Even though I grew up with a mom who sewed everything, I never really learned the basics. Recently, after talking to several people my age who are into sewing, seeing the awesome fabrics and patterns of Amy Butler Design, and hearing about how my mom has been teaching some of her student workers at the Hope College bookstore how to sew really cute purses, my interest has been piqued.


A few days ago we ventured out to Fields Fabrics in Holland and picked out material for two different purses that I was to make. I was getting excited, but also a little intimidated - art, design and domesticity aren't really my thing and it was embarrassingly difficult to try and pick out different materials that would go together. I'm definitely no Vera Bradley.


Tonight we decided to start on purse number one called the "Birdie Sling." My mom had made a similar purse for my sister so she already knew how to help me. First we had to measure and cut everything out. Then we had to attach some stiff backing on the material so the purse wouldn't be so flimsy.

When it came time to actually use the sewing machine I was really nervous and visions of spurting blood and needles through fingernails quickly filled my head. My goal was to keep all appendages as far away from the crazy needle as humanly possible. Turns out sewing is tricky and takes practice but it's not impossible and it's certainly not as frightening as I had imagined it to be. There's lots of parts and vocabulary to understand and remember and it's hard to get the pace of the pedal comfortable. It felt a little bit like learning to drive a car which actually isn't that comforting to think about since I failed my first driver's test but whatever.


I absolutely love my mom's sewing machine. It is old and small but really simple and efficient to use. My mom was a good teacher and really patient with all of my mistakes - even when she had to rip some seams out and redo them. This made me feel a little guilty and reminded me to be a little more patient when giving my parents lessons on the laptop or the ipod.

After attaching bits and pieces the purse slowly came together. There were so many steps and it seemed that pins were involved with all of them. I even put a pocket in the inside of my purse! Another thing that was funny about sewing was that it seemed that you do everything inside-out first and when everything is done then you turn it right-side-out so that all of the seams are hidden. For someone who had never done it before I struggled with envisioning the finished product and it was a mite challenging for me but I think I'll catch on quicker next time (stay tuned for purse number two).


At last it all came together and I put the final touch on it by sewing on a cute button. Isn't it sweet? I can't wait to try it out. I hope someone asks me where I got it so that I can say that I made it. My mom made the same one for my sister and one day when she was walking around in Target another shopper asked where she could find it in the store! Cool, right?

On the last Sunday of every month from May to September some west Michiganders put on their walking shoes, slap on some sunscreen, pack their picnic lunches and head to . . . the Allegan antique market. Well, at least that is what I grew up doing (and am slowly growing to enjoy and appreciate spurred on by the many viewings of "Antiques Road Show").

Today was one of those perfect summer days in Holland: breezy, dry, sunny and clear. Compared with some of the more gray and polluted days in China, the sky was shockingly and amazingly blue. I couldn't stop looking at it.


We rose early, packed our lunches and drove about 30 minutes to the Allegan county fairgrounds where we joined other dealers, collectors, families and their dogs in the search for trendy decorations, shabby-chic cottage furnishings, useful nick-knacks and interesting junk. Picture the largest garage sale you have ever seen selling only old stuff, throw in some rednecks, artists, farmers, eccentrics, newlyweds, yuppies and a few carnies and you can accurately picture the Allegan antique market. It's really quite entertaining.

I usually don't buy anything but it is fun to look at what people are selling and for how much. I especially like to look at the old furniture, bottles and dishes. I don't really enjoy bargaining, but if you like to wheel and deal then this is the place for you. Today, however, I found 10 old cobalt blue juice glasses for $20 but the guy gave them to me for $5. I am absolutely in love with them. Then my mom and I found an old baby blue Schwinn bike that I instantly knew I had to have for putzing around the neighborhood and riding to the lake. After taking it on a few test rides my mom and I decided to share it - it needs some work but it's super cute! We started at $45 and only got it down to $40.


After loading up our purchases in the car we enjoyed a nice picnic in the shade of the goat barn. The strawberry lemonade, kielbasa, fruit, raw veggies and homemade brownies were delicious and were scarfed down quickly before the flies from said goat barn could get too obnoxious.


As soon as I got home I took a picture of the bike and decided to shoot some pictures of the house and yard as well since so many people in China wanted to see what it looked like. Sorry I didn't get any pics of the antique fair itself - I guess you'll just have to pay a little visit to Allegan and see for yourself. Maybe if you're lucky you can picnic with us in the goat barn.

