Our Family
Too cute! You can make your own stick people here.
Tags: stick family
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Kurrawa
We drove from Brisbane to the Gold Coast (Surfer’s Paradise.) Dan and I took a dip in the ocean and then he dipped Alex’s feet in. He didn’t really like it and pulled his feet up. We also held hands with Wendy’s mom and walked out a little so the waves could splash up to her knees.
We ate at the Kurrawa Surf Club. It was awesome to sit outside, have a beer and enjoy the view!
I was holding a sleepy Alex while Wendy ate (and the girls at the next table oohh and ahhed all over).
He was not so thrilled when I shifted positions on him. (Notice his little finger.)
Tags: Australia, beach, dan & wendy & alex
Kurrawa
by emily on February 9, 2010
Lost Heaven
Lost Heaven is a well-known restaurant that serves food from the Yunnan province. We’d never been so I suggested we go there.
We had a bottle of wine and some drinks at the bar on the top floor. There was a nice roof top bar that would be amazing in the summer. (We all are wearing the new glasses we’d gotten that day.)
Hanna mentioned something about singing, and we decided to go to karaoke around 2 AM. Really, it is a totally Chinese cultural experience! Here they are rocking out to Queen.
Tags: bar, hanna & henrik, Lost Heaven
Lost Heaven
by emily on January 31, 2010
Hanna and Henrik’s Honeymoon
Hanna and Henrik stayed with us for a week in January, after three weeks in New Zealand for their honeymoon. All of these photos are from their travel blog. Here is their Shanghai entry.
Hanna’s post about the week:
Having a wonderful time with Jon and Emily. Daily schedule:
Wake up
Eating
Shopping
Eating
Shopping
Eating
Drinking
Sleeping
= Vacation i Shanghai.
They went on a shopping tour I lead, along with 3 people from Spain.
We’re really stylin’ at the glasses market.
Jon finally bought a remote control helicopter like he’s wanted for 2 years (which is now broken.)
Tags: hanna & henrik, Shopping, shopping tours
Hanna and Henrik’s Honeymoon
by emily on January 30, 2010
From Speaker to Trainer
Last week, CAT (China Advanced Toastmasters) help Yingdan Liu put on a training. It’s a Toastmasters program called From Speaker to Trainer. You can see more photos here and read Yingdan’s comments about the training here – part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.
Tags: China Advanced Toastmasters, training, Yingdan Liu
From Speaker to Trainer
by emily on January 8, 2010
Thanksgiving?
Two British friends and two Australian friends decided to go out for Thanksgiving dinner, so they thought they’d better invite me. I mean, how can you celebrate an American holiday without an American present?
Thanksgiving dinner – a cold oyster, turkey, potatoes, broccoli, and “stuffing” which was a bit of gravy with chunks of things like nuts in it. Stuffing? Really?
“Pumpkin Pie” – everyone was disappointed in this and hardly ate any. It taste like pureed nothing. And it wasn’t even a PIE!!!
After the meal, we stuck around for quiz night. We didn’t do too bad – the bonus round question was “What is this a picture of and where is it?” It was Carhenge in Nebraska!! We got it right, but even doubling our points didn’t let us win.
I also showed the non-American’s how to draw a turkey using your hand and what a Turducken is.
Tags: Casey, Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving?
by emily on December 14, 2009
Eva & Josh – more couchsurfers
Eva and Josh stayed with us one night, after flying in from Denmark, then left for their new home in Xia’men the next day. We tried to keep them awake until 10 to fight their jet lag and I fed them coffee in the morning. They’ve invited us to their home and we’ll definitely take them up on that in a few months.
Eva has a job leading Danes on tours of China and spent a few days in Shanghai with a group recently. She stayed an extra night with us after they left. We took the sidecar out to eat, then played some Wii Fit the next morning.
Tags: couch surfers, eva & josh
Eva & Josh – more couchsurfers
by emily on November 29, 2009
Couchsurfer Lucy
Lucy stayed with us last month. She was the first couchsurfer to ride in the sidecar. Yes, we did leave the car park, but it was dark outside so not good for photos.
Boots is always a popular photography subject.
Lucy is a photographer too. Gotta watch out for that paparazzi!
