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Pudacuo/Potatso National Park – Shangri-La
After having such a good time in Four Girls Mountain, I knew I wanted to get back into a national park before leaving China for the year. This month I made it to Shangri-La, Yunnan for the weekend....
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How Not to Spend $60 – Emei Mountain
After living in Sichuan for two years, yesterday I decided it was finally time to make the trek over to Emei Mountain. Emei Mountain (Éméi Shān – 峨眉山) consistently tops the list of things to do in...
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Starbucks: A Love/Hate Relationship
I have zero shame admitting that I love Starbucks, especially in China. In any major city, there is going to be at least one Starbucks SOMEWHERE. The best part of this is that it’s exactly like a...
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Taking a Step Back – Phnom Penh
After four very full days in Siem Reap, we took a $13 bus ride across Cambodia to the capital city, Phnom Penh. I’ve wanted to visit Phnom Penh, but for extremely different reasons than Siem Reap....
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Wat a Way to Start an Adventure – Siem Reap
I have been looking forward to exploring Siem Reap for years, and expected it to be cool and really interesting and worthwhile and insert more adjectives here, but it was SO much better than I...
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China Living Costs
If you’re thinking of living in China, specifically TEACHING in China, you’ve probably already realized that you’re not going to be making bank by western standards (because you’ll be working in...
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How to Teach Slang
Before coming to China, my friends joked about how I would be teaching the future of China my typical phrases like “real talk”and “basic.” It started as a joke, but all of my English majors actually...
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Two Weeks in Thailand
In 2015 I spent two weeks of my winter holiday in Thailand, specifically Phuket, and while I had a great time, I could have made much better use of my time. Surprise, there’s A LOT more to Thailand...
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Actual Life: Weekday Edition
If you’re thinking of teaching in China, or just wondering what I’ve been doing for the past two years, you probably want to know what an average day as an English teacher looks like. I spend my...
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Actual Life: Weekend Edition
After living in China for almost two years, one of the questions my friends have started asking is “So….what do you actually do in your free time” and I think that’s a completely valid question! Some...
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My Life as a Pop Sensation: Christmas Eve Edition
Two years ago, if someone asked me how I would be spending Christmas Eve, I would have said either watching It’s a Wonderful Life with my family, or possibly abroad, spending a relatively low key...
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Terracotta Warriors and Chicken Paintings: New Year’s in Xi’an
When trying to decide where to spend New Year’s Eve, the main goal I had was “not in Pengshan.” Not only did I briefly escape Pengshan, but I made it to a new city and province. There are SO MANY...
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Spring Semester Brain Dump
It’s been A WHILE! Last time I updated the blag was Christmas and since then I celebrated New Year’s Eve in Xi’an, finished a semester of classes, spent about seven weeks backpacking through southeast...
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Merry Christmas from China!
It’s officially Christmas Eve in China AND America, so most importantly, Merry Christmas! The semester is almost done and for at least tomorrow we’ll take a break from classes to actually celebrate...
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Cultural Differences: Cheating
Squat toilets, crowded buses, children with split pants, chicken feet – these are NOT a few of my favorite things, but they are things I have learned to tolerate in China and they just don’t phase me...
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Thanksgiving in China
It’s been more than a week, but I’ve successfully survived my second Thanksgiving in China! Celebrating western holidays in China is strange and frustrating at times, but as always, there is never a...
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Leshan Buddha – Checking the Box
Unlike Four Girls Mountain, which I went a year without knowing ANYTHING about, I have known that the Leshan Buddha exists from my first week in Sichuan province. Leshan is famous for its giant stone...
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11 Ways to Stay Single
Today is a great day. Today is SINGLES’ DAY! Singles’ Day, 11/11, is China’s holiday for, yes, celebrating the joy of being single. Singles’ Day is also an insane online shopping day for sites like...
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Four Girls Mountain –四姑娘山
First of all, I am embarrassed that it took more than a year for me to not just make it to, but to HEAR about Four Girls Mountain，四姑娘山 － SìgūniangShān. I don’t even have a good story about how...
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Halloween In Chengdu
This past Saturday was, finally, HALLOWEEN! After having a less than successful first Halloween in China last year (being without a passport/homeless for a night, losing my cell phone on a bus, and...
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