Archive for the ‘China Expat Life’ Category
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b 18 20
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b 18 20
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Having a baby in China – some links
I’ve heard from a number of people that when you have a baby, you suddenly realize that everyone else is also having a baby. This has certainly been the case with me. From friends and family back home, to friends here in Suzhou, to friends out there in the blogsphere, everyone seems to be popping out lil’ ones.
And what a bonus for us it is. So much advice, sharing of experiences, and a healthy amount of warnings. So, to help propagate that knowledge, here are a few links from around the China blogsphere talking about having babies in China…
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CNYE in China Lite
Guò Nián Hǎo and welcome to the Year of the Tiger!
A couple cups of strong coffee and I’ve recovered from my 5th Chinese New Year’s Eve in China. Despite living in Suzhou-Singapore Industrial Park (SIP) last year as well, this was the first time we celebrated the holiday in this district. Normally I would just hit Shiquan Jie (Suzhou’s bar street) for the big event, as its location in the downtown core puts it smack dab in the middle of all the action.
Because of our pregnancy, and a newborn in our tribe, we decided to keep…
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In Utero Update
We had our scheduled checkup with the doctor late last week and managed to convince the ultrasound tech to get a couple good shots in hopes that we could print them out and share them. The 10 minutes with Maggie’s womb on the screen gave me lots to look at (while Maggie just sorta stared at the ceiling), but didn’t yield fantastically clear pics.
Nor did the tech print them out much larger than a thumbnail. It’s sort of funny putting our experience up beside friends and family who have gone through all this and come out of it with…
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World-renowned author visits Humanaught
Alright, Lisa might not be world-renowned yet, but she’s well on her way. And she’s certainly a well-known fixture in the China expat/blogging circle.
Perhaps best known as “Other Lisa” in the comments at the Peking Duck (or @otherlisa on Twitter), Lisa’s a long-time blogger (her blog, Paper Tiger Tail is one of my favs., she was also a past contributor at the Duck) and has the distinction of having seen a side of China most of us expats have only read about in books.
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t 27 20
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Friends Baby Together
Our good friends, Ric and Gin, are proud owners of a brand-new 2009 model Laowai Baby, and having just returned from meeting her for the first time, I wanted to take a moment and reflect.
The benefit of having two close friends go through everything we’re about to, only six months ahead of us, is a fortune we’ll never be able to repay. I’m sure I’m not the first to say that being on the road having my first child is equal parts exhilarating and terrifying. Being able to witness this whole process first-hand in the lead-up…
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t 09 20
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A baozi in the steamer
I may be a lot of things, but someone who can keep their mouth shut is not one of them. This blog is a testament to the fact that I am completely under-skilled in respecting the sanctity of privacy in my personal life. For years now I’ve blogged the smallest and largest moments of my life with little attention paid to any sort of filter. Largely, that’s just who I am.
However, in recent months, and much to the contrary of years past, I’ve found it harder and harder to share much personal. I hadn’t given much thought as to…
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p 30 20
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What I’ve been up to
It’s been brought to my attention that I’m not updating enough, so much so that friends have begun to worry that something has happened to me (sorry Zak!).
Something has happened to me, and more on that later, but that is not the reason for my blog absence. I’ve simply been inundated with new projects. That coupled with a quick trip up to Dalian last week that left me without Internet for a few days, has kept me focused on other things.
Busyness has been a theme of late, a fact that has been reflected in my decision to…
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Dalian vs. Suzhou
Despite the combative title, it’s rather tough to A-B the two places I’ve spent the most time with in China. They are both supported and mired by a number of attributes that make them both rather unique places to live.
Last week Maggie and I grabbed a flight out of PVG and made our annual pre-holiday trip to visit the inlaws and friends in Dalian. That we both work outside the confines of anyone’s schedule but our own, we are fortunate that we can travel when the rest of the country is distractedly focused on tying up loose ends before…
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p 09 20
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p 09 20
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Button sexes it up post de-sexing
I don’t buy into those little doggie jackets that every anthropomorphizing pet owner drools over. In fact, I’d say I’m outright hostile to the idea of breeding a dog to look like a toy and then playing dress-up with it.
That said, I think I’ve stumbled on a goldmine:
The Canine Call-girl Outfit®
Is your pup more tramp than lady? Is she man’s best friend with benefits? Does she know how to wag that piece of tail? Well then The Canine Call-girl Outfit® is exactly what she needs!
This full-body mesh is available in a multitude of monochromatic colours
…
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g 12 20
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Suzhou info page finally fleshed + Suzhou district map
In any given week I usually get 2-3 e-mails from people just arrived or arriving in Suzhou. As one of the longest running blogs with a focus on living in Suzhou, Google gives me some love and I in turn do my best to pass it along. In an effort to provide information about the most common questions I’m asked, and to give myself a dumping ground where I can put random Suzhou information, I’ve done up the creatively titled Suzhou Information page.