Tags: Boots, couch surfers, lucy, sidecar motorcycle
Couchsurfer Lucy
by emily on November 24, 2009
Baker Wedding
A highlight of the trip was Brad and Sarah’s wedding! They held a big reception, buffet and dance in Brad’s parents’ huge machine shed. It was a lot of fun! (As you can see from the above photo) I was their photographer. All photos can be seen here.
(Just because I hardly have any photos of myself here!)
Jon was talking to someone who was shocked to hear he was from Nisland. (Local town, population about 150.) She said he was the last person at the reception that she thought would be from there. I guess it must be his dashing good looks, tailored cashmere coat and scarf that makes him look so urban? When she found out he lived in China, she said, “Oh, I’m sorry.”
Sorry for what? Getting out of the state to see the world a bit? I’m sorry for people that don’t realize that there is something outside of their own little bubble.
Tags: sarah & brad, wedding
Baker Wedding
by emily on November 7, 2009
Back to Blogging…. again
The other day Steve told me his dad was worried about me and asked if I was sick, since it had been so long since I’ve updated my blog. Thanks for the concern, Steve’s dad! I did take some time off blogging, as I was visiting friends and family and starting a new (part-time) job.
Last month we went home for October holiday. We went to a friend’s wedding, saw family on both sides of the state, Jon went into work one day, I extended my visit and went to visit my cousin Ann in Arizona, then I got stuck in San Francisco an extra day due to a missed flight.
Just a couple days after I got back, I started my new job. I’ve blogged before about my friend Suzy’s shopping tours. She’s asked me to give tours on days she is unavailable or if she has two tours or a big group. In the past two weeks, I’ve done four tours. It’s really fun and interesting meeting all of the different people.
October 24th was the year anniversary of my brother’s death. It’s a really hard time of year for the whole family. Jared’s headstone was finished last month. It certainly doesn’t seem like it’s been a year already. It also doesn’t always seem real.
Back to Blogging…. again
by emily on November 4, 2009
Eating Vegetarian
Kelly and Ellie are both from Florida and on an around the world trip. They work and save up money, then go traveling again! They are both vegetarian so one night we went to Vegetarian Lifestyle, a Chinese vegetarian restaurant where the food is made to look and taste just like meat. The “spareribs” were delicious and very real. So real that Kelly stopped chewing and said, “I think this is meat! It has a bone!” (it was really a radish) and so delicious we ordered seconds!
The food was so good that we’ll probably go back, even though we aren’t vegetarians. :-)
Tags: couch surfers, Food, kelly & ellie, vegetarian
Eating Vegetarian
by emily on September 28, 2009
Hot Pot
Melissa and Matt are an American couple who’ve lived in Japan for the past 4 years, teaching English. They surfed our couch for a few days and we had a great time. They are traveling around the world on their way home, and have joined the Peace Corp and will most likely be stationed in China next year! We’re hoping to see them again. We’ve had such great experiences with our Couch Surfers.
This was my first time going to hot pot, which is pretty unbelievable since we’ve lived here for over two years. It was really good.
Tags: couch surfers, Food, hot pot, matt & melissa
Hot Pot
by emily on September 26, 2009
Cute kids
Johnna brought her whole family to the BBQ. Almost-two-year-old N was quite the cutie. She can speak Chinese just as well as English. She always calls Suzy by her Chinese name – Sushi. Too cute.
Cute kids
by emily on September 1, 2009
Picasso’s Birthday
Our friends Casey “Any Excuse to Party” and Mike “My Future Wife is a Crazy Cat Lady” threw a big BBQ a couple weekends ago. The occasion was Picasso (their foster cat) turned one. Picasso’s favorite toy is corks from wine bottles, so we needed to consume wine in large quantities as our gift to him. It was a lot of fun – and made me miss doing this back home! Our couchsurfers, Kelly and Ellie, came too and we had a great time hanging out.
Tags: BBQ, couch surfers, mike & casey
Picasso’s Birthday
by emily on August 31, 2009
Fun with Couch Surfers
I have a computer program that controls my DSLR. It can do things like time lapses. It also has a photo booth function! I’ve been having each of our Couch Surfers do it, then I print out two copies on 4×6″ sticker paper. They get a copy, and they stick the other ones in our guest book and leave a message for us.
