An American Expat in China

On the 17th I hit my 365 day streak on duolingo.  That meant I had been learning and practicing mandarin every day for a year.  I am still going.  I did a hash on the 19th with the Shekou Hashers. It was good to return and get back into the runs.  We ran Nanshan and had a great time.   Saw a cool caterpillar on the way up Nanshan.  This little thing was venomous so it was a look but don't touch situation. Had a bit of a hard time making it up nanshan.  My lungs were having a hard time filling and emptying so I puffed on the ole asthma aspirator and kept trudging on in the heat and humidity. Work started with training on August 20th.  Our first session was virtual but each subsequent session was in person.  The new, purpose build state-of-the-art, school building is very impressive.  It is a sprawling campus with two gyms, six science labs, an auditorium, black box theater, and even a pool.  Although it is an awesome new buildin...

Faye and I just came back from vacation in Thailand on Monday.  Our trip was from the 9th-14th.  While we certainly enjoyed some aspects of the trip there was an undue amount of drama and conflict that I do not wish to rehash in full detail.   We did a lot of shopping and spent time enjoying nature.  Our hotel for the majority of the trip, The Old Phuket, is located in Karon Beach.  This was much different from the last two times I stayed in Patong. It was much more relaxed and quiet compared to Patong and there was a slightly higher level of luxury at this hotel.  The hotel was nice but they gave us the wrong room for the first night and this caused some stress for both of us.  I was pretty pissed and I only slept 3 hours.  Faye slept more than I but neither of us got much sleep the first night.  We ended up changing rooms early the first morning after a terrible night of sleep and being awakened by loud neighbors.   The secon...

Since returning to Shenzhen on July 27th I have been doing my best to relax.  I say I am doing my best because I have been harboring some anxiety about my next upcoming trip to Thailand from August 9-14th with Faye.  We are traveling during the rainy season, so that comes with some anxiety.  Faye is also completely inexperienced with international travel, so I have some stress around that.  Additionally, I had an issue arranging transport between hotels and ended up changing our hotel arrangements to ensure a lower stress vacation.  I actually had a mild panic attack last weekend but got through with breathing techniques and positive affirmation.  My current mood is much better but I am still a bit bored.  Being bored means I have lots of time to overthink and ruminate.  Boredom is the bane of my existence in the summer time.  On some level I wish I had arranged to travel a little bit between my last trip and this next one but since I had not...

My final stop on my summer solo trip was in Hong Kong. I stayed in the Silka Sea View Hotel in Kowloon. The room was small but had a nice view of the park next door and the hotel was located near some nice landmarks. I arrived at around 3pm but on my first day there I just slept off as much of my jetlag as possible.   I fell asleep around 6 or 7pm and woke up at 2am.  Since I was mighty restless at 2am I decided to take a walk to the sea.  It was only about a 20 minute walk each way. On my way back to my hotel I found someone selling some overpriced "fun green stuff".  I won't be too specific here but I did end up getting some of the overpriced stuff which I took back to my hotel room and prepared for consumption. By the time I had finished preparing my smokables the sun was cresting the horizon.  I took a walk in Kings Park and indulged a bit. I found the experience of daytime indulgence to be a bit too paranoia inducing.  Even tucked away in the foli...