by Alison | Sep 23, 2026 | Blog, Chinese Language and Culture, Just Life, Travels
During my first year in China, I had lots of adventures. Some of them were traumatic, some of them were fun, and most of them were crazy. But over the years, I’ve developed less patience for things that look like they are going to be crazy. I started saying no to...
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 | Jul 8, 2026 | Blog, Chinese Language and Culture, Travels
On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I went to Shaoguan （韶关）, a city in the north of Guangdong province to visit a couple of schools. My university has a cooperation with a couple of schools in the Ruyuan （乳源） area, and I am considering the possibility of going there...
by Alison | Jul 1, 2026 | Blog, Just Life
“Do you want to know the future?” That’s what I asked the students when we were talking about Macbeth, our last Shakespeare play of the semester. Actually, my specific question was: “Why did Macbeth fall? Did he have a choice, or were his evil actions a result of fate...
by Alison | Jun 3, 2026 | Blog, Just Life
This semester, I had a dream come true—a good dream! During my first year teaching in China, more than a decade ago (Yikes! It feels weird to say that!), I taught spoken English for English majors. I loved it. We had lots of fun practicing random role plays and...
