I missed a blogging day again..some days when I don't take any pictures I have trouble settling in to the computer...also, Michael has been dominating the laptop for work, and I am furiously cross stitching a gift for the family we will see while we are in Korea at the end of the month. anyway --excuses, excuses! Dui bu chi -- I am sorry!
Check out the teapot fountain above -- its on one of the main shopping streets in Xiamen -- Zhongshan Lu. I took the wife of another foreign professor to see the shops yesterday -- she has just arrived this month and I got to play the "expert" on where to go, which was fun, since I am no expert, but I do know how to take the bus downtown. and actually I now have a bus e-card which I bought at the post office, so I am not always fishing for change, so that does mark me as a local vs. a tourist, I guess. My friend loved the silk clothing store I found previously -- not a tourist one actually, but more Chinese inspired modern designs -- quite lovely and quite expensive. Of course nothing in my size since this slender woman I was with, who is just a little tall ended up with an XXL?!?!? Eventually I will find someone to make me some traditional clothes while we're here. She was lonely for western food so we ended up at Pizza Hut for lunch. Pizza Hut is spreading Halloween cheer -- the only notice of Halloween I have seen, although apparently at Metro , the big buyer's club I go to monthly for coffee and cheese, there are other Halloween supplies. The waiters at Pizza Hut were wearing witches hats! Today I went to the monthly luncheon of the Association of Xiamen Expatriates. A woman from church had invited me. The activity was more Halloween-oriented, although all the Europeans were rolling their eyes, the Canadians and the few Americans seemed to get into it :) This group has a Halloween party for kids, but unfortunately its while we are gone to Korea on the weekend, so we will have to keep Halloween as best we can on campus...
Other updates -- we are always on the watch for the guesthouse lizards..in fact, taking out the garbage at night is now known in our family as "going looking for lizards". They are very fast, so this is a lucky break to get an actual photo. In other wildlife news, last night Michael killed a spider in our bathroom that was HUGE by our northern standards -- as big as the palm of your hand, with hairy legs and VERY FAST. He actually wrecked our broom doing it. We have seen no other significant wildlife nearby or in the guesthouse, which is really good news. There are a lot of rats in China, but the campus hosts dozens of wild and semi-wild cats, so maybe they keep the rats from getting a foothold near us. Lizards are much cuter.
Of course there is always a file photo of Sophia, here sporting a fine hairdo which has actually lasted all week. Not sure what I will do when the hair grease and lotion runs out, both an American professor and an African woman I met today agreed that there are no options here -- maybe I'll need a care package! We are feeling pretty good about the post office this week -- we got a package my sister sent after about 10 days with no import duty due, and even more important, Michael's books finally arrived (blame the US government, not the Chinese postal service for that 2 month wait!)
Language update: Sophia is now counting to ten in Chinese ( only 5 in English) and saying Ni hao automatically when she meets anyone, Chinese or not. I have my numbers up to 100 down pretty well and some common shopping phrases" do you have..." and "where is..." I am trying to master some verbs and have anybody understand anything I say in Chinese, since my tones are often wrong. Michael is focusing on characters and filling pages with careful writing. Thomas has to do all his homework for Mandarin in characters (no pinyin) so he is learning far more than he realizes.
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