From Grits to Chopsticks

In China, apartments are individually owned (like western condos).  So when our landlord needed to move back into his apartment, we had to find a new place to live.  Fortunately, we were able to find another apartment about 100 yards away in the same complex:Our new apartment is on the 16th floor near the top-center […]

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A few weeks ago, local friends gave us some durian: A durian could easily be used as a battle weapon – large, heavy and covered with very sharp spines.  Our friend told us there’s a saying that if your husband comes home late from work, he should kneel on one as punishment:Actually, the danger is not confined to the outside: […]

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If you were able to complete the title of this blog, you must be about 60 years old.  When Paul Simon recorded “One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor” 45 years ago, I never thought he was talking about our future in China: When a person buys an apartment in China, it’s basically a unfinished […]

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It is hard to believe that we’ve been teaching here for seven years.  This year’s graduates were just starting High School when we first arrived in China.  The graduating class seemed larger than ever: Graduates 2017The faculty representatives marched in to the Star Wars theme (click to view -> Star Fleet Academy). The spectators gallery was a […]

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Last week, our Sunday afternoon walk took us along the north shore of Dianchi Lake:It was an unusually clear day, providing good views of the distant cliffs of Western Hills:We started our walk in a park where people were catching crawfish by hand,learning to sketch,dredging out seaweed, and scooping up critters:Outside of the park, the path narrows down […]

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Almost each week I have the privilege of eating lunch with some of my students.  Our school cafeteria has a quite a variety of options, and I enjoy having the students choose something for me so that I learn new foods: It’s really great to spend time with these special young people!

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As a follow-up to my previous post about the flood of rental bikes in our city, we have finally been able to get my smartphone to unlock some bikes:Depending on the bike, it costs about 30 cents an hour to ride it anywhere in town and leave it wherever you choose.  We rode about 15 […]

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{Warning – the following post might not be suitable for typical readers. Proceed with caution unless you are an engineer!} When living in a foreign country, it can often be difficult to replace things when they break (unavailable, language barriers, transportation limitations, etc).  That provides us with the “opportunity” to try and fix things. Recently, there have […]

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In addition to our usual teaching responsibilities, we often have the opportunity to get involved with extra activities.  Last week, we participated in an “English Culture / Easter” presentation that was organized by a student committee:Student groups and individuals sang pop songs in English and Chinese: played traditional Chinese instrumental music:and danced: As usual, young children […]

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As we travel around town, we often get a chuckle out of “interesting” uses of the English language (previous similar blogs are here and here). This diaper brand name aptly describes what usually happens when changing your baby: Not to be outdone, the competition chose a similar sounding name: A “New Balance” shoe store just […]

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