Simpson's Paradox

Paternal Guidance

Meg — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:59:23 +0000

I told my dad about our new hutong home. He said I could live even closer to the Forbidden City but I’d probably have to become a concubine.

Orient-ation

Meg — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:13:59 +0000

Nate James’ Orient-ation is a new China expat blog. He’s heavy on descriptions of daily Chinese life (as he gets, uh, oriented), like this one:

The waitress comes out with the plate, steaming hot, mouth-watering. Your nose picks up the intense aroma. The flavors. You’re seething

Then she places it…IN THE CENTER OF THE FRICKEN TABLE!

Your date immediately ploughs into it as if they haven’t had a meal in weeks. They hoover every inch of the plate within seconds graciously leaving you two bites to enjoy. Your life is now over.

Food is put in the center and it doesn’t matter how much you LIKE IT, if you have a party of 6, you won’t get more than 3 bites of it. The procedure isn’t always like this but it does happen, and as a lover of all things delicious – it makes me sad.

May I suggest some Yanjing beer to dull the pain, Nate?

Priorities

Meg — Thu, 29 May 2008 04:11:23 +0000

Some of Stick’s students will be receiving their red scarves in a Children’s Day ceremony next week. I believe they’re called honglinjin (or is it honglinjian? Not entirely sure). You see them on Chinese schoolchildren all the time. These red scarves are a mark of distinction for high-achieving students of good moral character, and receiving one is a prerequisite for joining the Party as an adult. Although my colleagues tell me that the best students get the first honglinjin, but virtually every student in the class gets one eventually.

“You know what that means?” Stick asked.

“Um, some of your kids are right on track to join the communist party?”

“No! It’s almost Children’s Day! We have to get on WarCraft to run the Children’s Day seasonal quests!”

PayPal: Part 2

Meg — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:04:47 +0000

PayPal isn’t letting me withdraw any money since they’ve cleverly detected that I’m using the account in China. I still know my mother’s maiden name and my secret numbers, but the customer service guy says that’s not quite enough, and to prove that I’m really really me, I have to receive a phone call at my number on file. Which is in New Jersey, and I’m not.

Their security is so good that the only way I can get to my account is have my mom call and pretend to be me.

Feel-Good Revolution

Meg — Wed, 28 May 2008 07:32:22 +0000

After Saturday night KTV with the CNReviews crew, on Sunday Stick andI met up with Heather and Will. They’ve been living in our complex since the fall, although we hadn’t met. We know some of the other teachers in their school, in fact my old TA was transferred away from me to Heather’s school.

But I actually met Heather via her blog, Heather’s Feel Good Revolution, which I’d been reading for a while, and trading comments and emails, until the other day when I made fun of Fengtai, and she mentioned that she also lives at the outskirts of the city, in a lovely little complex called Yihai. And people tell me nothing good comes from my sarcastic remarks! Ha!

Anyway, we met up on Sunday evening and they introduced us to a lovely cafe in Xidan, where Stick and I were delighted to find panini and smoothies. We’ve really been missing Andiamo’s, an awesome sandwich and gelato shop back in Amherst, so it was perfect. (I plan to return the favor by introducing them to Biteapitta.) It was great to talk with those two, they seem to be in a similar place along the China comfort continuum, from jet-lagged gap-year newbies to the long-term crowd, with their Mandarin and cultural fluency.

“This was a good weekend, Meg,” Stick said, once we were back home with a beer. “Can you get me some more friends off the internet?”

Thorn Birds

Meg — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:38:19 +0000

克莱夫, I just wanted to let you know that I do have a copy of a certain novel, whose heroine shares my name. I’ve got The Thorn Birds right here!

I’ve got Scarlett on the other side to keep my laptop in ideal typing position. Oddly enough, they’re exactly the same size.

International Communications

Meg — Mon, 26 May 2008 09:51:31 +0000

Stick and I saw this car on Saturday when we were walking down to Houhai from our NEW APARTMENT.

“Wash me” in three languages. I love Beijing!

We kept walking down along the lake to the Starbucks. It was just a few months ago that we were ducking into that Starbucks because Stick couldn’t feel his feet… now we enjoyed the air conditioning and iced coffees. Inside, we ran into Carol/Yuyu, a math teacher at my school and an awesome officemate. Made me feel like a real resident, bumping into my coworker at the coffeeshop! We hung out with Carol for a while, and then continued on our adventures.

“Can we go back up to the dusty car?” I asked Stick, as we left the coffeeshop. “I remembered how to say ‘wash me’ in Spanish.”

Vade Mecum?

Meg — Sun, 25 May 2008 04:25:09 +0000

David beat me to the punch on this one, but I wanted to make sure you didn’t forget your vade mecum. Whatever that is.

Oddly Appropriate

Meg — Sat, 24 May 2008 17:55:22 +0000

I’m exhausted after a few very full days, I’ll post properly tomorrow. I had dinner and KTV tonight with the awesome CNReviews team, Elliott Ng, Min Guo and David Feng, and talk turned to checking blog stats and search terms, so I can’t possibly go to sleep without checking my own info.

It turns out the top two searches on Simpson’s Paradox are “names for Voldemort” and “Bon Jovi’s home”.

Meggie Fashion

Meg — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:59:11 +0000

Finally, my fashion sense is appreciated.