Over the weekend, we hosted our friends for brunch which I lovingly prepared in my teeny kitchen. I made muffins and two types of pancakes to go with the fruit salad and bacon I also prepared. I had flashbacks to my first brunch with Mark in our first apartment together. Similar sized kitchen. The chocolate chip pancakes were a big hit with the kids and adults. I showed Joanna my snack closet--all the food the kids and I brought back from our two week trip home this summer. She was shocked and amazed that we managed to bring that much back with us. To explain why I bothered--one box of Velveeta shells and cheese (don't write in about how gross that is because I already know but the kids like it) costs $6 here. A case ... read more

When I went to the Chinese doctor for my thyroid earlier this year, he talked about qi (“chee”). In my mind, flow and qi are the same thing. I need a plumber. I am clogged. I don’t know if it’s the weather or being sad to be back after such a great trip home, but I am one grumpy expat. I know I’m not alone because I see some really hostile expat faces all over town. In fact, yesterday, when I was in a taxi heading home from being assessed on my Chinese abilities (more on that later) I saw a police officer tell a foreign guy to step back—the guy was in the street looking for a taxi—and the guy said F*CK YOU! Which was both out of line and stupid considering the cop likely ... read more

The deal is I am up at 3am cobbling together a post to make up for the 2 week absence. I am back from my blog-vacation. I missed the ritual but the time away was probably good for me too. We were so incredibly busy and I had inconsistent Internet access. But now, across the world again, I am connected and back in story telling mode. The night before we left Chicago I am typing this at Natalie and Matt's place--my across the street friends and neighbors. They have fed us many meals while we've been home, including tonight's wonderful and delicious "last supper". After dinner, Matt helped me put stuff away and get the car back in the garage. This trip home was wonderful. Short, to be sure, but very sweet. We spent loads of ... read more

It's update time. We had a fun time celebrating Mark's birthday in Shanghai with a couple friends and Mark's brother, Matt. The celebration involved Nathan, Matt, Mark and Ray all taking turns on the restaurant's mechanical bull. Hilarious! After a western (and by western I mean cowboy western this time) dinner of steak and potatoes we went to a lounge/dessert place called Hof (house of flour!) and had a death by chocolate cake. Dangerously good. It's been wickedly hot--record high temps for Shanghai this past couple of weeks. We went to a museum to cool off on Sunday and by the time we reached the lobby, we were soaked with sweat. Really gross. And then we got cold and were shivering during our tour of the Shanghai Museum. It's so hot we can't be outdoors for ... read more

Part 2 After the photo shoot with bits of Great Wall sightseeing, we went back to the car and headed out to the second stop, Long Qing Gorge. Matt found this scenic spot in one of his tour books. I had not heard of it, but after researching it a bit, it looked like a great choice. Lots of outdoor activities. We had our lunch at a local restaurant recommended by our driver after I told him we wanted to eat lunch. I made a rookie mistake of not asking the prices of the dishes. Our menu was in English, but it didn't have prices. We ordered too much, the descriptions didn't always match the food served and the portions were huge. Tons leftover, cost more than it should have, but you can't win them all. ... read more