A small desk in the 2nd-floor apartment serves as my work space. I am looking south toward a rather large windows with a large tree outside. Nice to see the foliage, although the security bars on the windows offer a kind of jail house ambience. My days have been starting sometime between 3:30 and 4:30 a.m. This is not by design; rather, I think it is the result of my body trying to reset its circadian clock, which was ... Read More
Getting Settled in Hangzhou
Our first week in Hangzhou found us reestablishing our life in a much different way than we are accustomed to living in Minnesota. We met with some old friends, did some basic grocery shopping, signed up with a Chinese telecom provider for Chinese phones, took a tour to the nearby canal town of Wuzhen, enjoyed three wonderful Chinese dining experiences, and quickly remembered how to cross a Hangzhou intersection without ... Read More
Return To China, the Silk Road, and More
RETURN TO CHINA (Feb 17 - Jun 30) We're headed back to China! In February, 2012, my wife, Char, and I spent five months in China. Char taught English in a school in Hangzhou and I worked remotely for my company. What an experience! Now we will return. Char will again be teaching in Hangzhou. But this time, I will be freelancing. I’m planning to write about the rich experiences we are bound to have during our time there. ... Read More
Last hours in Hangzhou
During our Sunday walk around West Lake, we got a text from our student-interpreter (also our new Chinese granddaughter), Eryi (are-ee'), asking when we were leaving. She wanted to visit one more time. So we met her at Pacific Coffee this morning and chatted for a couple of hours--about school, about going off to college, about China and the United States and the difference in our populations and cultures. ... Read More
A Walk Around West Lake
After five months in China, we realize that there are so many things that we HAVE NOT done. We haven't used the well-developed bike rental system, we haven't gone to the Lei Feng Pagoda, we didn't get to the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an, didn't make it to Beijing, the Yellow Mountain, the kilns in Ningbo, Tibet, and other places and sites. We have been promising ourselves that we would walk around West Lake, ... Read More
Last Days in Hangzhou
A Last Lunch Menu at Monday's lunch with Lindan and William (whom we met during the Marryin' Joseph episode--go look at the pics again): Duck eggs with soy sauceCrab--three whole animalsTofu with meat fillingTea mushroomsWest Lake beef soupSpicy frogSome kind of whole crustacean, not shrimp, not lobster--something in betweenShrimp dumplingsPeanut ice cream Lindan is our Chinese daughter and we wanted to ... Read More
Eating Fun in Hangzhou
Eudora Station is one of the latest restaurant discoveries for us. Although it is located right smack-dab in the middle of the tourist area of Hangzhou, we didn't discover it until Sunday, June 10, nearly five months after our arrival. I guess that is an indication that we do not hang out much in the tourist places. Nevertheless, Eurdora Station was fun to discover. It has a nice combination of ... Read More
Preparing to say good-bye
Today ended four days of lunches, dinners, and outings with some of our Chinese friends. It's a kind of last mad rush to get in those experiences we've been meaning to get to, but, for some reason, haven't had the opportunity to do. Seems odd in a way. When you stay in a place for five months, you would think a person would have ample time to see a country, even a country like China. And it probably would be enough time ... Read More
Another Rewarding Chance Encounter
Michael (left) and Adam (right) with me in the Max Pub. These two young men are in their mid-twenties and have come from the northern provinces to find their way in Shanghai. Adam speaks English very well, all self-taught. Both Michael and Adam were enthusiastic conversationalists. We walked into the Max Pub in Shanghai on our return walk from the foreign bookstore, where we had gone to buy cookbooks and a gift for our ... Read More
Trying to come up for air!
I'm back after a long hiatus from the Status Update. But it's not my fault. We have been busy. For our latest adventure this past weekend, I played a minister. See the story, Marryin' Joseph, in the People section of the blog. This took considerable time, requiring a couple of meetings prior to the event, plus all day during the event. The weekend past was quite busy, indeed. We met ... Read More
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