Marion and George, from the Netherlands. They gave us the guest book as a gift. We’ll definitely see them again the next time we make it to Europe. We have quite a few Dutch friends.
Melissa and Matt, Americans who’ve been teaching English in Japan for the past four years. They have joined the Peace Corp and most likely will be stationed in China next year! We’ll definitely go visit.
Kelly and Ellie, from Florida. Kelly fell off the stool…. we had a blast with them. We’re thinking of visiting Florida in the middle of a South Dakota winter sometime way in the future!
Tags: couch surfers, friends, george & marion, kelly & ellie, matt & melissa, Photography
Fun with Couch Surfers
by emily on August 30, 2009
Couchsurfers and a CS party
George and Marion (our Dutch surfers) on the top of our roof.
Boots likes to lay on our CSers stuff on the bed and wait to get petted. (photo by Marion)
Marion, Sandhya and I. Sandhya and her husband Nishant hosted the party and cooked delicious vegetarian Indian food. VERY delicious!!
A very diverse group – guys from San Francisco here for the eclipse, a guy that lived at the South Pole three times (my cousin Brian did that; worked at the research station there and shoveled a lot of snow), people from Isreal, Lithunania, Columbia, the Netherlands, Italy, India and a guy with Pakistani heritage living in London – all getting together in China. The world is really small now!
Tags: Boots, george & marion
Couchsurfers and a CS party
by emily on August 9, 2009
A Swedish Wedding – Part II
After the ceremony, a massive party commences. (It even said on the invitation: MASSIVE party to follow.)
As soon as the groom leaves the head table, all of the guys rush up to kiss the bride. The girls all kiss the groom if the bride leaves the table too. Not just once – every time either of them leaves.
There are a lot of songs sung by everyone, usually ending in a toast. We also saw lip-sync performances, many speeches by their parents and siblings, and various fun activities by friends.
During one traditional game, they had to answer questions about which partner had more of certain traits by holding up the shoe of that person.
After the dinner, toasts, games and general fun, we went to another building for coffee and cake (this was at 11 PM. Swedes love their coffee!)
The dance then started about midnight. I think it was 3:30 AM when we left. It was certainly a massive party!
Tags: friends, hanna & henrik, Sweden, travel
A Swedish Wedding – Part II
by emily on July 26, 2009
A Swedish Wedding – Part I
An excited bride! Hanna was one of the most expressive (and fun!) brides I’ve ever seen.
We all got on a boat to take us to the castle grounds.
Approaching the castle… it was actually the summer home.
A simple ceremony was performed outside. Because they had so many international guests, it was in both Swedish and English.
Tags: friends, hanna & henrik, Sweden, travel
A Swedish Wedding – Part I
by emily on July 25, 2009
The Captain’s Bar
After viewing the SWFC, we decided to check out some live jazz at the House of Blues and Jazz. After a couple drinks, we went to the Captain’s Bar, conveniently located right across the street. It’s the top floor of the Captain’s Hostel and has the Bund view without pretentious drink prices.
Marion and George are Couch Surfers who stayed with us 4 days. They’re from the Netherlands, and George was studying business Chinese in Beijing.
The view is quite nice when the lights are still on. Behind us is the infamous view of Pudong across the Huangpu River.
37 Fuzhou Lu, near Sichuan Zhong Lu
福州路37号，近四川中路
Tags: bar, captain's bar, george & marion, views
The Captain’s Bar
by emily on July 23, 2009
Solar Eclipse
Daft Punk came to play Shanghai!
Actually, #14 welding glass is an approved method of looking at the sun. Steve got the whole mask to be extra safe. :-)
Steve, Jon, Dan and Wendy watching as the eclipse starts.
Mid-eclipse
Tags: dan & wendy, Weather
Solar Eclipse
by emily on July 22, 2009
Silhouettes in a castle
These were taken in castle ruins about 20 minutes from Jonkoping. It was raining and the sun was setting.
Tags: friends, hanna & henrik, Photography, Sweden, travel
Silhouettes in a castle
by emily on July 16, 2009
Wedding
We just got back from a week in Sweden. Our best friends, Hanna and Henrik, tied the knot. We had a wonderful time and you’ll be seeing photos from it for several days!!
They asked me to do a reading (in English) during the ceremony. It was really an international wedding, so a lot of things were both in Swedish and English.
