by Alison | Sep 2, 2026 | Blog, Just Life, Travels
I first learned about mate (an Argentinian tea; pronounced mah-tay) from a video that my colleague found to show to our middle school students when I was teaching at the middle school. The video showed tea and tea customs from around the world. I love tea, and I love...
by Alison | May 6, 2026 | Blog, Chinese Language and Culture, Just Life
Since I live in Guangzhou (in the Canton area), I have plenty of chances to listen to Cantonese Opera when I’m walking through a park. However, since the music is everywhere, I didn’t realize how often I had heard it until I watched a small Cantonese opera show in the...
by Alison | Apr 15, 2026 | Blog, Just Life
I love reading, so when one of my friends started a book club, I was super excited to join! We meet once a month to talk about the book we read that month. Since I don’t want to forget about the book before we talk about it, I usually try to time my reading so that I...
by Alison | Mar 25, 2026 | Blog, Just Life
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...
by Alison | Mar 18, 2026 | Blog, Chinese Language and Culture, Just Life
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...
