#Fire drill! #China style! 📣 Because we take your security seriously – we use real #smoke bombs to stink the building up, train you to go through usually locked doors, and ask that you guess when a fire starts because we have no smoke alarms. But you know, security! At least now maybe they’ll stop padlocking all the outside doors at night 😂
#Astrill VPN 2017
4 MayAstrill VPN
If you pay any attention to my blog, you’ll know that for the last 3 years I have been living abroad. The world has many wonderful aspects to it (the mountains are GORGEOUS!), but stable and safe internet service is not one of those. My friend recently took her computer back to the States after a trip abroad to be repaired and the tech guy said she had more than 200 viruses on her system.
So if you aren’t looking to break firewalls and get into sites you shouldn’t be getting into, why would you want a VPN? You can find my list of the pros and cons of a VPN here. In general, I like the security a VPN provides to me, whether at home or abroad. I still use my VPNs in the US, especially if at a public location to avoid the same hacks, viruses, and trojans I worry about while traveling. A VPN can help keep you fast and safe. Sometimes. Depending on which VPN you choose. Also, it sometimes helps me bypass technical issues in the system. For example, my university uses Blackboard, but it does have random glitches that drop it a lot. About 25% of the time, it only works if the teachers use a VPN. When other teachers are down and out, those with a VPN can still get on.
To be honest, I actually go back and forth between Astrill and VyprVPN which runs at about $80/year for 1 device or $100/year for 2 device. Another one recommended to be was ExpressVPN which runs at about $100/year for 1 device and 1 phone/ipad (I’ve never tried them so I have nothing to give you for Express).
After more than 3 years as an Astrill user, I thought I would offer you a report on how it’s going. Continue reading
Let Summer Commence!
30 Apr
Lemon 7-up is absolutely delicious! They call it ningmengqi or 柠檬七.
柠檬 (lemon) + 七 (7). It’s basically 7-up with squeezed lemon in it. Delicious!
I usually order it 多多冰 (duo duo bing). 多means more/extra. In Chinese, saying something twice makes it stronger – so 多多 means ‘a lot extra’. 冰 means ‘ice’.
So I get 柠檬七多多冰 (ningmenqi duoduobing) or lemon 7-up with lots of ice. It’s possible I’m supposed to say the Ice first- my grammar isn’t that good. 😂 But they understand me! It cost me 7¥ or about 1$.
If you visit #China. you should try it. Very Good and super refreshing!
The #Tech Life ~ #VPN Pros and Cons
26 Apr
As always, I’m actually a supporter of people using VPNs to protect themselves when on the internet. Although a VPN is never completely anonymous, it does go a long way towards protecting your identity and computer from people who want to hack and steal your data. For those of you interested in how a VPN can help you or hurt you, I thought I’d compile a list of benefits and problems I’ve run into with my 3 years of VPN experience 🙂
Continue reading#TeachingLols ~ That’s a lot of Kids!
6 Apr#Chinese Garden
24 Mar
Wanna climb the pagoda? 😊 The beautiful sight greeted me on the way to classes. It’s a lovely pagoda up on the hill and part of a park in the middle of our campus. I love all the #colors!
**Just don’t go up there at night. 😂 It’s pretty much destined to live as a kind of ‘kissing kastle’ sort of place at night. When all the students have 7 other kids in their rooms, couples find privacy here 😜
#Cooking Abroad
23 Feb#cooking in #China 😄 When you live in a #itsybitsy apartment with no counter space and definitely nooven, you have to do a little engineering for #baking #chocolatechipcookies 😂 So instead we use an old #target game board and a table oven. My life is so much fun!
#foodie #Cookies #lifeisfun #travel #lifeabroad #international
























