Biggy

He was the only person I knew who was still fat after gastric bypass surgery but managed to hide it in his profile photo. He was from a different chapter in my life, from my years in urban youth ministry in Chicago, chapters before dealing with kids who can’t tell a mouth from a mouse in China, but kids who’d […]

HANOI: WHAT TRAVEL GUIDES DON’T TELL YOU

In any Ma and Pa shop in Hanoi, you’ll find a shrine with tangles of incense and offerings of cigarettes, beer and moon pies. It’s the Vietnamese way of taking care of their loved ones in the after life.   I hope Anthony Bordain is one of those spirits as he loved this town. I say a prayer hoping he’ll […]

No pictures allowed

It’s a scene out of a Microsoft commercial. Divorced woman in the jungles of Vietnam approving a rental applicant for her condo in Wrigleyville, Chicago. Nice kid. Right out of school. Job at some tech firm. No credit record yet as he hasn’t used his credit cards. No record of him anywhere, not even on Facebook, which has sadly become […]

Chinese Hooterville

I didn’t think a town could get much smaller than where I grew up in Southwestern Michigan, a town nicknamed Hooterville. I especially didn’t think I could find one in a country known for big.   Chinese Hooterville is about two hours outside of Kunming, just past the Stone Forest of Shilin in Yunnan. No Shady Rest Hotel or Eddie […]

Dàbāo 大包 Big Bun

The sound of sizzle coming from my kitchen was as foreign to me as local Kūnmíng Huà. I hadn’t cooked in three years. After being a head cook at a faith based community that served three hundred and fifty every day, I hung up my apron for a while. Make that more than a while.  I had started every morning […]

Sacred Pool of Underpants

I had to get off the train. The duck intestines I had in my Chengdu hot pot a day earlier were finally catching up to mine. While the 114 local from to Chengdu to Kunming was an adventure in itself, I picked a stop by chance just to break up the journey. Emeishan. 峨眉山. Or Mt. Emei. Little did I know […]

Cheng-do!

  It was not a good day for the squirts. A twenty hour train ride. In China. I know. I’ll spare the details but that’s what I endured to make it the American Consulate in Chengdu, Sichuan, to reclaim my maiden name. While I have flown over China numerous many times, this is the first time I’ve taken in the […]

Last Two Dollars

The only thing more exhausting than visiting 10 countries in five days is visiting one country in thirty.  My trip to the USA was stuffed like my suitcase, bursting at the seams, starting in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, a mere 7589 miles from Kunming, China to finalize my divorce. No happy endings, but I do get my maiden name back-and my […]

China Dancing: Then and Now

I was at a local dance competition yesterday at the Aegean Mall , in Kunming, China. Is this China or Chicago? I wonder what kind of dance moves the next generation of Chinese will pass down to their kids? Will it be hip hop in backwards baseball caps or traditional folk dancing with  ethnic group headdresses?

Old World Meets High Tech

When I went to a Chinese Wet market today, I stood out. It wasn’t because I was a dà bí zi 大鼻子, big nose American, but because I didn’t use my phone to pay. No one uses cash anymore. The Peanut-butter lady couldn’t make change, so I had to wait until there was another cash carrying shopper. The blue sign […]