Tags: friends, hanna & henrik, Sweden, travel
Wedding
by emily on July 14, 2009
Decorating with frosting
Bonnie took a professional cake-decorating course in the US, and Claire and I wanted to learn, so she put on a little class for us. I’ve decorated several things before, but knowing the proper way to do it makes it a lot easier! We only learned a few basic things so I think we’ll have more classes later.
My roses look more like cabbage….
Decorating with frosting
by emily on July 7, 2009
Two more couchsurfers
Recently, we had Sonja, a German woman who is doing her PhD study on China’s influence in Darfur, stayed with us several days. She was staying in Shanghai longer than we could host, so she moved to another host.
Bettina, a German woman on sabbatical from her job at a EU Library in Greece, stayed with us a little while after that. Since they were both in town, we had a little CS get-together for lunch Friday.
Bettina, Jon S., Sonja, me & Jon at the Blue Frog in Daning.
At the local dive bar after a fabulous meal at Da Marco.
We have had all good experiences with Couchsurfing so far. We’ve hosted four times now, and will host two more couples in July. We’re hoping to surf sometime in the future!
Two more couchsurfers
by emily on June 29, 2009
Bonnie’s Birthday
| Steve graciously hosted Bonnie’s birthday party at his house. She made her own cake since she didn’t trust anyone else to do it! It was 3 layers of chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting and covered in chocolate chips. It was the richest cake I’ve ever had!
We played Twister and Wii most of the night, with a couple rounds of Mahjong and Mexican Train Dominoes. That was the latest I’ve stayed up in a VERY long time. |
Bonnie’s Birthday
by emily on June 7, 2009
The Polo
| Last Saturday 12 girls went to the Polo matches and celebrated Casey’s upcoming wedding. We all dressed up and had a marvelous time in the VIP tent!
Jo won the “best hat” contest with her cute little feathery thing. Alicia had some guanxi – a friend with a few bottles of champagne after everything else ran out, and another friend doing a documentary on first time Polo spectators in China (the photos of me being interviewed). And we all had a blast! |
The Polo
by emily on June 2, 2009
Wholesale Food Market
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Bonnie has a custom baking business, and has learned where to get the supplies cheaply. (All of the foreign stores are NOT cheap.) We went to a market with at least 20 huge halls of vendors. The vendors live above the stalls. The stalls are filled with massive sacks of mushrooms, flour, rice, nuts, peppers, dried fish, cinnamon sticks, and all kinds of other things.
We bought cream cheese, butter, almonds, pistachios, cashews, walnuts, canned peaches, flour, corn meal, evaporated milk… and maybe a few other things I’m forgetting about!
The address is 1255 Lianhua Lu.
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Tags: Food
Wholesale Food Market
by emily on May 28, 2009
Saturday night
| Last week, Steve and Sylvia, Shane and Bonnie, Amy and Casey, and Jon and I all went to DaMarco for supper. We had a drink at the little bar close to it, and then went to play some more Guitar Hero. |
Saturday night
by emily on
Couchsurfers
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Jon and I are members of www.couchsurfing.com and last week we hosted two Australian girls, Amy and Casey. They were super nice; both of them (especially Casey) liked to cook. We were spoiled by them cooking for us several times! They have a cat (Michael Arthur MacMoussen) back home so really liked Boots too.
Couchsurfing is a site where travelers can offer or request a couch to crash on, or just find someone to meet up with for coffee or a drink. It’s kind of like Facebook for travelers. It’s also similar to eBay, in that you give others feedback so others know how they were as hosts or guests.
We also hosted a Polish couple, Daniel and Martina, before I went to the US. In the last couple weeks we’ve gotten requests to host people from Italy, Spain, Germany, Mongolia, and the Netherlands. We won’t say yes to everyone (you can pick and choose as you like, no pressure) since we want to have a little time to ourselves! We wish we had this when we were traveling through Europe – it’s such a great way to meet like-minded travelers if you host; save costs and meet people living locally where you are traveling if you surf.
Here’s another article a fellow China blogger just wrote on it. http://grahamwoodring.com/2009/05/18/couchsurfing-whats-in-it-for-me/
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Tags: amy & casey, couch surfers, Food
