Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" in Harbin!

What a taste of life in Harbin? Watch Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" as he travels to the Dongbei to visit Harbin. Each clip is about 10 minutes.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Beer Machine

Our apartment building is undergoing a transformation. First, there’s now video advertisements as we wait for the elevator. There are even some cords in the elevator as if the screens are coming inside the elevators as well. On the front steps of the building, they’ve added two giant new red lanterns to celebrate the New Year (and just as quickly took them away after the New Year leaving behind the dangling wires).

But the greatest addition by far is found in the building’s lobby, a new vending machine. This is no ordinary vending machine with chips and candy; this is truly one of a kind. It’s a beer vending machine!

As the installation was in process, we teased the guards about what would be in the machine. He held up two kinds of beer. I asked politely about some Sprite and he only held up the beer.



UPDATE: The beer machine does still have beer but some other goodies have been added. There’s now box milk, Snickers in a two pack, a Nestle coffee drink, Coca-cola, and Sprite! Now everything's sold out except the coffee drink and I don't imagine the machine getting filled anytime soon. That proves it, foreign students in China prefer beer over coffee!

Parents in China

Wow! 4,592 pictures from the 6 digital cameras we had out snapping our way through Beijing and Harbin. I haven't seen all the pictures and don't know if I'll get the chance, but I've seen enough to know that we had a great time!

Check out some of the highlights of the trip. (at least from the pictures I've seen.)

Thursday Morning Image

My parents came to China to visit over the past 10 days. It was a great time to see them and to show them what we call home. More post hopefully will follow detailing some of the time we had together. Please remember them as they return to the states and battle jet lag returning to work today and tomorrow.

Thursday Morning Image

Each of these students is a story. I have not previously taught these students, so each one is a new story. I hope to learn their stories as I meet them for lunch, host free talks, and invite them to our home. Please remember these students as the semester begins that fruitful relationships can be built and continued throughout the semester.

Happy Birthday M'Lynn

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear M'Lynn!
Happy Birthday to you!

Thomas the Train

This is what Kanyon and I do for fun, especially when we're not allowed to watch movies. Around and around, goes Thomas!

Ma Ma Hu Hu 马马虎虎

Being on an animal swing, I thought I go with some more animals.

Ma 马 means horse
Hu 虎 means tiger

While I've never hear this from a native speaker, if you want to say something is just "so-so" you'd say ma ma hu hu 马马虎虎 (horse horse tiger tiger)!