reading
Returning to Shanghai
Today the first class of NYU Shanghai landed at East China Normal University. One year ago, I also embarked on an adventure at NYU’s Shanghai center. Now these 300 freshmen will be part of a four-year experiment, to see what a joint US-China college in Shanghai can really produce. I’ve followed the development of the … Continue reading
Douban comes alive
On Sunday afternoon thirty of us crowded into a stuffy room on the 20th floor of an apartment building to hear author Deng Anqing talk about his latest book, “A Gentle Distance.” Despite 90-degrees weather and a broken air conditioner, the audience of thirty-somethings and younger did not complain. Deng talked about his experiences growing … Continue reading
Future Prospects
I recently helped my friend research careers, and found that nurses can make an average of $80,000 a year and that pharmacists can make an average of $134,000 a year. Journalists average a meager $50,000 a year. The discrepancy in pay seems unfair as both jobs seem to require just as much effort, although one … Continue reading
Goodbye, and see you again
It’s still a shock when I realize that I will never live inside the stone front gate of East China Normal University or return to the spacious international dorms. Since I’m still living in the same time zone, all the friends I made in China are still online in their normal places. But already I … Continue reading
The value of identity
I never fully realized how important national identity was until I came to China. In America everything was easy because I always had the proper identification: a driver’s license, a Social Security Number, and an official United States birth certificate. Financial information and debit cards were easily managed online. In China, many services, especially online … Continue reading
