Jimei University

Such a fun evening yesterday having a guided tour of Jimei University! Jimei (the distict of Xiamen that I live in) is known for its university, and so I wanted to visit the campus. Mandy, one of the girls I met at the English Corner, offered to give me a tour. We met up last night, and she brought three of her classmates with her. All four were so sweet to me, so eager to speak English, and so much fun!

Here we are outside a building that has a gym for teachers on the first floor, and dorms and classrooms on t the second floor. Mandy is to the left of me, and Lee and Annie are on the right. For the history lesson, Jimei has what's called a "study village" where kindergarten, primary, middle, high school, and university are all grouped in one location. This study village was founded by Tan Kah Kee in 1913. He is a very important figure in the history of Xiamen, and his work demonstrates the importance of education to the Chinese.

Another Fish Story

Remember the guy in the video removing scales from the live fish? Well, Tuesday night we had a fantastic time dining on one of those fish at his restaurant!

I mentioned that I thought it would be fun to eat there since I greet the owners every day as I walk by. Within days, the gals in Christine's office set up a little dinner party there. So thoughtful! It was of course like no meal I've ever eaten before, and  my pictures don't do it justice.

The big surprise was how the fish was presented. Twas a large fish that had definitely already been through the scaling and cleaning routine, and then split in two from the mouth between the eyes, and all the way down to the tail. It was no doubt seared in a very hot giant wok. Then look how it came to our table in three layers of pans!

The fish of course is in the top, with a generous amount of broth and gorgeous fresh vegetables. The bottom pan is empty and sits directly on the table, and the middle pan has braised coals that stayed red hot during the whole meal. Keeps the fish and the broth boiling hot.

They have this large metal pot on the sidewalk where they heat the coals, and you can see the trays they use for the fish next to them.

We told our Chinese friends to order whatever they I thought we would like, and they did a great job. They thought we would like chicken with peanuts, and they were spot on! Our first chicken that wasn't laced with bones, and Christine, Kynza and I loved it. I think this may become our new go-to chicken dish. Kynza and I have decided we want to order it take-out so we can have chicken at home, although we still need to learn how to say the name of the dish, and we especially need to learn how to say not spicy, since this is a Szechuan restaurant.
 As beautiful as the fish was, the question remains, how do you attack this with chop sticks? There's a ladle for the broth, but where's the knife and fork?? The fish was delicious, but I still haven't mastered deboning and eating fish with chopsticks. Our Chinese hosts delicately use their chopsticks to lift off a morsel. But even if i try to pay attention to what I'm doing, my technique always results in way too many bones in my mouth. My mind wanders back to the demonstrations I've seen of best methods for fileting a fish on a plate using a knife and fork, but this skill is irrelevant in China. The Chinese have no use for a knife, a fork, or even a plate. Chopsticks and a little bowl work just fine. Still have a little over two months to try and master this!

Sights and Sounds of Sunday Morning

On Sunday we left home early enough to take in some of the local color on the walk to church. The rapid transit bus stop is about a 10-minute walk from the church - and the walk is like no walk I've ever walked before. There is a picture begging to be taken at least every two yards. Many of them pass before I get my camera pointed in the right direction, but here is a smattering of the sights and sounds I managed to capture. 


Ladies often use poles to balance heavy loads they are carrying... These women will set up their baskets of fruit and vegetables on the sidewalk. There is an incredible amount of food sold from this type of basket just set out on the sidewalk!

And here is the Xiamen version of a sidewalk cafe... I think they're mostly eating noodles, but the ambiance seems cafe.

These are raw peanuts  put out to dry in the sun on this ledge between the sidewalk and the street.

This guy is selling noodles that look like spaghetti, and the biker is stopping to buy. Not sure if they sell them by the pound or what.

This lady's sidewalk space has  eeked out into the street.

These mushrooms and seaweed and such are for sale right on the edge of the curb, just short of the car. And I don't really see the person selling them anywhere. Maybe they are just drying??

This guy is a cobbler, and his shoe repair business, machine and all, is right out on the sidewalk. He seems to have quite a few customers, with women on either side watching him work.

Why is it I always end up gravitating to the meat market? Some kind of fascination with these unknown cuts of meat!
Just noticed that the cleanliness of the scale is a bit dubious! The pig's foot is pretty classy, but  look at the piece next to it that looks like it has a long tail.  The picture is revealing, but the video is better!

In the first part of the video, the woman is shaving a piece of meat skin with a razor. If you know what the girl in the video is buying, please comment!

