Three Months in Xiamen

Missing These People

2015-02-03T19:06:00.003-08:00

Two months ago today I left Xiamen behind and returned to my safe and sheltered life in California. So many lingering memories, and still a few blog posts that I want to put in writing. Mostly it's these faces that I'm missing!

My last breakfast with these two lovely ladies before the taxi whisked teary-eyed me away. Missing our fruit salad, oatmeal and yogurt breakfast regimen. And of course missing Kynza and Christine who bring so much joy to my life. They are valiantly continuing on with life in China, and making impressive strides at learning Chinese!

The five young women who Christine works with were such a big part of my adventure! Talking with them about their lives, getting to meet their families and their friends, sharing meals, outings, and adventures with them were highlights of my three months in Xiamen. Not sure how I would have coped without going to them daily for advice -- where to buy chicken, how to make sure you're on the right train, when to wear a jacket, where to find clean toilets! Thank you Sandy, Eida, Sunny, Jinna, and Michelle for such a generous, warm welcome to your country. So many memories to treasure -- haircuts with Sunny's cousin, crepes with Jinna, Dehua ceramics with Sandy, Golden Lake with the whole team, karaoke, and oh how I miss lunch time at the office!

One last picture with Ting Shian, AKA "the cooker," in her clean kitchen. Missing the sweet smile and the very Chinese kitchen. How pale and how tall I feel!

I cooked my first Chinese meal for my family last week, and it was a success! Their favorite was chicken with sugar peas, ginger, and some nice Chinese chili paste I found.

Christine often talks about how God answered her prayers and led her to our apartment that was so much nicer than anything else she had seen. I am of course thankful along with her, and loved the roominess and all the amenities down to the dish sterilizer. About six weeks into my stay, I discovered our apartment had an added blessing for me -- the owner wanted to be friends! We met when she had lunch at our house, and from then on she treated me like a special guest in her country. She graciously took me out to see the sites of Xiamen, took me on a day trip to the tulous, introduced me to her friends, invited me into her home, and learned how to do instantaneous translation on her iPad so she could communicate with me. Building a friendship with someone you don't share a language with is a rewarding challenge. Because Linda is from the north of China, she's an expert at making dumplings -- one of my favorite Chinese foods. I followed her around her tiny kitchen while she made these, and created a recipe for myself that works! Actually, I still haven't tried making my own dough and rolling it out like she does, but that will come. Her ten-year-old son Jack LOVES dumplings!

Usually when Friday night rolls around, I'm missing English Corner. The picture shows my group on the last Friday night I was there. Several marine engineering students, and we had a lively discussion about why bad things happen...

I met Mandy at English Corner way back in September, and we have vowed to keep in touch through telephone and Internet.We went for a manicure the night before I left... Both got red nails for Christmas.

And James came with us -- his first time to come and watch manicures!! He's a guy I met at English Corner, and it was a fun chance for me to chat with him. Who knew in China young men often come watch girlfriends get a manicure!

Mandy introduced me to Annie and David. So many memories of fun dinners and great discussions with the three of them. Love how they are willing to share their dreams and think big about the future! We spent hours talking about marriage, how to build a business from the ground up, priorities, families. The three of them have so much hope when they think about their futures.

They came to our house for dinner, and we introduced them to popcorn. You can find packaged popcorn in China, but they'd never seen kernels pop up in the air and come down puffy white. So fun to watch their delight.

My three months in Xiamen would not have been the same without Marilyn Phillips! She and her husband Dave have been teaching English in Xiamen for several years, and our second week in Xiamen we discovered that they lived a short 5-minute walk from us. They introduced us to English Corner, and Marilyn just took me under her wing. She taught me how to take the 951 bus without getting lost. We got pedicures together, went shopping together, shared meals -- all things that are not easy to do by yourself when you've just landed in China. She shared her love for the Chinese church with me -- her smile when she talks about Chinese Christians is just heart warming. And she introduced me to one of my favorite hangouts... The fabric market! As she describes it, "If color gives you a lift, this is the place to go if ever you're having a down day."

Love how bikers and cars are intermingled with sewing machines and fabric!

For me there was something comforting and cheery about sharing smiles with a few friendly souls I met up with most every day as I walked Xiamen. Even though our communication never went much beyond smiles because of the language barrier, there were three people who I looked forward to finding in their expected location each day, and I miss those friendly encounters!

The first was a street sweeper. Street sweeping is such an integral part of my visual impression of Xiamen. This city has thousands of street sweepers I'm sure! I encountered dozens of them on a daily basis. They were such a novelty to me with their brooms made of branches, their pointy hats, and their rickety carts. I'm sure I made a nuisance of myself with my camera more than once! But with one of them I managed to forged seeds of a friendship. When we first arrived in Xiamen, I walked with Kynza to and from her school bus stop a couple times a day, and this guy noticed that I kept walking up and down "his" street. Since he didn't have many other (no other?) non-Asians walking up and down his street, his curiosity got the better of him. So one day he smiled at me and made some hand signals to show he was amused with all my trips up and down his street... From then on I always stopped to greet him when I passed. He often signaled me to sit down and drink tea with him. He had a whole little set up with a tea kettle and a couple plastic chairs. I always declined the tea, but I did sit a spell with him on occasion, and since we couldn't communicate with words, I showed him pictures of my family on my phone. The day before I left, I got these fellow street sweepers to take my picture with my buddy. Chinese street sweepers almost always wear hats and masks to protect them from sun and pollution, but aren't these the cutest ones you've ever seen?

The one-mile trek from our apartment to the grocery store was doable even on the sunniest of days, but getting back home with bags of groceries required some kind of transportation. Taxis refused customers who only wanted to go a mile, so the only real option was the "cart lady." There were actually lots of carts that took passengers on short hauls, and all of them drove like maniacs. But I became partial to one lady who was fun and happy -- always madly waving to attract my attention and get my business. I was always happy to see her, because she knew where I lived, and in spite of her outlandish way of driving, somehow I trusted her to get me home. She put on her helmet, and then we would speed off, horn constantly blaring to let everyone know she was coming, driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid a U-turn, making left turns when the light was red, and driving on the sidewalk when that seemed like a better choice. Once she made a U-turn in the middle of the road, drove against traffic, then hopped out and left me facing oncoming traffic because she'd seen a 50 yuan bill in the road and she wanted to snatch it! Maybe it's because of all the adventures I had with her that by the time I left I felt like we had bonded. Of course I miss her, because there is nothing anywhere close to this crazy in California!

Our apartment is inside a gated area with one or two guards always sitting in this little shelter at the gate. One of the guards always had a smile for me, and just for fun I started addressing him in English with a friendly "Hello" every time I went by. Within a few weeks, he began to respond "Hello" and it almost felt like we were having a conversation! After he mastered hello, I added "How are you?" when I greeted him. And a some point, he begin responding, "How are you?" I never could get him to understand that he should respond "Fine" before asking me "How are you?" But in any case I was always happy to see him, and for lack of being able to share conversation, sometimes I would show him what I had in my grocery bags! I think he enjoyed seeing what strange things foreigners might eat. So I'm missing his friendly smile to welcome me home. My automatic garage door opener just doesn't have the same warmth!

So these are the faces that made Xiamen an extraordinary venture, and I won't soon forget them. Of course I'd love to see each one of them sometime soon, but for right now I do our best to stay in touch using We Chat, a Chinese texting app that translates Chinese to English for me. Indeed the world is smaller than I thought -- and maybe I need to be learning some Chinese!

Touring Xiamen

2014-11-23T07:20:00.000-08:00

Linda on the left, and her friend Betty

Following the dumpling party, my new friend Linda offered to show me around Xiamen Island, and I gladly accepted. So many parts of Xiamen I would never have seen if I hadn't had this wonderful day tour. Linda invited one of her friends, and an added surprise was that we got to visit the city by car. The friend's brother-in-law was the driver, and he just drove us from place to place to place all day. First time I've been in a private car in China! I haven't written about my horrific bus experiences yet, but believe me, a day in a car here is beyond luxury!

I never imagined that I would be touring Xiamen with three Chinese people who speak basically no English. Sweet Linda had downloaded an app that does translation to her iPad the night before, and we actually managed quite well with that.

It was 9:30 in the morning when we got started, and Linda asked me if I'd had breakfast. I said yes, and she replied that we would start our tour with a special Xiamen snack. I was expecting some of the special Xiamen cookies filled with red bean paste. But oh my, I was in for a major snack! We pulled up to a tiny what I guess you would call fast fish joint with a line out the door. Linda pointed to a row of seafood in the display case and asked me what I liked. I pointed to most of it -- large shrimp, oysters, calamari, squid -- but then didn't point to the few things I didn't recognize. We sat down in a row at a little bar-like table -- the only free seats in the house, and we each had steaming giant paper bowls of the most delicious fish stew or soup I've ever eaten. Wonderful flavor with just the right amount of spicy, tons of seafood, and Chinese noodles to round out the flavor. As you can see, I was a bit perplexed about how to eat this guy with chopsticks!

In what I have decided is typical Chinese touring fashion, we moved quickly from one spot to the next. I could have spent another half hour lingering over my soup, but left the last of it behind, as we were off to our next activity!

