A hike in the hills of Xiamen

One afternoon a few months back I went on a hike with some ladies I know. Three Western expats, three Asian expats and the teacher/owner of our Chinese language school met for a stroll over a mountain in the middle of the island. If I could read Han zi (Chinese characters) I could tell you the name of this place. Alas, I cannot, so I'll just call it a mountain. Apparently there is a military installation toward the top of the mountain, given its good vantage point and view, I guess. There were many reminders along the road to "enhance vigilance, guard against spy." I don't really understand what that means, but I tried not to look suspicious!
The sunny, clear day offered us a nice view of this lake part-way up the mountain. We have not had much rain for many months and this lake seems to be suffering. It might have been more of a reservoir than a real lake, but it was pretty anyway.
The city of Xiamen has lots of bougainvillea bushes all around but they are usually much less spectacular than the ones I've seen in Hawaii and Mexico, so I was glad to see this one with many flowering branches instead of just a few small blooms.
There were some residential areas along the way, complete with vegetable gardens. The lettuce looked so inviting! They were not rice paddies but the way they were laid out reminded me of the paddies we used to see in Korea. Seeing these gardens made me miss "our" farm back home even more than usual--I'm still paranoid about getting sick and, therefore, don't eat much salad. I plan to make up for it upon my return home!
Teamwork...this couple was not more than 5 feet tall and their bag was almost as big as their bodies! I don't know what was inside it, but it was clearly very heavy. They were making their way down a pretty steep grade and handling it well so I figured they must've had some experience in carrying large loads yoke-style. I'll say it again, these are hardy folks over here!
This cute little cafe celebrated the bikers who supposedly ride down this road. I took this picture for my bike-loving brother. I have no intentions of biking up or down this road, partially because I don't like steep roads, partially because I'm afraid of being hit by one of the millions of crazy drivers we have and partially because I don't have a bike! It's frightening enough to walk along the sidewalk, let alone try to manage riding in the roadway.
This is the view back toward the city. We try to relish the clear days here since we have plenty of over-cast, smoggy days too. Now that it's winter, we have many more cloudy days than sunny...but the steamy hot weather is also gone, so I have to count my blessings.

I tested the zoom lens on my small camera to get a snapshot of the big Buddha carving in the side of the mountain. It is hard to gauge the size in the picture, but it sure looked giant from where we stood across the gorge. Note the tree branch in the foreground for perspective, if that helps. We stopped toward the top of the mountain at a hidden restaurant for lunch. We shared green beans, eggplant, rice and the other ladies had chicken of some sort and had an amazing view. We would've never known this place existed if not for the Chinese teacher who seems to know everything about Xiamen! We were the only customers, possibly because there was a large, black dog that barked menacingly at us when we entered the long driveway. We found out quickly that she had a little of young puppies to guard, but she calmed down after the lady of the place gave her a talking-to. I was glad to find that this restaurant was not so different from the Sichuan place near our home, and not like the one further down the road that offered both cat and dog on the menu! Again, my understanding of Han zi is very poor, so I only know about the meat choices because one of the other ladies read the signs. Must be very careful here in the south of China! All in all, it was a good day and a nice way to spend a few hours.

