Thirty years ago, I set off for what I thought would be a one-year teaching stint in China. Twenty-eight years later, I moved back to the States. Either I’m really bad at math or that was one very long year. I worked in three different cities: Zhengzhou, Changchun, and Beijing. I wore many different hats:…
Month: February 2014
Snapshots from the Polar Vortex
The dreaded Polar Vortex (what we used to call a cold snap) has once again descended on Minnesota. It heralded its return on Thursday by dumping close to a foot of snow on much of the state (including the Twin Cities), and until it slithers out of here we are looking at below zero temps…
Wedding Photos
One of my favorite streets in Beijing is Xisi Nan Dajie. Besides being one of the few remaining shopping streets in the old part of the city, it’s main claim to fame these days is being ‘wedding studio’ street. For the mile or so that runs between Xisi and Xidan, many of the storefronts on…
Visa! Visa!
It’s official! I’m headed back to China next month; and now I have the visa to prove it! Since September of last year there has been no valid China visa in my passport, something that hasn’t been true for close to 20 years! I didn’t like that feeling, so last week when I got my passport…
Good-bye Sweet Oreo?
Why China’s Falling Out of Love With the Oreo Now that’s a headline that we surely would never have seen back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. In those days, Oreos were a prized possession for the foreigner working in China — something that you asked your mom to put in the big box that…
I Miss the Chinese Curlers
For the first time since in years I am not watching Olympic coverage on CCTV5, the official Chinese sports channel. This means, of course, that I am missing out on watching the competitions the Chinese tend to do well in, like women’s speed skating and curling. Yes, I said curling. One of the funny things…