Meet Grace!

Hello there blog readers!

My full name is Emily Grace Hoffman, but since we are close you may just call me Grace. Like Abby and Christine, I am a sophomore at Drexel University. Being more of an underachiever than Christine, I’m only a single major, which is Hospitality Management. Essentially this means I really like hotels, resorts, and restaurants and learning how they run and all that fun stuff…it's different, I know. 

Now, this is not the first blog that I have been famous on. It all started five years ago when Kimberly, Douglas and I packed our belongings (well Still Transfer did) and sat on a plane for 14 hours (thanks Eastman for business class) with our two cats safely resting in the cargo hold below (yes, it is temperature controlled) before arriving in Shanghai. 

The first picture on the original blog of brother Phil and I behind our line of luggage. Notice Lily and Tebucky in their dog sized crates for the long flight.

To document the shang-high and shang-low days, Our China Story was created. It was a place for us to try to make sense of China, and let me tell you China doesn't make sense. From having a population of 1.4 billion people who are incapable of queuing, to seeing grown men pee on the streets, and having no legal access to Facebook, it was always an adventure. Four years and 495 blog posts later, my family returned to the United States and a new blog was born. Hoffman Family Chronicles, follows our simple and sometimes boring life in a place that is still TBD, although I think it might be Asheville, NC. On Hoffman Family Chronicles the posts are pretty evenly split between myself and our dog, Boomer. Some might be offended that they are sharing prime blog space with a dog, but I was just pleased to make it on the blog. 

Occasionally Boomer and I make the blog together, but he is so much cuter than me!

I have an older brother, Phil, who has recently moved to Fort Worth, TX to be a big kid and get a job after graduating from Georgia Tech. Go jackets! All jokes aside, he is doing fab and I’m super excited to see him over Thanksgiving. Douglas does something or other with car paints and cigarette filters and travels a lot. Kimberly is currently enjoying the unemployment life (I say that with love). While in Shanghai, my senior year, Kimmie took a full time science position at my high school. As much as I dreaded having her always near, it wasn't that bad and it was nice to have someone to supply my lunch money whenever necessary. 

Kimberly usually chooses to take pictures, rather than be in them. So this one of three of us will have to suffice. 

I am not entirely sure when or how it started, but I have taken a liking to calling my parents by their first names. My dad is usually Doug or Douglas depending on how badly I want his attention. He seems to have mastered the art of tuning me out when I annoy him, but somehow he always seems to respond to Dad, even if football is on.  Now, my mom's names have some meaning to them. I usually call her Kimmie, occasionally Mom, in a normal conversation with her. Kimberly or Mother when I am annoyed with her. Mama Hoffman when I am telling a story about her. 
Love ya Kimmie and Douglas! 

I will leave you with a list of 10 of the most ridiculous things I have been asked about China:

1. Do they have numbers in China?

2. Were you adopted by Chinese parents?

3. Did you get to meet Mao?

4. Are you, like, super good with chopsticks?

5. Did you only date Asian guys?

6. So did you eat sushi all the time?

7. Were you like the tallest person everywhere you went?

8. Have you ever eaten dog? NO!

9. But you don't have squinty eyes!

and finally

10. But, your English is so good! 

At times I still wish Shanghai was my home, but being in Philly isn't so bad. And having two amazing roommates makes it so much better. 

xoxo,

Grace