Author: Tessa Bradford

February 9, 2012 Tessa Bradford 1 comment

After a much needed respite at home— relaxing, seeing old friends, celebrating the holidays and my 23rd birthday, watching movies with my mother, eating home-cooked (western-style) meals, and scrapbooking— I got back on board a flight headed towards Asia once again.

January 12, 2012 Tessa Bradford No comments exist

Coming home has been a whirlwind, and a good one. I took a detour on my way back to the midwest. From Beijing I hopped a plane and found myself in New York with three of my favorite travel buddies: Nicole, Dan B and Dan R from my Taiwanese summer. 

December 21, 2011 Tessa Bradford No comments exist

My 4 months in Beijing are up. December was a hurried month, I’m honestly not even sure where the time went. It was filled with getting papers written, flyby English teaching sessions, packing, buying presents, mailing presents, mailing stuff to Taiwan, figuring out how to afford Taiwan, figuring out how to afford  New York, seeing…

December 1, 2011 Tessa Bradford 1 comment

I finally did tons of sight-seeing and played the role of a proper tourist in Beijing. I think I’ve hit just about every major spot in the city. There’s always other cool things to do here, but at least I’ve seen the “main attractions.”

October 26, 2011 Tessa Bradford No comments exist

At the beginning of October China has their national holiday, and everyone gets a whole week off. After lots of visa troubles and indecisiveness, I finally came to the conclusion that the best way to spend my week would be to head back to Taiwan. 

September 25, 2011 Tessa Bradford No comments exist

So last week I headed to the English corner. It was a bit of a mob. I’d start chatting with someone that I wanted to get to know better, then have a crowd swarm me and pepper me with questions about America, and the Chinese student I was actually having a conversation with would give…

September 25, 2011 Tessa Bradford 1 comment

China is crazy, chaotic, and confusing. But once you spend a bit of time here it starts to make a little bit more sense. A few things for you to keep in mind if you ever head over:

September 22, 2011 Tessa Bradford No comments exist

It was a rough start in Beijing. But things did begin to improve. My host found a nice hotel for me (and then I never spoke to him again. Trust issues, and all that). This place had an actual lobby, security cameras, and clean rooms. Those three things are wildly under appreciated, I think. So…

September 21, 2011 Tessa Bradford 2 comments

Beijing didn’t start very well. I got off the plane at around midnight and was picked up by a host from the university. He was there to take me to a hotel, then help me adjust to life in China in the following weeks. We drove for about an hour to get into the Haidian…