Critical Period

I’ll try not to sound like a college application essay here. I come from balmy Beijing summers and evenings sketching the neighbour’s old bike, hordes of mosquitoes inching up my dress. I come from crisp Woodside* weekends and creaky-ladder-mulberry-picking with the gang who’d completed their times tables. I come from breezy Cairo mornings on the… Read more

I grab a suspiciously brown glass from the plastic crates in the dining hall and fill it with cranberry juice that isn’t really cranberry juice.  I move to the salad bar, which serves a curious tomato and bean salsa that divides the Southeast Asians and those of us who can’t handle our spice quite as… Read more

I don’t celebrate Christmas. I got lost twice on the way to a festive lights show in Hyde Park with my college friends and whizzed through the din without stopping for a hot chocolate. I stood in a packed chapel in high school while dramatic renditions of the nativity were performed and watched as only… Read more

This year, and this day, have shown me how lucky I am. Here are 18 reasons why, excluding the ultimate gifts of sustenance, shelter, education, and good health. I am grateful for: Original Tabasco sauce. It’s a culinary staple in any household I occupy, and variations of the classic don’t come close. These tiny bottles… Read more