Американский Бродяга

宜家家居 Suitable Family Home

Such, anyway, is one possible translation of the characters that form the name of IKEA in Beijing...

Sep 27th

Foreign Concessions

Foreign Concessions were what the areas ceded to the European powers during the late Qing dynasty...

Sep 23rd

Random snapshot from the neighborhood.

Sep 21st

Cooking? Not a 饭... (bad pun)

Settling in. I find I can sleep on my bed after all (with the subtle addition of a thin cotton...

Sep 21st

Hey, yu! 雨

Bless the rain. As a Californian, I’m predisposed to do so anyway—today’s inconvenience...

Sep 18th

Brother, can you spare a mao?

From Wikipedia: The Chinese pronunciation of yuan is one syllable and is pronounced closer to...

Sep 16th

http://www.project-himalaya.com/gallery-khumbu-2-01.html

Sep 15th

Yakkety-Yak

Last night looked to be fun, but was something of a fizzle. R.’s idea was that we should all...

Sep 15th

长安街

Oy. Steady rains have led to overflowing gutters which mirror my overflowing bowels. Just returned...

Sep 13th

точно ртуть алоэ? (a la I. Lagutenko)

Superb meal last night at the 4th floor place with W. and my fellow “foreign experts.”...

Sep 13th

Microsize Me

Taking it slow. Part of me feels like I need to be jumping in with both feet—braving the...

Sep 10th

This is my dumpster. For some reason I love the idea.

Sep 10th

Gege is watching?

My back is killing me. What the hell is this box-spring-no-mattress deal? Or is it actually a...

Sep 8th

Build

Time flies in a new locale. My days seem shorter by half. There’s much to take in. Although...

Sep 7th

Ni Hao, baby

Brain still a fog of jetlag and…no, not “culture shock” per se—I’m difficult...

Sep 3rd