Buying food is perhaps one of the most different things about living in China. Not just that many of the western staples we are used to ar...

Andrew hugging a little brother as they look at the fish Andrew is growing so fast and seems a lot older lately now that he is speaking i...

One of the things I was told repeatedly on Friday during my visit to the Chinese hospital , for my prenatal visit and some extra tests, was ...

I mentioned recently that our whole family caught a cold over the weekend . It really isn't anything serious, and our boys already got o...

May is usually when the rainy season begins . Right now, many people are hoping that it will begin in earnest soon because we have had a ver...

I'm a little late posting a Mandarin Mondays post again, but this week all days are a little off here. And this time it is not just due ...

Meat Market Both my husband and I recently had Mandarin lessons that covered bartering in the market for fruit, so I thought I'd talk...

I recently resumed Mandarin lessons with my tutor. During my last Mandarin lesson my tutor reviewed time words and phrases such as "wha...

Today is the last day of the Chinese New Year ( known here as Spring Festival ), and it is called Lantern Festival (Yuán xiāo jié, 元宵节). Thi...

Huge lantern Happy New Year! (xīnnián kuàilè!, 新年快乐！) Yesterday was the official start of Spring Festival (Chūn jié, 春节), which is Chi...

Spring Festival (Chūn jié, 春节), known as Chinese New Year in the West, does not officially begin until the evening of January 21st, but the ...

Because of my new goals for studying Mandarin, I've been listening to a lot more ChinesePod lessons. This past week I listened to one a...

Someone told my mom that when they were in Kunming visiting us, they should try the hot pot (h uǒ guō, 火锅 ) with mushrooms (mó gu, 蘑菇 ), b...

While my parents were here, we took them out for some of our favorite Chinese food: jiǎo zi ( 饺子) and bāo zi ( 包子 ). Jiǎo zi is usually tra...

My parents came for about two weeks, and we had a great visit together. We were very busy and did lots of fun things that I'll write m...

We're so excited that my parents are coming for a visit really soon. They'll be here on Friday! They are spending a couple of days ...

One thing that is markedly different about living in a big city in China, instead of the suburbs or countryside of America, is transportatio...

Because of China's National Day (guó qìng jié, 国庆节) , we're studying about China this month. Each Monday I'll be sharing a few ...

Rural meets City Because of China's national day this month, we're learning more about this fascinating country, and I'll b...

Beautiful Country This week, China is celebrating its National Day (guó qìng jié, 国庆节). The official National Day is October 1st, which ...