The travels of Justin

我昨天晚上（2007年4月5日）在南昌大学北区逸夫馆报告厅看《南昌大学第十四届校园歌手大赛》。比赛由主办南昌大学学生会。我昨天下午不知道南大有比赛，然后朋友来就告诉我。我有一点空，所以我们一起去比赛。去大赛比我一个人在房间学习非常有意思，当然！我听过最多大赛的歌，但是我听不懂。我印象是都歌手好听。只有一个人唱一首英文歌：《I Believe I can Fly》（原文歌手：R. Kelly）。他感情唱歌唱得强烈，非常好！我现在不可以唱中文歌，以后。。。不知道。哈哈！慢慢来。。。

The other day I took a walk on Zhong Shan Road (中山路 zhōngshānlù) which is part of the shopping centre of Nanchang. I’ve never gone shopping there, but I still enjoy the area with it’s crowds of shoppers and activity.
Zhong Shan Road is dotted with mostly middle-aged ladies trying to grab my attention with cries [...]

CBC reports that Canada Post (加拿大的邮局) has released it’s latest stamp celebrating the year of the Pig.

Canada Post stamp: Year of the pig
I think most Chinese people I’ve met (and foreigners too) are quite surprised when I say how Chinese traditions are woven into Canadian life. A symbol of a Chinese festival being specially acknowledged [...]

“Hello,” said the little girl. I guessed her age to be less than 10-years old as I looked up from my dinner.
Sitting alone in a quiet corner of CBC Chicken I smiled as I replied: “hello.”
“What is your favourite colour,” she asked after a slight pause. Obviously curious about the bearded foreigner, she felt confident [...]

A city block in China is huge compared to those in North America. Often the area within a Nanchang city block will contain a small maze of streets connecting the random collection of buildings.

A quiet hidden street
Another foreigner introduced me to a small restaurant that was in an area hidden from me until I was [...]

After more than a year without a computer, I finally conceeded to the fact that I’ll be in Asia for another 2-years at least and I really need a computer. For a variety of technical reasons and handy features (like the built-in camera), I chose to buy an Apple MacBook. Nanchang has a small compter [...]

For a moment I thought the dog was doing a trick. A mop was hanging from the steel structure in where a small street intersects a nice shopping district around our university. The dog was holding onto the mop with his teeth. I almost expected people to start clapping at the strength and endurance for [...]

I’m sick today. 不好！I missed class and don’t feel optimistic about tomorrow. Speaking a foreign language is hard enough without having your ears plug up so you can’t even hear yourself!
In Tianjin I had purchased three sets of flash cards that each have 100 cards to help learn 汉字 (Chinese simplified characters). I don’t use [...]

It’s tough to write from the internet bar. There are plenty of reasons to avoid the filthy internet bars, ranging from the stale smoke-filled air to inconvenience of having to walk 30-minutes from my house (each way) to the only internet bar that is satisfactory for me. Instead of quickly checking email, deleting spam, and [...]

For months I’ve been in the dark about many critical issues, including when school starts. It always seemed like the strangest thing to be unknown by a school. Sure, I understand that the Chinese language courses for foreigners are operated much differently than degree courses, and approrpriately so, but I still couldn’t understand why no [...]