The travels of Justin

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 [...]

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 [...]

After facing many complications and sending daily essays by email, I suddenly needed a break from writing. I wanted to share two interesting views of living and/or studying abroad: Kevin Lim (and dad) post advice for Singaporeans and others living abroad. JAVA JIVE – Quarter Life Crisis: Part One (Life as an Expat) (touque tip: [...]