Category: Life in Xining
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Kids with skewers… This was taken at a favorite Xining restaurant…
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Just so everyone knows, the earthquake down in Chengdu today did not affect us this far north. The Johnsons are back in Xining packing and re-packing and tying down the fort (or whatever strange metaphor you’d like to use for such things). We were all so exhausted today I doubt we would have EVEN noticed…
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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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A few weeks ago (pre-Jianzha move) Christa and Sarah took an overnight trip to a village outside of Datong. Datong is about 45 minutes to an hour north of Xining whereas we live a few hours south of Xining now. Christa’s language partner from last semester, Maria, invited her to visit her home. Maria and…
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I took a load of our belongings (mostly little girl toys) out to Jianzha this morning. The roads were wet and muddy, but since I was in my friend’s jeep we had no problem getting through. Tomorrow the whole family will be heading there with the last of the belongings we will need (for the…
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When I was a kid I enjoyed Choose Your Own Adventure books. In these books you read a narrative in which you become the main character and usually at the end of each chapter you have a decision to make. Much like in real life as you make each new decision your “story” follows a…
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This is the beautiful landscape that can be seen out our back window of our apartment in Xining. Breathtaking, eh? On many evenings over the past two years, from the comfort of my couch, I have stared out at this gray brick building. The other day as I stared at it it dawned on me…
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After that first "sacrificial trip" to the train station, I was able to purchase our tickets to Chengdu on ONLY my second attempt. Yeah, pretty amazing. Next Friday we’ll be taking the 24-hour train trip to the south. The train will head east from Xining to Lanzhou in the Gansu province and then south through…
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I went to the train station yesterday to check on ticket prices to Chengdu (成都). If you are not familiar with China’s geography Chengdu is the capitol city of the Sichuan province to the southeast of us. We have friends from the U.S. who are moving to Chengdu for work in the near future. We…
yeti speak... 