We had planned to visit Xiamen University, but visitors were not allowed in that day because the president of Xiamen was there (that's what I understood via very rough translation). So we were off to visit Nanputuo Temple located on the hill next to Xiamen University. Knowing I was a Christian, they politely asked if it was okay for me to visit a Buddhist temple, and I replied that I was very interested in visiting it. The site of the temple was quite impressive and expansive. And there were hundreds of people who were there to worship.

Much of the architecture was very beautiful. We climbed way up the mountain, and there were worshipers and every level.

Our next stop was Calligraphy Square, which is right along the beach. Chinese characters are so graceful, and there was lots of writing to admire here. Loved this inscription on the beach. It is the word for "longevity." And the stone blocks along the path all had inscriptions.

We quickly moved on to one of the beaches where Linda bravely waded into the water while we looked on. Winter has not come to Xiamen yet!

Next we were off to a little ancient village right in Xiamen with all kinds of fun stands and stores to look at. As always, I was fascinated by the food! I didn't try this treat, but it looks like egg shells filled with custard.

Aqua Resort was our next stop. It is a beautiful lake with ducks and birds of all sorts.

We saw numerous couples here taking wedding pictures. Couples go out several days before the wedding, and take pictures in a variety of beautiful dresses and suits. These are not the clothes they wear on their actual wedding day. If I understand correctly, often the dresses are provided by the photographer.

At one point the words on the translation iPad talked about more food, and I replied that I was still full from the morning "snack." But these sweet people didn't want to end the day without taking me to their favorite fish restaurant. I wasn't sure I could eat another meal, but it ended up being so delicious that I enjoyed every bite!

My favorites were the oyster stew and of course the crab! Oysters are a Xiamen specialty, and I think I would have gone home without tasting them if it wasn't for this outing. We had oysters in soup, in stew, and fried in little clumps that were molded into the shape of a seashell. And the crab... It was delicious. My hosts looked at the live crabs and chose the ones they wanted. They were boiled to perfection, and still piping hot when we ate them. The only challenge was that the crab wasn't cracked! When they put a claw on my plate, I motioned to show that I wasn't sure how to crack it, and they laughed and demonstrated using their back teeth to crack it. Yikes! I've put so much money into my teeth that I would rather go without crab than break a tooth. Feeling a bit trapped, I chomped down gently on it, and it cracked, teeth still intact. Delicious! I tried to use my hands to crack where I could, and tried to be gentle on my teeth. And made a note to myself to buy a nut cracker and keep it in my purse for any time I might encounter a crab.

So in one day, I had two of the best meals I've had in China. And I love that we had such a good time without really speaking to each other. Kindness and smiles go a long way. One of my favorite days!

The Dumpling Party!

2014-11-22T03:03:00.001-08:00

Ting Shian (the cooker) and her daughter are on the far left

One day a few weeks back I was talking to Sunni, one of the girls at Christine's work who is often the go-between between me and the cooker who doesn't speak a word of English. She told me the cooker thought I would like to learn to make dumplings and was offering to come to my house some Saturday to teach me. I said I thought that would be great. And then Sunni explained that actually, the cooker thought it would be good to come with her sister-in-law (who is also our landlord!), who is really good at making dumplings. And the cooker (whose name, by the way, is Ting Shian) also thought it would be fun if all the women in the office came too. Turns out Sunni had already asked around, and everyone could make it the Saturday after next. This is definitely the easiest way to throw a party -- someone else organizes the guest list, sets the date, gets all the RSVPs, takes care of the entertainment (dumpling making), and the food (dumpling eating), and then tells you you're having a party. I need someone like this when I go back to California!

Since Chinese meals usually consist of four or five dishes, Christine and I did come up with a few things to go along with the dumplings. We started with very simple quesadillas which were gobbled up before anyone got a picture, followed by chili, cabbage salad with Chinese noodles, and crab with onions and peppers. Jinna, whose father is a crab fisherman, had given me the crab, and it was fun to have the chance to share it with her and the other girls. Not sure if I did it justice in terms of how the Chinese serve crab (with garlic greens!), but they enjoyed my version enough to eat every bite:)

We loved having everyone at our house and loved learning to make dumplings. The first video is the cooker showing us how, and then our attempts to follow her instructions!

In addition to the beautiful bouquet that Kynza is holding, we received several gifts of fruit that we thoroughly enjoyed. Including dragon fruit--why didn't I take a picture?? Evidently, when you go to someone's house for a meal, it's nice to bring fruit as a hostess gift. Very useful information!

We watched a video of Sandy's wedding for entertainment. It was fun to see her in all kinds of different dresses for wedding picture shoots. And I learned bunches about Chinese wedding customs! Like the day of the wedding, her groom came to fetch her at her house very early in the morning. She leaves the house with him, and he closes the door behind them. Her parents do not come to the wedding. All very symbolic. He takes her to his family's house. That is where the first festivities take place, and that is where they will live.

Back to the dumpling party:) I enjoyed getting to know our landlord a bit. She doesn't speak much English, but she is a very social person, so she figures out ways to communicate. She brought her 10 year old son, and I had a fun time looking at English words on the iPad with him. Here she is with her little niece, who Ting Shian's daughter.

My budding friendship with the landlord blossomed when she's invited me to see the sights with her a few times in the past weeks. Such an unexpected and fun bonus of my time here. I think her name is Linda. I know it seems odd that you wouldn't know a friend's name, but I've found myself in that situation a few times. It is very common for people here to choose a western name because Chinese names are too difficult for foreigners to pronounce. But from what I can understand, since people choose their name, they sometimes change names until they find one that really suits them. A bit confusing for the likes of me! So "Linda" sent me a text message the other day telling me (via my translation app) that her English name is Linda. That gave me a smile, and I replied that my sister's name is Linda. She wrote back and asked me to help her choose a name that would be good for her (or at least that's what I got via machine translation). I told her I thought Linda was a great name, and so I'm leaving it at that until I hear she has chosen another name!

Everything about the dumpling party was a highlight for me. As I write this, my last week in Xiamen is coming up, and I'm looking forward to a couple more stints of entertaining friends who have been so gracious to me. Tacos and tomato soup, here we come!

Chinese meal for 15 in less than two hours

2014-11-16T18:50:00.002-08:00

One day last week I was observing the cooker make lunch, and decided I should document how she manages to start at about 10:15, and by 12:00 she has a beautiful Chinese dinner for 15 on the table. Every day she presents us with rice, soup, and four Chinese dishes -- usually some kind of pork, some kind of fish, some kind of greens, and something else like duck, beef, or eggs. Today, that something else was chicken curry, by special request from Christine.

The cooker works quickly and efficiently, and doesn't miss a beat. And here's my effort to follow her! It's a very detailed rundown of what happens, probably way too detailed for most of you. Sorry about that, but it's such an integral part of my months in China that I wanted to remember all the detail.

10:15	Put two pork bones that would make good broth and a few slices of ginger in pressure cooker with enough water to cover and put on stove on medium heat. Let cook for 20 minutes.
10:20	Wash and scale two fish that are about 15 inches long (carp?). That little tool is for scaling. Score the fish down the back and score across the fish in serving size pieces. Place on serving plates that can go in a steamer and salt generously in the scores.
10:25	Peel three large potatoes and a carrot and cube them using a Chinese knife, then wash and drain.
10:30	Cube two large boneless skinless chicken breasts using a Chinese knife. Note how she holds the knife!
10:35	Peel and cube a red onion, and add to the potatoes and carrots.
10:40	Wash four small heads of leaf lettuce thoroughly and drain in colander.
10:45	Peel and cube squash for soup and put in soup pot.
10:50	Put rice in rice cooker, with water up to your knuckle, and turn rice cooker on.
10:55	Start washing two pounds of string beans and clipping the ends.
	Sprinkle chicken powder on fish and top with sliced ginger, and a generous stream of soy sauce (special soy sauce for fish!). Top with one or two sliced red chilis.
	Open pressure cooker when safe and pour broth and bones into soup pot; simmer for half an hour. Clean pressure cooker and put away. No need to dry.
11:05	Heat wok, then add at least 1/3 cup oil. When oil is hot, add chicken pieces. After chicken cooks 2 minutes, add potatoes, onions, and carrots. Let cook 5 minutes, then add a cup of water and let simmer.
	French cut the string beans. See how she cuts them almost diagonally? Take time out to stir the chicken and the soup occasionally. Add water to almost cover the chicken and potatoes. Add a cup or so of water to the soup.
	Wash a slab of bacon.
11:25	Add a good T of salt to the soup and some chicken powder. Remove from heat and cover with a lid. As soon as you remove the soup from the burner, put fish in the steamer and cook on low for 10 to 12 minutes.
	Cube bacon slab with chopping knife.
11:30	After 20 minutes cooking, add entire pack of curry spices to chicken. It will drink up any remaining water and you may need to add a bit more water. Mix well and then place on serving dishes and wash wok. This is half hour before eating time; having everything piping hot is not important!
11:35	Chop 5 cloves of garlic Heat wok, then add one fourth cup oil and heat, then add cubed bacon, then garlic and 1 t salt.
11:40	Turn off fish, but leave it in the steamer. Cut 3 or 4 green onions in three, then slice lengthwise. When bacon is good and crispy, add green beans and a couple sliced red chilis. Sweep up anything that's spilled on the floor!
11:45	Remove fish from steamer. After beans have cooked about 8 minutes, put on serving dish and wash wok.
	Add a good half cup of oil to wok and let it heat. Place sliced green onions on fish, then ladle a stream of the hot oil over the fish.
11:50	Chop 4 or 5 cloves of garlic Add to oil that is still in the wok, then add lettuce. Add chicken powder. Cook in 2 batches. Wash steamer and put away while the lettuce is cooking.
11:55	Wash chopping board and knife. Start putting serving plates on table. Place chopsticks for serving on each plate. Wash wok. Your kitchen should be completely clean!
12:00	Invite guests to serve themselves rice and soup first, then they can serve themselves from the other dishes, placing the food on top of their rice.

