Sunday, September 2, 2007

Field trip to Gulanyu
















This morning after a leisurely start to the day -- we actually got everyone showered -- we took the bus (first time) downtown, walked down Zhongshan Lu, a pedestrian shopping street, finally found the ferry dock after a few false starts and took the ferry to Gulanyu -- a beautiful island alongside Xiamen. It's a major tourist area for the Chinese because there are a lot of European style homes and streets, left from its days as a foreign concession. The closest Catholic church is also on the island, and we did find it and checked the schedule -- 9 am is the Mass. I don't know if we can make it on time another week, but we'll try as often as we can. I am missing St. Joe's the most today, and have had to be content with the "Favorite Inspirations" playlist on my MP3 player. The kids loved the ferry and Sophia, especially. She had another day of fame as the only African American baby in the Fujian province. Most of the interest is friendly, if a little persistent. Some older women in the ferry dock tried to converse with me about her and with my rudimentary Chinese I was able to convey that she, Thomas and Helen were all my children.

We had a nice lunch, but it began to rain fairly steadily so we headed back. The last photo is Sophia actually posing for me in the living room -- she hates being photographed so the fame must really be getting to her.
















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