Christmas decor--Asian style

Well, we knew that Christmas over here in China would be different that what we are accustomed to in the US, but it was a bit sad to see so much plastic junk everywhere (okay, we see that at home too, but not exclusively). Apparently Christmas means snowmen and trees and Santa; again, not completely different than at home, but clearly there is no religious connection made whatsoever in the Middle Kingdom. Not so in the Philippines, which was part of why we wanted to go there during this time of the year. Not only do they speak English, the country is also predominately Christian and very into Christmas! Enjoy the following Christmas ornamentation... Since I'm not as tech-savvy as I'd like to be, I cannot get the pictures on here to change order once they've been uploaded. I do not like this...but I don't want to make it disappear all together. This is from our post-Christmas shopping trip to Zhongshan lu, a big pedestrian shopping street in Xiamen. We were on a hunt for Ugg/Bearpaw type boots for the girls and were thrilled to find them in the colors and sizes we wanted for a decent price. This lovely pink and silver monster of a tree is in front of the swanky PCD department store (of trick-or-treating fame...)
The PCD display in the front entry of the store--no crowd to dodge this time like we had at Halloween.
We decided that a tree was a must, even though it ended up being a rather small, plastic one. We really missed going through our large box of decorations, remembering who gave them to us/when each child made them as each is unwrapped and carefully hung. It has become tradition for us to do that each year, so hanging a few little cell-phone charms and star- and Rudolph-painted clothespins just didn't have the same feel! But it was better than nothing, as we told ourselves repeatedly.
The girls' school put on Christmas concerts for the parents (I was less than thrilled that the lower school started at 9 a.m. and the upper school at 2 p.m., meaning that I had to mill around the school all day long, but it gave me the chance to have lunch with Amanda and relax in the library between shows). Interesting that there were many Christian-themed songs sung...not sure how many religions are represented at this school, but I'm guessing there are at least a few.
Look closely and you....won't see either of my kids. Choosing the pictures requires a bit of squinting on my part as the thumbnails don't want to be enlargened. Why is it that I can delete a picture on accident, but not when I try to intentionally?!
Very prominent Christmas tree and sea of poinsettias displayed in the courtyard of the school.
More poinsettias in the Xiamen airport.
I don't think we're in China anymore...tropical nativity scene, set up in the Manila airport.
I know that nuns are not actually decor, but we see them so rarely in China or elsewhere that I couldn't resist. It also struck me as funny to see them making calls on the payphones, though I couldn't explain the joke if I had to!
The international school on Boracay's island hosted a Christmas bazaar right in back of our hotel and a sandal-clad Santa indulged us one photo.
Sand-sidewalk Christmas lights display at one of the hotels.
Our hotel lobby tree (as an aside, can you believe my 13 year old is almost as tall as me now?!)
Our apartment complex erected a tree while we were gone. We were so surprised to see it...it was cute but we didn't really love the big Santa heads!
Our little tree got a bit more festive after a last-minute trip to Metro (the French version of Sam's Club, stocking mostly Chinese stuff but also a good bit of Western things). We found a bucket of silver decorations that weren't too junky to help our tree be less anemic. Tree skirts do not exist here and I never made it to the fabric market to get a length of cloth as I had intended, so a newly-donated striped towel did the job (thanks again, Tina and Mark!). I can't help but think of our time here as being similar to camping--an ill-equipped kitchen, no central heat, primitive-ish clothes-washing, no dish washer, and the need for multi-purposing at every turn! But we like camping, so it's not completely unfamiliar.
Yes, that is a gift wrapped in a page from a magazine. We got desperate after running out of wrapping paper (the rolls are really tiny here and rolled so tight that the actual act of wrapping was beyond frustrating). Actually, we were quite pleased with the results!
We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas this year!

