From Grits to Chopsticks

You know that you’re back in China when you go for a walk and the dust clouds make it hard to see underneath the bridge,and there are dogs barking at you from the roof,and large statues loom above the rooftops:You know that you’re back in China when you cross a sketchy bridge over a ravine […]

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Our Chinese city recently experienced its coldest winter in 30 years, continuing a 10 year cooling trend.  The colder weather is especially hard on residents here due to the lack of indoor heating:We’re finally getting to the point where the outside temperature is warming up enough to open the windows and let the heat come inside (something we never […]

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Even though we live abroad most of the year, this year gave us the special treat of celebrating both of our grandsons’ birthdays in the States!  Since the youngest, Sam, has a fascination with construction vehicles…… our daughter made him a construction vehicle cake (also, notice the pajamas):Elijah enjoys watching Super Mario, so he chose this theme for his birthday:We’re now […]

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After celebrating a late Christmas with kids and grandkids in Utah, we began our journey back east.  Southeastern Utah has some spectacular scenery, especially near Moab:We took this opportunity to drive around Arches National Park during the off-season: We continued to head south, crossing through the snowy corner of Colorado: and into New Mexico: Much of […]

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Shortly after spending Christmas with Susan’s brother in South Carolina, we drove to Utah where our oldest son recently moved.  The long trip took us through some states for the very first time.  Being the cheapskates that we are, we ate many sandwiches along the way.  The weather was warm enough to eat outdoors at the rest area […]

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Even though our city is officially know as “The Spring City,” wintertime does eventually come.  Recently, the landscaping crews prepared for winter by covering bushes and trees: Although the outside temperature rarely drops below the freezing point, the inside temperature can get quite cold (note that the date is incorrect):Our electric space heaters provide a tiny bubble of […]

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For Susan’s birthday, we traveled to the far corner of town and visited the Wild Animal Park.  We watched an Angry Bird show (the trainers were angry at the stubborn birds):and camels: China is famous for Pandas, but the Kunming panda was replaced by a few ostriches:The main activity at this park is feeding the animals.  Here […]

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This year, we held a Thanksgiving English Corner at our school.  The students must’ve heard that we would be serving food, leading to a record attendance of 43 students:Susan taught the story about the first American Thanksgiving:While she was talking about the helpful Indians (Squanto and Samoset), our token Indian entered the room (when you’re in […]

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The weather was beautiful on Saturday, so we took a stroll through Green Lake Park.  We were joined by a few other people:Centuries ago, this park was actually a bay on the north end of Dianchi Lake:But now, it is in the middle of a busy city.The park is always full of dancers: The colors and melodies […]

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Our local air quality typically goes through a day/night cycle.  The pollution rises to unhealthy levels at night as thousands of construction trucks enter the city, then strong breezes blow most of the dirty air away in the afternoon. Here’s a typical morning scene from our apartment window:and here’s the afternoon view (on an exceptionally good day):We can […]

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