Our summer travels have officially begun! On June 24th we packed up our apartment, said goodbye to our bikes :( and boarded a sleeper train south. First stop, the province we have been eyeing since before we boarded the plane for Hong Kong. Yunnan. We plan to travel the province for about a month going wherever the wind takes us with a definite stay in Tiger Leaping Gorge (look it up!) After that, who knows! Our only commitment lies in August when we have diving, wrestling, boxing, and track & field tickets for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Life is tough... This [View Full Entry]

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Dear Ms. Halfmann I heard that you'll not teach us next term, so I write this letter to you. Now, I can still remember after the first class you taught, my classmates thought, half a man + half an animal = Ms. Halfmann??! (I'm sorry that's only a joke) I like you very much, you are fantastic and you can make me happy all the time. Although unluckily, you'll go, I think we can keep contact by e-mail. I'll miss you! You are always a good friend and teacher Good Luck! Yours, Spring. (A farewell letter from Spring, class #3. [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday June 25, 2008 The last two Sundays we volunteered with a organization called the Rainbow Project. This org was started by two expat women working for the NGO Ecologia, and has a quickly growing number of expat and Chinese volunteers. So far the main aim of Rainbow Project has been to spend time with the children of Luo Shui, a city where among extensive other damage, a primary and middle school collapsed, taking the lives of over 200 students. Luo Shui is now a tent community, as its inhabitants wait for temporary houses. Rebuilding the city will take years. During [View Full Entry]

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It has been 51 days since our last post. 51 days that have been jam-packed and eventful. We'll give you a rough outline of what we've been up to, but you'll find most of the details in the captions of our pictures, one for every day you all have excitedly waited for this update, a whopping 51 in total! We began April with another trip to Qing Cheng mountain. This time using the whole weekend, sleeping in a mountain-top guesthouse, and climbing to the Taoist temple atop the tallest peak. We made the trip with some of Cody's classmates, who all [View Full Entry]

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Simon says ... Well, you’ll have to forgive me if this teacher-fact post lacks the usual flowagocity and flourishes, not to mention pics of vast countryside, lion dancers, and neon-lit caves. Cody and I now find ourselves back in the daily routine here in Chengdu, but the daily routine is still packed with surprises and revelations. These are just a little harder to pick out, now that things like being alert to stay alive when street-crossing, and finding and enjoying various animal “trotters” (feet) in our lunches, just compose another day in the life. The campus where I teach, in [View Full Entry]

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Spring Festival We woke up a few minutes before the sun on Feb.7, our first morning in the Kaifeng countryside in the province of Henan. The thermometer read 36deg F . . . in our bedroom. We made a mad dash from our mountain of blankets, grabbed for whatever layers we weren’t already wearing, and stepped out into a crisp silence, unlike anything we have experienced in China thus far. There were no car-horns, there was no construction work, absent were the calls of street vendors. The constant city buzz, the constant buzz of people, had been left in the last [View Full Entry]

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On Friday, Jan. 18th we found ourselves back in Hong Kong with goal #1 being, change Stephanie’s tourist visa to a work visa. After crossing the Shenzhen/Hong Kong border at Luowu, we headed straight for the visa office where Cody kept our packs company outside (they’re not allowed in the PSB, FYI) for two hours while Stephanie waited for her #, handed in her paper work, and crossed her fingers. The visa wouldn’t be processed until the following Monday, which gave us the weekend to once again explore Hong Kong. After some extensive searching at the various hostels in both Mirador [View Full Entry]

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Last week, Stephanie taught her last class for the term and Cody finished up his lessons, officially beginning our winter holiday! Since then we’ve been continuing to explore Chengdu, finishing some last minute visa business, and preparing for our upcoming travels. This week everything needed for changing Stephanie’s tourist visa ‘L’ to a work visa ‘Z’ was in order, including the foreign expert certificate, residence permit from the local police bureau, and the letter of invitation from the school... everything save one. The medical exam. So on Monday, we went to the hospital that deals with foreigners in southern Chengdu with [View Full Entry]

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Sichuan province is where Szechuan seasoning (which pops up on menus in the states) was born. Sichuan cuisine like Szechuan pepper is known for its unique flavor and is famous throughout China and the world for being exceptionally spicy. It's said that there are over 5,000 different dishes in Sichuan and we are working our way through them one plate at a time. Below is a compilation of pictures and captions describing some of our more memorable food experiences thus far. Click on the picture for the full caption and enjoy! [View Full Entry]

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Howdy amigos, and Season's Greetings. What we've got here is a compilation of the many questions posed to us through comments and emails. Following each 'Q' is our shot at answering. There are quite a few, so if you get to a topic that doesn't quite float your interest boat, paddle on by. We hope you enjoy, and please ask as many more questions as you can think of; we'll try to get at them in the next Q&A post! Have you sung any karaoke? A quote from the Rob Gifford book “China Road” states “where there are people there is [View Full Entry]

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