Welcome! Bonjour! 안녕하세요! ¡Hola! こんにちわ! Hallo!
Benjamin Franklin, a man of great wisdom, once advised, “Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing.” I started with a simple blog, Deceptively Blonde, to give myself a chance to express ideas and work through the process of re-discovering myself. Over time, my blog kind of grew up with me, morphing and changing even as I did. So please feel free to join me on this wonderful trip I call life and browse around. I like it even more if you leave comments or contact me with your own thoughts!
Why “DeceptivelyBlonde”?
Because I am a baby-faced blonde that people are always underestimating. It used to make me frustrated until I learned to use it to my own benefit. I’m getting in touch with my inner snake and proving to myself and to others what I can accomplish when I set my mind to it.
Who Is DeceptivelyBlonde?
That pretty much describes me to a T: someone who is interested in or works with lots of different things. I wear many hats on a normal day including:
Business & Law Professor | Cultural Heritage Law Researcher| Art & History Lover | Voracious Reader | Movie & Drama Watcher | Music Listener | Published Writer | Language Learner | Life Photographer | Eternal Traveler. . .
The last one there is pretty much the center of my life right now. In August 2014, I packed up my suitcases and set off for Xinzheng, China, a “country village” of more than 600,000 (that was counted as of 15 years ago!) and an old, old, old capital of China. Centered in the massive province of Henan and host to thousands of eager (and not so eager 😛 ) students. In 2017 I moved to Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China in the far far north (Dongbei). I’m currently applying for jobs in other countries, looking for a change in scenery.
Although it has its ups and downs, life in China has been truly amazing. If you read my blog, you’ll find that I try to keep you up-to-date with all the fun things I see and do in China, in addition to all my other little musings and side-tracked wanderings. It’s a beautiful, fascinating, kind, and comforting place to live – I wouldn’t trade my time here for anything. I’ve seen the Kaifeng Iron Pagoda, the Wushu Kung Fu festival at the Shaolin Temple, gazed on the wonders of Shanghai from the World Financial Center, hiked tons of mountains , eaten Baozi (steamed buns) for fun and Jaozi (steamed dumplings) for my “healthy” (if you skip them, your ears fall off!). I’ve had Christmas celebrations, New Moon parties, and three New Years festivals each year with my new student friends. Quite the adventure for a girl born in the Year of the Snake!
Of course, none of that means that I have abandoned my readers. If you tore me apart to the smallest, teeniest particles of my soul, you would probably find a tiny book. That’s because I was a born writer, and I have come a long way from my first two-line works of poetry. But it all still comes back to a love of life and sharing it through the written word ~ without my writing, I would be desolate. So look forwards to hearing a lot more from me in the future!
Deceptively Blonde 
Thanks for choosing to follow my blog, Deceptively Blonde! If you’d like a bit of advice on Tokyo, or the Pearl River Delta, (since you say you plan to move to somewhere in NE Asia after graduation) let me know!
Since you are quite familiar with the RoK, it’s a country that I’d never want to live in but a place where I’d like to stopover periodically to eat non-stop. Thinking about going to its northern border though…?
Ooh, I may have to take you up on that advice! I’ll hopefully be in Kyoto this summer, but I plan on visiting Tokyo a bit. I didn’t get much of a chance last time. Plus, I think Hong Kong will be my next stop so advice on that area would be great too 🙂
South Korea was truly amazing. I think it is the easy-going nature of the place. I’m not sure if it is the Confucius background or something else, but everyone is so friendly and laid back. At first I was nervous to be that close to the border, but eventually you just forget. Several of us even went onto North Korean territory via the demilitarized zone tour. It’s a lot of fun, actually. Guards from both armies stand and face one another in this room, with a line down the middle marking the border. You can take pictures with them, and they are expressionless. Kind of like the English guards in Britain. 😛
Hello deceptively blonde! Thanks for following No-mad, Looks like we share a love for all things Asian…! You might want to visit my other blog,http://digitalculturesandtranslation.com/ , I have quite a lot of info on learning Asian languages. Would love to have you share some of your Korean stories in No-mad!!
Have a great day in Iowa!
Cool! I just checked it out and it looks like it would be really helpful! I’m really trying to work on my Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese, but its coming along slowly 🙂 Anything that helps me pick them up faster is really beneficial. Japanese is really slowing me down, I like the easiness of Korean and the consistency of Chinese so much better 🙂 Also, feel free to share any of my stories. The more people interested or hearing about that amazing country the better. I loved every part of my visit: the history, the culture, the friendliness, the amazing graciousness of the people. I think everyone should visit Seoul for a least a while! 🙂
You´ve tempted me now!! And I totally agree that Japanese is a very involved language. I had to take a step back after five years in uni because I got to the point where if I did not go to Japan to live and really immerse myself in the language, I found it very hard to advance, there are so many cultural nuances! Yes, Chinese is simpler, it´s more of a memory exercise for me, but I also need a break at least two months a year, to give my brain a rest. I´m about to start Level 5 HSK this year and it´s quite overwhelming!!
If you have a particular story you´d like to share, let me know, otherwise, I´ll have a good look and talk to you about it.
Lovely chatting!
Teresa
Thanks for liking my post on broccoli juice! Have you tried it before? Do you want to try it now?
Why do you think Korean is easier than Japanese? Just because it only uses one alphabet?
I bought a manga a few years ago in Tokyo. It was a beginner’s guide to Korean, which would come in handy if I knew where it was! Have you tried studying one of the three (including Chinese) through another of the three?
Jikji is not the machine, but the document made by the machine in 1377! And anyway, there is a replica of Jikji in the National Museum of Korea. The original is at the National Library of France. We are working to have it repatriated as soon as possible.
I’ve actually done some research on the Jikji for various papers–I do a lot of work with Cultural Resource Law and Repatriation Law. The whole thing fascinates me, I was glad to see a replica of the machine itself when I visited Seoul’s Book Fair this past summer! They were doing replications of pages from the Jikji, and I was able to make and keep a copy. As a Seoul enthusiast, I spend days at the National Museum whenever I’m in the country; that is truly an awesome place! One of these days, I want to see the original.
Are you still in China, or in Korea now? Sounds like you’re having a wonderful time travelling/living in SE Asia.
Thanks for following our blog. I hope you enjoy the stories of our journey, both inner and outer. And don’t be a stranger. Feel free to join the conversation!
Cheers, and happy travels,
Alison
How is the air pollution in Xinzheng compared to Shanghai? The last time I was in Shanghai, it was so bad, I went home a few weeks earlier than planned.
Hopefully, a population of 600k, give-or-take, produces less air pollution than Shanghai’s population of more than 24 million.
Then there’s the traffic in Shanghai but the subway system helps to get around the city and avoid the street traffic and all those cars and trucks.
Haha, actually Xinzheng is close to Zhengzhou, famous for being the most polluted city in China. Worse than Beijing or Shanghai normally. It has a reputation. Shanghai was actually a respite we’d visit for a break. My students used to take pictures of clouds when they could see them because it was so uncommon. Our problem is the coal — it’s a major coal mining and coal using area. Our school used to use coal for heating about 2 years ago. No filters at all.
Luckily now, I live in Changchun (Jilin) since August. I finally moved out of the smog a bit — much nicer! Blue skies much of the time, although I’ve traded pollution for cold 😛
Have you visited southeast China near Gulin? I’m not talking about Gulin. The pollution and noise is bad there too. I’m talking about the autonomous region along the Li River area miles from the city of Guilin.
Guangzi Zhuan Autonomous Region