On Saturday we went shopping for a silk carpet to help use up our $1000 house-furnishing allowance and ended up picking out two that we like. We plan to pick them up today, because we need to go to the bank to withdraw enough cash to cover it. Afterward, we went for lunch at Alameda, [...]
On Friday night we finally made it to the elusive 5:19 cafe and bar. I saw a listing for it a few weeks ago that said it was just down the street from our apartment, but when we went looking for it, the space was empty. We called, and they said that they weren’t quite [...]
I was at Jenny Lou’s (the ex-pat grocery) yesterday, and there’s a small sales outlet for Kiss N’ Bake bakery in front. They had some really good-looking Christmas cookies: iced sugar cookies – my favorite! Despite my efforts to diet, I caved and bought a particularly large Christmas tree cookie.
It tasted like a “Happy Face [...]
Saturday morning we dragged ourselves out of bed (Friday ended a little late to be up before noon, but we managed somehow) and headed down south to see the Temple of Heaven. It was cold! Really, really cold! At least for being outside walking around. The upside of this is that the place was really [...]
The Limitations to Making Food in Beijing
A few weeks ago, we hit one of the major milestones for living in a new country – we cooked dinner at home! We’ve been here for a month and a half, and we have cooked at home once. I’m not counting cereal with milk or just-add-water noodle cups [...]
Getting Sick, and Then Getting Better
So the change in climate, the smog, the stress, and all the other things that come into play when moving from Texas to Beijing, finally got to me, and I developed a sinus infection last weekend. Based on years of battling every kind of cold or infection that found its [...]
Since I’m getting paid in USD, and Lucas is getting paid in RMB, we decided a while back that we’d live on his salary to avoid or minimize the hassles of trying to export any RMB savings later.
We’ve been here for a month and a half, and because of administrative issues, Lucas missed the accounting [...]
This morning we took a taxi to work, so that we wouldn’t be late for our weekly Chinese class. On the way, I dozed off briefly, only to be jolted awake with a bang, as someone slammed into the back of our taxi! Again!
Since I wasn’t fully awake until after this happened, I have to [...]
After we went to see Mao, we stopped by an art gallery downtown (in the old Imperial Archives) to see a collection of pencil drawings of the Beijing hutongs. We briefly considered buying this one for $3500 US, but settled for a 150-kuai print instead!
See the rest of the exhibition at: the gallery’s website
On Sunday we met up with a group of friends in Tiananmen Square and went to pay our respects to Mao. Every morning (except Mondays and days that he’s out for cleaning and maintenance) he’s put on display from 8:30 to 11:30 and hundreds and hundreds of people line up to file past him. There [...]