Finally we get to the apartments just across from the church. Even though they are a bit run down, almost every window has an air conditioner -- an absolute necessity in the hot, humid, sticky weather!







And then we're inside the church! Sorry, no picture this week. The cultural mix is a real treat, and a clear affirmation that even on the other side of the globe, God's love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me! We sing that with gusto, and quite a lot of African rhythm.

The English Corner

Something big is going on at the English Corner on Friday nights! It was such a treat to be able to meet some Chinese students and communicate in English. The corner is less than 5 minutes walk from our apartment -- an unexpected blessing! There were about 90 there, a majority of them university students, and all levels of English. We were surprised by how serious they were at working on their English, and how respectful they were of each other and of us "foreigners." They all seemed so happy to be there.

The evening started with singing -- songs with simple words, like I've Got Peace Like a River. We started singing a capella because there were no musicians, and then this  professor of music at the university who happened to be there went to the piano and was definitely a concert pianist, so that was fun. 

Next there was an English pronunciation exercise. Everyone got into pairs to practice, and we foreigners walked around and sat with a few pairs to coach them. I sat with a group of about six, and we had fun with sentences like "I carried a load down the road," and word pairs like wash / watch, mash / match... They were frustrated with the difficulty of the sounds, but so cute and loved practicing:)

Then an English speaker gave a talk about peer pressure. He got the students involved by lining 10 of them up in the middle of the room, then reading statements where they had to make a choice. One of the most interesting... Would you rather be president of Lenovo or Premier of China? Don't know if it was a question of peer pressure or not, but all 10 lined up under Lenovo. 

He ended his talk with two verses from Proverbs about being wise, and everyone read them and listened carefully.

The evening ended with discussion groups. There were 9 foreigners there, so we each lead a group of about 10. My group was all university students. One of them spoke quite well, but the others still need a lot of speaking practice. We had five or six discussion questions about peer pressure, and I couldn't believe how they all participated, even the ones with very little English. All kinds of discussion about topics like living with roommates,  smoking, and being an example. They were all so sweet to me. They wanted to know all about what I'm  doing here and whether I like it here. When we finished, they wanted a group picture. They grabbed a guy from another group, and he took pictures of our group with just about everyone's phone. Can't wait to see these faces again next Friday:)

More on Fish and Poultry!

Haven't had any chicken since we've been here, and so today I asked one of the girls in the office to ask the cooker where would be a good place to buy chicken. They discussed a bit in Chinese between themselves, and then told me that I should go to the second floor of the market where I had seen the cooker buy fish. They informed me that it' a good place to buy a live chicken, and the vendor could help me kill it. What???? I was thinking boneless skinless!

Even though I have no intention of buying a chicken and getting help killing it, my curiosity and my camera lead me to the second floor of the market. Do you see a chicken here that you'd choose for dinner? Tonight  I informed Christine and Kynza that we will be sticking with pork, which has become our staple.

There is a small seafood restaurant next to the building where Christine works, and I walk by there every day and smile at the folks. Since I'm one of the very few non-Asians they see, they definitely notice me. Today I couldn't resist stopping with my camera, and they were very kind to me, and enjoyed watching the videos I took. The grandma sits out on the sidewalk cutting up greens for hours on end every day.

The young men kill, clean, and cook the fish... The kitchen opens onto the street, so I took all of these pictures just standing on the sidewalk.  The floor seems to be the proper place to kill a fish in this country! They first give him a bang of the head, then watch how they remove the scales while his tail's still flapping! 

And I love how they cook in these giant woks... 

I feel like I should have lunch at their restaurant some day if I'm going to continue to walk by and be friendly with them. sizzling in that giant wok should kill anything the fish might have picked up on the floor, shouldn't it? Will keep you posted.

Sunday in Xiamen - Church!

All week we looked forward to Sunday, when we could go to Xiamen International Christian Fellowship and get connected with some English-speaking Christians. Sweet Gina, from Christine's work called the church and helped us get directions on how to get there. She said she would like to come with us, and even though Chinese are not allowed to attend, she thought she could if she came with us. Between walking and taking the BRT (fast bus), it took us over an hour to get there. We counted bus stops to make sure we got off at the right one! Gina met is at the bus stop, and had already cased out exactly where the church was, and we did the 10 minute walk together. When we got there, we had to show our passports, and sadly, Gina was not allowed in. The church is registered with the local authorities, who require participants to be foreign passport holders or married to one. So Gina waited for us outside -- made me sad!