Adventures on Jinmen Island

2014-11-06T01:45:00.000-08:00

My bravery skills got tested last week when I ventured off to Jinmen, a little Taiwanese island off the coast of Xiamen, all by myself. My Chinese visa stipulates that I can only stay in China for 60 days, then I must exit and re-enter, and so on day 55, off I went to Taiwan!

Jinmen Island (also known as Quemoy) is only a 30 minute boat ride from Xiamen, and conveniently allows you to leave the country, get your visa stamped, do some sight seeing, and return in the same day. I invited my Chinese student friend Mandy to make the trip with me. She was very enthusiastic about coming, but the next day she realized she didn't have the visa she needed to go to Taiwan, and it would take her a month to get it. I couldn't wait a month, and I knew the visa wait would be the same for all my Chinese friends and acquaintances, so off I went on my own, on a wing and lots of prayers! In morning prayers, I reminded myself that I wasn't going alone, Jesus was going with me. And to my delight, He kept showing up and caring for me throughout the day.

My face, my hair (even with my new Chinese cut), my clothes, my stature, not to mention what happens when I open my mouth certainly make me stand out from the crowd here! Often I see one person after the other stare at me, to the point that I look down to see if I'm still in my pajamas. The nice thing is, especially when I'm alone, these sweet staring people tend to try to take care of me. That was certainly the case on my island venture! It started when I got to the wharf and thought I was standing in line to get my ticket, but actually I was standing in the middle of a big tour group waiting to get on the boat. The tour guide used a few hand signals to get me out of his group and into the right line. From there it was smooth sailing.

Arrived at Jinmen Island, I managed to get my passport stamped and even find a tourist information booth that had a map! A map is a big treasure around here, even if it's all in Chinese. I asked for advice on where to go to see the sights of the island in a day, and the agent marked out three places for me to visit. I had no idea what they were, but decided to just follow her advice.

So I jumped in a taxi, pointed to my first stop on the map, and off we went. The ride ended in an area with a mix of Buddhist temples, beautiful gates, shops and outdoor markets, and military buildings. I had a little map that showed a walking tour between eight sites of interest, and with a little help from the locals I managed to follow it. This beautiful gate was number 8 on the map, and it led right into the marketplace. (Well yes, I did the walk a bit backwards.)

I always love the outdoor markets, and especially loved this lady, decked in her pink helmet and mask to buy meat!

And another sweet lady sorting
her onions.

Even though I rarely find anything interesting to buy in these shops, the layout is so inviting I can never resist going in!

Every street seemed to have a Buddhist temple. I'm sure some of them date way back, but I don't have any information about them. Many had food sacrifices and incense on the alter. The Protestant church across the road that dates back to 1924 seems strikingly understated.

Jinmen Island was a military reserve starting in the 50s, and was heavily shelled by the People's Liberation Army in those years. It only returned to civilian control in the 90s. The history marked out on the floor tiles of this military compound delineates the important turn of events for Taiwan in 1950.

Even though I was in a touristy part of town, there were no restaurants and no really serious tourist shops. Even the beautiful historic buildings were often quite hidden down little narrow winding paths.

Just as I was readying to go on to my second destination, I saw this little dim sum setup in the street next to the motorbikes. The owner came out and invited me in, and I took him up on it... Was so glad, as I never saw another place to eat all day. And the dim sum was delish!
.
Encouraged by my lovely little lunch, I went to the main road and hailed a taxi for my next destination. Pointed to the spot on the map where the tourist office told me to go, and the driver took off. We had a winding 15 minute drive through lush green vegetation, and then the taxi stopped down a road that was a bit deserted except for tourist buses. The spot had an obvious military history... Before I got to the entrance I ran into this Warm Prompt: "Please stay on paths to avoid land mines."

What I discovered was this incredible underground tunnel build in 1960 for civil defense. It's an incredible structure that goes out to the sea, and allows boats to come into the tunnel and make U-turns. So I went down, down, down into the tunnel and along the water, listening to Pachelbel's Cannon! Lovely acoustics, and I guess sometimes they do concerts in the tunnel.

Came up and looked at some of the tanks and such. Some beautiful landscaping, and I followed a path until it was no longer totally clear where the path was...or where the land mines might be! Doesn't standing close to flower pots seem safe?

Was keeping my eye on the clock, and had plenty of time to visit my third site and get back to the port for the last boat of the day. But when I was ready to leave, there were about six big tour buses in the parking lot, but no taxis. I waited hopefully for awhile, and then decided to go up to one of the bus drivers and say "taxi" in hopes that he would get the idea that I wanted him to help me by calling a taxi. It worked! He called, but no taxi would come. Taxis here really only go where they want to go. If you want to go somewhere that's not where they want to end up, they just say no, and you have to keep asking until a taxi says yes. The bus driver signaled me to sit on the bench, and I obeyed, not having many other options. I really didn't know if he had a taxi coming or not, so I got out my map to show him where I wanted to go. Then he started doing sign language that I was pretty sure meant I could ride on his bus to get to my next stop. He kept making a time out sign which means "wait" in Chinese. He wanted me to wait for his busload of tourists to come back. They arrived shortly, and the Chinese tour guide said I was very brave to be touring all alone. So I hopped on the bus in the seat next to the driver, and off we went. I handed him the money that I would've paid for a taxi but he refused to take it.

My last stop was an ancient village, called Shuitou Village, that was very very quaint and full of doors and windows and examples of Chinese architecture dating back to the Ming Dynasty I think.

Hardly any people in the village. So I wandered through narrow streets, took pictures and totally enjoyed the feeling of being in another world.

Your basic subdivision next to the basketball court???

It's kind of the garbage dump in the foreground, with the elaborate temple roof architecture behind.

Village transportation...


Small village Buddhist temple

I managed to lose myself on the small village roads, and just as I decided I'd better start looking for the main road so that I could walk back to the port, I ran into this darling threesome drinking tea in their garden. They greeted me and asked me to sit down, so I thought it was a little tea shop with outside service. I was dying of thirst, so asked the lady if she had Coke. She laughed and said, "no Coke." Come to find out it was a B&B, but basically this lady's house! They kept asking me to have tea, and it looked so good to thirsty me that I said yes. And like everyone else on the island, they thought I was very brave to be there on my own. They spoke just enough English to be fun which means a few words.

So the owner went in and came out with a cup of tea and also a coffee jelly drink if you can imagine what that is. She was trying to make up for the lack of Coke! It's a cold coffee drink that you drink with a fat straw and it has little pieces of coffee Jell-O in it that come up through the straw. I made a pretty good stab at drinking it, although I definitely didn't like the feel of jello lumps in my drink! We ended up taking pictures of each other and chatting about Taiwan. Then the owner took my arm and walked me back to the main road and got me headed toward the port. Such a lovely ending to my adventurous day!

Journey to Big Golden Lake

2014-10-27T02:49:00.000-07:00

Christine's co-workers opted to take a weekend trip to the Big Golden Lake Geopark near the city of Tai Ning for their yearly outing, and they were sweet enough to invite me to tag along. I am so amazed by all the kindness shown to me! Nobody gets a trip to China like the one I am experiencing. Just a little disclaimer on this post... There are so many things I might not have understood correctly! My apologies ahead of time for all mistakes.

The trip started with a three hour train ride... My first time on a Chinese train. I got a good lesson in how to navigate to the train, and then the right car and the right seat without reading Chinese. Was a modern, fast train, complete with a woman who cleans as you ride. As she passed, she stopped, took the trash bag out of my seat pocket, and opened it for me. Wonder if she does that for all foreigners who might trash the train.

I got to sit next to Sandy for the long train ride, and we had such fun time sharing pictures, mostly of her almost 3-year-old daughter. Absolutely love this video of the little cutie using chopsticks for the first time.

When we arrived at Tai Ning, the young woman who was to be our guide and constant companion for two days was there to great us. Isn't she just the cutest with her frilly blouse, big purple purse and snazzy red sneakers? That was her hiking outfit, of course. She didn't speak a word of English, but was great at showing us around. The nine of us were supposed to be part of a group of 38 on a big tour bus, but much to our delight, the other 27 people didn't show. Never found out what went wrong for them, but we loved having the guide and the bus to ourselves!

First stop was lunch at a restaurant that was very Chinese indeed:) About ten dishes to sample from the revolving turn table. As you can see, our Chinese contingent is tucking in for some serious eating! The little green box is what they use for napkins, and you see this on most tables. It's really more like Kleenex, but I've gotten used to it and kind of like it.

We left all of our luggage at the restaurant, to be picked up after dinner that night. I didn't understand that we would be doing major hiking carrying whatever we didn't leave at the restaurant, so my purse ended up way too full of stuff I was a little leery about leaving behind. Little did I know there were hundreds and hundreds of stairs going up the mountain! Got much braver about leaving stuff the next day.

