Monday was the fifteenth day of the new Chinese Year, which is also known as the Lantern Festival. Fireworks are replaced with colorful incense …. and floating lanterns are released in the sky. This caused a colorful block of traffic on my way to school, as I take a short cut thru the Golden Temple (in Kunming, China) to get there. The buses had to wait […]
Golden, Fushcia and Leopard Print Temple
Chinese Diners and Dives
I did the math. Eight seven thousand five hundred. That’s the number of servings I prepared last year at Jesus People USA, feeding three hundred and fifty funky folks each night, five days a week. That doesn’t include the meals that end up at Uptown shelters or the folks at Tent City. Or the lumpy grits that no one would […]
LIGHTS, SMART PHONE, ACTION!
After a two week course in Western Culture, my students had to create videos about their favorite experiences in Kunming. Final projects have come along way since making dioramas out of shoe boxes and popsicle sticks. So what did I learn? Other than how to upload a video shot on a bootleg Chinese phone onto Google, I learned this: Shut up […]
China’s Got Talent
What could be more adorable than a Chinese five year old dressed up as Curly the cowboy? The one re-enacting a dinosaur battle. It was the Chine Speaks English competition in Kunming, and I got to be a judge for the shortie division ( four to eight year-olds). Participants were judged on their ability to speak English, not if they could comprehend […]
Cool Adventure
Hip. Swag. Dope. Just some of the American slang my Chinese students discussed when the topic du jour was the word, “cool”. I ended the lesson discussing another idiom for cool, “freaking freezing!” It was the only way to describe the splizzardy weather in the city of Eternal Springs, where snow siting is as rare as seeing a M?iguórén bundled up in a […]
Get your Zao on!
Most people complain about their morning commute to work. Not me. My forty minute walk to work is like jumping into a Dr. Suess book. But replace the Cat in the Hat with Kung Fu Panda wannabes and the puff balls of Who-ville with beautiful gardens of the World Horticultural Expo in Kunming. And oh yes, replace saying G’morning with […]
Chinese Whippersnappers
It sounded like gunfire but it couldn’t be. I wasn’t in Chicago, I was in China. The sound was coming from across the street, not in an alley with gang bangers but a group of old men spinning their tops, an activity they call tuó?luó, pronounced tow-ah-low-ah. ?? These guys crack a whip at an old school over sized top, […]
Hot Pots, Pig Snouts, and Stinky Pillows
If it’s not moving on your plate, eat it,” my dad would always say. But what if it’s still moving? I had that dilemma last night when invited to a Hot Pot dinner in Kunming, China. What is Hot Pot? It’s the culinary attraction of Yunnan, a Chinese fondue of sorts. But instead of crusty bread into a molten cheese, […]
Flipside Bound
The rumors are true. I’m heading back to China for a couple months. I guess I need to catch up on my diarrhea. Actually, I’ll be doing a special courses at a Chinese school, turning Chinese tweens into writing rock stars, or at least decent better wordsmiths than the person who wrote these: I’ll be blogging about my experiences in […]
Kitchen Bitchen
There are a few phrases I hate muttering in the kitchen. Today it was this: If you drop a spoon in the coffee grinder, don’t wait a week before getting it out. Here are a few other gems I hope I never have to say: #1. No eating out of the compost bucket. #2. If a clean plate touches your armpit […]