musings by tyler o'neil

This is my "foreign devil" face...

I’ve developed a number of bad habits in the last few months. I stay up late playing video games, watching movies or drinking with my fellow Shiz expats. I have been lackadaisical about learning new Chinese vocab and putting it into practice. I neglect this blog and I take forever to respond to personal emails. My apartment is disgusting and I have a pile of dirty laundry knee high piled in my bedroom corner. I grew a beard. While all these things aren’t good, perhaps my most disturbing new habit is that I scare children… for fun. Read more

I’ve been having a bit of a hate/really hate relationship with the Shiz lately, but this dirty little metro went a long way in reclaiming my favor on Monday. On Monday, Shijiazhuang exploded.

It wasn’t a nuclear accident or anything cataclysmic, but rather it was the official end of Spring Festival, and this one city celebrated with more fireworks than than I think the entire state of Iowa uses on the Fourth of July. Read more

I knew the Shiz had a bad smell but I forgot that it smelled ALL THE TIME.
- Emily Krustlic

After an overnight bus and a miraculous purchase of train tickets (despite the largest annual human migration in the world) we arrived back in Shijiazhuang yesterday. Now I have that mix of emotions one always feels at the end of a vacation: it’s nice to be done with the stress of traveling but man, that tropical island was a hell of a lot nicer than this place.

Those negative feelings are especially potent when you return to a city like the Shiz, a place we characterized as “the butthole of China” when describing our city to other travelers over the last few weeks.

But, despite the smog and smells, the Shiz is a little nicer right now because of one wonderful reason: FIREWORKS!! The early morning honks and engine roar that I came to hate over the last five months has been replaced by the sweet, sweet sounds of firecrackers and mortars exploding in the morning. Actually, it is a little creepy how this city has essentially fallen silent except for the occasional faraway boom or string of pops. And I think I might add to the din in the silence by blowing another 100 RMB on fireworks at one of the hundreds of pyrotechnic stands set up around the city…

Scams and markups are something I can handle. Someone rummaging through my stuff on the other hand...

I have always heard stories of people getting robbed but I never thought it would ever happen to me. Yesterday changed that. Read more

The last test has been given, the final paper graded and the spreadsheet has been emailed to my department director. The semester is over, and not a moment too soon.

I will start my 45ish day Spring Festival vacation tomorrow with a flight to Hong Kong, followed by a week in Thailand and finally a week in Xi’an. I will be traveling with Emily and a evolving cast of Shiz-based expats at different destinations. And I’m pumped.

As you can see from above, Emily and I’s vacation started a little early right here in the Shiz. Emily blogged about our interesting cupping experience and we made mac ‘n cheese, which, incidentally, was the first meal I cooked in my apartment…four months after moving in.

I’ll try to keep this blog updated as we travel by occasionally stealing Emily computer. Stay tuned!