Rita, by Luis Alberto de Cuenca
I was waiting for a meeting in the library and happened across this poem, which I couldn’t resist doing a quick translation of. Rita by Luis Alberto de Cuenca Rita, what are you going to do on Sunday? Are there Sundays where you live? Are there social engagements? Do people arrive late? I don’t know […]
Staring At North Korea From Dandong
A Brief Introduction I wrote this years ago as part of a narrative about my trip to Liaoning Province in 2007. I’ve not been able to write a satisfactory account of the middle part of the trip (and remain unsatisfied with what I wrote about its beginning), but have felt motivated to finish writing about […]
Swedish Christmas Dinner at the Beijing IKEA
I started today with some festive Christmas linguistics reading: Chomsky, Radford, Cook, Ouhalla and I spent the morning together, humbug-ing away. After that I called my parents, who had just finished eating a Norwegian Christmas dinner. My mother is a cook of such quality that I generally don’t eat holiday meals if they’re not cooked […]
Surviving the Beijing Smog
Everything you’ve heard about Beijing’s horrible air is true. After I arrived, it took ten days before I saw blue sky. Ten days. On a typical day you can stare directly at the sun because there’s so much smog in the air. When I lick my lips while outside (a favorite pastime in the cold, […]