Hikes, BBQs, and Tea tasting

A few days ago it was our 6 month wedding anniversary (hard to believe, but true), and we celebrated by going to a Brazilian BBQ place in Xiamen. The service was pretty good, but I don't know if it truly deserved the title of "Brazilian" BBQ...unless fishballs, cuttlefish, and pineapple are common things to bbq in Brazil =). Nevertheless, there was some good meat...some pork and lamb, though the beef was tough and stringy, unfortunately. I don't know what it is with Xiamen, but they just don't tend to have very good beef. Maybe because it's an island? I haven't seen any cows around...

Anyway, although we did enjoy the Brazilian restaurant, our appetite for beef was not yet sated, so we decided to have a BBQ on our own to celebrate Easter Sunday. We set up our little bbq on our friend's balcony (we wanted to do it on the roof but it was too windy and dark). After a couple hours of trying to light the smoky Chinese charcoal (it seriously seemed to have fire-retardant properties), we finally got it going, and were able to roast a nice piece of steak and some chicken kabobs. Some experimenting on my part turned up some homemade honey-garlic bbq sauce, and we had quite a nice dinner with a few of our coworkers!

So that was our Easter Sunday...we also went to the morning service on the beach at the international fellowship, and enjoyed chatting with some of the young people there over brunch. I really think every service should be on the beach if the weather permits...it was so much nicer.

In other news, we have taken advantage of the nice weather to hike a few of the trails in the hills around our apartment. On one such occasion, we hiked up a nicely maintained trail and inadvertently snuck into the Botanical Gardens through a back path without paying the 40RMB entrance fee. The Xiamen Botanical Gardens are HUGE, and quite nicely maintained...they have lovely garbage cans in the shape of cartoon characters, just to match the natural scenery. Apparently some of our friends have been caught before while trying to sneak in, but I suppose since it was a Thursday, security was a bit lax.

On another so-called "mountain" we hiked up, we found a great spot where you can view pretty much the whole island from the top of a small pagoda. It would be a great place to bring visitors (hint hint come visit us) to show them what Xiamen looks like as a whole.

Last bit of news...we went again to Gulangyu island (a cute island just off Xiamen where motor vehicles are banned...except for electric people movers which play annoying Disneyland music...it is China after all), and had fun observing "bride beach". Literally dozens of brides and grooms go there on any given day to take their wedding pictures. I'll get Chris to post a pic of it. We also did a tea tasting and bought a Minnan tea set. "Minnan" is the term for the local people here, who speak Minnan dialect, and they all love to spend their afternoons imbibing tea from these miniature little tea sets. There is a whole ritual involved: you have to rinse the tea once, warm the tea cups by pouring hot water over them, then add more hot water to the tea pot. Once steeped, you use the lid to remove any bubbles, and pour the tea into a small jug, where you can observe the consistency of the tea as your pour it out into the tiny cups. Each cup is scarcely larger than a thimble, but the emphasis is on enjoying the fragrance and taste of the tea. You really can taste a huge difference between different grades of tea. And as impractical as the little tea sets are, EVERYONE here has them. Even the little street side restaurants have a little folding table out for the staff to enjoy their mini cups of tea in the afternoon.

Oh finally, one more thing! This is kind of weird! Chris and I were invited to a free lunch at a 5-star hotel. Yeah I know, no such thing as a free lunch right? Turns out, they were filming a promotional video and wanted some white people to be in it! Hmm...guess I didn't really qualify, but I got to go anyway and have a free buffet lunch. It was a little strange to be having lunch while a cameraman is filming over your shoulder, but it was certainly interesting. Apparently the fact of being foreign entitles you to 5-star treatment in China. Of course, being Chinese-Canadian, I get kind of in a huff when people treat Chris like a star, and me like a nobody. Sometimes I bring Chris to do stuff with me (go shopping, order a coffee, get photocopies done) simply because we get such better service when he is with me. *Shrug* I tell myself I am privileged to get the "insider" treatment (on my good days at least...on my bad days I'm complainin' with the best of 'em!). Okay that was long, but that's it for now!