From Grits to Chopsticks

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Last weekend, we were excited to have Timothy fly down from Chengdu and join us here in Kunming.  Our youngest son has been living in China for almost ten months now, and we think that the experience has helped him grow a bit (especially his hair): After he arrived on Friday, we let him take a little […]

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Our extended winter finally came to an end last week, just in time for the Qing Ming Jie holiday.  While the name denotes a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of spring, it is most commonly known as “Tomb Sweeping Day,” a time for visiting ancestral graves and showing respect for dead relatives. We took the […]

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When we first moved here we were pretty surprised at how dirty everything was.  Although there are large numbers of sweepers and cleaners, we wondered if they actually removed the dirt or just moved it around.  But then we came to appreciate the massive dust clouds that rise from the constant destruction of nearby apartment blocks: Some of […]

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Yesterday I looked over our blog to review what we had posted in the past year so that we won’t repeat ourselves.  I counted the number of posts and there were 70!  I wondered if there would be anything new to share, but then Mark came in with a picture of what he had seen […]

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In most places, not much changes in two months.  But this is China, and it’s pretty amazing what can happen in such a short period of time.  We normally walk past this thriving village behind our apartment: Here’s what that village looks like now: Even though the children here don’t have very much, they always […]

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On a typical international flight, the 416 passengers on a Boeing 747-400 will use 5.5 tons of food service items.  But this was not your typical flight: After a morning trip from Philadelphia to Minneapolis, we boarded the big plane heading for Shanghai.  Neither of us are good sleepers on airplanes, so we read and nodded our way across […]

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At 2:00AM, 24-Feb-2011, our first grandchild took his first breath of air and opened his eyes to examine his new world: He’s such a beautiful child (but we’re not biased, are we?).  7lbs, 11oz, and 20″ long: We were so blessed to have everything fall into place the previous few days.  Our house was rented, […]

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(Note: I wrote this a few months ago and am finally getting around to posting it). Life can be pretty overwhelming when you have 175 students, allowing you to be busy 24/7.  To avoid overload, we’re working hard to block out Sunday afternoon for a time of rest and refreshment, often heading for the mountains or […]

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One of our original blog posts stated five differences we encountered upon arrival in our new country.  Here are five more: Food is normally washed and prepared outside the restaurant on the front sidewalk: Extremely large loads are carried on bicycles and tricycles. Umbrellas are very often used to keep the sun off. Brooms are handmade […]

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