Task Force #1

As you may recall, after a difficult and long decision-making process, I chose to major in international affairs and public policy. Well, one of the major’s requirements is that all concentrators take a task force each semester of their junior year, and write their junior independent work (around 25 pages per semester) on a topic [...]

ATMs in Beijing

When I was last in Beijing, I relied on ATMs to get cash. However, because I have a bank account with Chase, and because Chase doesn’t seem to have any ATMs in Beijing, I was constantly paying fees. This time around, I’d like to set up a free account with a (non-Chinese?) bank which has [...]

At the Chinese Consulate

I applied for my visa  at the Chinese consulate last Friday. One thing bothered me: I had to tell them my e-mail address. I had left that spot blank on the application form because I couldn’t see how their having my e-mail address was remotely necessary. A consulate official made me fill it out, though, [...]

“My nephew speaks Chinese”

First off, allow me to apologize for not posting with the frequency that I promised in my Back to Blogging Post. I was overwhelmed by two assignments for one of my classes, had my 21st birthday, and returned to my home town (Houston) to celebrate it with my family.
While I was in Houston, I thought [...]

Newman’s Day

Here on campus, April 24th is Newman’s Day. It’s a very simple ‘holiday’:
24 hours, 24 beers.

5th-year Chinese

During dinner, I met a junior who’s currently helping the head Chinese language professor write next year’s 5th-year curriculum. Since I’ll be doing 4th-year Chinese this summer, I’ll be in that 5th-year class this fall. She told me that the work is VERY difficult. Just to qualify her statement, she’s from China, and said the [...]

Wang Yongchen and Environmental Investigative Journalism in China

The environmentalist and investigative journalist Wang Yongchen came to my journalism class last Thursday. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about what she actually said, because she swore all of us to confidentiality—not to mention that my journalism professor has promised to destroy my very existence if I post about her again.
However, I would like to comment [...]

Back to blogging

As you may have noticed, I’ve been posting much less frequently over the past two weeks. This is because I’ve been working on a major paper about the capacity of China’s Internet to undermine the CCP (for my class on human rights). I’m finally finished with it, and handed it in yesterday!
I hope to post [...]