DaShan: 大山

大山, DaShan, (Big Mountain) aka Mark Rowswell is a Canadian who started studying Mandarin in the mid-1980s and has about 40 episodes of a CCTV series titled ‘Communicate in Chinese.’ DaShan is quite well known by all Chinese as a caucasian who speaks Mandarin like a local. I’ve just started to listen to the episodes in the […]

GreenFest Boston

Starting tomorrow is GreenFest at Boston City Hall Plaza, running from August 19-21. Some key take aways from the website are simple: Drink tap water and use reusable containers, recycle, compost, and bike. Boston GreenFest celebrates the many ways we can create a better world by greening our lives and our communities. Among speakers, performers, […]

a note to myself (and readers)

I recently received an email (honestly, I didn’t know anyone was actually reading my babble…!) encouraging me to continue my explorations and lifestyle. I hadn’t realized the interpretation of lifestyle through my blog. I see this as a place to record thoughts, images, products, and adventures that inspire or excite me and make me wonder, ponder, […]

I love dim sum

Inspired by Luxirare‘s Dim Sum series… I had to give it a shot. But my photo skills just aren’t quite there…. Having a look at my series afterwards, the images don’t even come close in comparison to my inspiration. They just aren’t as interesting as I’d hoped. Perhaps the composition of the photos could be […]

Vermont: more than cheese & syrup

Last month I spent four days vacationing in the small resort town of Manchester, Vermont. During this trip we ate only at locally-owned restaurants and shops where I had some of the most freshly prepared food I have ever tasted. The one thing that I couldn’t help but notice was that each place had a […]

table setting: name cards

This week I’ve been helping a very good friend with some details for her wedding tomorrow. For the table seating, we put together these lovely name cards (idea from Martha Stewart)! Sorry they’re only 1/2 finished in the photos below, but you can imagine how adorable they would be once they’re finished off with the […]

East and West: packaging differences

The Shanghai based branding firm Labbrand reviews the impact of packaging design on business in a cultural context, particularly in China. Product brand managers need to pay special consideration to how their consumers view color, materials, images and typefaces, while considering the contrasts between Chinese and Western markets. Packaging design and color has a a big […]

tiles or coasters?

Wow. What a way to make a buck. I saw these glass tiles in a Japanese Wal-Mart-like shop in San Francisco. But aren’t these just the same tiles we can find in home improvement shops? What does this say about consumers? Are they not creative enough or resourceful enough to think about repurposing glass tiles? […]

coffee corner

Dueling Starbucks and Peet’s coffee shops are located directly across the street from each other in the town of Alameda, CA (Bay Area). I’m sure it’s not the only corner in the area with multiple coffee shops. When two huge coffee chains open shop so close together, it certainly shows the presence of coffee culture. Coffee […]

streetfood: Boston’s Dog ‘n Claw

Dog ‘n Claw food stand at the New England Aquarium must be new! I didn’t have a chance to try the dogs, but the claws were definitely a refreshing summer snack, or small lunch! The roll is packed with chunks of lobster meat that’s light and refreshing, and just lobster (with mayonaise). With winters in Boston, we […]

wheelchairs in Vietnam

Looking through some old photos, I came across these tricycle wheelchairs on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City when I was visiting a couple years ago… I’d never seen anything like it before, or perhaps I’m too sheltered. I did a bit of digging and these chairs are actually manufactured in Ho Chi Minh City, by KienTuong, […]

etching glass: how to

I started a project attempting to etch glass… When starting it, I didn’t realize it would be so simple! The vinyl sticker material used to make the stencil was the hardest part to master. If you’re trying this, a few trials should do the trick to familiarize yourself with how the material cuts with an […]

bacon chocolate bar

Bacon!!  Mo’s Bacon Bar, to be exact. I had a taste of this mini-chocolate bar the other day and the salty, sweet flavor was pretty good! I think it was the novelty of the product more than the chocolate itself that made it delicious. Funny how that works. Regardless, along with the infused bacon flavor […]

spitting on the street: in the States too

The other day I was by South Station in Boston and saw a fairly young, caucasian man spit on the street. You’d think I’d be used to seeing the spitting and peeing on the street by now, having just spent four months in China, but really it partially grossed me out, partially offended me, and […]

Design Museum Boston

Last night DesignMuseumBoston hosted an event in collaboration with Office Environments of New England to not only eat, drink, and meet some wonderful people, but to also give some background and insight into what the Design Museum is trying to accomplish.  In addition to opening nomadic and ever-changing ‘pop-up museums’ in empty store fronts, DesignMuseumBoston […]

Domino’s pulling the cheese video

Domino’s YouTube video shows the secrets behind shooting a commerical with a twist. Discover what crazy things are done at pizza photo shoots, and why Domino’s has made a promise about how we shoot our inspired pizzas from this day forward. Beyond the clever commercial, I knew that shooting food was difficult, but I had […]

i want a scratch map!

What’s a scratch map you ask? My Scratch Map is like scratching a lottery ticket after you’ve traveled somewhere (perhaps you’ll want to win some lottery tickets to fund your exotic trip…haha) A subtle way to showcase (or show off) the many places in the world you’ve visited. Reveal the colors under the gold foil by […]

random photo: China life

I took this photo during my trip to Nanjing only as a way to document my walk that day and the things I’d seen. Looking at the photo again, now, I’m not quite sure what’s going on here…There’s something really intriguing to me to know what daily life is like for this lady. Definitely hanging […]

grocery store: H-Mart

Admittedly, I’ve been behind on my posts lately.. studying, finals, packing, traveling, packing again moving, re-packing, and making a trip back to the States for the summer… I’ve been busy these past couple weeks! I’ll back-date some posts that I’ve had on file ;) Onto my 4th of July H-Mart visit in Burlington, MA: A Korean-American chain […]

street food feast for 2

Enough for 5…? or 6..?! My classmate and I were wandering for some street food and went a little overboard… hahaha, it was delicious! (And for RMB65: barbequed wings, peppers, lamb, and 2 vermicelli dishes, vegetable salad with mushrooms, and tripe). Our leftovers were given to a homeless man… 我和我的同学两个吃的晚饭在街上能给五, 六个吃!真的好玩儿也很好吃!