Our afternoon was a four hour boat ride on Big Golden Lake, interspersed with hikes to the mountaintops. Loved enjoying the relaxing beauty from the boat as well as the challenge of the hikes!

I wonder what it would have been like if I had splurged $12 to get this regal ride up the mountain. Christine posed, but none of us were brave enough (or smart enough?) to actually have them carry us up the hundreds of stairs to the mountain top. An so up these stairs we went! At one point we saw a sign placed before a set of 300 hefty stairs that said, "Warm prompt: People with heart disease and high blood pressure walk carefully." And so just as a precautionary measure, I walked carefully:)

Chinese tours move at breakneck speed! No time for dilly dallying, no time to figure out the best angle for a picture before you snap, no time for the souvenir shop, barely time to buy a bottle of water to take with you -- it's just go, go, go, and don't miss the boat! So here are a few of my shots, but there are so many wonderful pictures I missed:(

There are red cliffs like this all along the lake.


We passed several boats like this... Fun to see them all flying the Chinese flag.

The terraced fields along the lake are tea fields!

All along the paths, there were signs explaining what we were seeing, and it was delightful to have them translated into English. Though a bit gets lost in translation, it's easy to detect the very poetic style of writing.

Best group of ladies ever to hang out with! I can't begin to tell you how kind and helpful and loving they have been to me. Seems like they are always one step ahead of me in thinking of ways to be helpful! From walking me across the stepping stones so I don't lose my balance, to carrying my bag, to letting me know every time they spot a clean bathroom, to picking out choice morsels of fish for me at dinner, to offering me the best dried mangoes ever:) I have become completely spoiled and probably will have a hard time readjusting to real life!

We had a fun dinner outside on the classic Chinese red plastic stools! On the sidewalk right in the middle of town. The Chinese gals chose twelve plates for us to share, and they spun around the platter as we picked bits and pieces of each with our chopsticks. So funny how you see these stools EVERYWHERE! They are all exactly the same size and color. The owners of our apartment left us a stack of them on the balcony of our apartment. And yes, if you come to visit we will seat you in one around our table!

Then off to the hotel. It was a lovely, clean hotel, with rock-hard beds and a cute little tea area in our room. I didn't have time to get my air mattress organized, so after a strenuous day of hiking, my seriously aching body had to settle for a very hot shower to assuage the hard bed.

No dawdling in the morning on this tour -- bus pick up at 8:00 for another full day. Fortunately I brought my own coffee setup, knowing I wouldn't find coffee at the hotel breakfast included in the tour. The breakfast buffet was a spectacular spread of what I would call "dinner for breakfast." There were dozens of choices of meats and vegetables. How could there be that much food and be nothing that even vaguely tempted this American palate? Where was the coffee, fruit, granola, toast, yogurt, eggs, bacon, pancakes, or anything else you might expect? I finally settled on an ear of corn! My sweet Chinese friends filled their plates, and it was fun to watch them eat.

It was Sunday morning in the majestic bamboo forest, and my old Sunday school song "This Is My Father's World" kept ringing in my ears. I've always know this is my Father's world, but somehow walking beside rustling grass in the depths of a bamboo forests and hearing nature ring in cavernous Chinese gorges adds a new dimension to the world I know and speaks volumes about God's creative power and beauty! A very spiritual experience in this country where so many have still to recognize God as their creator.

Throughout this park there are temples to a variety of gods. There is a lot of it I didn't understand, but I do understand how the beauty, power, and majesty of the park would lead people to think about divine revelation. This was the most elaborate place of worship we saw, and many people were lighting candles here. If you look closely, you can see the red candles on the deck.

This is a very old temple to the god Kuma. Here people worship this tree which is several hundred years old.

And then there are these sticks that people place between the rocks in the mountain. If you place a stick, it means that someone will be there to look after you.

Sunday afternoon was perhaps my favorite part of the trip... Riding bamboo boats through the deep gorges. The nine of us were three to a boat, and our two boatmen and one boatwoman kept our boats close together for this expedition through lofty red cliffs, peaks, and pillars that stand up like a forest. They took turns singing as we cruised through a long tunnel. Never, ever done anything like this before! I tried to read up on how and when these deep gorges were formed, but something got lost in translation, and I only know they've been there for a very long time, formed from rough granite, volcanic, and tectonic landscapes. In the narrowest part, the gorge is only about six feet wide, and the precipices are very high indeed! Perfect ending to a perfect adventure.

Xiamen Is Under Construction!

2014-10-22T00:49:00.000-07:00

I think the hardest thing for me to adjust to in Xiamen is the constant noise of drills, sand blasters, gravel trucks, jig saws or hack saws, jack hammers, and many, many other unidentified but very noisy demolition tools! It seems everything is being torn down or being rebuilt. This demolition job spilling into the sidewalk just a block from our apartment is a new project that wasn't there yesterday!

Our apartment building is just a couple years old, and some of the apartments are being occupied for the first time. Apparently, when you buy a new apartment you just buy the shell, and it's up to you to build the inside the way you want it. So, that's is what's been happening for the last month in the apartment below us. And then there's the apartment above us. We're not sure what they are redoing, but there has been constant drilling and blasting up there for weeks, even though the apartment is occupied.
When we started getting hairline cracks in our walls we notified the owner of our apartment. He came to look, and left quite happy that it wasn't as bad as he had expected! We hear constant noise from 8 in the morning until 6 at night every single day. And some days, I have gone to bed at 10 to the noise of someone's drill. Trying to help Kynza with her homework is a challenge because the noise is really too loud for us to talk over. Her best solution is to put on headphones and listen to music. This video shows what Kynza and I were up against this afternoon while the downstairs neighbors built an overhang for their little patio. I took the video from my bedroom window. Actually, the guy on the ladder is looking straight into our living room.

Here's a shot of the apartment downstairs as I look in through the outside window. They still have a ways to go! We think they actually bought two apartments and blasted out the wall between them. All the concrete floor has come out and they are installing some kind of pipes under the floor.Don't know what comes next.

But it's not just our little building that is blasted by construction noise. Today I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood and take pictures of construction, and these are a sampling of what I saw. All of these pictures, except the Starbucks one, were taken within a 10 minute walk of my house. Starbucks is more like a 25 minute walk:)

This sidewalk encounter makes me laugh. It's on my street just beside our apartment building, and I literally almost tripped on this guy as I was walking along not looking down! Not sure exactly what he's doing, but the sidewalks are always and forever being dug up. You'll notice that all the sidewalks in all the pictures are these red, turquoise and yellow squares.

Thought you might enjoy seeing these contraptions that are getting ready for some work. I'm not totally sure what they do! They've been sitting on this sidewalk for a few weeks now. Take a look at the trash receptacles in the picture above. They are everywhere, which is really convenient, but to my American eyes, it looks like one side should say something like "recycle." Both have matching pictures of trash going into a basket.

A few random shots of sidewalks I see on my walk. Pretty much every street has building materials of some sort piled high like this. Doesn't seem to bother the shops. It's just a part of life!

A few blocks farther down the same sidewalk, all the sudden this pipe ground me to a halt! I trapsed out into the street to get around, and on the other side, saw this ditch with the guy's head peeking out. He wasn't too excited about getting his picture taken, so I went on my way, still not quite sure how the pipe and the ditch were going to fit together.

Demolition is also very big. One day you walk by and see a building that looks perfectly fine, the next day you see a bulldozer and only traces of the building. Couldn't resist the picture of these workers who were amused to watch me taking pictures of their master demolition below. Must have been break time!

In the afternoon I was walking to meet Kynza after school and admiring the fact that they had quickly finished the construction of the street that leads to her bus stop. It really makes her daily trek much easier. So why was there this noisy apparatus showering rocks into a truck? I think it has something to do with tarring the new street, but looked to me like the street was already tarred.

And here is some construction going on close to the beach, on the other side of my house. Can't read the Chinese, so not sure what's going up. To my eye there is more demolition and less construction at the moment, but I'm sure that could change in a couple days. Stuff just happens quickly with no warning.

Welcome to Starbucks in the Jimei district of Xiamen! It's outside an upscale shopping mall, and the Starbucks sidewalk doesn't escape reconstruction! What I find amusing is the people sitting drinking their coffee, taking the noisy, dusty construction in stride! I was here to buy coffee beans. The only place I have found that sells coffee beans or ground coffee! In the stores you can buy Nescafe, and other instant coffee, but no "real" coffee. I guess Starbucks has a corner on the market, so beans run about $30 a pound. I've convinced myself it's a necessity, not a luxury! Or would going without coffee be a means of reducing my construction anxiety?

Whirlwind Days in Shanghai

2014-10-19T21:00:00.002-07:00

Shanghai -- by population, the largest city in the world with 23.5 million people for us to rub shoulders with! We spent Saturday and Sunday exploring, and were were amazingly successful at finding our way and not getting lost in the crowd. The center of Shanghai is everything modern, with exquisite stores and breath taking skyscrapers.The subway seems decades ahead of the Paris metro. Beautiful, fast, clean, and easy for non-Chinese speakers to get around. It's very different than Xiamen, where we still haven't even begun to master the bus system!

