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Adventures of the Humanaught: Life in Suzhou, China
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The discursive writings of a Canadian teaching English in Suzhou, China. Thoughts on culture, politics, food, sex, drugs and rock n roll.
Recent Posts Tagged With china expat life
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In Utero Update
We had our scheduled checkup with the doctor late last week and managed to convince the ultrasound tech to get a couple good shots in hopes that we could print them out and share them. The 10 minutes with Maggie’s womb on the screen gave me lot...
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World-renowned author visits Humanaught
Alright, Lisa might not be world-renowned yet, but she’s well on her way. And she’s certainly a well-known fixture in the China expat/blogging circle. Perhaps best known as “Other Lisa” in the comments at the Peking Duck (or @...
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Friends Baby Together
Our good friends, Ric and Gin, are proud owners of a brand-new 2009 model Laowai Baby, and having just returned from meeting her for the first time, I wanted to take a moment and reflect. The benefit of having two close friends go through everything ...
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A baozi in the steamer
I may be a lot of things, but someone who can keep their mouth shut is not one of them. This blog is a testament to the fact that I am completely under-skilled in respecting the sanctity of privacy in my personal life. For years now I’ve blogge...
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What I’ve been up to
It’s been brought to my attention that I’m not updating enough, so much so that friends have begun to worry that something has happened to me (sorry Zak!). Something has happened to me, and more on that later, but that is not the reason f...
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Dalian vs. Suzhou
Despite the combative title, it’s rather tough to A-B the two places I’ve spent the most time with in China. They are both supported and mired by a number of attributes that make them both rather unique places to live. Last week Maggie an...
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Button sexes it up post de-sexing
I don’t buy into those little doggie jackets that every anthropomorphizing pet owner drools over. In fact, I’d say I’m outright hostile to the idea of breeding a dog to look like a toy and then playing dress-up with it. That said, I...
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Suzhou info page finally fleshed + Suzhou district map
In any given week I usually get 2-3 e-mails from people just arrived or arriving in Suzhou. As one of the longest running blogs with a focus on living in Suzhou, Google gives me some love and I in turn do my best to pass it along. In an effort to pro...
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16 Candles x 2 = Some Serious Wax
So, it’s my birthday — and shaping up to be one of the best ones I’ve had in years. As mentioned in the previous post, my best friend Cory arrives from Canada today for his first visit to China. I leave in a couple hours to grab the...
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Summertime and the livin’s easy
So summer’s definitely here – I know this because when I’m outside for more than a few minutes everything gets blurry and my skin starts to melt. I’m Canadian — +40°C weather is something for fairytales of where the old...
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Proud to be a Canadian (expat)
I love Canada, I truly do. For all the grief that myself and my fellow compatriots give the country, it really is top shelf as countries go. Sure, it’s a bit vanilla when it comes to foreign affairs and global influence; a bit archaic when it c...
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Living without trust
This is really a topic I’ve been thinking about since back in December/January when our dog Addie died. I wasn’t sure how to put to words my feelings about it and so have shelved it until now. I don’t know that I’m any closer ...
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Murder in the Hood
Polce and security guards talk to a journalist near the crime scene at Singha Plaza. Murders in the news are as common as the weather report, and are rarely read with any greater attention. It is not often that they touch your life in some way, even ...
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My ChinaTravel.net Feature on Suzhou
A while back I was approached by the fine folks at ChinaTravel.net, an English-language travel site about China that is “editorially independent” but strongly affiliated with Ctrip.com — one of China’s largest online travel bo...
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On seabugs, mother-in-laws and holidays
Dongbei Seabug As many of my friends pack up and head out to face the torrent of travel over the May Holiday, I’m just happy to finally have a moment to sit down and type randomness on here. My mother-in-law arrived from Dalian Thursday evening...
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Disturbing Dubai
Smoggy Dubai (c) tienshan It’s rare that I hit on topics here that don’t involve myself, my adoptive country of China or my homeland of Canada. However, I just finished a long investigative report in The Independent about Dubai, and felt ...
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WTF, Suzhou 14th worst place in the world to work? Sissies!
A recent article in BusinessWeek featured a slideshow displaying 20 of the World’s Worst Places to Work. Unsurprisingly some Chinese cities made the list - surprisingly Suzhou was among them. The list, compiled by New York-based human resources...
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Hi, I’m China and I like to blow shit up
As a foreigner, it’s impossible to live in China for any length of time and not develop some sort of Chinese New Year strategy. Most, the rich and clever ones at least, leave the country. Getting the frack out well before…...
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Happy Niu Year To All
Well, once again it is Chinese New Year’s Eve (this’ll be my forth - and I’ve still yet to find a good pair of earplugs). We should be celebrating tonight with some newcommers to China, and that’s always fun. Maggie’s go...
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Optima Dog Food Saga: It’s Done
Most often I feel time is moving much faster than I expect it to. This last month, however, is an exception. It’s hard to believe that it was just over four weeks ago that we got the news about our…...
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A farewell to George W. Bush - Hilarious
This was a little clip collection that The Hour, easily one of the best shows put out by CBC - and that most of the content is available online makes it super awesome for an expat like me: ...
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Optima Pet Food Saga: Media’s double-edged sword
It’s been a crazy week - both with trying to catch up on work I let slip while caring for Addie over the holidays and also with trying to bring some perspective to this whole, ongoing, experience. When all this began…...
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Shanghai Daily-late and dollar short
The Shanghai Daily finally got around to reporting on the emergency recall of dog food after pets poisoned and seem just as confused as the rest of the net on where the Optima dog food comes from and how it ended…...
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Addie’s Ashes - cremating our dog in China
It’s been a handful of days now, and both Maggie and I are coming to terms with Addie’s death. I still expect her to be there, wagging her tail, when we open the front door; and I still look for…...
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Why self-medicating is an essential China expat skill
Maybe everyone should take an interest in what pills and pokes their doctor is giving them, despite how frowned upon it is by House. But in China, figuring out what’s really wrong with you, on your own - armed only with…...
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Get English-language books online in China
Further to my previous post about ordering groceries online here in Suzhou, I wanted to share this little tip for ordering English-language books online in China. Mags has been using Joyo/Amazon.cn for months now to stock our shelves with every yoga ...
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Living in China is Easy…
Living in China is easy - or so says the tag line of my new favourite Web site, 5JShop.com. The site offers home delivery of groceries in and around the Jinji Lake/SIP area of Suzhou. Yeah, we just click, click, click and hit send and magically a man...
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‘Best Band in Beijing’ coming to Suzhou
Just got word that Woodie Alan, the band City Weekend calls the “Best Band in Beijing”, is coming to Suzhou for a one show performance on Friday night. The show’s taking place at J&J Restaurant (No.5, Block 11, Horizon Resort I...
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Scent of Adventure
I had the good fortune to interview Rob Thomson the other day and can’t stop thinking about travelling. Rob, for those that don’t know, just broke a Guinness World Record skateboarding 12,000 km unsupported. His journey started in Switzer...
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Using Skype in China?
Just a quick note that if you’re using Skype in China, or more importantly, using a TOM-Skype (from skype.tom.com) download of the software, you should check out my most recent post on Lost Laowai: Chinese Skype privacy breech. If you are, or h...
