Visitors...we love them!

This month a series of visitors will come to Xiamen...fun for us, although since I would rather socialize than study, my level of Chinese comprehension is suffering! (Maybe also the beer we had at lunch!?!?) This past weekend we welcomed Nancy and Tom, who are living in Jinan, Shangdong on the Fulbright program this year. Nancy was giving a lecture here at the law school, but we all found time for touring the campus...

and a grown ups only night out downtown overlooking the harbor...

While walking downtown we encountered some popular art you would only see in China..a Rat playing ping pong (拼盘球）pin pan qiu.

And of course we had to do the truly Fujianese thing and taste tea for them to bring home.

I love seeing Xiamen through the eyes of others..helps me keep it fresh. This week some more Fulbrighters have arrived from Wuhan, and next week it looks like our friend Gary, who we were supposed to meet up with in Chengdu, might be bringing his students here instead.

Tomorrow we are going to Guilin and then on to Yongzhou to see the orphanage Helen once lived in. Mixed feelings of anticipation about the trip. The weather forecast is for rain, I'm afraid, but we'll hope for the best. Not sure if we will be able to blog or not from Guilin - in Yongzhou definitely not.

Thanks for all the emails about the earthquake. I also have had some bad news in the last week. My mom, whom many have you have been praying for, has taken a turn for the worse, and the cancer has spread beyond the ability of the doctors to intervene. It has been so difficult for us to be apart..now we are praying for as much time as possible, in particular time to spend together this summer. It think now the reluctance I feel to let go of China is being tempered by my desire to be much ,much closer to my family at this time.