It is the Labour Day holiday weekend here, and I do mean Labour Day. We took the ferry to the island just off the coast of Xiamen and walked around the place as did everyone else here. I don't care what this sign says the British influence it the main one used for writing. It has been rainy here the last few days and the air is very thick. It was really nice the day I arrived and was nice on Thursday but the rain came late Friday and today it just sprinkled a little but oh it was muggy. I mean it was thick. Xiamen is quite a bit different from Xiam or least this part of Xiamen is different from our part of Xian. Any time you are near the water is it better than being inland. It is clear here in Xiamen and it appears the people try and keep it cleaner. In Xian if you have 100 people a minute eating and walking by the same little trash can it is going to fill up and trash is going to end up on the ground. That is going to be problem and how do you dump the garbage when so many people are in the way. Over all it looks cleaner and the air is better here, much better.
These is a sculpture about China and their fight for freedom. It was on the island we visited. The island is pretty and it is a tourist place, not a western tourist place, but a place where the Chinese go. I did not see to many western tourist and the ones I saw were probably Europeans. I did have some watermelon juice today and I thought about it and it has been 12 years since I had a watermelon juice. JoAnne and I drank it a lot in Malaysia. Xiamen does remind me of Malaysia. Climate, plants, the fruits all of that is similar to Malaysia. I had some Durrian fruit snacks here and they were good. It has been nice to see Xiaoling again, I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed being around her when see was teaching at ICC. It is fun to ride in the car with her. She has had a license for about two months and driving in China is different from driving in Peoria. She does take care of me and watches out for me. She is such a pleasure to be around and her husband is a very nice man. Actually her whole family is nice to be around. We were walking around the island today and I get a text message from a student asking how to get to the City Wall area in Xian because he wants to ride the bikes around it again. I know I have been in China too long when I am walking down the street in Xiamen and texting as I am walking. My life has changed so much the last couple of months it is unbelievable.
The young man is Xiaoling nephew. I got some new clothes while I was here because I will need some short sleeve shirts for the warmer weather. I bought a shirt at the mall and then got two short sleeve dress shirts and this button up tee shirt at the Walmart store. If I am going to shop local in China what better place to do it than at the Walmart. Spend my money here and it will work its way back to the USA. I am a XXXL here and it just does fit. Being tall is ok but if I was tall and fat I would not have found a shirt at all. I am all ready for the summer now. I am going to have a bit of tea, oh they do like their tea here. After a day of walking we went back to the dock to catch the ferry back to Xiamen City.
It was just too bad it was hazy today. But at least it did not pour down rain, only a few sprinkles off and on. When it did rain if was not enough to get you wet. We ate on the island and I had some noodles in one of the best beef broths I had ever tasted. Very good. I did buy some cook books for the Culinary Arts program at ICC. I am pretty sure it is real Chinese cooking because they will have to translate the language. I do not think these books will have any Americanized recipes in them. I figure I can find some one to help me get the right information. Three thousand recipes in one and a dessert book for the other. I hope they can use it. If not I am out about 10 bucks. The one cookbook has a DVD with it. Maybe it will play or maybe not. The music CD plays OK in the Mac lap top. I always notice things about China that are different from the USA. When you fly in China you do not have to worry about being between two fat people, because there are no fat people. Today I saw two young girls walking and eating a fish on a stick. I mean a fish because I saw the bones. I saw this fish in Florida because we used it for bait when we were trying to catch sailfish. I guess the old expression is different here, " you can either fish, or cut bait, or eat the bait."
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