Author Archives: nancysvenson

Have been meaning to say this… Thank you for the comments!  I haven’t replied to them individually since my time on the computer is limited by internet speed and our daily schedule, but am enjoying the feedback.

We brought three laptops with us to China: Art’s mac, my work Dell, and Cece’s mac.  I use Cece’s mac when posting to the blog since that’s the one I am dumping pictures onto.  But today I took a look … Continue reading →

[note: the following post is from my contributing writer and favorite travel companion.  Also note the fabulous job he did taking pictures… some of these will be added to my quilt images file… ] Ni hao.  This is Art and … Continue reading →

We’ve had such good fortune on this trip, almost daily meeting new people who make our experience richer.  Last night Art’s colleague Qingsi (all around great guy; he has also spent a lot of time in the US and even … Continue reading →

The girls love checking our little mailbox in the apartment building lobby, like, every time we pass by it which is multiple times a day.  Of course, there is never anything in it.  Until Thursday.  We got mail!  Thanks mum. … Continue reading →

Our time in China has such a rhythm to it now; the days are flying by and I see July 1 looming too quickly ahead.  We still have so much to plan and do here, I’d love to slow it … Continue reading →

Thursday night here: the kids are sleeping, Art is reading James Fallows’ observations on China and I am spending too much time on the computer… trying to post pixs as the internet fades in and out, and I catch it … Continue reading →

水 water = shui (pronouced schwei) You cannot drink the shui in China.  Ever.  It’s fine for bathing, floor mopping and teeth brushing, but not for swallowing.  This means that we schlep a lot of water to the apartment.  Like … Continue reading →

We’ve had several “normal” days in a row here with no sightseeing, meetings, or major attempts to figure out/find/fix anything.  Just day-to-day living… all good… in a familiar way.  One of our girls even had a meltdown on Saturday.  So. … Continue reading →

On Sunday we took a chilly (one of us was freezing) afternoon outing in our very own Haidian District to the “Old” Summer Palace (not to be confused with “The” Summer Palace mentioned in the very first post of this … Continue reading →