No longer “Blogging From Beijing”

I’m back in the US, and as such, I no longer write from China.  I may occasionally update with something China-related, but for the most part I probably won’t post very much anymore.

I have started a personal blog, but it won’t be as visible as this blog has been.  It won’t be protected, and the posts won’t be imported into Facebook, but you can have the posts emailed to you if you’d like.  If you’d like the link to it, just drop me an email at juliekhull at gmail dot com, or leave me a comment at the bottom of this post.

It’s been an amazing adventure, and I’m so thankful for everyone who kept in touch and prayed for me along the way.  I did my best to chronicle my time in China between the summers of 2007 and 2010, and the journey has been incredible.  Thanks for reading along the way.  🙂

再见！ Zai jian!

“Bearded Beanie” hat

(right-click to enlarge)

“Bearded Beanie” hat: the weirdest thing ever?

Chinese for “Backstreet Boys”

I learned something useful and new today.  The Backstreet Boys in Chinese is 后街男孩 – hou jie nan hair.

hou = back

jie = street

nan = boy

hair = child

Office hour fun

Life lately

I have a confession to make.  I was wearing flip flops around the apartment and wore them right into the shower today.  I don’t know why I suddenly reverted back to my college days and their accompanying grody showers, but I looked down and there they were.

Aside from wearing my shoes into the shower, two friends and I decided to take a break from Chinese food and eating in, and treated ourselves to TGI Friday’s tonight.  My Caribbean calamari salad (minus the squid, I had it replaced with chicken instead) was yum and a nice break from the ordinary.

My friend Victoria does a great job discussing and rating the movies

Bu yao androgynous mullet, part II

The Chinese love asymmetrical, layered hairstyles.  Fortunately for them, they can pull it off with their thick straight hair.  Unfortunately for me, I do not have thick straight hair.  In a country of 1.325 billion people, where do hairdressers get to practice on non-thick, non-straight hair?  That would be me.  I’ve been around the block a few times when it comes to getting a trim from someone who doesn’t speak the same language.  It’s hard enough to explain to an English-speaker what you want, and to try to get them to cut what you want and not what they think would look good.  Throw in a different culture with different ideas about what a flattering haircut looks like.  Some experiences have definitely been better than others, but I’ve never been

The paradox of our time

This was in the front of one of my textbooks, by George Carlin (of all people).  It’s titled, The Paradox of Our Time.

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less.  We buy more, but enjoy it less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment;
More experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little,
drive too fast, get angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired,
read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray