Xiamen: we'll sleep when we're dead

Our families have been reminding us that we haven't updated our blog in forever (its been just over a month since our last update). It's not that we haven't had a lack of interesting things going on in our lives. No, quite the contrary, we've had altogether too much filling our time since about October. I must say, I'm not complaining about being busy. It's been very nice to be involved in lots of great things.

Back to the update... In October, one of our besties, Matt and Caroline moved back to the States from China. We hadn't been to Xiamen to visit them, and we decided to fly up the weekend before they left. The Kleins know how to party hard, and this week, they did not disappoint. We took advantage of every waking moment, and also moments where we probably should have been sleeping. We had a blast.


Xiamen is a pretty standard Chinese city by American standards. But to the Chinese, it's a major tourist destination, we're not quite sure why. Same markets, same noodle shops, same high rises, same smoggy air, same children urinating in the streets, same ladies shoving you from behind while waiting in line. On the plus side, they had Matt and Caroline, which was the entire reason we were there. It was a nice place, but I probably wouldn't recommend going there just to "see the sights". Don't get me wrong, there are a few things worth seeing, and we had a fabulous time going to each one. We visited a tourist island with shops, houses, and a "beach". We did a couple of hikes with views of the city. We were initiated into the "Asian Club" when we sang at KTV (karaoke). We had more delicious food in 72 hrs than I had eaten in the previous week, most of which was fried in oil. Matt's work threw them a gigantic going away party and we ate for about 4 hours straight! Above all, we had such a good time hanging out with Matt and Caroline, and all their Lifetime friends.

At the outdoor market, selling everything from live chickens to turtles, and every kind of produce you can imagine

Would you like some duck for dinner?

 

Turtles, eels, snakes... all your favorite dinner entrees

Famous blue crab, it's REALLY blue

On the ferry ride to Gulanyu, the tourist island

The shops in Gulanyu. We shopped for all kinds of great chinese stuff: pearls, scarfs, paintings, etc.

Large statue of some Chinese general at Gulanyu

Hike to the big rock in the middle of Gulanyu, great view Xiamen

Another angle from the rock

At the beach on Gulanyu. Tons of Asians...not one toe in the water (granted, I didn't want to know what was IN the water)

It's not a party without KTV!

Since Matt, Caroline and I were the "musical ones", we got to do most of the singing

Nanputuo Temple in Xiamen

This was a Chinese rendition of ski ball,  you were supposed to throw coins and make it in the holes. The higher you got, the more luck you'd get.

Look, we climbed onto this rock!

Photo taken by a nice Asian, in return for the favor, he wanted a picture with us.

A huge dinner party with a oddly delicious mix of very Chinese and very American foods. We had dumplings and cumin beef followed by sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.

We were really sad to say goodbye to them, it's been fun to have a "China buddy". Even though we weren't living in the same city, I loved having SLC friends that were in our same time zone. It was also nice that someone from home understood what we were experiencing, and could empathize on "bad china days".  We'll sure miss them. Plenty more updates to come, we'll keep blogging if you keep reading! Love and miss you all.