I don’t realize how complacent I have become to many things in China that would be quite strange to me if I were still in the West. That is, until incidents happen like what occurred yesterday. After work, I was riding my bicycle back to the hotel when I approached a motorcycle, driving very slowly [...]
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Some of you asked me what I do with the eggs I recently bought, seeing as how I do not have a kitchen. (I live in a hotel room.) Creative Cooking Without a Kitchen Tip #1: How to Really Use an Electric Kettle Yes, that’s right, you can actually boil eggs inside an electric kettle. [...]
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Sunday afternoons are generally pretty lazy around here. It is the DH’s day off, and usually we just watch DVDs or use the computers. But yesterday was a nice day, with high temperatures, sun and very little pollution. We felt we had to take advantage of the good weather, so we decided to take a [...]
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Today – shopping in the city. I need two things – bread and eggs. I find the bread I want easily. It has taken some time to try and test the different brands until I find one that I will repeatedly buy. (The one that most closely resembles wheat bread.) Loaded up on bread, I [...]
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Over the seven months I’ve been in Shijiazhuang, I’ve seen this airplane parked at the airport 3 or 4 times. Today it showed up again. Usually it is under guard by a group of Chinese soldiers. A Chinese-built Mig was observed being loaded into it on its last stay here. What sort of military hardware [...]
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Xin Cheng Pu is “The Village” and the DH and I went there today for a quick bite to eat. Yes, finally got the name! This is where we ate: This lady, and millions more like her all across China, makes large, thin crepes, smothered in beaten egg and hot sauce, topped with green onions [...]
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Yesterday we had this: Which led to an incredibly clear, blue, sunny day. (The snow and rain whisked away the pollution.) Unfortunately, today the sun and beauty were overshadowed by the pure, unadulterated smell of fresh animal manure, wafting over the entire airport. Not to be outdone, the hotel elevator smelled of stale, cheap beer. [...]
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I’ve been meaning to correct some information that I wrote about the Russian Restaurant ages ago here on the blog. When we first arrived here, I thought that the Russians was run by a Chinese family. They seemed like family. It turns out that they were not a family but a business – a manager [...]
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I took a photos while I was shopping the other day. Notice how gray and dull and slightly grainy all the photos are? No, that is not my poor cameraship, that is just what the air is like here. Pollution. Here is a shot of the stadium, where our bus parks while we are in [...]
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So I went shopping the other day. Not for groceries, either. I went clothing shopping. Or maybe I should say browsing, since the only thing I could find to fit me was a purse and some shoes. I’m not exactly large. In fact, in the West I’m on the small side at 5’4″. But it [...]
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I'm an American expat living on the fringe of Chinese society. Thanks to a lifetime spent moving around, I often feel like an outsider. This blog explores life in Beijing, China, the occasional aviation topic, expat issues, random travel experiences and interesting things I see, read and hear. If you want to know more about my latest hobby, visit Sewing on the Fringe, where I blog about learning to sew in Beijing. And for daily documentation of Beijing's ever changing air quality, visit My Beijing Window. And, yes, I do wear my santa hat year-round. ;)