Whew! These summer days need to slow down - I can't believe it is almost August already. I've been spending my days catching up with family and friends which is, I've found, just about the best way to spend a day!


Sean's sister, Jenny, is in town so it has been fun to spend time with her. She likes to play games so there have been quite a few nights and afternoons spent at the Doyle's entirely filled by playing various board and card games. Since Mr. Doyle is going through his entire house and re-doing it, Sean and Jenny have found games from their childhood that we have been playing (most of which I have never heard of). One night we went out to eat at a place called Boatwerks and my friend Emily came along. Boatwerks is cool because it is right on the lake and it is nice to be outside. The food is pretty good and service is just so-so. Since the Chinese aren't really that gung-ho about raw vegetables I was super excited to eat salads again in the U.S. The strawberry-spinach summer salad was awesome with mandarin oranges, feta cheese, roasted pecans and a vinaigrette dressing. YUM.

Next week we're all heading to Pennyslvania for a family reunion based around my great uncle's 100th birthday. I'm super excited to see my sister and brother with his family - I am sure my nieces will have grown so much after a whole year!


There's quite a few more people that I want to see (and their new babies!) - we have a lot to catch up on. I'm also working on catching up on my beach and sun time - always a must in the summer!

We didn't have a cottage growing up but I always wanted one. I was always really happy when one of my friends would invite me up to their cottage for a weekend full of water-skiing, swimming, boating, games and barbecuing. Even now I am only too happy to oblige when someone invites me to their cottage.


Every year my birth family rents a cottage for three weeks on Green Lake. Grandma stays there every night and different family members alternate staying with her. During the evenings and on the weekends the whole family gathers to eat and enjoy the lake together.


Sean and I went to the cottage last week to visit my grandma, aunts, Doug and James, my half-brother. It was fun seeing everyone and catching up with all of the family news. We also got to do some kayaking and sailing which was really cool because the sunset on the lake was beautiful.


Living abroad is fun, enlightening and entertaining, but being without family is really hard. I feel so lucky to have this much time at home to be able to spend time with everybody that I have missed so much this past year.

Right after I got home Sean and I had to go to Detroit for a wedding in which Sean was one of the groomsmen. The wedding was for one of his high school friends named Tony and his fiance, Kim. It was strange to be in a car and driving on my own again. Though the traffic in Detroit was kind of crazy it was in no way as chaotic and life-threatening as the traffic in China.


We arrived on Friday for the rehearsal dinner where Tony gave all of the groomsmen a personalized wooden sign. After a tasty dinner (steak and shrimp sizzling fajitas- yum!) and much socializing, we all headed over to Tony's for the afterparty. Still suffering from jet lag, I only lasted about five minutes until I fell asleep.


The next day was the wedding and it was probably the fanciest wedding I have ever been to. It was held at a country club and the ceremony was held near the lake outside on the golf course. The setting was beautiful and it was perfect weather. After the wedding all the guests stayed outside for cocktails (open bar from 5-midnight) and hors d'oeuvres. Then we all went inside for an awesome dinner of filet mignon and chicken parmesan. I was impressed. The food was good, the bride was gorgeous, the drinks were top notch, the DJ was fun and nobody had to drive anywhere (the bride and groom had arranged for shuttles in between the hotel and the wedding).


It was cool to see old friends and catch up with acquaintances that we hadn't seen in a year. Questions that I heard over and over were the following:

When are you getting married to Sean?
When's your wedding?
When are you getting engaged?
Are you getting engaged? . . . you get the picture
How was China?
When are you going back to China?
What's next after China?
How much Chinese can you speak?

I'll keep you posted about the answers as soon as I find out for myself =)

"Summer afternoon - Summer afternoon... the two most beautiful words in the English language." - Henry James

Summers at home in Michigan are delightful. I'm currently sitting in the screen porch with Mom and Dad who are watching one of their favorite programs called Antiques Road Show. Mom's working on sewing a bib for a newly born baby and Dad's doing the crossword puzzle from the local paper. It's raining lightly, the birds are happy and we're all drinking tea. Thunderstorms are predicted for tonight which is making our dog, Uno, visibly anxious already. These are the kind of moments that come to mind when I think about summer evenings at home.

One of the other things that I enjoy doing while I am at home is reading the local paper, the Holland Sentinel, and doing the crossword. Doing the crossword puzzle is quite the process in our house. First, Dad does it lightly in pencil and also writes the level of difficulty in his opinion and sometimes the time it took him to complete it at the bottom of the puzzle. Then he erases it and Mom does the puzzle and after she completes it she erases it for me for do. I have proposed alternative methods like borrowing the neighbors' puzzles or making copies on the printer, but they prefer to just use an eraser.


