Sugar cane and the side streets

The main gate to the university is now barely passable, as you can see -- I think they have torn up the street to replace sewage lines. It is a mess out there. By the way, that is not stopping pedestrians from walking through the construction site, although I elected not to take the stroller there. There is clearly not the same level of safety precautions for either workers or passersby in China, as I have never seen so much construction done up close. So our path between the supermarket and the post office, our two destinations for today, ended up taking us through some winding alleys behind the apartment buildings next to the campus. I,m pleased because I have discovered some more interesting sights back there, just when my regular routes had become somewhat routine. Today, and all this week I have both girls with me, as Helen is on a one month break from school.

Today I showed her the primary school where she would go next year if we were staying in Xiamen longer. We know a number of kids there, children of our friends on the campus. All her classmates will go there next year. The shop next door sells school supplies (I go there for my Chinese character practice books) and Yo-yos, which are a huge fad here, especially among the boys.
Of course Helen had her eyes out for snacks, because she always wants to try something new, and she knows I am a sucker for this kind of curiosity. We had already munched some baozi (bread with meat and or vegetable filling), when she spotted the sugar cane:

The seller takes a machete and trims off the outside and leaves a clean cut to gnaw on.

She insisted that it was delicious, and I did have some. While the juice was sweet, it is kind of like eating a stick, and you end up having to spit out the pulp. Yuck! Sophia rejected it too. Helen gnawed at it all the way home and then presented some to Daddy, who has been wanting to try some. As he said -- not very nourishing, but fun.

I am happy to have Helen around during the day again. She likes to get out and explore, which keeps me from being lazy, and her presence amuses Sophia (also antagonizes, but its a total package deal). On the street I ran into a woman who sells Chinese paper cuts from her home. I had met her at a luncheon that the uptown expats gave earlier in the month. She was there with the artisan who makes the paper cuts to do a demonstration. I asked her about lessons to learn how to make the paper cuts, since Helen is obsessed with cutting paper, which has replaced drawing in her world. Her kindergarten teacher taught her a few simple designs (and of course she likes to make snowflakes, American style) Anyone who knows Helen well will remember that she has had many incidents with scissors, including multiple incidents of cutting her own hair. Since Santa put scissors in her stocking she has been unstoppable. Anyway, my new friend called the paper cut teacher, and I am please because he will invite Helen to a class in the new year (after Chinese New Year). Right now, if you ask anyone to make a plan more than one day in advance, they say "...how about in the new year?" ...Because the whole population is getting ready to travel somewhere else in China to see relatives.
So of course we are leaving on Saturday for the Yunnan province to see some scenery and more traditional areas of the country.
Sorry about blogging only once every 3 days or so...I am more and more busy, it seems, and always vying for the computer with my children and husband! We had a quiet weekend, which was good for all I think. We even missed church to hang around the apartment and take walks in the neighborhood. Thomas in particular seems to need these "recharging" days -- he and I had some serious talks this past Friday about not whining so much and I was pleased to see him making a real effort to be curious and interesting.
We are still enjoying some sun. A winter storm is blanketing northern China but it is still quite mild in Xiamen, although more chilly weather here is expected later in the week. I keep wondering what the rainy season will be like!
There are some new links listed above. Both they are other families blogging from China, both quite interesting and much more thorough than me, with some good photos. The Lewises are in Hangzhou teaching English, and Christine is here in Xiamen (My Adventure in China). You can check them out on the days I fail to produce an entry for you! I have been in email contact with both, and enjoy the internet companionship of other moms as crazy as me, leaving the familiar to live in China with kids.