We debated whether to go the five-star route for a pricey hotel or risk something a bit more "Chinese." After consulting Trip Advisor and China Tours, we settled on "New Harbor Service Apartments" right in the center of downtown Shanghai, and we were not disappointed. Not five star, but we were pleasantly surprised by the roominess, the cleanliness, the delightful staff, and the fun (but smoggy) view from the 18th floor. But oh how the Chinese LOVE their hard beds! It's pretty much like sleeping on the floor or sleeping on a rock. The majority of tourists in China are Chinese, and that's who hotels cater to, except 5-star hotels that tend to cater to westerners and have soft beds. My solution: I'm want to buy a little air mattress to tuck it in my suitcase!

The skyline, the gardens, the ancient town of Qi Bao right within Shanghai, the Bund. So many favorite moments that I don't want to forget.

We started Saturday morning with a long subway ride to the ancient water town of Qi Bao, which is right on the subway line. This little part of Shanghai is a stark contrast to the very upscale shopping in the center of town. We were delighted to find the same rounded bridges that we'd seen in Zhouzhuang.We loved exploring the streets and waterways.

Lots of street food, and such cute little children enjoying it! FYI for those of you who have given me advice about eating or not eating street food, I had this meat on a stick snack and it was pretty tasty!

And the oranges... Selling everywhere for about 40 cents a pound. We've been enjoying them most every day.

This outdoor shop has eight kinds of eggs to choose from! Not sure why this lady settled on the eggs in the basket, but she is examining them carefully!

All kinds of fresh looking veggies spread out on the sidewalk.

Qi Bao also has several museums tucked between the shops. I didn't take pictures in the Cricket Museum, which was full of specimens, but here's a sampling from the textile museum and the shadow box museum.

The museum of small figures sculpted by a Chinese artist and his daughter was my favorite. They had several fun tea sets, and then miniature models of rooms like this. Made me want to sit down and play Chinese house!

After a day in the ancient part of the city, we spent our evening in modern Shanghai. I think my favorite for all of Shanghai was the skyline by night. It was so not what I expected! Over the past 25 years, Shanghai has beat all records for skyscraper construction. The new financial district is dominated by the Oriental Pearl Tower that is shining so brightly.

Sunday morning, amidst all the modernness, we also enjoyed glimpses into very traditional and very old Chinese culture. We decided on a stroll through the park to Yuan Gardens, and our first fun surprise was these dancers! The woman in red is the teacher, and the best dancer, but I was most impressed by the woman in pink, an older lady whose balance was breath taking to wobbly me!

They loved having us for an audience. Everyone else was just walking through the park, but we were standing in awe. We weren't able to exchange many words, but lots of smiles and clapping. So sweet!

From here we went to the actual Yu Yuan garden. I had no idea what was in store for us! Tucked in between the park and a huge bazaar is a 5-acre garden built in 1577 that features Ming Dynasty pavilions, ponds, rockeries & arched bridges. We explored all the nooks and crannies of the rockery. Some of it seems so restful, and other parts so ornate. We may even be getting a feel for Ming architecture.

From this restful setting we burst into the VERY crowded streets of the bazaar where everyone wanted to bargain! Wanted to charge me$100 for a camera battery that sells for $10 on Amazon. I managed to haggle them down to $15, but then I gave up! We bought a few other little things, but mostly just looked. Watching the people is the most fun, especially the children.

We opted for lunch at Starbucks, and we all enjoyed wraps and sandwiches for a nice change from Chinese fare. Kynza got what was billed as a "French sandwich," and in some ways it resembled a croque monsieur. But a few bites in she discovered the sandwich maker had added a bit of soy sauce -- standard ingredient in everything! Full of energy and truly good coffee, we were off to the Bund.

The Bund is the very long walkway along the river, where hundreds of Sunday afternoon strollers were enjoying the river, the lovely weather, and the gracious walkway. A gusty morning wind had cleared out a lot of the smog, and we enjoyed at least a partially blue sky. On this side of the river, every building is decorated with multiple Chinese flags. They are hard not to notice! I particularly liked the clock tower.

From the Bund, you look across the river to the Financial District. The tallest building is the new 125-story Shanghai Tower. It's China's tallest building and the world's second tallest skyscraper, at 2,073 feet high. It's still under construction, but scheduled to be finished soon. At 9:00 at night we could see workers up on the top floors. Their blow torches and other equipment looked like fireworks!

By mid afternoon all three of us were on sensory overload... Our little brains had cataloged so many new sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches in three days that the idea of trekking to another park or another museum or even a tea shop was beyond us. We hailed a taxi, and back to the hotel lobby we went to put our feet up until plane time.

Zhouzhuang, the Ancient Water Town

2014-10-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

For our first venture outside of Xiamen, we flew to Shanghai for a long weekend. So much to see, so little time to see it!

We started on Friday with a day in Zhouzhuang, an ancient town an hour and a half outside of Shanghai where rivers and lakes abound. We saved ourselves a few hundred dollars by taking a tour bus from Shanghai with a Chinese guide rather than an English-speaking guide. It made for a fun bus ride with all Chinese tourists. The very enthusiastic guide had a loud microphone that kept us awake for the whole bus ride, although we understood nothing! We had read up on the city before we left home, and there were some signs in English, so once we got to town we could find our way around.

We got off the bus and took this boat across the lake to get to the town. How cute is that? The boat is set up with tables to sit around, and everybody else pulled out their food and had quite a meal. We may have been foodless, but we drank in lots of beauty and enjoyed sights we had never even imagined.

The winding rivers, stone bridges, and willowy trees have a very relaxing beauty.

Zhouzhuang's history goes back more than 900 years, and many of the houses built during the Ming and Qing Dynasties are still standing with their courtyards and carved stone gateways. The roofing is fascinating! Loved the carving on the walls.

The stone bridges that link the houses on either side of the stream date back to the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties too. Bridge after bridge, the reflection in the water forms a lovely circle.

Loved these narrow passageways.
Zhouzhuang is very commercialized, and we had fun at the little shops. We came home with posters, purses, and pillows! The food was very fun to look at, but we passed on these eggs and few other unidentified items. We did buy some very nice jasmine tea. And Christine and I ate a street food version of the specialty -- "glutinous rice balls." Love how they cook their own meal in the street in front of their store. Every wok has a five-quart bottle of oil beside it, and an extra one in stock!

To round out our day, we treated ourselves to a ride on one of the traditional boats. The charming captain broke out into song as he winged us down the waterway. Our day was over way to quickly -- we could have strolled the streets for hours more! Wondering if I will ever be back to Zhouzhuang!

Food Trucks, Chinese Style

2014-10-06T06:22:00.001-07:00

Street food is extremely popular in Xiamen, and most of it is sold from bikes or scooters. I keep discovering new one-wheel food carts ingeniously attached to bikes. This smattering of images doesn't even scratch the surface of what's available. I took all the pictures within a mile of our apartment. Vendors who sell snacks for school children park right on my street corner every day. Next to the big shopping mall, there are around 40 food vendors with their bikes and carts smashed one against the other. Some of their dishes look super tasty, but there are also peculiar smells that I haven't yet warmed up to. When walking past one or two of the carts, I have to remember to hold my breath, but I have no idea what the offending smell is! Some agree to have their picture taken and some don't, but all are very smiling and friendly to non-Chinese speaking me!

This is probably the simplest setup I've seen: a very basic bicycle with a block of styrofoam holding sticks of glazed meat. All this balanced on the handlebars! Bikes like this are very, very common, and they do a great business.

Children beg moms to buy them this treat! It looks like a stack of mini candied apples on a stick, but I'm pretty sure it's little meat balls covered in some kind of red glaze. True confessions: I haven't tasted it yet, and it may never happen.

Here's a bike with a side cart sporting a barbeque! He's grilling little pork kebobs of some type, served with a little sauce. There are red-hot coals in his metal fire box. Business is good for this guy; he sells almost as quickly as he can cook. The girl in the background seems to be enjoying. I'm not sure what his cart looks like when he packs up to bike home.

This woman also has a bicycle with an attached one-wheel cart. She is parked on a quiet road close to the beach and adjoining park, and she's selling pineapple on a stick! The way she holds the pineapple in her hand and uses a Chinese chefs knife to peel and score it is quite impressive.

Although I saw several groups people walking down the street eating this treat after visiting the park, I was a little leery of buying pineapple that had been peeled and scored on the street, then rinsed in a bucket of water. As a thank you for letting me take pictures, I did purchase a couple of the unpeeled pineapples which we added to our breakfast fruit salad:)

In addition to tasty snacks, fruit is often sold on the streets. There are some vehicles that I think would actually classify as trucks, but most vendors sell from scooters with an umbrella. Out of an abundance of caution, we usually buy fruit from large grocery stores rather than on the street, but what they have to offer almost always looks good!

I guess you could call the scooter selling snacks to school children on my street a Chinese version of a McDrive. The little delicacies closely resemble an egg McMuffin! The piping hot pan looks like a round, shallow muffin tin. To start, the guy gives every indentation a good shot of oil, then pours batter into some and cracks an egg into others. When the batter part gets crispy he flips it, and he adds something that looks like ham to the eggs. He stacks them high every afternoon, waiting for the school bell to ring. I'm not sure if they are sold or what happens. I wanted to buy one just to be polite after taking so many pictures, but he pointed to the school to let me know that they weren't for me!