It’s something I’ve been intending to put together for a couple years now (as the dead-end…
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l 16 20
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l 16 20
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16 Candles x 2 = Some Serious Wax
So, it’s my birthday — and shaping up to be one of the best ones I’ve had in years. As mentioned in the previous post, my best friend Cory arrives from Canada today for his first visit to China.
I leave in a couple hours to grab the shuttle from Suzhou to the Shanghai Pudong airport where I’ll collect what is sure to be a slightly achy and jet lagged version of my friend. I’m super excited. Of course because it’s been a year and a half since I’ve seen my friend, but I think the excitement has much more…
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l 13 20
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l 13 20
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Summertime and the livin’s easy
So summer’s definitely here – I know this because when I’m outside for more than a few minutes everything gets blurry and my skin starts to melt. I’m Canadian — +40°C weather is something for fairytales of where the old folks go come winter.
Of course it’s the perfect time to take a holiday and trek around the country — so that’s exactly what I’m going to be doing next week and the week after.
Heat or not, I couldn’t be more excited. The timing of the vacation is because my best friend Cory is (coufinallygh) coming to visit me…
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l 01 20
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Proud to be a Canadian (expat)
I love Canada, I truly do.
For all the grief that myself and my fellow compatriots give the country, it really is top shelf as countries go. Sure, it’s a bit vanilla when it comes to foreign affairs and global influence; a bit archaic when it comes to political makeup; and, well, a bit cold.
But it’s clean, big, relatively safe, under-populated and has enough of a balance between social conscience and capitalistic motivation for my liking.
The question that shadows me every day I live abroad, and is usually not far from the lips of my family, is “when…
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y 27 20
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Murder in the Hood
Murders in the news are as common as the weather report, and are rarely read with any greater attention. It is not often that they touch your life in some way, even if just remotely.
Unfortunately, such is not the case with Suzhou’s most recent homicide, as it happened only a couple hundred metres from where I sleep, and to someone I’ve (if only peripherally) very likely met.
This past Wednesday morning the bloodied and naked body of a girl in her early 20s was found in her Singha Plaza (Xīn Dū GuǎngChǎng) apartment. Despite sharing the apartment with…
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y 04 20
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My ChinaTravel.net Feature on Suzhou
A while back I was approached by the fine folks at ChinaTravel.net, an English-language travel site about China that is “editorially independent” but strongly affiliated with Ctrip.com — one of China’s largest online travel booking Web sites.
The site’s editors wanted me to put together a summary article on “my Suzhou”, and as of last week it was published on the site. For anyone that’s ever asked my opinion about what to see while visiting Suzhou the content will feel familiar, as it generally just rehashes what I’ve suggested to people many many times over the years I’ve…
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y 02 20
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y 02 20
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On seabugs, mother-in-laws and holidays
As many of my friends pack up and head out to face the torrent of travel over the May Holiday, I’m just happy to finally have a moment to sit down and type randomness on here.
My mother-in-law arrived from Dalian Thursday evening and while Maggie and her enter day three of non-stop-family-gossip, I’m hiding out in my office and finally getting done things that have been on my todo list so long they could be sold at auction.
First things first – what the hell is that sea creature in the picture above? Never was a piece of seafood…
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r 07 20
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Disturbing Dubai
It’s rare that I hit on topics here that don’t involve myself, my adoptive country of China or my homeland of Canada. However, I just finished a long investigative report in The Independent about Dubai, and felt the need to share.
The article, written by Johann Hari, shocked me. I had never really put much thought into Dubai, more than knowing it was a common option for people living the expat life.
Hari does an excellent job of breaking down the success and seediness of the city state into multiple levels:
A Canadian in a car park
Karen, a…
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WTF, Suzhou 14th worst place in the world to work? Sissies!
A recent article in BusinessWeek featured a slideshow displaying 20 of the World’s Worst Places to Work. Unsurprisingly some Chinese cities made the list – surprisingly Suzhou was among them.
The list, compiled by New York-based human resources company ORC Worldwide, states the major reasons for giving Suzhou the thumbs down are pollution and a lack of culture & recreation facilities. Other problems included disease/sanitation, medical facilities, education facilities, and availability of goods and services.
It needs to be asked: has ORC Worldwide ever even been to Suzhou?
Granted, their list was compiled for BusinessWeek and specifically for…
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n 30 20
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n 30 20
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Hi, I’m China and I like to blow shit up
As a foreigner, it’s impossible to live in China for any length of time and not develop some sort of Chinese New Year strategy.
Most, the rich and clever ones at least, leave the country. Getting the frack out well before the world’s largest human migration takes place and starts blowing shit up is ideal, but simply not practical for everyone – particularly those of us who have spouses that get all warm and fuzzy around the holiday.
Chinese New Year is, for all intents and purposes, the Christmas of the East. Warm familial gathers, gifts, crowded malls, last-minute shopping,…
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