I often have colleagues complain that their students don’t talk in class—the good kind of talking. When I hear these complaints, I always feel a bit sad. I feel sad for the teacher because I know how frustrating that is, but I also feel bad for the students who don’t...
This semester, I decided to join one of my roommate’s Chinese classes. When she told me that one of her classes is Chinese Literature, I was pretty excited as that is a topic that interests me. Really, literature from any culture is interesting to me, but since I’m...
My roommate has now spent three months (altogether) living in Vietnam with her friend’s family, and while she enjoys some of the food, her biggest struggle during that time was the food. For that reason, I had low expectations about the food as I prepared to go visit...
I love watching live musicals, and Guangzhou Opera House is a wonderful place to enjoy them. Few of the musicals I've seen are as impressive or beautiful as Phantom. I love the costumes and most of all the music. The story is a bit frustrating. The first time I saw...
When I used to teach IELTS speaking or just regular spoken English classes, I liked to have a travel lesson, and one of the questions I often asked the students (usually as a warm-up or introduction) was: How do you like to travel? With family, with a friend, with...
I have realized that I need to be more thankful for the blessings in my life rather than allowing myself to wallow in pity parties. I’ve been reading Life Without Limits by Nick Vujicic. If a man with no arms and no legs can be thankful, I should be able to be...
Last week was super cold, at least for this area of the world with no central heating. The cold had seeped into my apartment, and staying warm was a bit of a challenge. So I was thankful that some friends and I planned to go to some hot springs for the weekend. My...
On our quest to hike all of the MacLehose trail (100 km total!), Jaye planned another hiking adventure. This time, we planned to do sections one and three. I was a little hesitant about the feasibility of this plan, especially when Jeff did some calculations and...
My university often had shows and concerts available for us to watch. Some of them were required, and some of them were optional, but I enjoyed attending them. My school had excellent music and theater programs, and all of the performances were excellently done....
Now that the winter holiday is here, it’s a perfect time to go out and explore Guangzhou. The weather is chilly, but still nice for walking around (much better than summer when it’s brutally hot!). And outside is actually pretty warm. When I was thinking about places...