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maltzajava

Culture: Betel Nut in Myanmar, Southeast Asia

February 18, 2010

If you look closely at this little creature on the left, you might see a small green leaf in his mouth.
The little green leaf is filled with lime and a special type of seed, which is called Areca nut (or Pinang in Malaysia, Betel Nut in Myanmar, etc). The leaf, at least in Myanmar, also [...]

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Travel: Guess Where I Was – Three Photos

February 12, 2010

The following three photos were taken on a trip a took a few months ago. Can you guess where they are from? I’ll give you one clue: they are not from Singapore!

 

Did you guess Penang, Malaysia? If so, you’re correct! (I realize the last photo is a little too helpful).
Penang reminds me a lot of [...]

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Travel: Myanmar, Part II – How I Spent Christmas Eve

February 3, 2010

Christmas Eve 2009 was definitely one to remember. While most of my friends were back in the States battling the snow and struggling with the slow airline travel, I was hanging out near Inle Lake in Myanmar.
We started the day pretty early, threw on our dusty jackets, and headed to the lake for a boat [...]

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Site Update: Recent Changes

February 1, 2010

Well, I decided to change the name of my site one more time. If you are interested, you can check out the site history here.

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Link: New Blog from an Easterner in the West

January 25, 2010

Quick update – I added a link to a new site from a Chinese friend (and former teacher) working on her PhD in the US. Her blog was inspired by the fascinating Economist article entitles “The Others“. The blog is not even two weeks old, but the post so far have been really fun to [...]

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Travel: Myanmar (Burma), Part I

January 21, 2010

This is my first post about my recent trip to Myanmar. There is a lot I want to cover, so I decided to write several posts instead of one or two super long posts. For the first installment, I’ll keep it pretty general.
Several people asked me for a short summary, and this is what I [...]

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Education: Crazy Week for Singaporean Students – an American Comments

January 18, 2010

After spending some time in China and other parts of Asia, I did not expect to discover major cultural shock after moving to Singapore. For the most part, this proved to be true – I did not really encounter, or experience, anything that could be considered as ‘culture shock’.
However, when l I really started working [...]

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Language: Two More Tools I Use for Mandarin

January 16, 2010

I really owe a lot of my progress with Mandarin to Google and Mozilla. I already wrote about the amazing Mozilla add-on, but I thought I would mention two more web features that have helped me.
The first is a Mandarin tab for Google. Some time back, a group of people created a tab that links [...]

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Politics: Sino-Sudanese Relations

January 14, 2010

China has been heavily criticized for its close ties with Sudan. Despite an ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region, China continues to trade and support the Khartoum regime. Furthermore, China has threatened to veto any United Nations Security Council resolution that would send an international force into Sudan[1]. Those searching for an international solution [...]

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Language: My Favorite Mandarin Tool

January 11, 2010

I recently received an email from a buddy of mine that is doing an intensive Mandarin program in Taipei. During his studies, he had discovered many of the amazing tools available on the web for those trying to learn Mandarin. He rattled off all the flashcard programs, websites, and textbooks that I have come to [...]

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