If you know me personally or you’ve been reading Following Augustine for a long time, you might recall that my husband and I lived in China for a period of time back in 2013. We lived in the city of Dalian in Liaoning Prefecture and taught English at Liaoning Normal University. It was a wonderful experience and had we not had very elderly parents and very young grandchildren back here in Canada, we probably would have stayed longer.

Over the past few months, I’ve been very happy to notice an increasing number of readers from China finding their way to my blog. If you are one of them, welcome! I’m so glad you’re here!

I have many very fond memories of our time in China. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to travel as tourists to several parts of the country during school breaks and before we returned to Canada, but it was living and experiencing everyday life that we enjoyed the most.

Simply looking out the window of our fifth storey apartment and watching the constant activity on the little street below never failed to fascinate me.

While there was a giant supermarket within easy walking distance, I loved shopping for most of our groceries at the morning street market just around the corner.

We prepared most of our meals at home, but we also loved eating out. A couple of favourite little restaurants close to home had English menus available, but going out with our students introduced us to many new and unfamiliar foods.

I could go on and on about all the things we saw and experienced, but I’ll just share a couple more memories. If you’re interested in reading more about our time in China, click on “China” under the title “Categories” in the margin to the right if you’re on a computer or below if you’re using your cell phone.

One of my fondest memories will always be the moment I came face to face and hand to paw with a giant panda at the Dalian Forest Zoo.

And I will never forget dancing with a stranger on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Zhongshan Park!

If you are reading this from China today, I would love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below or send me an email at debock2@gmail.com.