tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594529625503425882011-07-07T16:29:49.034-04:00Andrewnoreply@blogger.comBlogger361100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-87164598105618105352010-01-30T05:09:00.001-05:002010-01-30T05:12:25.463-05:00

Chinese New Year is fast approaching and in the north of China, dumplings are a must-eat lucky food.  So we're in training. Andrew, dumplings Drunk guys toasting each other with baijiu (read: liquor). Andrew, post-dumplings

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-8348152094201042152010-01-29T03:01:00.000-05:002010-01-29T03:01:45.487-05:00

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-82564887273919714962009-11-08T02:35:00.008-05:002009-11-09T21:38:31.003-05:00

We've been in China now about 10 months, and I've been studying Mandarin for about 7 of those. Here's a check-inRemember this sign? It's for the foot massage place that is a 30 second elevator ride from our front door. Here was my assessment last March after about a month of study:"Let me translate the top row of characters of the sign for you - "something, ren, lin, zhong, something something

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-58013655172086564052009-11-08T02:02:00.005-05:002009-11-08T02:34:19.606-05:00

In preparation for this week's upcoming artificially induced snow event (scheduled for Tuesday), thought I'd post a couple pics of the aftermath from last week (also artificially induced):

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-4859359587913778332009-10-31T20:25:00.001-04:002009-10-31T20:28:32.649-04:00

Judging by the green leaves still on the trees, someone forgot to tell Winter that Fall isn't finished yet...

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-6641128241017985742009-10-30T21:48:00.002-04:002009-10-30T22:05:41.009-04:00

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-50171902227266011762009-10-30T11:14:00.002-04:002009-10-30T11:25:22.044-04:00

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-25268821962342965032009-09-29T01:21:00.004-04:002009-09-29T01:42:34.901-04:00

Maybe you're distracted by the glimpse of a (rare) blue sky in Beijing, and you can't see the orange specks dangling off the side of the 20-story building:By individual ropes:The rope, from my close-up observation:That seems slightly frayed:Bi-annual window washing.

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-89095861853614377662009-09-26T03:27:00.009-04:002009-10-02T03:49:03.478-04:00

It's Mid-Autumn Festival time - (zhong qiu jie - 中秋节) - the harvest festival. The moon is supposed to be at its fullest this time of year, and thanks to Chinese weather modification for the recent PRC 60th Anniversary, the sky is clear and blue, which means we might actually be able to see the moon (it doesn't happen often). 中秋节 is one of only a few major holidays in China and most of the

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-89420330728832502812009-09-15T06:27:00.003-04:002009-09-15T06:42:07.496-04:00

More in the odd Beijing adventures department - Long story short - a few months ago Andrew, Peng, et al. entered a running competition at our gym on a whim. As in run on a treadmill, those with the best times in all of China get a trip to Singapore to compete in the all-Asia competition. With a little sweat and a lot of luck, they made it to the China finals. Peng, Andrew, and team at the

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-85778677528386149102009-09-13T04:42:00.010-04:002009-09-13T08:13:52.281-04:00

Andrew has dived back into Beijing a little quicker than I over the past week. We arrived, after a total travel time of about 23 hours (Indiana to San Francisco, San Francisco to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Beijing) on a Tuesday. With jetlag. And zero intention of re-entering our chinese life until the weekend. The plan, basically, was to collapse. And unpack later.But on Thursday, around 8 p.m.

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-14892910471493188672009-09-12T08:56:00.004-04:002009-09-12T09:13:50.029-04:00

We're back. Back in China. Back at school. Back at work. Back on-line (at least for now). More to come.

