ROBERT SKORO www.robertskoro.com
Anthropology
University of Minnesota, Kicking Various Kinds of Ass
All I’ll say is that this week sucks: reading 100+ pages per day for only a portion of my courseload, working continuously from 6 am to 11:30pm every day. Blah. Being and time vs. time and being. Double blah. Last week was much the same, but augmented by Zhao Liang’s moving documentary, Petition, at the Walker [...]
From the Ground Up
VACATION! VACATION! VACATION! I really can’t get my mind around how quickly the last three months have rocketed by, but low-and-behold the end of my semester has arrived. I handed in a 46-page paper entitled From the Ground Up about land-use, governance, and Dai culture in Xishuangbanna, which is the southernmost part of Yunnan province. [...]
Rulebook
The following is my own personal guide to China that I made for my wife, Ellen, who’s coming here in less than three weeks (!) with less preparation that I had: The Rules Do Not Apply Here: Everything you’ve ever known about how things should be, what constitutes courtesy, and what common sense is, just [...]
The Wind At Our Backs
Wooooooooooow… Really loving the last two weeks of this life, traveling through northwestern Yunnan. We swung through Weishan, the first capital of the Nanzhao kingdom during the Tang dynasty, which preceded the Kingdom of Dali until it was sacked by Genghis Khan at the onset of the Yuan Dynasty. A low-key, beautiful town, with a [...]
Holy. Daoist. Mountain.
I’ve caught a couple minutes’ respite here after a two-week homestay that was coupled with the final weeks of my language classes in Kunming and the beginnings of my preparations to conduct a project of my own here in Yunnan. I really enjoyed the homestay– I think they enjoyed me too, despite my inability to [...]
Xishuangbanna!
My trip to Xishuangbanna was, as predicted, a mix of spur-of-the-moment decisions, short-term plans, small accomplishments, and the occasional minor failure. Melissa, Rose, and I were a capable bunch with a good mix of language skills (my weak point) and travel experience both within and outside of China. We left ready to spend a great [...]
It’s Not That H1N1 Is That Bad– The Propaganda’s Just That Good
Getting ready for a week of (working) vacation. Being stuck in a classroom for most of the day gets a little old after a while– I can do that at home, no? Had a rowdy Friday night singing KTV until almost 7a.m., and then started getting plans to go to Xishuangbanna together during Saturday and [...]
Settling In
The month has been flying by thus far, especially with the lack of time off we’ve had in the last ten days or so. I’ve been staying busy with learning the language, of course, as well as complete the first of several seminars on various aspects of Chinese culture. Hence the great multitude of monasteries [...]
The Mountains are High and the Emperor Far Away
For a variety of reasons, I became more dedicated to journaling than I’ve ever been in my life beginning the day I arrived in Kunming. Hong Kong, in my pre-departure vision of China, had seemed too gentle an introduction to really get my gears spinning. Rather, it seemed more to be a good opportunity to [...]
Greetings from Hong Kong & Kunming
Had a great long weekend in Hong Kong, followed by a monumental first couple of days in Yunnan. Working on collecting my thoughts and experiences to share with y’all real soon. In the meantime, enjoy HK pix. Think popsicle-bursting heat. {title:”Greetings from Hong Kong & Kunming”,url:”http://www.robertskoro.com/2009/09/04/greetings-from-hong-kong-kunming/”}