Besides reading the paper I also like checking out the fridge and cupboards to see what kind of goodies my parents are eating nowadays. Current exciting finds include: grape soda, peanut m&m's, Nilla wafers, corn beef, donut holes and fresh-picked blueberries. Yum! I also found some beer which was kind of surprising since my parents aren't really drinkers. This mystery was soon solved, however, when my mom came to me bearing a small saucer filled with Budweiser and . . . slugs. Apparently, if you want to grow healthy tomato plants in Michigan you should put dishes of beer at the base so the greedy and beer-thirsty slugs drink themselves to death instead of gorging themselves on your tomatoes. Live and learn, I guess.

Screen porches, crossword puzzles and slugs . . . just another summer afternoon in West Michigan - it's good to be home!

After about a 1/2 mile hike across campus with all our luggage, a 25 minute taxi ride to the train station, an hour train ride to Shanghai, an hour and a half metro ride to the airport, a fourteen hour plane ride to Chicago, a two hour layover in Chicago, a half an hour plane ride to Grand Rapids and an hour drive to Holland, I made it home though my luggage hasn't made it yet.

It feels great to be back though already things are go go go because of a wedding in Detroit this weekend that Sean is in. It's funny to leave America for a long time because when you return you not only appreciate it more but you also notice things you might not have before you left. We talked about some of our "first" impressions and other things we noticed during our layover.

1. Americans are tall and big people
2. Everyone looks different - different colored hair, skin, different body shape, huge variations of clothing styles.... this is in stark contrast to China, one of the most homogeneous countries in the world
3. Things are expensive (my water at the airport was $3 - ahh!)
4. I can understand everyone speaking around me
5. Blue skies and clean air are amazing
6. A lot of people say hi and chat with you even if they don't know you
7. Nobody stares at me and I actually feel like I fit in
8. After a year of having to throw toilet paper in the wastebasket, it is hard to remember that I can actually flush it in the toilet
9. In Holland the wide open spaces and the lack of traffic and people were astonishing
10. It feels amazing and unusual to have uncensored internet

Sean and I arrived in town just in time for a visit by Obama. He came to Holland today to help celebrate the groundbreaking of a new battery plant that is not only making advance batteries for electric cars but also creating a lot of much-needed jobs for Michigan. We didn't catch a glimpse of him as the route and factory were pretty well guarded but it was still cool to think that he came to our city.

We made it back from the Yangtze River trip on Saturday weighing significantly less than when we started due to the amount that we lost in sweat. The trip was fun but it did have its share of challenges. I'll write more later but suffice to say that three big sweaty boys and one big sweaty girl sharing a tiny cabin with a pungent squatter toilet and a decrepit AC does not bode well for four days on the hot and humid river (which Daniel and Ken have dubbed the world's largest open sewer). The experience was pretty unique as we were the only westerners on board and I'm not really sure they knew what to do with us. If you add in Chinese men walking around in their undies and smoking, women doing laundry and then hanging their unmentionanbles on the deck to flap happily in the breeze and little bare-bunned kids peeing and defecating wherever they pleased then you only begin to get a glimpse of what our adventure was like. Of course we could have paid a lot more and gone on a more luxurious cruise that catered towards westerners, but that would have taken all of the fun out of it and I am sure the others would agree with me, right?



I've been spending these last few days packing and doing laundry. If you know me at all you know that I am not the most organized person ever and the current room that I am packing in is a disaster. Sean came over to help as he actually likes to pack and be organized. While backpacking he has been known to empty my pack and then re-pack it just because it was driving him crazy. Freak. Steve, Spring and Michael are coming over today to make dumplings and tomorrow we are going to have a final dinner with Zhao min and Qin Chen. Our flight on Wednesday leaves at 3:40 pm and we arrive in Chicago at 4:15 pm on the same day - funny how that works. Then it's off right away to wedding number one of the summer in which Sean is a groomsman - I hope they can use some chopsticks or a tea set!

I have one oral English class this semester and they are my absolute favorites because it is an optional class - that is a class in which students actually want to attend. They are all non-English majors and are really excited to improve their English. Since the students already have a busy schedule most aren't able to make every class and as a result of that usually only 10-15 students show up. But because of this I have gotten to know them pretty well and class is usually a pretty fun time.

