Since today was a " no photo" day, spent primarily on the bus going across town to the Metro (bulk and western food store) for coffee and other items, I though I would catch you up on the rest of Sunday. As Michael posted yesterday, we spent the evening at a Moon Festival party with the Philosophy Department (by the way -- I have been to 2 parties already without eating a single moon cake, yet everyone is carrying gift boxes of them around -- could it be the equivalent of the fruitcake that is passed around, but never consumed?
Before the party, we had gone in the morning to church again on Gulanyu -- which is feeling more familiar each week. For my Catholic readers, I will tell you that other than the fact that they say the Apostles Creed instead of the Nicene creed, and do not mention the pope during the Eucharistic prayer, you would never know that you were at a Mass in another country, and one where there have been disputes over the sovereignty of the church. Our pastor's English pronunciation is hard to follow sometimes. There are a number of families in attendance regularly. After church, we walked along the shore, admiring the crew of a fishing boat which was doing some maintenance. (That is Thomas's look like a pirate face for his Uncle Dave, by the way)
At Thomas's urging, we set out to see the giant stone warrior statue up closer. This huge structure is easily visible from Xiamen, and we had admired it before, as sort of a Fujianese statue of liberty. Zheng Chengong drove the dutch traders out of the Taiwan straits in the 1600s and now has a place in history and in the architecture of the island, where a lot of huge boulders also have names.
Here the kids are sitting on his foot. It was a great day for being by the water, windy and cloudy, but not too hot for a little climbing.
We were impressed with his giant sword and the monument below. Another day of discovery on Gulanyu!
Tomorrow is Sophia's birthday and I think I ordered a cake for her, but since we were speaking Chinese -- I am never sure! Check back and see!
4 comments:
Hello Ann - I found your blog through Malinda's page and it's nice to see another Mum in Xiamen with a toddler.
I will be moving there with my son in Dec and hope to meet up esp since we'll be headed for the Catholic church in Gulangyu too!
Hi, I found your blog through a Google site and have enjoyed looking through it. I'll be heading to DaXia in September for the full year. I was very excited to see your pictures of the Catholic church - is it really as beautiful as it looks? Also, did you ever try going to Mass in Chinese?
Also, the tai qi sounds interesting. Did you stick with it and enjoy it?
Maria -- If you read forward in the blog there is lots more info on the church. It is beautiful and unexpected. There is an English mass at 10 and Chinese at 8:30 or 9. some holidays its all one mass in Chinese. I encourage you to get involved there because its a good way to make some connections off campus. Hope you enjoy the Chinese program at Xia Da. I learned a ton. Helped not to spend all my time with expats. Have a great year! Send me your email address and I won't post it, just reply to any questions you have.
My email address is maria-holland@utulsa.edu. It would be great to talk to you . . . I have a lot of questions, if you don't mind. I just finished reading the entire blog and loved it, it seems like a great introduction to daily life in Xiamen.
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