In 2007, my dad and I legally changed our last names to my mom’s maiden name. We did this for a few reasons: My old last name was utterly unpronounceable – 12 letters long and about 2/3 of them consonants…
Maria's New York
The past two weeks have been a little frustrating, because I’ve been just too overwhelmed by the experience of being home, and as a result haven’t really been able to write about them coherently (and isn’t that the mark of…
The L-Pocalypse and other (good and bad) impressions of being back in New York
Uber Uber has been such a lifesaver. On the grand scale of things, I really don’t think much has changed since I’ve left the States (Kombucha is still a thing. Everybody, calm down; there’s no need to panic). But the one thing…
What is an authentic New York experience?
This entry is being written from inside a coffee shop in Bushwick. I’m eating a gluten-free raspberry oat bar and drinking a 8 oz French Press. And it’s beautiful how happy those two things make me in tandem. It’s incredible how, on…
Reverse cultural shock or my first hours back in the U.S.
“For those of you coming home tonight, welcome home”. I had told myself I would be emotional during my ‘grand’ return home, but somewhere along the way, I started chocking back tears when my flight took off from Pudong airport (those being tears…
What it's like to come home
In less than 24 hours, I’ll be home. Well, not home, but you get the point. I’ve already been in airports so many times this year. I’ve been exhausted, scrambling to make my flights to other cities in China or to Hong Kong,…
Climbing the Great Wall and other things that make you a man.
The smell of Beijing is unmistakable. It’s the smell of resin, cigarettes, and motor exhaust, and it hits you, hard, as soon as you step into the Beijing Capital Airport. It’s been more than a year since I’ve last been to China’s…
Life Abroad: What I expected and what really happened
Living in a foreign place never turns out the way you would have thought it to have turned out. And right now, I’m panicking. Hard. In about two weeks, I’m flying back to the U.S. for the first time in almost a year. It’s…
To fall in love with anyone, eat street food
I’m so excited to share my contribution to Snacks Quarterly for the their newest issue! http://www.snacksquarterly.com/to-fall-in-love-with-anyone-eat-street-food/ More about my struggles with writing: Shanghainese street food. What it’s like to write.
Returning to Hong Kong
We left our hotel room in the People’s Republic of China at 9am. By 11:15am, we had crossed the border and we inside the Hong Kong Disneyland. The Disneyland Resort is an oasis within an oasis. Even getting to the park is the sort…
The one where I take on Huashan Hospital (once more) and live to tell the tale
Walking into a Chinese hospital is never a pleasant experience. There’s always something to throw you off – whether it’s the process of sardine-squeezing into at least three elevators before your find one without an overload sign, or being asked to carry…
Springtime in Shanghai, or arbitrary questions without easy answers
We’ve finally reached the Shanghai Spring (and, I guess, the month of April) last week, and although it was short-lived and the weather is once more back to a 50ºF hazy and rainy mess, the past week brought me back to the temperatures…