Category

less food-related

• Shanghai, huzhou, less food-related, students, teaching

  Revival

  08.09.10 | Permalink | 5 Comments

  Daytime soaps deliberately leave the greatest cliffhangers for Friday so that the viewer must suffer through the weekend wondering just who is the father of Theresa’s baby or if Louis will ever find out that poor Sheridan is locked in Beth’s basement and that the baby Beth is ‘pregnant’ with is, in fact, a sack [...]

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• Balloons, huzhou, less food-related, students, teaching

  Latex Bribery

  06.01.10 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  Teaching, I imagine, has quite a few similarities to parenting. Parents see their kids at home acting out, letting manners slip, saying and doing things they would never do around others. Then when they’re out in the world, they’re prefect angels and parents are like, “What? My kid?”
  Last week I had the bittersweet pleasure of [...]

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• Balloons, Shanghai, less food-related

  Twist and Shout

  05.24.10 | Permalink | 5 Comments

  It is said in local laowai circles that China seems to attract a somewhat higher percentage of weirdos. While I’ve certainly met my share of creepy, strange, and/or weird foreigners, I find that one reason I like the expat community is that I have a greater chance of meeting someone really interesting. Of course [...]

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• From the Mouths of Babes, amuse bouche, huzhou, less food-related, students, teaching

  On Lady Gaga and Enlightenment

  05.20.10 | Permalink | 3 Comments

  Since my brain has been bled pretty dry in terms of lesson plan ideas, I had my kids make dialogues in class today. Little did I know it was time for the teacher to become the student. In three separate dialogues, the kids exclaimed, “Oh my Lady Gaga!” This is new, red hot catch phrase [...]

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• Shanghai, huzhou, less food-related

  The Bird of Time Has But a Little Way to Fly

  04.27.10 | Permalink | 9 Comments

  If you’ve studied your Plate of Wander history, you know that Huzhou has not been the easiest place to live. I’ve known it was time to leave for quite a few months now. And now that the school year is about 6 weeks away from ending, my official clock is counting down.

  Though Huzhou has certainly [...]

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• Cambodia, Parks, less food-related, temples, travel

  Encore Wat

  02.22.10 | Permalink | 8 Comments

  It’s kind of hard to write about what it’s like to see one of the wonders of the world in person. I mean, I can think of plenty of blah-blah adjectives like magnificent, spectacular, breathtaking, humbling, powerful, stunning, unforgettable. But what do all of those really meant? They’re essentially pretty-sounding synonyms for “Whoa, cool.”

  As we [...]

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• Bangkok, Cambodia, Thailand, headaches, less food-related, road trippin', travel

  East of the Border, South of the Sun

  02.16.10 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  “The train to Bangkok is never late,” he promised.
  Of course we were the ones who decided to take the risk of buying tickets for a bus that left 90 minutes after our train arrived in Bangkok. But we had read a lot about crossing from Thailand to Cambodia over land, and it didn’t sound [...]

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• Thailand, less food-related, travel

  You Lose, You Still Win

  02.10.10 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  Dear Mr. Scorsese,
  Have I got a movie for you! Raging Bull 2! It’s the perfect opportunity for you to avenge Robert Redford’s blasphemous 1980 Oscar win for Ordinary People, a chance for you to revisit your greatest cinematic triumph, a chance for you to visit Thailand, and a chance for you to hire me as [...]

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• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, animals, less food-related, temples, travel

  Passage to India

  01.27.10 | Permalink | 6 Comments

  It’s always tough to prioritize travel dreams, because if you handed me a ticket to anywhere, I’d go without hesitation. But a few times over my years of conversations with other wanderers, I’ve been asked the top five places I want to go. India has always held a place on the list.
  Sunday, our last in [...]

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• Christmas, holidays, less food-related, students, teaching

  ******mas

  12.30.09 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  Chinese people like to compare Christmas to Spring Festival, the Lunar New Year, the Chinese Holiday of holidays. Over Spring Festival, big cities are abandoned as people go home to see their families. Even in Beijing, which is renowned for its abysmal traffic, the streets are empty. All over the country businesses close, train [...]

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Plate of Wander

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