Holiday visit to Boracay, Philippines

When we were contemplating living in China, one of our goals was to see as much as possible while in Asia. Given the fact that our children's international school has both Western and Chinese holidays, we thought we'd have lots of time to travel without taking them out of school. As is common in those before-you-know-what-you're-talking-about ideas, we found out after we got here that EVERYONE in China travels during the national holidays (especially Chinese New Year, February-ish depending on the lunar calendar, when schools are closed down for a month) making it not only difficult to get good tickets but also undesirable to stay in the country or in our "resort city" which can be inundated by visitors. Also, by the time December rolled around, we were really wanting a bit of a break from China. We justified a lovely vacation on White Sand Beach in Boracay, Philippines by telling ourselves that we will likely not have another chance to travel there; it's not China, but it's still new and exotic to us! I will not trouble you with all the trials of getting this trip planned but, suffice it to say, we were glad when everything was in order and tried hard not to think about what was going to go wrong at the next turn. We pulled the kids out of school a day and a half early so that we could spend a week on vacation and still be back in our (temporary) home for Christmas Eve. What we did not quite realize when booking a trip to one of the 7,000+ Philippine islands was that it would take us pretty much an entire day to get to our resort...a plane ride, a three hour lay-over in what must be the most boring capital city airport, another plane ride, a bus ride (mercifully booked in advance with the hotel and accompanied by guides who had our name on a placard in the airport--didn't you always want to see your name on one of those?!), a very dark ride on an out-rigger boat with huge orange life vests and one nervous 9 year old daughter and a van ride to the door of our place. Whew! Thankfully the restaurant was still serving dinner at 9pm when we finally arrived.
We did plenty of relaxing beach- and pool-side but also found time for some little adventures. Only the second half of the photos are on my computer so I'll have to start with the end of the week. We found the only place along the beach that offered sea kayaks and took turns paddling and enjoying the view of the supposedly less expensive and also less crowded end of the beach. We think we'll have to look for this kind of kayak once we return home--sitting up higher in the boat was so much more comfortable than the sitting-in-the-water type I've used in the past.
We had to do a bit of dodging of the other watercraft but managed to avoid any collisions.
Gene and Liz made it to the top of the highest peak on the island on their dune-buggy foray. The big mountains in the background are the island we landed on and took the 1 1/2 hour bus ride across, the strip of ocean in between was crossed in the dark. The island is sort of bone-shaped with a long skinny area down the middle and two larger sections at either end. This view is of the windier side, home to the kite surfers (see below) and a not so perfect beach (a bit too rocky to attract the tourists who don't kite surf).
Another view from the buggy riding trip. We so loved the clear skies and were thrilled to see stars at night! Oh, the things we hardly notice until they are gone...even though we live in a rather clean city by Chinese standards, I still don't see enough stars for my liking.
The pollution machine that Daddy really wanted to try--the two more sensible members of the family stayed back at the beach! Good thing, too, since I found out later that they drove the thing on the roadway for part of the time. They had a blast!
Along the walkway to the other side of the island there were several little fenced-in yards that housed numerous roosters, each tethered to a numbered sandwich board. I used my keen sense of deduction to figure out that these birds are used for cock-fighting battles. They also did a good job of making sure no one took a relaxing nap as they made noise all day long. We were glad to be far enough away from them to not have to deal with that, a benefit of staying in the "high rent" area.
The girls didn't want to make the trek but Gene and I were sure glad we did. The two ends of the "bone" made a protected cove of sorts that was a haven in the late afternoon for windsurfers and kitesurfers. I have no innate need for speed, nor the upper body strength, to try such a sport, but they were amazing to watch!
This is the "sidewalk" that ran the length of the island, right off the back decks of the hotels, bordering the beach. It was lined with all types of little bars and restaurants and, unfortunately, people hawking their various wares. We tried not to let it get to us too much, we all have to make a living after all, but it was quite tiresome to be asked repeatedly if we wanted to buy sunglasses, have a massage, go for a sailing ride, get our hair braided, etc. We found that walking along the beach was a little more peaceful, but it was also in the beating sun. One our 15 minute walk to the kayak place, Amanda counted 27 solicitations!
We had a family room, with a separate bedroom for the girls and a little front porch with a bistro set. Our balcony in Xiamen is nice, but the front porch was much more like home for us (and we didn't have to constantly wrestle with those nagging little thoughts: what if I forget that it's a bad idea to throw my coffee cup over the railing...what if I accidentally toss my wedding ring over the edge...I've heard that other people don't have these thoughts, but Gene and I both do!)
We said a silent prayer that none of us would need to avail ourselves of emergency medical care, and another for those people who have no choice but to use this place...I sort of over-looked the fact that there is rampant poverty in this area and we were all reminded to be thankful for the blessings we've been given.
We enjoyed glorious sunsets almost every night (and discovered that our camera has a "sunset" setting!) All in all, we had a great time in Boracay and had a bit of a hard time leaving.