The service was delightful, and so fun to be with such an international mix of God's people! Quite a variety of music with just one guy at the piano and everyone very into singing and clapping. A few little medleys of songs that go way back! Good preaching (we think the preacher is Indian, but that's just a guess), and very friendly people. A couple people who recognized Kynza from school came and talked to us, and the people sitting around us were most welcoming. The actual church is on the third floor of this building.

We had lunch with Gina afterwards at a Chinese noodle restaurant. Was fun to be on Xiamen Island and see a different part of the city. And was fun to visit with Gina.

The church has what is called an English Corner on Friday night, and we are hoping to go to that, since it is very close to where we live. It's a place for Chinese people to practice their English. I actually met a man walking down the street who came up and started speaking to me because he wanted to practice his English, and found out he goes to this English Corner on Friday nights! His name is Steel. Should be fun.

Day 7 in Xiamen - The Beach

Finally it's Saturday! We are all so ready to kick back and have a restful day. A bit of retreat from everything Chinese... Pancakes for dinner was a hilight! Was a little tricky because the gas stove has a very hot flame that is suitable for a wok, but you can't really turn it down to the temp you'd want for pancakes! The very uneven cooking didn't stop us from enjoying them!

Just to get out a bit, Christine and I went for a walk to the beach. It's about a five minute walk from our apartment, and has a really lovely walkway and rocky coast. 

The main activity at this beach is searching for tiny crabs. I don't know if they eat them, or if they just do it for fun, since in my opinion the crabs are way too small for eating! People of all ages are enjoying Saturday at the beach!

 
 

There were a  group of about 4 older ladies sitting on the rocks, and they signaled me to come sit with them (at least I think that's what they were signalling!). They talked on and on to me, and I answered back, but actually understood absolutely nothing. This is the very friendly lady who sat next to me. I'm sure she has so many stories to tell. It's harder than I thought to be unable to get to know these people and share in their stories.

  This lovely 5-star hotel looks out onto the beach. It's a stark contrast to a lot of what we see, but also a beautiful oasis!




From the beach you can see both ends of this bridge that goes from Jimei, where we live, to Xiamen Island. It's beautiful and modern. If you take a closer look at the boats in front of the bridge, they  look like some type of rafts that people swim off of. Looks like fun!

Day 6 in Xiamen - The Cooker

When we first started talking about coming to China, Christine asked me what I might like to do with my days while she and Kynza were at work and at school. Thinking that it would be helpful if I could at least cook dinner for the three of us, I replied, "learn Chinese cooking." Well, Christine took that to heart, and arranged for me to come to her work and observe the woman who cooks lunch for all of the office workers (about 15 in all). She comes in every morning at 10:00, laden with groceries, and by 12 she has a first-class meal on the table. The office has a lovely kitchen for her to work in.

So today I started my three-month stint of observing "the cooker." I can't believe that I get to do this for three months. She's as sweet as can be, a bit shy, and speaks not one word of English. For some reason, everyone calls her the cooker, not the cook. The other gals in the office have all adopted Western names, and we address them by their western names. But the cooker only has a Chinese name, and so far no one has told me what it is. I'm sure they think it is beyond my Chinese skills to learn her name!

Every day she makes a big pot of soup (broth with some kind of vegetables),  a big rice cooker full of sticky rice, and four other meat, vegetable, fish, or tofu dishes. For my first day, it was pork with mushrooms, cucumber salad, squid with celery, and tofu with ground pork. Pork is big here!

The whole process is amazing. The cooker makes most everything with just a cutting board, a Chinese chefs knife, running water and a few plastic colanders used to rinse and clean continuously, a metal spatula, and a wok. The flame under the wok is gigantic.

 


This squid was first thrown in boiling water in the wok, and then drained, chopped, and back in hot oil in the wok with numerous cloves of chopped garlic.  Then out comes the squid and in goes a whole head of chopped celery, a bit of chopped carrot, and salt. Then the squid goes back in for the finishing touch.

The pork with mushrooms actually has more mushrooms than pork! A bit of sliced carrot, a couple hot red peppers, several cloves of garlic, and soy sauce. Delicious.

 I wish you could see how she pounded these cucumbers! They are the long, English cucumbers. She peeled them in one swoop from end to end, then pounded them with the chefs knife, presumably to knock the seeds loose. (A bit tricky when I can't ask what she's doing because of the language barrier!) It breaks them in half lengthwise, then she takes out a long strip of seeds that kind of just fall out, does a bit of cutting lengthwise so they are about in fourths, then chops them diagonally. The dressing is Chinese vinegar, sesame seed oil, several cloves of garlic and hot peppers that are first fried in the wok, a bit of chicken bouillon powder, and salt. Delicious! I think the sesame oil makes it!

