Culture in the Blender

I’m homesick for China. I think anywhere in Asia would do.  Yesterday morning was rainy with a hint of fog, and I thought for a second that it was smog. I’m listening to Chinese music and wondering what’s in fashion. I want my morning bus to be one of the old Beijing buses with the [...]

I’m supposed to be writing my doctoral thesis (hence very few posts lately), but for some reason I can’t stop thinking about where I’m going to live after I defend. I will be done with my education and so for the first time in my life have some kind of decision about where to live [...]

Part of my efforts to graduate involves finding a job. People ask from time to time where I’d like to live, and I say “New York.”
There seem to be two general responses to this: Americans often say “New York is too expensive/busy/crowded” and non-American often say “Oh, I’d love to live in New York too!” [...]

My experience of attending school in Sweden was that the Social Democrats have a serious case of delusional thinking regarding what to reward and communicating that you have to work hard to get what you want in life. Conservative Swedes tend to agree, as far as I can see, but I was somewhat surprised to [...]