Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas! We hope that wherever you find yourself this holiday, that your days are filled with joy, love, and hope.

Happy Holidays!

The Fultons
Gordon, Elizabeth, and Rolo

Blogdentity Crisis

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Happy Halloween to all!

I hope you have a fun evening planned, whether that includes dressing up and dancing to the wee hours of the morning, or eating a bowl of candy at home and watching Hocus Pocus (oh you know everyone does it). Hubby and I are headed to the Florida Keys for the weekend with some friends. Should be a lovely getaway. :)

I know it's been quiet around here for a while and I've struggled to comprehend or explain why. But I read this blog post today and realized that it pretty much sums up the silence. Every word (except the part about being a Chinese supermodel; that, I am not). You can click the link and read the post below. It's that good that I had to re-post it.

Just replace "China" with "South Africa".

Have a wonderful weekend! xo.




By Jerry Jones:

They say that blogs resemble their owners.

They don’t actually say that.  They do say that about dogs.  They should say it about blogs too.

Blogging for me has been a thoroughly enjoyable stress release in the chaos of my daily bumblings as a foreigner in China.  It has forced me to process, more completely, what I actually think and feel in the context of a constant flow of phenomenal experiences such as having my bowel issues publicly assessed by an entire community of well meaning, amateur Chinese medical experts or coming home with 28 enormous hickeys on my back.

It’s therapeutic really.

Beyond that . . . it’s me.  Through this goofy little blog I have discovered something about myself that I didn’t realize before.

I love writing.

I wish I was a painter . . . that would be so much cooler.  Or a musician.  Maybe a drummer.  Famous rock star with tattoos.

But I’m not . . .  and chances are, at this stage, short of a lobotomy and a dramatic shift in popular culture that’s not going to happen.

But I do love to write.

Writing has become a part of my identity.  I even say so up there at the top of this blog . . . And I quote:

“I’m a husband, a dad, a trainer, a writer, an expat, a foreigner, a Chinese faker and a culture vulture who loves having a front row seat to watch the world turn.”

Here’s the kick in the pants — My blog is having an identity crisis.

Somewhere between my last post (ages ago) about my career as a Chinese supermodel and this post we moved back to America.  Did you catch that?  Even though my so-called blog still says I am . . . I am actually no longer an expat (although I’m feeling very much like a foreigner).  I’m still a dad, still a trainer, definitely still a culture vulture and I still fake Chinese (albeit only in Chinese buffets)

BUT I DON’T LIVE IN CHINA ANYMORE.

That was the whole fun point of The Culture Blend.  Goofy foreigner  . . . China . . . bumbling.  I feel like my blog doesn’t know who it is anymore and you know what they say about blogs.

Or at least they should.

My blog’s identity crisis makes the whole writing thing painfully inconsistent.  It’s confusing, misleading and unclear.

In short, it’s in transition . . . and so am I.

But in the chaos I’m starting to get a clear picture of two simple truths.

1.  Culture keeps on blending no matter where you are which means there is a lot more to write about

and

2.  I still love to write.

So give me some time and I’ll replace the growing number of “used to be true” statements here with the “yet to be seen” facts as I figure them out.  I’ll push through the awkward part and someday soon it will make more sense.  The whole thing will be less utterly lost and more profoundly insightful.

I’m talking about the blog . . . not myself.

But you know what they say about blogs.

Happenings of late (but mostly One Direction)

When did it become October? We are not even in the same season as when hubby and I moved to the US a few months ago. (That's our timeline for everything right now.) And that's nuts.

But we are staying busy while I continue to be on the job hunt and hubby is waiting for all sorts of government paperwork. Here are some photos of all the happenings that have been going on around here...which partly explain my absence.

I took the General Knowledge Exam for the state of Florida so I can be a substitute teacher; it's at least a little bit of income while I'm looking for a full-time job. Yes, I needed to review odds and factorials. No judging please; math has never been my strong suite. :)

 Beautiful sunset over Miami.

 I baked a giant doughnut with doughnut holes for a friends birthday. It was pretty yummy, if I do say so myself.

And I made a pumpkin cake with cream-cheese frosting and walnuts, of course. We needed some fall around these warm parts. And this one was even yummier. 

