What the What is a Mangosteen

Something I've really enjoyed this year has been the seasonal produce. I feel like I always know what's in season based on what is in the produce stand and grocery store. For instance, on the 4th of July, I made the red stripes in my flag with cherries instead of strawberries because that's what they …

My Michael Phelps Moment

The Water Cube may be most famous as the spot where Michael Phelps won his 8th gold medal in a single Olympic summer. On Wednesday, I also trekked to the Water Cube which has since been re-purposed from an Olympic area to an indoor water park. He won 8 gold medals; I rode 5 waterslides... …

China: What’s Cheap and What’s Not

When coming to China from the US, I had envisioned a land where everything was dirt cheap. I imagined that since so much was made here, it would be even cheaper because I wouldn't even have to pay for shipping. While some things are cheap, others are way more expensive. Let's dive right in! What's …

Toilet Talk

So, today let's talk about real life. Sometimes life stinks... which brings us to the subject of bathrooms. Basically, there are several differences between bathrooms in China and America. Here's the lowdown. Toilet Paper In America if there is no toilet paper in your stall, it's because you are unlucky and they have run out. …

Stormy Walk to the Subway

While rain is pretty uncommon here in Beijing, we've been getting a few summer showers. Yesterday when it was time to go to work, it really started pouring. Here are some pics! It's strange when a weather phenomenon other than pollution becomes the main discussion around the water cooler. Any crazy weather back in TN …

Inner Mongolia

After we left Shanxi Province, we headed to a region of China I had never been to before—Inner Mongolia. Our first day was spent travelling and settling in to Hohhot. Because Inner Mongolia is really big geographically and sparsely populated, public transport wasn’t much of an option for our trip. Instead, I had booked us …

Happy America Day

Holidays in China have kind of been hit or miss this year. Thanksgiving went basically uncelebrated, we went to the hospital Christmas day when Alex had the flu, and we had to work on Easter. It's just one more aspect of living in a different culture. But for the 4th of July, we decided to …

The Magnificent, Splendid Huashan

After a night's rest in Xi'an, we headed out to go see one of China's five sacred mountains, Huashan. We took the subway, to a high speed train, taxied to the visitor's center, bought an entrance ticket, bought a bus ticket, and rode the bus to our starting point (phew). We could see the surrounding mountains, which …

Warrior Pose

Alex and I were both lucky in that our parents came to visit us this year. Alex’s parents came at the beginning of May, and we had a great time in Beijing! My parents came near the end of June and we got to do a bit of travelling outside of Beijing as well. To …

Different Walls for Different Days

At the top of most people’s bucket lists for a China visit is SEEING THE GREAT WALL. Which is awesome, no argument at all. But, what a lot of people don’t think about when planning a trip is that this awesome great wall is really long with different sections you could possibly see. So far, …