Archive for the ‘Special Days’ Category
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b 14 20
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b 14 20
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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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n 02 20
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n 02 20
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All about the babies, and a son to be
Maggie and I are in our final week of a 5-week visit to Canada, and it has been a whirlwind — both physically and mentally.
It has been wonderful being home for the holidays, and a visit that has been full of firsts. It was Maggie’s first time seeing British Columbia (as we flew into Vancouver rather than Toronto, simply for the experience and to visit family out west). It was also our first opportunity to meet my 20-month-old nephew who was born shortly after our last visit to Canada.
My nephew is not the only new addition to our…
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v 25 20
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v 25 20
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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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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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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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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 01 20
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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 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 02 20
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r 02 20
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In Sanya – Final Thoughts
Alright, I could pretend like the week and a half since we returned from Sanya was used to properly reflect on the vacation before I post final thoughts about China’s only tropical destination. But that would be a lie.
Every time I go on vacation I think to myself, “Hey, why the hell am I not doing this ALL the time. This is great! Problems are so far away. The air is fresh. The food it fantastic. Life is moving at a pace I am entirely comfortable with.” Then I get home — load up the 200+ e-mails, overflowing RSS…
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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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n 25 20
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n 25 20
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Happy Niu Year To All
Well, once again it is Chinese New Year’s Eve (this’ll be my forth – and I’ve still yet to find a good pair of earplugs).
We should be celebrating tonight with some newcommers to China, and that’s always fun. Maggie’s got pots a bubblin’, cooking up some good dongbei food and we’ll be heading downtown to get drunk and blow shit up a bit later on. Fingers-crossed that tomorrow I still have fingers to cross.
A very happy 牛 year to all!
And as I always like to leave a year with a laugh:
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n 23 20
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n 23 20
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Mac’in it up with a fruity new computer
I’ve officially joined the club. You know, that pretentious group that hangs out in cafes with their white Apple-logo lit, doing little other than subliminally pointing to the branding and winking.
Those that are quick to tell you how amazing a Mac is, and how super better it compares to a PC, while barely having any concept of what runs either machine.
The people who aspire for a hybrid, drink coffee named and sized in languages they only pretend to understand.
Yes – I’ve bought a MacBook.
And I FUCKING LOVE IT! Can I get a venti® Vanilla Rooibos Tea…
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Addie’s First Birthday
Alright, I never wanted to become one of those people that have a dog and they go on and on about their dog like it was their child. I never did.
But I also never expected that such a connection could be formed between myself and a dog. I’ve had lots of pets, including a number of dogs, throughout my life, but Addie is the first dog that was “mine” as an adult.
She’s also the first I’ve raised since a puppy, and I think that brings a bit too it as well, as watching her grow, learn and develop…
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So far away
It’s rare that I feel much in the way of homesickness. The ties that pulled at me when I first left Canada slowly loosened and then let go at some indeterminate moment of my expatdome.
But today, today they drew tight and pulled hard.
I love you grandma, and I’ll never forget the infinite ways in which your caring, kindness and compassion not just touched, but shaped my life and character.
What breezes take away on an early morning wind
What somber whispers say to a down-turned chin
Ever minders are they of all this straw and tin
…
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v 18 20
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v 18 20
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China Two Point Oh Yeah!
As anyone following me on Twitter no doubt knows, I hit up the Shanghai leg of the China 2.0 tour this past Thursday and Friday. I’m a bit behind in posting about it, as it took me a few days to process the massive amount of brain-feed I crammed into those 48 hours.
Though I’m putting together a more in-depth summary of the tour for The Tech Dynasty, I thought I’d make a quick mention of the awesome experience here. A warning, massive linkbacking is about to occur – but you wont regret checking out any or all…
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t 31 20
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t 31 20
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Happy Halloween 万圣节快乐
Before anyone goes about correcting the title of this post (Chris ;-)), and starting the yearly debate on whether it should be 万圣节快乐 or 万圣节前夕快乐, can I just say: Happy Halloween!
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p 11 20
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If it had been a mirror, this would all be over now
I barely remember where I was last week at this time, but like most North Americans, I can clearly remember where I was 7 years ago on this day.
I was the assistant editor for a series of music/performance-based magazines. I had grabbed my extra large double double and headed in to work. I hadn’t finished the cup when my boss’ wife, Mo, came into the office and said a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.
With no TV in the building, we all crowded around a little radio in Mo’s office and listened to reports that…
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Love will keep us together
Today marks Maggie’s and my 18 month anniversary. I didn’t think it was a thing to be celebrated – Maggie set me straight.
Though it’s a lot more just a quirk that my wife like’s to celebrate things, I found it interesting that 18 (yāobā) is considered lucky by Chinese superstitious mumbo jumbo.
In addition to that relatively useless thought, I’ve been pondering the whole “marriage” thing a lot lately.
A good friend of mine told me recently that he’s getting divorced. That split will officially mark me as the sole torch-bearer for successful matrimony among my four buddies from…
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g 08 20
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g 08 20
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#080808 – Everybody Ba Ba Ba
So the day is upon us. 08/08/08 is here – the Olympics have arrived.
And in good Web meme fashion, the China Twitterati have come up with the #080808 campaign.
I first read about it from David Feng over at CNReviews after having seen everyone on my Twitter list 080808′ing their avatars.
It was started by Flypig and (as all things do on Twitter) spread rapidly from there.
Never one to shy away from a chance to flex my creative muscles for fun, I’ve whipped up my own little #080808 image.
If you’re not feeling…
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l 03 20
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l 03 20
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Canada Day BBQ in Suzhou
Ok, I’m a couple days late in posting it – but Happy Canada Day!
This year’s Canada Day marked the fourth I’ve been in China for, but the first I’ve celebrated – and what’s better, we did it properly with a BBQ and beer!
I had tossed around the idea of doing a Canada Day BBQ a few weeks back, but some other Canadians here in town mentioned they may put something together and I didn’t want to conflict. Besides, with a recent move and an impending 31st birthday just a couple weeks away, I’ve plenty of excuses to celebrate.…
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Yeeling: 
AJB: 
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ji xiang: 