And we've been to a basketball game.

But the best part...

Husband received the Husband of the Year Award for taking me to the One Direction concert! I can't get over it - I'm still so excited!

We only heard about the concert the day of but got tickets on StubHub for $13! I highly recommend using them. Who cares what the view is like for that price!

Bless his heart...he was genuinely excited for me, but the glass-shattering screaming was just a bit too much (and to be honest, it was for me too - gosh, when did I get that old?). Here's a small sample:

(Still makes me laugh...and remind me of my Nsync days. How embarrassing.)

Thanks mister! I love that you enjoy something just because I enjoy it. :)

One show you must watch this fall

Have any of you seen the show on Discovery Channel, Alaska: The Last Frontier? The whole family has started watching it over here and we LOVE it! Maybe it's because we were just in Alaska (and now I'm totally obsessed), but either way, it such a cool show!

It's about the Kilcher family who live completely off the grid in the Alaskan wilderness. They spend all summer building/repairing their log cabins, herding cattle, and collecting and storing food for the winter. They raise their own chickens and vegetables; they hunt rabbit and bear; they fish for Alaskan salmon; and they fend off wild wolves! And in winter...they try to stay warm and survive. It's nuts! Here's a preview of the next season that starts on 5 October.

What do you think? Have you watched it? Will you?





PS - The images at the top are from our recent trip to the last frontier, which I am so overdue in sharing with you. I'm sorry! The full itinerary is coming soon. :)

What Steve Jobs didn't let his kids use...

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This may or may not come as a surprise to you, but Steve Jobs didn't let his kids use Apple products very much. In fact, in late 2010, Jobs said his kids had never used an iPad! You can read more about it here and here.

What do you think?

I think most people would agree that everyone uses electronics far too much, but to hear that the creator of the device that I am currently typing on (and the smaller one that is playing music right next to me) limited the use of these greatly, really changes my perspective. At the same time, how could I cut back my usage? Yes, not be on the phone when I'm talking to people...but aside from that, our society is so technology based that I'm not sure how those of us wanting to cut some tech devices out could keep up.

How much do you use your phone/computer/tablet/etc? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. :)

Autumn in Miami

I would love to have a post for you showing the changing leaves in my backyard or the abundant pumpkin patches filled with cider doughnuts and caramel apples; alas, I cannot. I live in season-less Miami which means any "seasonal" activities are completely contrived. So here are few snapshots of what we do in autumn in Miami:

We go boating with friends!

A pod of dolphin came and swam around our boat - so cool!

By the way, you can tell the difference between a shark fin and dolphin fin by the way it moves: dolphin fins will "roll"...dolphins will never come straight at you. Shark swim straight; they don't do that wavy (rolling) motion: ~ ~ 

Then we went out to Stiltsville. It's an area just off of downtown Miami that was built by Al Capone in the late 1920s/early 1930s. He wasn't allowed to run gambling rings on US soil, so he just sailed a few miles out and built these. Now they're just abandoned structures, but still a pretty cool piece of history. 

(One benefit of unemployment: extra down-time with the hubby:)

Friends:)

Not quite cool, crisp weather, but such a beautiful day nonetheless! Thanks to our friends, Leo and Myra, for taking us all out!

Why do you read blogs?

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It may seem a bit of a silly question but I'm curious: why do you read blogs? And what kinds do you read?

There are the obvious travel blogs that perhaps let us escape our normal routine for something a bit more exotic and colorful. The fashion blogs, that either help inspire our wardrobes or at least allow us to feel like we're somewhat in the know when it comes to fashion. And of course, cooking/baking blogs - need I say what those are for? And those are all great.

I follow 84 blogs on Bloglovin', of which only about half are actually active (posting at least once a week). Most I follow because I enjoy the content, the writing style, and/or the photography; some I follow because I do not enjoy the content or writing style (just being honest) and I like to read them every now and then to make sure I'm not slipping in to similar patterns. But to be honest, I'm starting to feel like blogs are becoming all to similar. What do you think? Why do you read blogs? What keeps you coming back to certain ones?

I'd love to hear your thoughts. :)