Professor in China

One of my favorite amateur writers has finally quit the e-mail updates and started a blog!  Actually, Robert has gone back and forth between blogging and sending e-mails but either way, I think he's a great writer and always has something interesting to say. 

His current subject is his adventure teaching English Literature at a university in Dalian, China.  I love his observations of everything from stinky fruit to timid students.  His photos are really great too.

Here's a little taste of his writing, from a post called Road Sage:

Chinese-style "traffic control" might be arguably described as population control. There seem to be no actual rules of the road, and who owns a particular piece of the lane has much less to do with who has some sort of legal right, than with who has a stronger desire for it.

It is a battle of wills here. You don't worry so much about what you're "supposed" to do, as about what you can do. Elbows are strong in China, and they get used.

Car horns here are a basic means of communication.

Let's say a taxi driver is approaching an intersection, and five people are trying to walk across the street in front of him, while two cab-drivers are trying to move into the street from his right. He can toot his horn, gently, to say "no, you wait: I really want to go now." Another cabbie might lay on his horn, to say "sorry, my passenger is in a hurry, so I'm going to go anyway." The first cabbie will either slow down and let the more-urgent driver get through, or lay harder on his own horn. It's a kind of nonverbal communication that a professor could write books about...

You'll have to click over to read the rest.  Enjoy!