Last week in class we talked about how to have a debate in English and then did partner, small group and class debates on a range of topics like dating and curfews in college, studying versus life experience and the one child policy. One of the more entertaining topics was debating which hot drink was better: coffee or tea. Most of my students sided with tea but a few helped me to defend coffee. For their writing assignment they had to choose one of the topics discussed in class and write their opinion about it and may chose to try and convince me about the benefits of drinking tea. Here are a few of their essays:

"I like tea better than coffee. Drinking tea is an old tradition in China. It is of great benefit to mankind. The reasons are as follows. Firstly, the tea contains some chemical elements which contribute to losing weight. It can also build up our resistance to disease. Besides, drinking tea can protect your teeth from being eaten by moths (?). I think the most important thing is that tea can relieve your tiredness and improve your memory. On account of all these advantages, I can't help choosing to drink tea!"

"I'd prefer tea because coffee is not a healthy food. it does damage to your health. Coffee contains caffeine and it helps to make the skin produce melanin. Coffee is more bitter than tea. Tea is good for our health. It can also make us slim. Tea has a long history in China. Tea is a part of Chinese culture and you can find a lot of kinds of tea in China like green tea, red tea and flower tea. They taste very delicious. So I think tea is better than coffee."

"I like tea because I am Chinese. Chinese people like to drink tea and often entertain friends and guests with it. So I choose tea because of my daily habit. Also drinking tea has some advantages. Drinking tea can quench one's thirst, help digestion and prevent some diseases. The constant drinking of tea is quite beneficial for people's health. And if you're not drinking 3-4 cups of tea today, you're definitely not doing your health a big favor. What's more, drinking tea helps with our body weight loss because tea burns fat. Finally, it protects our skin from the effects of the sun."

"Would you like coffee or tea?" I prefer tea. If we present teas as the east, coffee definitely represents the west. Obviously coffee is the combination of warmth, enthusiasm and romanticism, but tea is the unit of peace, calm and tradition. I like tea. Because tea doesn't have a dense and strong smell. Neither the sense of taste. I also think that tea can make me quiet. In addition, tea is always together with long-standing history and culture. I prefer it because it apparently helps us to be healthy. When we are free, tea can let us be more comfortable. What's more, tea helps us lose weight. I love tea, love its smell and weakness. So I prefer to drink tea rather than coffee."

All this being said, though I have drank my fair share of coffee this year, I have also started to drink a lot of tea as well. I'm taking some fresh green tea home this summer for others to try and to attempt to keep up this apparently healthy Chinese habit.

I haven't posted much lately because we have been on the road. My friend Emily came to visit on June 25 and we spent the next 10 days traveling around Changzhou, Beijing, Xian and Shanghai. After a day of recuperation back in Changzhou Sean, Peter, Daniel and I leave tomorrow for a river cruise down the Yangtze River. This type of cruise is famous in China because you can see some famous gorges from the boat and then visit the Three Gorges Dam - the largest one in the world. We'll arrive back in Changzhou on the 10th with enough time to relax and pack a little before heading back home (to Michigan!) on the 14th. Among spending time with friends and family I am excited for:

-American food (especially mom's food and dad's grilling)
-Western toilets (and not having to put the toilet paper in the trash)
-uncensored internet and news
-clean air
-drinking from the tap
-obedience of traffic laws and orderly drivers
-no mosquitoes inside

But I'll miss:

-my Chinese friends
-Chinese food
-the prices
-the fun of practicing and learning Chinese
-the ease of train travel
-free music and movies (ie lack of copyright laws)

Daniel Bruno Davis, one of the other teachers here, recently wrote an article about Chinglish in Changzhou that made it to the Wall Street Journal Blog. It's called "Silver Collars and No Talls in Disorder: Changing Chinglish" and you can check it out here. Nice work Daniel - you are taking the responsibility of our 'Foreign Expert Certificate' to the next level. Next year, Daniel will be teaching in remote western China. We'll miss you!

Recently, Ken and Daniel were able to help some professors correct some of the signs in Changhzou. Like I have mentioned before, Chinglish in China is pretty entertaining to foreigners and it will be sad to see everything corrected. Check out Ken's blog to see what the experience of translating Chinese to English involved.


Before they could correct everything I went downtown to snap a few of my favorite signs that hadn't been changed yet.


Peter also posted about a funny sign that he saw at the Dinosaur Park in Changzhou which conveniently showed where one could go to be sick.

As China gets more and more developed we'll continue to lose these little cultural gems like Chinglish on signs. What's next - squatter toilets? .... I'm not holding my breath.