Thanks to some quirks in Europe hundreds of years ago and the expansion of Western influence at the turn of the 20th century in Asia, I was able to celebrate New Year’s Eve in China much as I would at home. People littered the streets late into the night on a scale that surpassed vastly… Read More So this is the New Year
I have heard from a number of people curious to know what exactly a typical day consists of here. The majority of my writings have rambled on about the trips I’ve managed to squeeze in in my time away from Shenzhen, so I suppose explaining a ‘normal’ day in China could be of interest to… Read More By Popular Request
So the morning of the third day in Manila I got up and wandered around Malate finding breakfast donuts, a luxury for me in a place like China, and one I was happy to indulge. That day I took a bus ride out from the city to another town called Tagaytay to the south. It… Read More MRT, KTV, and JC
Last week I had the pleasant fortune of a few days off of work, giving me a four day weekend thanks to the midterm test period for my students. With a few weeks of lead time, I set about planning at trip to Manila, the capitol of the Philippines lying out in the South China… Read More Post-colonial Ambitions
This weekend began with a small group expedition Friday evening to Macau. For those unaware, Macau is a former Portuguese colony that was returned to China in 1999 after a good four hundred years or so of foreign rule. It is administered much like Hong Kong, with its own private government, currency, and strict border… Read More Wow for Macau
So I finally made it down to Hong Kong a couple weekends back. It was, and most likely remains, awesome. A funny string of events led to our travel party being composed of Andrew, myself, and a mutual friend from high school neither of us had seen in years. He was backpacking China, visiting another… Read More Hong Kong
I have been both busy and undisciplined the past couple weeks since getting back to China, so my forays to the blog have been rare, but as today would have it I stumbled upon some luck and can access the blog in full, so hopefully can productively tackle the second part of my Borneo expedition… Read More Last Thoughts on Borneo
This is the name for Borneo that may (or may not, not clear on this point) have been coined by Agnes Keith, an American who lived in the town of Sandakan with her husband before and after WWII. Apparently she has written a book about it, which I will endeavor to read sometime soon, provided… Read More The Land Below the Wind
Chairman Mao founded the so-named People’s Republic of China on October 1st, 1949, making the announcement from the gate at Tiananmen Square that has held his illustrious portrait for the past few decades and has been seen in pictures the world over. Thanks to this action, we have the coming week off from work here,… Read More The Build Up to National Day
First off, an apology that this edition features no pictures. In their stead I will try to use my words and fill in with pictures later on. This week marked the second full week of teaching under my belt in a ‘professional’ environment. It’s a term that I am using only usely when I consider… Read More So, Wait, I’m a Teacher?
Zak Abroad 