From Grits to Chopsticks

In our last post, we talked about the wedding we attended in a nearby town.  Here are a few photos of the festivities.  The “receiving line” at a typical Chinese wedding happens at the beginning when the bride and groom welcome guests at the door of the hotel or restaurant: As guests arrive, they are given candy […]

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Last weekend, we traveled about five hours north of our city to attend the wedding of two good friends.  Even though we were just riding in the back seat, we were pretty exhausted upon arrival due to the stress of constantly passing large vehicles on  blind mountain curves: Instead of watching out the front window, it was much […]

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Yesterday, we attended the graduation ceremony at our university.  As we walked onto the front plaza, we found it interesting that they were playing this song: GraduationIntroMusic This was the first time that the school chose to hold a single graduation ceremony for all departments.  There were chairs for several thousand students in front of the […]

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Since it only takes a few hours by air to get from our city to Thailand, many friends travel there for medical care or for a time of R&R.  Susan and I enjoyed the latter last weekend.  When you first arrive in Thailand, you are greeted by the king (at least, by his picture): The king is highly respected in Thailand, so we […]

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Last week, I rode the bus to visit a university in a nearby mountain town.  All of the seats on the bus were full this time, shortening the trip to about 2 hours.  The trip will take longer when there are empty seats, since the driver will divert through small towns to pick up extra riders and increase his personal revenue.  Of […]

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As we’ve mentioned before, Sunday is usually our day of rest.  We spend the morning at an international fellowship in our city, eat lunch with a group of friends, and then go to a park for a walk together.  A while back, we found a park which must have a specific purpose in the event […]

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One of our students manages the pool hall at his school and loves to play the English game of “snooker.”  Although he has tried to teach me, he is way out of my league and always wins.  After we played last week, I took a video of him making a curve shot (click this link to view: Curve […]

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In the west, we often have a special day for taking a child to work.  The son or daughter may get a tour of the factory or office, participate in a meal, and hear a special speaker. For many people in China, everyday is “take your child to work day.”  Tiny children wander through the market while […]

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Wherever you go in our city, you will find buildings being razed and buildings being raised.  Before starting a construction project, the workers always build a wall along the roadside.  This process often seems to happen almost overnight, starting with site preparation: Two things to note in photo above: the small building in the foreground was erected […]

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We took the following photos on our recent trip to the States, illustrating a pretty significant difference in air quality between the airports in Beijing and Chicago: It’s probably wise to have an instrument rating if you ever plan to land a plane in China.  When we arrived in the States, we had to take a deep breath and […]

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