July 4 is the day Americans celebrate Independence Day. Gracie decided to do her part with the following 2 patriotic songs: America, the Beautiful, and God Bless America. Lyrics: AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL, by Katherine Lee Bates 1 O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain; for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed […]
8 Things I Love About the USA
Today I’m re-upping a post I did back in 2014, just 2 years after I had moved back to the US from China. Six years on, I still feel the same about this place; even more so. Even though I have spent the better part of my life as an expat, I still love the […]
A Chained Beetle
I was in the Los Angeles area last week for meetings. During our Friday afternoon lunch break, we walked to nearby restaurant called Spitz. Along the way I spotted what I thought was a quintessential California scene. An oversized apartment building in faux-Spanish architecture. Palm trees. A 1960s VW Beetle. But wait….what’s with that chain? The […]
9/11 Boatlift
It was late at night on September 11 in Beijing when my mom called me from the U.S. to tell me about the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Internet was super slow back then and the local Chinese stations were not yet covering anything. I ran next door and woke up my teammate, […]
A Rocky Mountain Fourth
One of the traditions at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park Colorado is a Fourth of July Parade. Participants in the parade are campers, visitors, and various staff departments of the Camp and Conference Center. I absolutely love this slice of American life — people organizing themselves to dress up in silly costumes […]
A Norwegian Church in South Dakota
On our meandering trip across the prairie to Colorado over the past few days, we made a stop in Rapid City, South Dakota to see the Stavkirke Chapel in the Hills, a traditional Norwegian church. Here’s how it is described on the website: Nestled at the foot of the Black Hills, on the western edge […]
