Fun in Fukuoka (福冈)

By now, every human being considering a trip to the PRC knows that the government has thrown the visa situation on lockdown, and as of mid-April acquiring a visa is a massive pain in the ass. I had a few options on doing a run, Seoul, HK, and Fukuoka. I was just in Seoul, I […]

Getting a Haircut

Oh how I loathe thee. Before I even came, I knew it was going to be about as straightforward as deciphering meaning from a Hu Jintao speech. Forget dealing with the bureaucracy, the language issues, eating things you once thought were poisonous, getting a proper haircut here is by far the hardest thing you’ll have […]

Taishan (泰山) Chapter 2

The imbecility of my prior actions began to set in as I accepted that I had in fact missed the train and this was not some horrible hangover induced hallucination. The hangover itself was kicking into full gear and I hadn’t had the masochistic pleasure of one like this for a long time. The only […]

Making Chinese Friends is Hard

I say if you want really want to learn a culture and a language, you can’t just sit around watching Entourage and picking your nose like you’re mining gold, you gotta go out and immerse yourself in that bitch. Usually that means meeting native speakers and conversing with them more often than not. But really, […]

The Water Situation

Most people are aware that tap water in most developing countries is not something you would want to wash down your vodka with. This of course applies here as well. However it appears that by the mandate of heaven, measures are being taken to make the local brew less of a potent potable. In regards […]

My Apartment is Sinking

I knew when I first rented here that problems would arise. I knew this because I had read about so many other people have problems with their apartments here. It was statistically impossible for nothing to go wrong. Having nothing go wrong in this country would be like spontaneously turning into an apple pie and […]

Zhong Guo Ren, Robots in Disguise

I certainly didn’t move to Qingdao for its wealth of entertainment and cultural facilities or lack thereof. I figured that a city of 2.5 mil should be able to hold its own when it came to things to do. Sadly mistaken I was. Thus, whenever I get a call from anyone asking me to […]

The Weather Here Sucks

I haven’t seen the Sun for the past 2 weeks. It’s either blocked out by rain clouds, or on the days when it’s supposed to be sunny, all I see is yellow haze with a marginally bright spot where I assume the Sun is. Naturally the weather is tiring me out like a naked swim […]

Man versus Washing Machine

Washing clothes for the first time was a fun experience. This is because I speak English, but my washing machine speaks Chinese. Trying to do the maiden load, I ran into some communication problems. You see I wanted to wash my clothes, but the washing machine had other ideas. It’s preference was to get them […]