Another one of my favorites are the sugar cane scooters! They take the long stalks of sugar cane and shuck off the husk on the sidewalk. Then they cut the cane into lengths about a yard long and run them through a press to extract the juice. The pressed cane comes out one side, and the juice falls into a container. From there it's poured into bottles or glasses for immediate consumption.

Maybe by the end of November I'll be brave enough to start enjoying some of this... For right now, I'm just thankful every day that all three of us have been blessed with amazingly good health!

Jimei University

2014-09-30T21:38:00.001-07:00

Such a fun evening yesterday having a guided tour of Jimei University! Jimei (the distict of Xiamen that I live in) is known for its university, and so I wanted to visit the campus. Mandy, one of the girls I met at the English Corner, offered to give me a tour. We met up last night, and she brought three of her classmates with her. All four were so sweet to me, so eager to speak English, and so much fun!

Here we are outside a building that has a gym for teachers on the first floor, and dorms and classrooms on t the second floor. Mandy is to the left of me, and Lee and Annie are on the right. For the history lesson, Jimei has what's called a "study village" where kindergarten, primary, middle, high school, and university are all grouped in one location. This study village was founded by Tan Kah Kee in 1913. He is a very important figure in the history of Xiamen, and his work demonstrates the importance of education to the Chinese.

To see all of these schools, our tour covered a lot of ground, like a couple hours of walking. There were several beautiful lake settings, and we saw a lot of buildings that are over 100 years old...

This is the entry to the school. The two Chinese characters inscribed on the top are the schools motto: Honesty and Hard Work.

This is the schools auditorium, where important events like welcoming new students and graduation take place.

Luke and Lee are standing outside of their dorm, which is a beautiful old building. They told me it got a good washing last year, and that's why it looks so nice. Both these pictures show evidence that Chinese college boys do their own laundry!!!

The students all love the ornate carvings on the top floor of the building. A beautiful vestige of the past!

The campus has several beautiful, very old banyan trees, like this one that spans almost the entire soccer field!

Part of the tour was enjoying the beautiful lakes around the campus, with all of their ornate decor.

The tall building lit up in the background of both of the images below is Jimei High School. Doesn't exactly look like any high school I've visited before. We were there just as night fell. Very beautiful, but hard to get a good picture. The sweet kids were using each other's shoulders like a tripod to help me:)

I was honored that these new friends invited me to dinner after the grand tour. I was definitely ready to sit down, and the setting was perfect. We talked about food, families, typhoons, careers, and how hard it is to speak English. All four are students in the economics section of the university, so looking forward to careers in things like banking, security, and accounting. They started studying English at age 6, and continued for about 10 years. Their written English is much better than their spoken English, and they really want to improve their speaking. So having dinner together is a plus for all of us! I get to quiz them on everything I want to find out about China, and they are compelled to speak English non-stop.

We went to a little fish restaurant on a street close to the university. The street is jam packed with little restaurants.The delicious, fall-apart fish cooked with all of its accompanying vegetables was the centerpiece. But we also had wonderful greens, tofu, very spicy shoestring potatoes, and deep fried pumpkin patties that have sweet red beans in the center. I'm hoping I'll see these four at the English Corner in the next couple weeks. It's such a unexpected blessing for me to have the time and the opportunity to be mixing with university students.

Another Fish Story

2014-09-25T19:16:00.000-07:00

Remember the guy in the video removing scales from the live fish? Well, Tuesday night we had a fantastic time dining on one of those fish at his restaurant!

I mentioned that I thought it would be fun to eat there since I greet the owners every day as I walk by. Within days, the gals in Christine's office set up a little dinner party there. So thoughtful! It was of course like no meal I've ever eaten before, and my pictures don't do it justice.

The big surprise was how the fish was presented. Twas a large fish that had definitely already been through the scaling and cleaning routine, and then split in two from the mouth between the eyes, and all the way down to the tail. It was no doubt seared in a very hot giant wok. Then look how it came to our table in three layers of pans!

The fish of course is in the top, with a generous amount of broth and gorgeous fresh vegetables. The bottom pan is empty and sits directly on the table, and the middle pan has braised coals that stayed red hot during the whole meal. Keeps the fish and the broth boiling hot.

They have this large metal pot on the sidewalk where they heat the coals, and you can see the trays they use for the fish next to them.

We told our Chinese friends to order whatever they I thought we would like, and they did a great job. They thought we would like chicken with peanuts, and they were spot on! Our first chicken that wasn't laced with bones, and Christine, Kynza and I loved it. I think this may become our new go-to chicken dish. Kynza and I have decided we want to order it take-out so we can have chicken at home, although we still need to learn how to say the name of the dish, and we especially need to learn how to say not spicy, since this is a Szechuan restaurant.
As beautiful as the fish was, the question remains, how do you attack this with chop sticks? There's a ladle for the broth, but where's the knife and fork?? The fish was delicious, but I still haven't mastered deboning and eating fish with chopsticks. Our Chinese hosts delicately use their chopsticks to lift off a morsel. But even if i try to pay attention to what I'm doing, my technique always results in way too many bones in my mouth. My mind wanders back to the demonstrations I've seen of best methods for fileting a fish on a plate using a knife and fork, but this skill is irrelevant in China. The Chinese have no use for a knife, a fork, or even a plate. Chopsticks and a little bowl work just fine. Still have a little over two months to try and master this!

Sights and Sounds of Sunday Morning

2014-09-22T07:35:00.004-07:00

On Sunday we left home early enough to take in some of the local color on the walk to church. The rapid transit bus stop is about a 10-minute walk from the church - and the walk is like no walk I've ever walked before. There is a picture begging to be taken at least every two yards. Many of them pass before I get my camera pointed in the right direction, but here is a smattering of the sights and sounds I managed to capture.

Ladies often use poles to balance heavy loads they are carrying... These women will set up their baskets of fruit and vegetables on the sidewalk. There is an incredible amount of food sold from this type of basket just set out on the sidewalk!

And here is the Xiamen version of a sidewalk cafe... I think they're mostly eating noodles, but the ambiance seems cafe.

These are raw peanuts put out to dry in the sun on this ledge between the sidewalk and the street.

This guy is selling noodles that look like spaghetti, and the biker is stopping to buy. Not sure if they sell them by the pound or what.

This lady's sidewalk space has eeked out into the street.

These mushrooms and seaweed and such are for sale right on the edge of the curb, just short of the car. And I don't really see the person selling them anywhere. Maybe they are just drying??

This guy is a cobbler, and his shoe repair business, machine and all, is right out on the sidewalk. He seems to have quite a few customers, with women on either side watching him work.

Why is it I always end up gravitating to the meat market? Some kind of fascination with these unknown cuts of meat!
Just noticed that the cleanliness of the scale is a bit dubious! The pig's foot is pretty classy, but look at the piece next to it that looks like it has a long tail. The picture is revealing, but the video is better!

In the first part of the video, the woman is shaving a piece of meat skin with a razor. If you know what the girl in the video is buying, please comment!

Finally we get to the apartments just across from the church. Even though they are a bit run down, almost every window has an air conditioner -- an absolute necessity in the hot, humid, sticky weather!

And then we're inside the church! Sorry, no picture this week. The cultural mix is a real treat, and a clear affirmation that even on the other side of the globe, God's love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me! We sing that with gusto, and quite a lot of African rhythm.

The English Corner

2014-09-21T22:53:00.000-07:00

Something big is going on at the English Corner on Friday nights! It was such a treat to be able to meet some Chinese students and communicate in English. The corner is less than 5 minutes walk from our apartment -- an unexpected blessing! There were about 90 there, a majority of them university students, and all levels of English. We were surprised by how serious they were at working on their English, and how respectful they were of each other and of us "foreigners." They all seemed so happy to be there.

The evening started with singing -- songs with simple words, like I've Got Peace Like a River. We started singing a capella because there were no musicians, and then this professor of music at the university who happened to be there went to the piano and was definitely a concert pianist, so that was fun.

Next there was an English pronunciation exercise. Everyone got into pairs to practice, and we foreigners walked around and sat with a few pairs to coach them. I sat with a group of about six, and we had fun with sentences like "I carried a load down the road," and word pairs like wash / watch, mash / match... They were frustrated with the difficulty of the sounds, but so cute and loved practicing:)

Then an English speaker gave a talk about peer pressure. He got the students involved by lining 10 of them up in the middle of the room, then reading statements where they had to make a choice. One of the most interesting... Would you rather be president of Lenovo or Premier of China? Don't know if it was a question of peer pressure or not, but all 10 lined up under Lenovo.

He ended his talk with two verses from Proverbs about being wise, and everyone read them and listened carefully.

The evening ended with discussion groups. There were 9 foreigners there, so we each lead a group of about 10. My group was all university students. One of them spoke quite well, but the others still need a lot of speaking practice. We had five or six discussion questions about peer pressure, and I couldn't believe how they all participated, even the ones with very little English. All kinds of discussion about topics like living with roommates, smoking, and being an example. They were all so sweet to me. They wanted to know all about what I'm doing here and whether I like it here. When we finished, they wanted a group picture. They grabbed a guy from another group, and he took pictures of our group with just about everyone's phone. Can't wait to see these faces again next Friday:)

More on Fish and Poultry!

