Published Pieces

Two items I thought I'd cross post here on my blog. Hope you'll take a gander!

InterNations, a network of guides for expats, interviewed me regarding life in Beijing as an expat and why I started this blog.

Floating down a manmade river at Longqingxia. 

Q&A with InterNations

The Wall Street Journal has a great blog called WSJ Expat, which I write for on occasion. A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece about Hou Jinxia, my Mandarin teacher who has made frequent appearances on this blog. I'll be writing soon about her wedding, which Scott and I are going to this weekend!

My Beijing savior: Hou Jinxia

When Your Language Teacher Becomes Your Therapist

Happy reading!

We Get Visitors!

The famous Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi'an! 

This spring has been really busy for Scott and me, with many work trips and the visit of Scott's mom and stepdad!

Nancy and Greg hadn't traveled internationally much, but they were great troopers about trying new things and open to a lot of walking in the mid-April heat, which really felt more like July temperatures at times.

"Oh That's Different" No. 6

It's been awhile since I had one of these posts ...

Even if it's busted. 

1. No discount; fix it yourself. Zara was having a ridiculous sale a few weeks ago and I found a lovely top for more than half off. One problem: there was a small tear on the cuff of one arm. Naturally, I asked for a discount, as I would in the U.S. and most likely would've gotten on. Not here. The saleswoman's response: I can't give you a discount -- and you can sew it yourself!

Branching Out

My radio silence is inexcusable, but here are my excuses for not blogging lately: a work trip to India and my newfound love, binge watching The Americans. Yes, feel free to judge. But I've also been on some new excursions.

Found at a pop-up food fair in Beijing. An old-school boom box. 

Silver Mountain Pagoda Forest

Atop Silver Mountain. 

For a Spring Festival outing, Scott and I went with our friends Te-Ping and Ben to see the pagodas about an hour outside of Beijing. This is one of the few ruin sites that hasn't been destroyed in China and used to be a sacred Buddhist shrine/scene spot during the Ming and Qing dynasties. There are a handful of pagodas/stupas still standing, which are gorgeous.

Happy Year of the SheepGoat!

Today officially marks the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the week-long celebration where basically all of China shuts down and the greatest human migration happens, as everyone who moved from the countryside to the cities returns home for the Spring Festival. On Monday alone, 850,000 people left Beijing. That's a lot of people.

View from our bedroom window on the eve of Lunar New Year. BOOM! 

Pucks on Ponds in Beijing

A couple weekends ago, Scott played in a pond hockey tournament at Houhai, which is a huge lake in the middle of Beijing. In the winter, the lake becomes an outdoor playground, with speed skaters mingling with teenagers zipping by on ice sleds and children playing in bouncy castles put up on the ice.

Pond hockey + cold weather = Wings hat all day.