Yes, garlic is in every dish. The stores all have packages with cloves ready for chopping like this. We used at least half this package in one meal!

Here's a little video of the cooker and her wok. She is so concentrated on what she's doing. Two very intense hours of chopping and woking! 

Day 5 in Xiamen - buying poultry, eggs, and fish

Whoo hoo -- It's Kynza's first day of school! Both Christine and I walk her to the bus stop -- a good 15 minute walk from the house. It's a school bus, with a bus monitor and assigned seats. It stops just where we thought it would stop, and she's off to a new world at Xiamen International Academy!

From the bus stop, I go off to the mall to see what I can uncover in the grocery store! Chicken legs, of course! Just over $1 a pound.... Or, for the same price, you can get chicken feet.

 

Buying eggs is a whole new experience. You get to choose! But apparently not all eggs are good eggs. Like this young woman, everyone shakes them, and then decides whether to put the egg in their bag or put it back in the pile. Most get put back in the pile. Some people hold them up to their ear when they shake them to listen for I don't know what. We're a bit afraid to buy eggs because we don't know what makes one good. We did buy some, made an omelet, and lived to tell the tale. But who knows...

The fish section was definitely my favorite. I was innocently standing in the aisle looking at these piles of fish. Watch this video to see what happened! It was most hilarious. He was killing the fish, who were flopping all over the floor, and then he went and gathered them all in a bag.

Days 3 and 4 in Xiamen - casing the neighborhood

Christine has been lovely about getting up early and making us each a little bowl of fresh fruit salad for breakfast. Love having a special time of eating breakfast together and praying for our day. When your days have as many unknowns as ours do, you don't forget that you're totally trusting in God's tender loving care! 

Tuesday was Christine's first day of work, so she was off to her office, which is about a 20 minute walk from home. Kynza had appointments both Tuesday and Wednesday to get enrolled in Xiamen International Academy and get placed in her classes. We got pretty good at taking taxis to and from the school, but we always have to have a Chinese speaker (someone from Christine's work or someone from the school) call the taxi for us, and we have to give the taxi driver the address written in Chinese. I have a copy of my Chinese address in my purse, my back pack, my wallet, my pocket -- just in case! It is very, very rare to meet anyone who speaks even few words of English, and highly unlikely for a taxi driver. 

On her last free afternoon before starting school, Kynza and I took our cameras out to do some exploring of the neighborhood. Here's what we found...

A view from out our kitchen window shows shops across the street. I'm still not sure exactly what they sell. Notice the circles of barbed wire along the top of the fence! We live in a gated residence, and there is always someone at the gate to let cars through. Jumping that fence could be pretty nasty!

Yale Nursery School is the view out of our living room window. It is part of our gated residence. I don't know a lot about the school yet, except that it seems to be open 7 days a week, and long days. 

The electronic billboard on the front of the building runs Chinese messages that I don't understand, but it also has this in English: Yale students today, international leaders tomorrow. Some day soon I'll go down and see if I can talk to someone there!

 When Kynza and I got outside of our gate, we hooked up with these three darling school girls who were having so much fun laughing and giggling at us. I don't think they have many chances to walk down this street with non-Asians, so just looking at us evokes all kinds of laughter. So hard not to be able to talk to them! They did say hello and bye bye, which is better than my Chinese.

 Seems like every other shop is a tea shop -- so fun! As you walk by there is someone sitting at the tea table, and  they invite you in to sample (or at least I think that's what was happening!). I nervously urged Kynza into this first one, and we sampled but didn't buy, because I didn't really know what or how to buy! They went through a very ornate pouring ceremony -- just for us. Oh my!

 By the second shop Kynza was all smiles as we tasted this woman's tea. Another ornate pouring ceremony. Absolutely no English. Not a word. I was having trouble saying I would like to buy some tea, but I didn't want a big fancy gift box and I just wanted a few dollars worth of tea. Finally another guy came in - maybe a family member --and sold me 50 RMB worth of tea -- about $8. It's delicious! I will be back there.


The shop owners all live in back of or over their shops, so all of the normal things people do in their homes take place in front of the shops... Like drying laundry right out on the main street. 

 Or cooking fish on a table in front of an art shop like this. It's sometimes a bit of a trick figuring out if people are okay with having their picture taken... Never quite sure if the sign language means yes or no. There are SO MANY incredible pictures to be taken, and of course I miss most of them because I'm not very quick. But so far so fun.