One of the constants of life abroad, of living well where you don't belong, is the ambiguity — the feeling that everything you see and experience doesn't quite make sense. Or, as I like to say (often), 'nothing is as it seem.' A friend sent me a quote from a novel written by a foreigner…
Month: November 2010
Gotta Have a Drink
Yesterday, I picked up some friends a their office in downtown Minneapolis to take them to lunch at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, The Bona, near the University of Minnesota. Our route took us past the Hennepin County Medical Center, where we had to pause for a red light. As we sat there, we noticed a…
Narita Airport
Once again I find myself sitting in Tokyo's Narita Airport, something I've been doing for 31 years! I seem to have plenty of memories and stories that are centered in this place. My first transit through here was in 1979, as I was returning home from a summer internship in Hong Kong. I had stopped…
Roseau
Once upon a time in China, it was commonplace to see people wearing clothes that seemed "out of place,"– things that would be common back home, but were so 'not common' as to stand out mightily here. Since contemporary Chinese fashion (especially for young people) is pretty much the same as it is anywhere else,…
The Establishment of Winter
Late yesterday afternoon as I was returning home in a taxi, I spotted groups of people on the corner near my place huddled over small fires. This is a common sight around certain traditional Chinese festivals, particularly Spring Festival and Qing Ming Festival in April. On those occasions people burn fake money to send to…
Count ’em Again, Just in Case
In August I wrote about being visited by China’s National Census takers. In case you’re not up for checking out that post, here it is again: In those days the People’s Government issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Middle Kingdom. This is the first census that took place while…