My Several Worlds

Ha! I’ve been going through some of my old papers, journal entries and emails from my three years spent in North East China. I came across this list of gems and I thought I’d share with you as it makes for some entertaining reading. It would take ages to explain everything to [...]

Time for some summer link love. We’re not the only who have had an exciting couple of months. Here’s the latest on what’s new and exciting in my world.
Friend and fellow blogger, David Reid was recently interviewed in Traveler Luxe Magazine. David’s site, David on Formosa, is the go-to site for all [...]

A street vendor from the Muslim Quarter in Xian, China.

Just before John and I left China for good at the end of 2005, we decided our next big journey through China would definitely have to include a few events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. We decided we would do everything in our power to procure tickets for our favorite events. This is going to [...]

Artist: Mandy Wong on GFX Artists
It’s an exciting time of year in Taiwan and the rest of Asia as everyone is gearing up for Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as The Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival.
Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated every year when the moon is at its brightest, on the 15th day of the eighth month [...]

This is the second part of a two part series at the Taipei City Hospital with Dr. Tzu Ying Lai for Joanna Rees Photography.
After Joanna finished shooting the cupping session, Dr. Tzu demonstrated a scraping method called Gua Sha. Its principles are similar to those of cupping and has similar effects on the body.
Gua sha [...]

I think any ESL teacher will agree at some time in their teaching career, they’ve taught students with some pretty strange-sounding names in their classrooms. Several students in my classrooms have been no exception. I’ve had students with names like: Killer, Hebe, Pepsi, Happy, Apple, Coors, Banana and Ice. I’ve taught an [...]

Several months ago, I wrote about my journey to Mount Chang Bai in August 2003. My trek to Changbaishan was one of the first of many pilgrimages throughout North East China. To date, it still remains one of my favorite excursions.
Chángbáishan is located in Jilin Province, China. It straddles the Chinese/Korean border, [...]

“The pain, of course, teaches an important lesson: no price is too great, no process too repulsive, no operation too painful for the women who would be beautiful. The tolerance of pain and the romanticization of that tolerance begins…in preadolescence, in socialization, and serves to prepare the women for lives of childbearing, self-abnegation, and husband [...]

Everyone has heard the rags-to-riches story of Cinderella. The most popular version of this classic fairy tale was written by Charles Perrault in 1697. But, did you know the first written Cinderella story, called Yeh-Shen, was written in 850 A.D. in China? It’s over a thousand years older than the earliest known [...]