Halloween in Xiamen

Yep, now that Christmas is over, I'm finally getting around to posting Halloween photos...time flies. Xiamen International School had a special day of celebrating, even though there are less than 15% Americans at the school! We had a hard time finding costumes here--all we could find were the same two or three witch-type outfits--so we were thrilled when our friend Pam offered to lend us a bag full of costumes that her children had outgrown. Amanda was very relieved. First up at school was the costume parade. As we see at home, there were tons of princesses and witches, which was fine with us as it was better than party-pooper noncostume-wearers! At first I couldn't locate Amanda's teacher...
and then I spotted him! What a great sport! Even though it was the last week of October, it was still quite warm so I couldn't believe he could stand to wear that mask. I guess he was one of those wrestler guys like in the movie Nacho Libre. Funny.
Amanda nominated herself for "most interesting" costume in her class vote...and won! This will likely be the only Halloween that she wears flip-flops without freezing.
Lining up all the pre-K through 5th graders was quite a challenge and getting a photo of it all without filling the frame with the backs of other parents' heads was equally hard! Next came the trick-or-treating!
Each child was asked to send in a bag of treats so that there would be enough to share. We didn't mind helping supply the candy (it certainly cost less than the 10+ bags I usually hand out at home!) Notice Amanda has a cloth reusable shopping bag for her treats--some things never change. I tagged along with the class as they went to 5 different offices around the school. I think the other parents had left by now (we had already attended the middle and high school-sponsored haunted basement, listened to some scary stories and played Halloween bingo--I even won a round!) but I couldn't miss the trick-or-treating.
The evening celebration was more for Liz and the other older kids. A bunch of parents in the PTSA organized a school dance for them. Liz and I had found a picture of a "Harajuku girl" of Japanese teen fame online and had a similar dress made at a local tailor shop. I'm not sure if the other kids know what her costume was, but we thought she looked fabulous!
Liz and two of her friends, waiting for the school bus that will take them to the dance.
We celebrated again on Saturday, with a special Halloween party at the local PCD department store. I had swallowed my pride and called the mother of Liz's friend (on the far right) who is a buyer for the store and organizer of the party to beg our way onto the guest list...the things we do for our kids! I also asked if our friends could come along with us; the parents are originally from China but studied in the US and lived in NM for many years so the girls were both born there. They moved here in March when the dad took a job as the dean of the energy department at Xiamen University (he's a nuclear specialist). I used one of the on-loan costumes but got really hot in the felt jester's hat!
Amanda and friends making a ghost craft. The party was fun but so crowded...we left a bit early to get going with the store trick-or-treating. The department stores here are different than ours in that each section is a separate store with each brand in its own area. We formed a group of expats and made a spectacle of ourselves...
some more than others! Our friend John did us proud by dressing up like a bathing beauty. He found a kindred soul on the sales floor...and got a good many points and stares. He's obviously not shy.
How many times have you trick-or-treated at Gucci?! Or Hugo Boss? The list goes on and we had so much fun!
The main entrance to the store opens onto the most popular pedestrian shopping street in the city. There was a large pumpkin display that we posed in front of...and a hoard of Chinese people grabbed their cameras and cell phones and took pictures. The spectacle continued!
I think the store had 4 floors, but we got tired out after two...and thought we better leave some candy for the other kids who were still upstairs in the bridal section at the party. By now it was getting late and we were ready to get to our next party, this time at the beach! Our friend the bathing beauty agreed to give us a ride with his driver but we had to wait for him to return for us since there wasn't room for both families. We got lots more stares and photos snapped as we walked and waited. Liz opted for Pocahontas this time, again from the loaned bag.
Once at the beach party, we discovered that Amanda's teacher was in the band! Read his guitar carefully--no bad words, I promise! The band was set up on the sand and there was a big patio with tables and food and drinks for purchase...and lots of fun-loving people. We were glad to be with good friends and ran into more after we got settled in.

The girls spent most of their time running around in the sand with their friends and watching the bonfire. These two days of fun were most certainly a bright spot in our fall; the first few months had many hard days and we were so happy for the escape!