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-59323821259479986462009-07-03T01:30:00.004-04:002009-07-03T01:44:46.466-04:00

There's no shortage of these types of pictures from China, but here's our view, looking toward the subway, both taken in the afternoon. No, it's not fog. And it's not raining. You know. It's just the air.But it does clear up from time to time:

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-37686966433500899712009-06-28T04:45:00.002-04:002009-06-28T04:52:53.223-04:00

What things look like on this end: It's surprising, really, how often the servers here seem to unexpectedly drop connections for some websites.After maneuvers:

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-1251861591625450192009-06-26T02:11:00.004-04:002009-06-26T02:59:57.959-04:00

I know - It's been a while, there's some catching up to do, all in good time. China is carrying on, as it does. Know that it's in the 100 degree range (upper 30's and even 40 for anyone following the world dominant Celsius scale) for most of this week and next week here in Beijing. This is officially the first time in my life that I've considered turning on the A/C. That's mostly because,

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-86218518329366573742009-06-03T03:56:00.000-04:002009-06-03T03:59:44.902-04:00

In case you haven't heard, these are sensitive days for insecure regimes. Blogspot is blocked in China, so am testing some alternatives. Some work, some don't. Stay tuned.

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-89773838431692082342009-04-30T23:53:00.011-04:002009-05-01T02:29:58.200-04:00

Life is rolling on here in China. April has come and gone in a flash. It seems that at the beginning of the month we were preparing for a visit from Anne, she came, she went, and *poof*. It's May. I'll start with the present and work backwards:It's officially Spring/moving into Summer.  It's hard to tell the difference really.  But lots of flowers everywhere, the weather is mostly warm, and

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-23833763028300583502009-04-09T10:01:00.003-04:002009-04-09T10:12:13.557-04:00

That unexpected visitor was our landlord. This is the first we've seen of her. She's in town for a few days on a business trip and wanted to check in - she works for one of the big national banks and is based in western China. Mainly she wanted to chat about her son, who will soon graduate from college and wants to go study in America or England. So we chatted all about U.S. colleges and majors

Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14804294758013799296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-64828760398169037992009-04-09T09:16:00.003-04:002009-04-09T09:32:13.154-04:00

We have a visitor tonight. Someone knocked on our door - a couple of times - and since I don't generally answer the door in this country, I left it up to Andrew. He answered, they talked for a minute, and then he invited her in and offered her some water. And they've been talking ever since. I thought my Chinese was coming along pretty well until now, where for the last 45 minutes, I've been

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-3488451587785600152009-03-28T00:24:00.005-04:002009-03-28T00:44:48.390-04:00

So I have learned that one of the most maddening things about learning Chinese characters is the subsequent forgetting of Chinese characters.  For class everyday I am memorizing (or trying to) 20 or so new characters. If you do the math, so far that comes out to lots. Which of course is a relative term – lots compared to what I came with, but nothing compared to the number of characters

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-42991918168319972262009-03-27T23:57:00.005-04:002009-03-28T00:23:33.615-04:00

Every morning at 7:30 a.m. sharp, the tennis guy is out practicing his swing:Large organized groups of young'uns practicing parkour moves (for hours on end):Blossoms:

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-50740032952903281272009-03-27T10:21:00.007-04:002009-03-27T11:21:49.526-04:00

A brief hiatus, but am back.  A quick evening round-up, more to come:1.  My brackets are suffering.  For something like 10 years now, dad and I fill out the NCAA brackets and compare.  Winner gets a steak dinner.  Easy, simple, and let's be honest - I generally win.  But the first round Purdue win and the recent Duke loss - well - let's just say that Dad will have to come to China to get his

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-39485981399408122572009-03-22T10:17:00.003-04:002009-03-22T10:57:45.575-04:00

I spent most of last week out of town in a small city (pop. 120,000) southeast of Beijing. I was with a team of urban planners working on a new detailed plan for the city government, and we spent a couple days walking all around the city checking out existing land uses. Among the interesting things I saw was a government compound with these characters painted on the wall on either side of the

Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14804294758013799296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-55044339805379650902009-03-15T10:02:00.010-04:002009-03-15T11:48:19.365-04:00

(First a quick note that's now way out of date but in case you were wondering, we successfully picked up the package from what is apparently the one post office in our district that receives international packages -- that's a lot better than having just one such post office in all of Beijing, but this district is still pretty big.)Last time I checked, energy consumption per capita in China was

Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14804294758013799296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-33006415662937704852009-02-28T09:11:00.009-05:002009-02-28T10:22:59.092-05:00

My grandma search continues.  There are lots around.  Generally pretty small, and a little hunched over, they almost always walk in groups of two or three and are either carrying a bag of veggies or have their hands clasped behind their backs.  In the picture, there are two in the foreground, and a whole other group walking in the distance.      Andrew says to be patient.  So in the meantime - I

