中秋节快乐！  zhōng qiū jié kuài lè !  Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! A few weeks ago (September 27), we celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival, one of...

Earlier this summer I shared the top 10 unexpected t-shirts I had seen to that point.  After I posted it, I kept seeing interesting...

Visitor: Is that our bus honking the horn? Experienced with China Friends: (with a shrug of their shoulders) Maybe… Visitor: (trying to...

I currently have a six-month visa that can’t be renewed in Beijing.  In order to get a new one, I had to take a trip to Hong Kong.  Since...

When you rent an apartment in China, you can never be totally sure of what might not work properly, what problems might crop up, and what...

After the days we spent exploring the breathtaking Jiuzhaigou and admiring the pandas’ cuteness, we spent our last day relaxing in the...

After our beautiful day in Jiuzhaigou, we took a 9+ hour bus ride south, through the area where the epicenter of the 2008 earthquake was,...

This week I fulfilled a 9-year old dream: to visit Jiuzhaigou National Park in Sichuan Province, China.  I’ve been hearing about this...

The theme at Velvet Ashes (one of my favorite websites) this week is a fun one—top ten lists.  I I decided to stick with something...

One of my favorite summer drinks is an iced chai latte, especially from Panera, especially when combined with a cinnamon crunch bagel...

On Saturday, I went on a group hike to a section of the un-restored Great Wall.  This section is far off the tourist path and some work...

I recently took a trip and we traveled by the high speed train, sometimes known as a bullet train.  This was my first bullet train ride...

Sometimes I like to take my camera out and take a saunter around my neighborhood, stopping to photograph whatever seems interesting. ...

I ate chicken feet (okay, a chicken foot) in my own apartment.  Chicken feet are on my list of things I’d rather not eat because of their...

“When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.” John 19:30 As I look back over the season of Lent, these words are helping...

A fun thing about living in China is pineapple season!  Pineapples aren’t grown in Beijing, but they appear for sale everywhere in the...

Back in December, I learned about a new (to me) band called Eine Blume on the Velvet Ashes blog.  Their newest album is called Farewell...

This weekend, I finally mustered up the courage to get a haircut in Beijing.  That’s right, I went over six months without getting my...

I don’t start back to class until Monday.  So this week I decided to spend a day learning about and enjoying Beijing.  First, I went to...

My fall walk around the neighborhood is my second most popular post ever, so I decided to take a Spring Festival walk.  This is a time of...