2014-09-18T07:14:00.001-07:00

Haven't had any chicken since we've been here, and so today I asked one of the girls in the office to ask the cooker where would be a good place to buy chicken. They discussed a bit in Chinese between themselves, and then told me that I should go to the second floor of the market where I had seen the cooker buy fish. They informed me that it' a good place to buy a live chicken, and the vendor could help me kill it. What???? I was thinking boneless skinless!

Even though I have no intention of buying a chicken and getting help killing it, my curiosity and my camera lead me to the second floor of the market. Do you see a chicken here that you'd choose for dinner? Tonight I informed Christine and Kynza that we will be sticking with pork, which has become our staple.

There is a small seafood restaurant next to the building where Christine works, and I walk by there every day and smile at the folks. Since I'm one of the very few non-Asians they see, they definitely notice me. Today I couldn't resist stopping with my camera, and they were very kind to me, and enjoyed watching the videos I took. The grandma sits out on the sidewalk cutting up greens for hours on end every day.

The young men kill, clean, and cook the fish... The kitchen opens onto the street, so I took all of these pictures just standing on the sidewalk. The floor seems to be the proper place to kill a fish in this country! They first give him a bang of the head, then watch how they remove the scales while his tail's still flapping!

And I love how they cook in these giant woks...

I feel like I should have lunch at their restaurant some day if I'm going to continue to walk by and be friendly with them. sizzling in that giant wok should kill anything the fish might have picked up on the floor, shouldn't it? Will keep you posted.

Sunday in Xiamen - Church!

2014-09-18T06:04:00.000-07:00

All week we looked forward to Sunday, when we could go to Xiamen International Christian Fellowship and get connected with some English-speaking Christians. Sweet Gina, from Christine's work called the church and helped us get directions on how to get there. She said she would like to come with us, and even though Chinese are not allowed to attend, she thought she could if she came with us. Between walking and taking the BRT (fast bus), it took us over an hour to get there. We counted bus stops to make sure we got off at the right one! Gina met is at the bus stop, and had already cased out exactly where the church was, and we did the 10 minute walk together. When we got there, we had to show our passports, and sadly, Gina was not allowed in. The church is registered with the local authorities, who require participants to be foreign passport holders or married to one. So Gina waited for us outside -- made me sad!

The service was delightful, and so fun to be with such an international mix of God's people! Quite a variety of music with just one guy at the piano and everyone very into singing and clapping. A few little medleys of songs that go way back! Good preaching (we think the preacher is Indian, but that's just a guess), and very friendly people. A couple people who recognized Kynza from school came and talked to us, and the people sitting around us were most welcoming. The actual church is on the third floor of this building.

We had lunch with Gina afterwards at a Chinese noodle restaurant. Was fun to be on Xiamen Island and see a different part of the city. And was fun to visit with Gina.

The church has what is called an English Corner on Friday night, and we are hoping to go to that, since it is very close to where we live. It's a place for Chinese people to practice their English. I actually met a man walking down the street who came up and started speaking to me because he wanted to practice his English, and found out he goes to this English Corner on Friday nights! His name is Steel. Should be fun.

Day 7 in Xiamen - The Beach

2014-09-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

Finally it's Saturday! We are all so ready to kick back and have a restful day. A bit of retreat from everything Chinese... Pancakes for dinner was a hilight! Was a little tricky because the gas stove has a very hot flame that is suitable for a wok, but you can't really turn it down to the temp you'd want for pancakes! The very uneven cooking didn't stop us from enjoying them!

Just to get out a bit, Christine and I went for a walk to the beach. It's about a five minute walk from our apartment, and has a really lovely walkway and rocky coast.

The main activity at this beach is searching for tiny crabs. I don't know if they eat them, or if they just do it for fun, since in my opinion the crabs are way too small for eating! People of all ages are enjoying Saturday at the beach!

There were a group of about 4 older ladies sitting on the rocks, and they signaled me to come sit with them (at least I think that's what they were signalling!). They talked on and on to me, and I answered back, but actually understood absolutely nothing. This is the very friendly lady who sat next to me. I'm sure she has so many stories to tell. It's harder than I thought to be unable to get to know these people and share in their stories.

This lovely 5-star hotel looks out onto the beach. It's a stark contrast to a lot of what we see, but also a beautiful oasis!

From the beach you can see both ends of this bridge that goes from Jimei, where we live, to Xiamen Island. It's beautiful and modern. If you take a closer look at the boats in front of the bridge, they look like some type of rafts that people swim off of. Looks like fun!

Day 6 in Xiamen - The Cooker

2014-09-16T04:58:00.000-07:00

When we first started talking about coming to China, Christine asked me what I might like to do with my days while she and Kynza were at work and at school. Thinking that it would be helpful if I could at least cook dinner for the three of us, I replied, "learn Chinese cooking." Well, Christine took that to heart, and arranged for me to come to her work and observe the woman who cooks lunch for all of the office workers (about 15 in all). She comes in every morning at 10:00, laden with groceries, and by 12 she has a first-class meal on the table. The office has a lovely kitchen for her to work in.

So today I started my three-month stint of observing "the cooker." I can't believe that I get to do this for three months. She's as sweet as can be, a bit shy, and speaks not one word of English. For some reason, everyone calls her the cooker, not the cook. The other gals in the office have all adopted Western names, and we address them by their western names. But the cooker only has a Chinese name, and so far no one has told me what it is. I'm sure they think it is beyond my Chinese skills to learn her name!

Every day she makes a big pot of soup (broth with some kind of vegetables), a big rice cooker full of sticky rice, and four other meat, vegetable, fish, or tofu dishes. For my first day, it was pork with mushrooms, cucumber salad, squid with celery, and tofu with ground pork. Pork is big here!

The whole process is amazing. The cooker makes most everything with just a cutting board, a Chinese chefs knife, running water and a few plastic colanders used to rinse and clean continuously, a metal spatula, and a wok. The flame under the wok is gigantic.

This squid was first thrown in boiling water in the wok, and then drained, chopped, and back in hot oil in the wok with numerous cloves of chopped garlic. Then out comes the squid and in goes a whole head of chopped celery, a bit of chopped carrot, and salt. Then the squid goes back in for the finishing touch.

The pork with mushrooms actually has more mushrooms than pork! A bit of sliced carrot, a couple hot red peppers, several cloves of garlic, and soy sauce. Delicious.

I wish you could see how she pounded these cucumbers! They are the long, English cucumbers. She peeled them in one swoop from end to end, then pounded them with the chefs knife, presumably to knock the seeds loose. (A bit tricky when I can't ask what she's doing because of the language barrier!) It breaks them in half lengthwise, then she takes out a long strip of seeds that kind of just fall out, does a bit of cutting lengthwise so they are about in fourths, then chops them diagonally. The dressing is Chinese vinegar, sesame seed oil, several cloves of garlic and hot peppers that are first fried in the wok, a bit of chicken bouillon powder, and salt. Delicious! I think the sesame oil makes it!

Yes, garlic is in every dish. The stores all have packages with cloves ready for chopping like this. We used at least half this package in one meal!

Here's a little video of the cooker and her wok. She is so concentrated on what she's doing. Two very intense hours of chopping and woking!

Day 5 in Xiamen - buying poultry, eggs, and fish

2014-09-15T05:41:00.001-07:00

Whoo hoo -- It's Kynza's first day of school! Both Christine and I walk her to the bus stop -- a good 15 minute walk from the house. It's a school bus, with a bus monitor and assigned seats. It stops just where we thought it would stop, and she's off to a new world at Xiamen International Academy!

From the bus stop, I go off to the mall to see what I can uncover in the grocery store! Chicken legs, of course! Just over $1 a pound.... Or, for the same price, you can get chicken feet.

Buying eggs is a whole new experience. You get to choose! But apparently not all eggs are good eggs. Like this young woman, everyone shakes them, and then decides whether to put the egg in their bag or put it back in the pile. Most get put back in the pile. Some people hold them up to their ear when they shake them to listen for I don't know what. We're a bit afraid to buy eggs because we don't know what makes one good. We did buy some, made an omelet, and lived to tell the tale. But who knows...

The fish section was definitely my favorite. I was innocently standing in the aisle looking at these piles of fish. Watch this video to see what happened! It was most hilarious. He was killing the fish, who were flopping all over the floor, and then he went and gathered them all in a bag.

Days 3 and 4 in Xiamen - casing the neighborhood

2014-09-15T03:00:00.001-07:00

Christine has been lovely about getting up early and making us each a little bowl of fresh fruit salad for breakfast. Love having a special time of eating breakfast together and praying for our day. When your days have as many unknowns as ours do, you don't forget that you're totally trusting in God's tender loving care!

Tuesday was Christine's first day of work, so she was off to her office, which is about a 20 minute walk from home. Kynza had appointments both Tuesday and Wednesday to get enrolled in Xiamen International Academy and get placed in her classes. We got pretty good at taking taxis to and from the school, but we always have to have a Chinese speaker (someone from Christine's work or someone from the school) call the taxi for us, and we have to give the taxi driver the address written in Chinese. I have a copy of my Chinese address in my purse, my back pack, my wallet, my pocket -- just in case! It is very, very rare to meet anyone who speaks even few words of English, and highly unlikely for a taxi driver.

On her last free afternoon before starting school, Kynza and I took our cameras out to do some exploring of the neighborhood. Here's what we found...

A view from out our kitchen window shows shops across the street. I'm still not sure exactly what they sell. Notice the circles of barbed wire along the top of the fence! We live in a gated residence, and there is always someone at the gate to let cars through. Jumping that fence could be pretty nasty!

