My mother knocked at the bathroom door one morning, yelling, "Come out and watch the TV, doctors in Singapore say that smartphone addiction is a psychiatric disorder!"
Where are you from? It should be an easy question, right? Wrong!
Second-generation parenting has become an established social practice in China. It isn't considered unusual for the elderly in China to look after the houses of their children or bring up grand-children.
After several years in China, Erik Nilsson no longer finds it strange that his child's nanny wears a Satanist shirt, and he's learned to keep his duck shirt for trips back to the US.
The Brazilian buzz is not exclusively felt in the host nation, or in the 32 competing countries. Nations eliminated in the qualifying groups have not let their light of fervor flicker in the wind of resignation.
Being in a foreign country is difficult, especially when it is as different a place as China, and the language barrier only makes it harder.
Since I arrived in Beijing last summer, I have taken to the underground train system like a duck to water. I have used the subway to travel to work, visit tourist sites, run petty family errands, meet friends and even while away time.
Some days, the beeping of incoming messages gets overwhelming, but technology does facilitate quick communication at little cost. Tiffany Tan writes.
Whenever I'm in a new city, I like to walk as much as I can, particularly off the beaten track—first to get my bearings, then to stumble on unexpected treasures that aren't part of the regular tourist trails.
Shortly after I arrived in Beijing last year, a friend in South Korea asked me if I had yet bought a bicycle.
Ripping off my Jason Voorhees facemask, I sucked in the parched fumes that pass for oxygen in my office and stared balefully at the chocolate love hearts that were chemically bonding to my desk.