So here I am

Posted by Jayml on March 4, 2010 at 11:54 pm | Filled Under: China, Travelogue, Xiangfan| 2 comments

So here I am, finally in China. Sounds like a strange sentiment for someone who’s been living in the country for, already, the better part of a year, but it’s finally happened, along with much else since my last post.
The last stretch of my employment at Aston were a bit of a rush. The last [...]

Tags: , , , ,



Xiangfan is smelly. So am I.

Posted by Jayml on February 23, 2010 at 11:27 am | Filled Under: China, Travelogue, Xiangfan| 1 comment

I get listless at the end of things. I enter into a state of fugue a little earlier than I’d wish for, otherwise. I find myself with an overriding sense of there being little point to starting new projects on account of time or logistics; as far as I can see, I’ll just be packing [...]

Tags: ,



Stream of Conciousness, Endgame Slowboil

Posted by Jayml on February 5, 2010 at 10:51 pm | Filled Under: Blog, China, Travelogue, Xiangfan| 1 comment

It’s been a bit difficult to fire off entries lately, or at all, really. Things happen so fast here – on a daily basis, for the most part – that stopping to ruminate upon just one thing means I’m probably simultaneously leaving out three or four other things I could be writing about, or I’m [...]

Tags: , , , , , , ,



December, Teaching and Looking Ahead

Posted by Jayml on December 2, 2009 at 11:04 pm | Filled Under: Blog, China, Travelogue, Xiangfan| 3 comments

Teaching. It’s… not me. I’ve thought about it for a bit – since I got here, really – and I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that I’ve got a lot of traits and skills that might make me like a teacher, but that’s not exactly my thing. My enthusiasm for the things here that [...]

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,



Cold. Once more with feeling.

Posted by Jayml on November 16, 2009 at 11:30 pm | Filled Under: China, Travelogue, Xiangfan| 10 comments
Snow, near L.'s apartment.

It’s cold. It’s very very cold. It’s been hovering just above freezing since three days ago and there’s a couple inches of snow on the ground. It’s a damp cold of the likes that gets into your bones and doesn’t get out. Ever. My apartment, I’ve discovered, is little more than a hollow concrete shell [...]

Tags: , , , , , , ,



More on that pesky mid-trip crisis

Posted by Jayml on October 29, 2009 at 11:31 pm | Filled Under: China, Travelogue, Xiangfan| 1 comment

I’m getting itchy. Like… under my skin. I’m getting tired of a bunch of things here – mainly my inability to form connections due to the language barrier, that damnable wall I hit every time I try to forge some new communication with someone, or when I have a question I want to ask but [...]

Tags: , , , , , ,



A bit of the old endless drifting

Posted by Jayml on October 1, 2009 at 10:56 pm | Filled Under: China, Travelogue, Xiangfan| No comments
natl day 006

Somehow, Fried Squid-on-a-Plate is less appetizing than Fried Squid-on-a-Stick. Nevertheless:
Things have been quiet out of me lately because, in the last week or two, I’ve slipped into something of a state of normalcy. I work slightly irregular hours over the week, do my two 8 hour shifts on the weekends, then hide in my apartment [...]

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,



[massive post] The mushrooms are hydrating…

Posted by Jayml on September 24, 2009 at 11:36 pm | Filled Under: China, Travelogue, Xiangfan| 3 comments
SP_A0024

…in my stomach, as we speak.
Which brings me to my next point:
I created life today. Not much of it, but after a bit of nagging, I managed to wrangle a new frying pan out of the powers that be at my school. The previous one both sucked as a cooking implement AND seemed to be [...]

Tags: , , , , , , , ,



Mental Strangulations

Posted by Jayml on September 14, 2009 at 12:03 am | Filled Under: China, Travelogue, Xiangfan| No comments

I’ve discovered, recently, that 6 hours of sleep is an inefficient method of getting the requisite energy for teaching 6 hours of classes the next day. In fact, I have discovered, the energy to activity ratio is hardly 1:1. This, sadly, made today and yesterday a time wherein it, as they say, “sucked to be [...]

Tags: , , , , , ,



Finding my Dark Twin; Hazelnuts

Posted by Jayml on September 7, 2009 at 4:52 pm | Filled Under: Blog| 1 comment

I ran into this a few weeks ago and only got around to watching it now:
(includes Tom Waits anecdote, be forewarned)

(It came highly recommended from a webcomic artist I enjoy)

Tags: , , ,



Next Page »