It was bright and breezy this morning, and it got to about 85 degrees in the heat of the day. I rode my bike down to The Olive, a relatively new restaurant here in Beijing that's not far from my house ( Read more... )

Sunday morning, and I got up early. 6am, and I started listening to "A Prairie Home Companion" live on OPB via streaming audio. The sandstorm that had been expected overnight on Friday has arrived Sunday morning, instead, due to a change in the wind direction. The wind is whipping outside my windows, and the sky has turned from yesterday's ( Read more... )

To Preface: every now and then we get Administrative Notices at the Embassy, reminding us about things, introducing new services, warning us that we should not do certain things, etc. etc. -- this one was sent out on April Fool's Day this year and we all got a great laugh out of it, so I thought I'd share it. Enjoy!April 1, 2006 ( Read more... )

1. Okay, the thing with moving my work ID somewhere I couldn't find it was funny yesterday. Now I really need it back. Please, thank you?

2. What's with making me think it was Friday when I woke up? That wasn't funny either. It's only Wednesday!

*goes back to blowdrying her hair*

After I sent her a text message last night, my Chinese naturopathic doctor brought me an herbal remedy for my ankle this morning. It's a neat poultice of traditional Tibetan herbs, but it's made up in modern form like a giant Band-Aid. There are 5 in a pack, and you open one of the individually wrapped poultices, and begin by pulling the "backing" ( Read more... )

WTF??? And I'm saying I want to move home to breathe clean air??

Oregon makes top five on list of nation's dirtiest air.

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there."
--Lewis Carroll: English logician, mathematician, photographer and novelist, especially remembered for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 1832-1898

You're listening to a Spanish-language soap opera from Spain. The tortured young actor is calling out for his estranged lover, "Lila, Lila!"

...and all you hear is, "来了！来了!" ("Lai le, lai le!" -- "I'm coming, I'm coming!" -- usually said, for example, while running to the door after someone's just knocked on it.)

( Pro-Democracy Taxi Driver )

Tonight we went for spicy lamb kebabs 羊肉串and pita bread (I don't know how to write pita bread in Chinese) and la mian 拉面 (pulled noodles) at the Uighur/Xinjiang restaurant down the road from the hotel near the Shenyang railway station. It was such a raucous, crazy night!! There was this whole party of Han Chinese in there, about 10, and after we 5 ( Read more... )