Decades ago China tested nuclear bombs in Xinjiang and as a result the Lop Nor region is dotted with holes like a teenager suffering from acne. Last Monday China successfully tested a missile intercept system in or near Xinjiang and as a result we have a ton of UFO sightings.

We’re back!!

We can now officially say that we’ve circumnavigated the globe and are quite exhausted from doing so. In all, we’ve taken 12 flights, 3 road trips (7 hours or greater), countless rides on the subway, one boat, and a high speed train. We’ve slept in airplanes, hotels, tents, cars, condos, and even in an airport. We visited 5 museums, 3 cathedrals, and one castle. In a word, we’re pooped.

After setting foot in six different countries in the past 5 weeks (China, Qatar, England, France, Ireland, …

When living in a foreign country like China, especially in a place as remote as Xinjiang, time spent with family and friends becomes that much more valuable to you. For the past two years we have spent all major holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas alone, and trying to make up for that lost time when we return for a visit can be difficult. It can also be a ton of fun!

The fact that we hadn’t seen my sister in over a year coupled with the horror of …

We’re back!! It was rough, but we’re finally here. We’ve flown into China, the Middle East, and different parts of Europe on this trip, but nothing prepared us for finally landing in the good ‘ol US of A. If you read the opening paragraph of our last post, here’s the reason why we slept in so many different locations when we left Paris.
First of all, our itinerary was fairly simple (I thought). We were to fly from Paris to Dublin, Ireland; from Dublin to JFK (New …

Last you heard from us we were still comfortably situated in a beautiful cottage outside of London with my old roommate Tom and his wife Joanna. In the 7 days that have passed since then, we have slept in a train, a hotel, an airplane, an airport, a car, on the ground in a tent, and finally on a futon! The visiting is fun, but the traveling is making us very tired, to say the least.

So we’ll give you another quick run-down of the most recent events in …

Ever since high school I’ve had a fascination with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. I think it began when my English teacher at the time, Mrs. Love, “commissioned” me to build a tiny replica of the theater made entirely of construction paper, and I absolutely fell in love with the design and history of it all. For this reason I have decided to write this short article to allow you to share in my joy of finally experiencing the Globe personally.

As I said in the previous travelogue, we weren’t terribly …

Three days of sight-seeing has come and gone and we almost have too much to show for it! We’ve tried to find a balance between seeing as much as we can while also thoroughly enjoying each sight, but I will say it has been difficult at times. Add to this the intense desire to take time with my old roommate whom I haven’t seen in years and you can only guess how packed our time has been. Here’s a simple summary of our tour so far:

We made …

After a late night in the Beijing airport we finally boarded our plane to Qatar, a small peninsula off of Saudi Arabia, ready for a good sleep 35,000 ft in the air. However, just as the sheer size of the new Beijing terminal 3 amazed us, the luxury of this middle-eastern, barely-known airline made us feel like we were in business class. Besides the glorious wonders of exit-row seating (thanks to Tiff sweet-talking the lady at check-in!!), we were treated to personal entertainment centers equipped with more movies …

Holy cow! I’m no accomplished world traveler, but I’ve seen my share of airports around the world and Beijing’s new Terminal 3 is – for lack of a better word – MASSIVE. Most airports have some sort of rail or bus system to transport passengers between the different terminals, but here it is so big that this one terminal alone has its own train system!
Ok, let me back up for just a moment before I get back to Beijing. We actually woke up this morning around 5:30am …

The Olympics are set to kick-off in less than 3o days and we couldn’t be more excited to be making our exit! Don’t get me wrong – we really enjoy living here in China, especially our home here in Xinjiang – but we’re burnt out on teaching and unless you’re going to attend the Olympics this really isn’t the best time to be traveling around the country. Here are a few examples of the changes we’re seeing in China leading up to the big Games:

All time is related …