Category Archives: Special Days
新年快乐， 龙年大吉
Chinaversary: Seven Years in China
As of today, I’ve been in China seven years. I’m officially a 7 Year Laowai. In contemplating what having lived in China for three-quarters of the last decade means to me, I find it interesting that in a lot of ways I feel less sure or informed about this country now than I did in …
Happy Halloween 2011
I love Halloween, and am a bit bummed that Casey’s not going to get to experience it while we live in Haikou. As a bit of fun, I decided to dress the three of us up “digitally”. Happy Halloween!
Nesat – our first typhoon
Waking up this morning and peeking outside, you’d hardly believe 150km winds were sweeping over us just a handful of hours earlier. Actually going outside, however, was an entirely different story.
The first casualty of Nesat was our papaya tree, which had fallen before dawn yesterday. I say “our” papaya tree, as it’s right outside our kitchen window, but really it’s the community’s — a fact made ever evident by the endless stream of people who walk up and grab some unripe fruit while I’m washing dishes or preparing dinner.
What’s in store for Thirty Four?
Today’s my birthday. I’m 34. I think this is the first birthday I’ve ever said it, but I feel older. Not old, but older. Undoubtedly some, if not most, of that feeling of age relates to being a parent now. Nothing forces you to look at the world in more “grown up” terms than when …
Canada Day 2011
It’s easy to flip back through photos of Casey and see how much he’s grown over the last year, but it really hits me when I have a direct date to compare to. Last year I took this photo of Casey with a little Canadian flag I have here. He’s just so much bigger now: …
Hainan’s Red Detachment of Women Ballet
While later today Canada will be celebrating its own anniversary with fireworks, BBQ and a whole lot of drinking; in China it’s all about the Communist Party of China’s 90th anniversary. Not one to shy away from the spirit of things, I figured it was an excellent time to showcase one of Hainan’s most well …
Casey’s 1st Birthday
I did all my jawing about being a dad for 365 mostly-wonderful days last post, but would be failing in my fatherly rights of overly saturating this blog with pictures of my son if I didn’t post these photos: We ended up dividing Casey’s first birthday celebrations into two. For his actual birthday we hit …
Father of the Year
Shortly after noon tomorrow I will have been a father for one year. Yep, Casey’s already one year old!
I can hardly believe that we’ve hit his first birthday already. Oddly, at the same time, it feels like a century ago I was in that hospital room marveling at his wrinkly hands and unpracticed cries. Most amazingly of all, we’ve made it through 365 days of parenting and still have a healthy little boy to show for it.
Homeless
As of 5pm Friday Maggie, Casey, Button and I became homeless. After a hectic few days of packing, we said farewell to our gear Friday morning as it left on a truck destined to eventually (hopefully) meet up with us in Haikou. Judging what the costs would be for shipping our stuff was one part …