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-43119626780324779532009-02-22T07:27:00.008-05:002009-02-22T08:14:03.277-05:00

It's been twelve years since I first came to Beijing, and, yes yes, this place has changed a lot, but certain aspects of the city retain their sense of mystery. For example, the mail.China Post lost a big envelope of documents I sent express from California late last year, but the good news is that we received our first package at our new Beijing apartment and it's nice to know all postal systems

Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14804294758013799296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-8332167930862690252009-02-19T08:47:00.004-05:002009-02-19T09:10:52.060-05:00

Or at least a small army of people - to clear snow in Beijing.  Not that it snowed all that much.  Or that in reality Beijing has received approximately zero centimeters of natural precipitation since late October (cloud seeding is a frequently used art here).  But there was no fewer than 15 people clearing snow in the little open space area in our complex.  And another new thing that one sees

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-17042012265978707392009-02-16T08:41:00.004-05:002009-02-16T08:45:47.759-05:00

Our dateOur dinner

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-18339110201603902632009-02-16T08:16:00.002-05:002009-02-16T08:34:43.748-05:00

I haven’t managed to get myself adopted by a Chinese grandma (yet). So I signed up for a cooking class instead. Last Thursday was my first day. And until last Thursday, I thought I had a pretty good handle on what it meant to “stir-fry” something. Right.First off, I got a little lost. It was my first real trip out sans translator/husband. And that’s fine. I’m a strong independent woman and

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-30205974218800093682009-02-12T10:49:00.004-05:002009-02-12T11:06:24.986-05:00

I got named yesterday.  In some cultures, naming involves ceremonies, celebrations, at the very least usually a parent might peruse a baby name book or try out grandpa's middle name or something. We were at school registration.  The form asked for my name, and then for my Chinese name.  Which of course I didn't have yet because how do you just pick a name for yourself in a language you don't know

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-33212541758767577002009-02-01T23:33:00.002-05:002009-02-01T23:40:30.395-05:00

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-21656413396203482972009-01-31T09:25:00.005-05:002009-01-31T10:27:50.937-05:00

Andrew's mom always says "Home is where your things are".  Which is true.  Except our "things" are spread across three states and two countries at this point.  And so my variation is more like "Home is where your kitchen is".  As in workable, cookable, I-know-where-the-pots-are-give-me-some-garlic-to-chop kind of kitchen.  We're getting there, with just a couple of minor bumps along the way. Bump

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-13905059530025188522009-01-24T09:37:00.003-05:002009-01-24T10:25:34.467-05:00

Well we've arrived.  Last night actually. Many months of planning, weeks of travelling, and here we are. Beijing. It's cold, but not unbearable. Maybe in the teens of low 20's (Fahrenheit - but I'm trying to learn to think in Celsius. and meters and hectares and kilos.) Two weeks in Manila are just a warm sandy dream now - it's full out winter gear for the first time since we lived in

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-57167514126107900312009-01-21T21:22:00.003-05:002009-01-21T21:56:16.463-05:00

We haven't had a lot of computer access since getting to the Philippines, and we're leaving for China tomorrow, so again - down and out. I've met the rest of Andrew's family here (it's large, and we keep running into more) and they've been taking turns giving us the grand tour of Manila and Pandan (which is where Andrew's grandma, "Lola" here, was raised). We've been to the world's smallest

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-53168878475143693402009-01-07T10:29:00.001-05:002009-01-07T21:31:58.303-05:00

We made it to Hong Kong, exhausted and famished - after checking in to our hotel it didn't take long to find a noodle shop.  

Andrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14804294758013799296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659452962550342588.post-88145440068075252882009-01-06T03:50:00.003-05:002009-01-06T04:13:19.036-05:00

It's 4:00 a.m. in New York and we're up.  Packing, double checking - I, for one, have not mastered the art of moving overseas.  Or for that matter, sleeping the night before. Our itinerary:  Leave tomorrow (excuse me - today) for a couple of days in Hong Kong before heading to the Philippines for two weeks before heading back for Chinese New Year.  Back to it.

Andrewnoreply@blogger.com1