One day I walked into class a few minutes early to find music ringing and all the students dancing. One student stood out in particular to me, a student who I am told has been taught to dance. Next class I brought my camera so that you, too, could enjoy the sight of my kindergarten student rocking his head and his hips in gyrating circles. I just can’t help but laugh.

We should get paid, that’s what I think. This being our 6th wedding of the month we’re beginning to see patterns in the way a Chinese wedding is run and one of them always has to do with a foreigner performing on stage. Sometimes, like today, against our will we become the main entertainment of the wedding, forcing me to ask why the host is getting paid while we are handed a big plate of humiliation.

I was planning on sleeping in today, enjoying my warm bed and maybe even read for a bit. I have a book that is just begging to be picked up and read. I was actually hoping to begin packing for our upcoming trip over the October holiday. I mean, it is Saturday. I should reasonably expect to be able to do all of those things on a Saturday, right?

Towards the end of the “ceremony” a set of four or five fireworks set up around the stage were set off to the sound of blissful wedding music and the happy couple hugging. It was a dramatic scene, for sure, but I won’t lie -I was looking for the nearest exit.

his month we have searched three different stores for butter…BUTTER…pretty much an essential ingredient to any baking that Tiff wants to do in our mini-oven. To our dismay there has been no butter to be found anywhere and now that we have this big milk crisis staring us in the face, I’m not even sure if we could trust the butter if we found it.

A recent melamine milk crisis has created an earthquake of a different kind here in China…one that has been felt in more places than just Sichuan.

Last week was Teacher’s Day and today in China we’re celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival Day. Yippee! The only real significance for us is two things: 1) we get Monday off from school, a major blessing considering it’s our busiest teaching day and 2) we get gifts.

To all you teachers out there reading this…Happy Teacher’s Day. I don’t think this is considered an official holiday in China although I do believe it lands on the same date every year. Altogether its a great idea and we’ve enjoyed each of the three we’ve been a part of, but I think it could use some tweaking.

My dad once told me that in order to fully understand a culture you need to attend a wedding, a funeral, and a baby shower. Unfortunately our Chinese friends never got that memo, so instead of a well-balanced cultural immersion, we’ve been invited to five (yes, count them…FIVE) weddings this month.

Since our arrival here in China two years ago we’ve been surprised by the vast number of Filipinos that teach English here in Xinjiang. It feels like there are just as many Filipinos who have relocated to China as there are Americans, although I doubt that’s true in the bigger cities. The Philippines , as you may already know, is located just 520 miles (840 km) south east of Hong Kong and seems to be well-known for exporting two things: teachers to China and nurses to the US.
We’ve met our …