I finally did it--I got braces! This is a decision I've been pondering for a few years, on and off, and I'm not sure what made me take the plunge this year, but I'm so glad I did. A brief history: in addition to some very annoying and unsightly crowding, I have what's called an "open bite," which means that when my back teeth are completely closed ( Read more... )

We got job offers at Santa Cruz Cooperative School in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia (http://www.sccs.edu.bo). We're GOING! I can't wait to experience life in South America. I've been studying Spanish on my own for the past month and, not surprisingly, it's much easier than Chinese. There's ( Read more... )

The headline read: "Interact club needs your help to counter crisis in Henan Province." Interact is a student club at our school, headed by my husband and my good friend Amy. It's affiliated with Rotary International, and basically works with local charities to make a positive difference in the world ( Read more... )

This has nothing to do with China, but the other day I actually watched my cat taunt, trap, kill, and promptly eat a mosquito. Are cats supposed to eat mosquitoes, or is he just desperate, being an indoor cat? Ah, Oliver.

I always wondered what would happens to people who have major emergencies in Shanghai. I've never seen any ambulances around here, though I've certainly seen taxis drive like ambulances. There's no "9-1-1" either. A friend of mine had a lump in her breast and had to be flown to Hong Kong because they don't do biopsies here. Basically I've just ( Read more... )

Every year, our school organizes “China Trips” for the students. We take 3-5 days in September to escort each grade group on a trip somewhere in China, technically making curricular connections along the way, but primarily just letting our foreign kids experience a sliver of the strange and vast land they now call home. After Matthew’s and my ( Read more... )

I just brought home an awesome bike. I don't buy bikes casually either; I can look back and remember every bike I owned, as well as the purpose each bike served in my physical and mental development. We had a Denny's Schwinn shop a 10-minute walk from my house growing up; it has since moved, of course, like many small neighborhood stores--I think a ( Read more... )

I began the morning biking through rice paddies and small villages that hug the outskirts of Shanghai. Muddy, sweaty, scratched by meadow grasses, I negotiated tiny curves along ditches, canals, and field edges with a group of a dozen or so bikers. Curious locals smiled, looked up from their fieldwork, and waved. Some of us exchanged a few words. ( Read more... )