Adventures in Asia

I married my happy, hardworking, handsome husband 10 months ago, and I didn’t take his last name. Naturally, many people back home asked, “WHY?” My marriage certificate is a little red book! There are two main reasons: paperwork nightmare and my husband’s Chinese culture. Here's what a normal American woman does to legally change her name: provide her marriage certificate at the bank, change her social security card, and update her drivers license, all in person. But I live in China. So I would need to go to the nearest American consulate (2 hours away by train) to renew my passport (which costs $120 US). I would then have to make another trip to pick up my new passport (train tickets totaling to another $120 US). Then I would have to fly home ($1,000 US round trip – if I’m blessed with a good deal) to complete all of the things normal women do… Only hiccup being my marriage certificate is in Chinese. Like, the only English word on that entire document is my ...

“My Lovable Girl,” “My Lovely Girl,” “She’s So Lovable,” “You Are Cute for Me”… Whatever this drama is called. Rain’s new drama. That one. Yeah, I watched it. For the noobs that may be reading this, I’ll give a brief explanation on Rain. Rain is pretty much the first South Korean actor/singer to gain huge international success. He debuted in the kpop world in 2002, and since then has used his stage name Rain as a pun in as many album/song titles as possible. His most famous music video has got to be “Love Song,” which involved him body rolling shirtless. The album, Rainism, was deemed inappropriate for listeners under the age of 19 for being so shmexy. The term “chocolate abs” became rabid among kpop fans around this time. Rain has released a lot of music and done multiple dramas and movies, but the only other Rain drama I’ve seen is “Full House” (2004), which I unfortunately decided to marathon when I was sick last spring. Unless you actually like soap operas, I don’t recomm...

Vacation is here! School’s out for summer, school’s out forever! Woohoo! A few weeks of no class means I’m States-side for the first time in nine months. The following is a list of things I keep having to remind myself now that I’m home in midwest America and not in northern China. 1. Strangers are going to talk to you. A lot. And it’s going to feel weird, because (a) they can speak fluent English (what the heck?), and (b) it’s a lot of small talk that you aren’t used to. In Asia, conversation at the checkout or with a waiter is brief. In America, strangers are friendly and will talk to you more. And you’ll probably accidentally end up telling them you just returned from China. (How does that even happen?) 2. Public restrooms will have western toilets (not squatty potties), furnished with tp and soap. You no longer have to keep your bag stocked with tissue and hand sanitizer. Isn’t it great? 3. Clean up after yourself at Starbucks, McDonalds, Panera, Moe’s, and al...

“We all have the same dream.” “No, we all have the same job.” I laughed. I was having coffee with some fellow foreigners and our Chinese friends, the Idealist and the Realist. Later that same evening, I asked, “What’s the most important thing to a Chinese person?” “Making money.” On a different coffee date with a different Chinese friend, I heard a similar statement: “Money controls my life.” Making money is important to us Americans, too. The U.S. is pretty much the capital of materialism. But the way my Chinese friends say it, it’s different. And the more I hear their stories, the more I understand what they mean. China has a collectivist culture, where the group is more important than the individual, and the family is the most important of all. Which is really beautiful to see. Each of my students have their two parents and four grandparents all looking out for them, investing in them, concerned about their wellbeing. There’s only one child, ...