It's good. Life is good here in Xiamen. We are making a fraction of what we were making in Shanghai, but we feel like it is worth it. We've got a beautiful view of tree-covered mountains from our window (which we have yet to hike, but we probably should before it gets too hot), as well as a view of the local neighbourhood in all its ramshackle, noisy glory.
Life here is a bit more relaxed. We have a lot more time to study Chinese and (for Chris) to pursue his photography hobby. I've gotten a Chinese tutor (a student at the university) to meet with me once a week to keep me on track, and I'm doing pretty well with my goal of a lesson a week from my textbook.
We've been trying to cook at home most of the time, primarily to avoid the mounds of MSG dumped in every meal we eat out =p, and I've been challenged to make a lot of baked goods I never would have if necessity didn't prompt me. We have a little Midea toaster oven which is sufficient for making small portions of muffins, banana bread, cornbread, brownies, and cakes. With our limited resources, I'm forced to make them all from scratch, and I get such a feeling of achievement when something turns out right, and it's made from nothing more than some flour, oil, milk and eggs...and a few other things. It's like a miracle! Whoever invented baking was a genius! There are a few imported items we have at our disposal - pasta, tortilla shells, olive oil, a few varieties of cheese...but that is pretty much the extent of our western ingredients! We are growing herbs in some planter boxes for when we run out of the dried ones I brought from home. It's kind of a simpler life without all the pre-packaged processed foods we buy at home.
I DO miss all the good restaurants in Toronto though. I didn't realize before what a food mecca Toronto is, with so many authentic, reasonably priced restaurants! It really makes you miss things like real bread, bagels, beef, fresh pasta and authentic ethnic foods =p.
Anyway, Mr and Mrs Waffles are doing well. Mrs Waffles had a bald spot under her eye which has since filled in...yay! Today they took a bath in their water dish and they were flinging water everywhere as they dried their sodden, feathery little bodies. Now they are playing with a toilet paper roll. They are so cute!
Oh yes, one other thing. Yesterday Chris bought a little 50 RMB barbeque from Carrefour, and we put a bunch of things on skewers and tried to barbeque them on our balcony. Unfortunately, the Chinese charcoal smoked like a chimney, and our neighbours called security! Nothing much came of it - Chris pretended (well not really) not to understand anything, said sorry a bunch of times, and everybody laughed it off. I guess it wasn't the best footing for our first meeting with our neighbours, but oh well. Just another little adventure in the Middle Kingdom =).
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2 comments:
Xiamen? That's pretty close to HK.
It looks like both of you are enjoying the living in Xiamen, while you're doing training in Chinese/Mandarin and Chris is teaching English at a local university.
I didn't even know that Chris wanted to be a professional photographer like Jon/Phil/Alfred/Terry back in TO. I just hope that he will keep taking photos to improve his photography skills.
I think that it would be nice if Chris learns chinese as well, so that he can use this language to communicate with other chinese people, especially his students at University.
I wish that if there's time, maybe I might come to Xiamen to visit both of you. I doubt that this is going to happen since I just got employed in HK and I really need to build a living on my own. To be honest, my wages was pretty low at this moment and lots of companies had been cutting people due to great depression.
I guess that the only chance that I get to see both of you is the next time when you both come to HK.
Anyways, enjoy your time in Xiamen, Ms. Brown.
Xiamen? aww, i miss the east...
sounds like you guys are in a new adventure! the birds are cute, btw. haha "love birds"
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