Category: Life in Jianzha
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It’s not uncommon to lose electricity for a day or two in China without any explanation, especially out where we live. But here’s an interesting power outage story that ends in pecans… Last month I went to pay the electric bill for our apartment. (You’ve heard about going "paperless". Well, China has this concept down…
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On Christa’s birthday a few days ago it looked like this outside… Warm! Very warm. I was digging trenches over the weekend in a short-sleeved T-shirt. But this morning when we woke up all the surrounding mountains were COVERED in snow. (Yep, I snapped a picture of it, but the camera battery is dead so…
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The sun comes out and I pull off my fleece jacket and wonder if I really needed to wear my thermals underneath my jeans today. It is mid-April after all. A cloud rolls in, covering the sun, and I can feel my arms getting chilled beneath my long-sleeved T-shirt. The fleece goes back on. What’s…
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Well, it’s home for about 5 more weeks or so. Our guest apartment is on the left hand side, the window 4th from the bottom (2nd from the top). I thought some of you might like to see what an apartment complex looks like in this town… p.s. You may have noticed the new Countdown…
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Very briefly I just wanted to let everyone know that the Johnson family is doing fine. There’s been a lot of media attention out this way (more than we realized!) and for some of you that may have been a bit alarming. There were some "different scenes" around town over the weekend, but we stayed…
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In the last post I was mentioning how we had an issue with the hot water tank at the Jianzha Estate which forced us to retreat to Xining. Well, on our way back to Jianzha we discovered that there had been an issue with the coal stove which heats the house. Evidently a pipe leading…
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In lieu of having my own professional photos to post, here are some photos from the Great Wall, Jianzha, and the family home. Check out the mad skills of my friend, Jeremy. P.S. I took the awesome kung fu shot! It’s amazing what a good camera can do.
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After twenty-four hours on the train I arrived back in Xining with just enough time to get showered up and have a nice Thanksgiving meal with my family and other fellow expats in our community. It was perfect timing. The irony is that my friends, J & J, left for America on a plane a…
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Here’s a special little video documentary highlighting "our crib" here in Jianzha. (With apologies to the Brown family for our taking creative ownership of their home.) You’ll notice the stylish hosts, J & J. Might take a few minutes to load, but it’s worth the wait…
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Well, my time has been a bit more occupied lately. Two of my good (nay, great!) friends from Seattle, Jer & Josh, arrived in Qinghai on Tuesday. We’ve been painting the town red ever since (so to speak.) Since Jeremy is a photographer by trade I haven’t been that motivated to take any pictures myself,…
yeti speak... 