We visit the beach and Ann nets dinner

See the Sabres shirt?

Just for the record, for all of you who have been feeling sorry for Thomas, or any of us, having been crazily uprooted from our lives in the US -- the campus of Xiada has its own beach....which is on the tip of Xiamen Island and fronts the Pacific Ocean/South China Sea ...and is only a causal 20 minute walk away. And of course there are palm trees...we joked that we could come back and get some in the spring for Palm Sunday. For us the novelty of living in this tropical island locale is pretty spectacular. I love watching these old fishing junks go by. The kids are wading here -- ended up getting wet up to their waists. I had resisted swimming the first time -- want to check out with the locals how clean and safe the water is, although it looked OK and our feet didn't fall off when we got home. Did make sure everyone showered though. We actually got a look at the Kindergarten building, but I forgot to take a picture. Still another week before it opens for the semester.

Now about the "Ann netting dinner" part -- some background. I did not catch our dinner at the beach, but at the local supermarket. Michael has been cooking all the dinners, but I have been doing all the shopping. So he gives me a general idea and I head out to see what I can get. Today he says -- "why don't you try getting us some shrimp -- that will be easier than trying to get the fish guys to gut a big fish for you." Except when I got to the store and to the fish section, the only shrimp were so fresh that they were still alive. In some ways that beats choosing a fish from the open iced bins that people have been touching all day. But I literally had to take a net and catch the little buggers and flip them into my plastic bag without them flipping out. And I began laughing out loud and drew a few supportive spectators who must have been thinking (wow- they don't have shrimp in America, just hamburgers?). Finally I got them in and took the bag to be weighed and sealed, but the shrimp continued to wiggle for some time. I presented them to Michael and he was somewhat terrified, so we boiled them first and then deveined them for our nightly stir fry. I also bought an unidentified fruit for dessert --a giant green citrus fruit with a thick rind that resembled grapefruit on the inside. Anyone know what that might be? Michael fried a yam-like potato with it and some green onion-ish things with chili peppers and threw it all over noodles with fried tofu. So -- we are in capable hands with chef Michael in the kitchen, even though he says he is afraid to go to the market alone (just a trick to get me to do all the shopping -- really he is here working while Sophia sleeps). BTW -- I am trying to get Michael to do some writing for the blog. He doesn't start to teach for another week, so he is getting caught up in the mean time. But I am sure he has plenty of thoughts to contribute.

As I am writing this some really loud drumming is going on somewhere on campus.. I guess the students are starting to come back and liven up the place.