Yale Nursery School is the view out of our living room window. It is part of our gated residence. I don't know a lot about the school yet, except that it seems to be open 7 days a week, and long days.

The electronic billboard on the front of the building runs Chinese messages that I don't understand, but it also has this in English: Yale students today, international leaders tomorrow. Some day soon I'll go down and see if I can talk to someone there!

When Kynza and I got outside of our gate, we hooked up with these three darling school girls who were having so much fun laughing and giggling at us. I don't think they have many chances to walk down this street with non-Asians, so just looking at us evokes all kinds of laughter. So hard not to be able to talk to them! They did say hello and bye bye, which is better than my Chinese.

Seems like every other shop is a tea shop -- so fun! As you walk by there is someone sitting at the tea table, and they invite you in to sample (or at least I think that's what was happening!). I nervously urged Kynza into this first one, and we sampled but didn't buy, because I didn't really know what or how to buy! They went through a very ornate pouring ceremony -- just for us. Oh my!

By the second shop Kynza was all smiles as we tasted this woman's tea. Another ornate pouring ceremony. Absolutely no English. Not a word. I was having trouble saying I would like to buy some tea, but I didn't want a big fancy gift box and I just wanted a few dollars worth of tea. Finally another guy came in - maybe a family member --and sold me 50 RMB worth of tea -- about $8. It's delicious! I will be back there.

The shop owners all live in back of or over their shops, so all of the normal things people do in their homes take place in front of the shops... Like drying laundry right out on the main street.

Or cooking fish on a table in front of an art shop like this. It's sometimes a bit of a trick figuring out if people are okay with having their picture taken... Never quite sure if the sign language means yes or no. There are SO MANY incredible pictures to be taken, and of course I miss most of them because I'm not very quick. But so far so fun.

Day 2 in Xiamen - Chinese cart ride

2014-09-15T02:00:00.003-07:00

Cleaning, unpacking, and exploring were the order of the day. We got all of our lovely bread, nutella, and cereal out for breakfast, and then it occurred to us that we didn't know how to eat those things with chopsticks! Not a piece of silverware to be found in this house. While cleaning we quickly realized we needed cleaning supplies, so decided to venture out to a mall that's about a 20 minute walk to have lunch and see what we could find. The mall is very modern, built just a few years ago, and has lots of stores that you would recognize like, Esprit and H&M.

We opted for lunch in a Chinese restaurant. We had green beans with pork which was delicious, rice, which is always good, and then this chicken dish -- or at least we thought we ordered a chicken dish...

When it came, we thought maybe it was rabbit, but then we realized there were wings! Pretty much it was skin and bones. We never really found anything to eat on it. Kynza declared that she was becoming a vegetarian. To quell her strange-food anxiety, we swooshed her a few doors down the mall to Dairy Queen for an Oreo blizzard. Sanity restored!

We worked our way down to the grocery store on the bottom floor of the mall. It was very crowded and very noisy! We found a mop, dust clothes, a scrub brush, hangers, soap, and dozens of other little necessities. When we got out of the mall, we were loaded with way more than we could carry home in sweltering humid heat. So we paid this guy who has a moped connected to a cart to take us!
Kynza and Christine are riding in the cart here (I'm sitting across from them), and then they're paying the driver when we got out in the road where our apartment is.

Day 1 in Xiamen! September 7, 2014

2014-09-15T01:55:00.002-07:00

The flight from Hong Kong to Xiamen on Dragon Air was uneventful… That's good news! We were served pork buns, and although we weren’t really hungry, we all ate them because we weren’t really clear on where our next meal was coming from. Tasted kind of like Thanksgiving stuffing in a bun—not bad!

We arrived in Xiamen, collected our 7 bags between us, and had no problems getting through immigration control. Christine said the lady smiled at her and seemed pleased that she was coming to stay.

The next venture was to get a taxi to our apartment. Having no notions of Chinese makes it a bit dicey… The taxis were clearly not big enough to take us and all of our luggage, so we wanted to get two, and have one follow the other. Christine who knows her way around here a bit and could show the taxi where to go, and Kynza and I would go in the taxi that followed. So the first taxi driver wanted to put all of our luggage in his taxi—it was clearly half hanging out of the trunk, and there was no place for us to sit! He wanted to bargain for the price with Christine, using hand signals. The police who monitors the taxi line saw that and gave him a bit of a slap, since negotiating taxi prices is illegal. Christine kept saying, ‘Two taxis!’ All this happening while the people behind us in line were also trying to get around us and into taxis – feeling a bit conspicuous, like we were holding up progress. I believe we will be getting used to this feeling. Finally the taxi driver relented, and let another taxi take Kynza and me and part of our luggage. We told him multiple times to follow the first taxi. I had the address of our apartment printed out in Chinese characters, and I gave that to him so he would have some notion of where he was going. As he studied it, sweet Kynza kept repeating, ‘Follow, follow, follow,” as she saw her mom veering in and out of sight. I think our taxi driver had every intention of following, and I think perhaps he understood that English word, but I’m guessing he didn’t really want to be told what to do. So at one point he acted like he was following a different taxi, at one point he got ahead of the one he was following, but he did follow, and we arrived at our destination unscathed, with our 7 bags, and not really the worse for wear!

Sunni, one of the girls who works in Christine’s officer here, was waiting for us at the apartment. So lovely to see her face! She speaks good English, and has already been such a help to Christine. The apartment is amazingly wonderful, and in such a nice setting, but more on that later. Just to say especially Kynza was so thrilled that the apartment was way better than what her mom had built her up for.

Sunni took us up and gave us the key and showed us basics like using the interphone. She brought Christine a SIM card for her phone, and they tried to make that work, but being able to make phone calls is something we still haven’t mastered.

Sunni left us some mooncakes and a great big pomelo, as today is the autumn festival, and those are the foods they use to celebrate the holiday. Before she left she said she would call a taxi to take us to a Costco-type grocery store (Metro) so we could get food. Aside from the moon cakes and pomelo, the only items of food in the house were some tea, soy sauce vinegar, and something that looks like corn starch. So—a bit of shopping seemed pretty essential.

We all took a short nap, then had a cup of tea to give us some energy. As we were drinking, we made a shopping list, knowing full well that it would be hit and miss as to whether we could find the things we wanted. The challenge was that we had a 30 minute limit. That is how long a taxi who takes you somewhere is allowed to wait for you. It’s hard to get a taxi, especially since we can’t speak Chinese to call a taxi, so we didn’t want to come out of the store and have lost our driver! So this was destined to be a shopping spree like you see on TV where they fill the cart as fast as they can.

Over our tea and mooncakes, we developed a strategy -- two copies of a list organized into categories like dairy, pasta and rice, vegetables and fruit, etc. Both Christine and I would have a copy of the list, and we would fan out to different sections of the store and get stuff and bring it back to the cart.

The taxi came for us as planned, and when we got to the store, the driver pointed to where we should meet him when we came out. And then we were off to the races. My first assignment was vinegar and oil – took me awhile to find vinegar that didn’t have soy sauce in it! Found some corn oil that looked like it would be okay for cooking (our only pan so far is a wok), and then Bingo – a special display of olive oil! We were in such a hurry there was no time to compare costs or consult with each other --- just make split second decisions. When I got back to the cart, Kynza was very proud of the Gold Medal flour she had found – at least good for pancakes and crepes. I went off to look for milk and butter. Found a 10-pack of UHT (boxed) milk from Australia, butter from France, and good looking yogurts – yea! Back at the cart, C and K had found Nutella, Skippy, honey, beans, rice, pasta – we were loading up! Then off to the fruits and vegetables… Cauliflower, red peppers, kiwis, bananas, cucumber, a few onions. When we finally decided we needed to proceed to checkout we had everything we really wanted except bread, which is not big in China. We decided to pass on meat until we figure out what's what.

We made it through checkout with only a few glitches... Christine thought she had the card number for her company to be able to buy at the store, but the clerk couldn't get it to work. Was fairly comical when Christine didn't understand her Chinese, so she started writing out the words in Chinese characters, thinking that might be easier to understand. Finally she threw up her hands and found a way to check us through. The line was getting very backed up behind us, and since we had already emptied our very full cart onto the checkout counter, it would have been hard for her to send us away! Next issue was that we hadn't weighed the produce in the produce department, and again, we couldn't understand what the problem was. Finally the cashier called for someone to come and get our produce and go weigh it. We were definitely making a scene. Christine followed him back to the produce department, and Kynza and I stayed with the checker. The guy came back with our weighed produce, but no Christine! I was getting a bit concerned, because she had the money to pay, and we really couldn't hold up this line any longer. I asked Kynza in probably to loud of voice, "Where's your mom?" And someone in the next line over answered in good American English, "She's getting bread." Good find! She's met this guy while weighing the vegetables, and he told her where to get bread. She came rushing up just in time with two loaves of what turned out to be not-so-good bread. We paid, and off we went to find our taxi driver calmly waiting for us. Can't remember how much the taxi ride was, but definitely not much for all the bother!

Home, and unpacked the groceries, and beyond dead tired. Top Ramen soup for dinner -- not sure whether the Chinese eat this or not! Actually tasted good. Crashed on our very, very hard Chinese mattresses... Great way to end a Chinese day!