the chinese chef

We have it from reliable sources that our blog is quite culinary, and focussed on western food. For the first part it's true, for the second it isn't. A clarification.

Chinese eat rice for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner, accompanied by all kinds of meat, fish and vegetables. During weekdays, we heve our lunch in a local cantine together with the kids and the translators. We couldn't think of a more typical chinese meal: we don't know what we eat, we use chopsticks, we slurp, we burp.

Monday, we thought we could handle a completely chinese day, and had our dinner at a beach restaurant. We picked out our fish in an aquarium and had it ten minutes later on our plates.

The next day, after our Carrefour adventure, Mathieu felt sick. Barbara, still in perfect shape, went jogging. In the meanwhile, Mathieu case worstened (afterwards there was no camenbert left anymore in his stomach) an when Barbara finally came back, she felt sick too.

She spended most of her birthday in the bathroom, and was very happy with the gifts she received from her brother: yakult and enterol.

Today we're starting to get cured, and made it our goal to travel by bus, we made a reservation for a flight tonight to shanghai, but we might have to cancel it if we have to give courses tomorrow.

update follows,

kisses from xiamen,

Mathieu and Barbara

any way the wind blows

The second day of our first sailing week is temporary also the last, because of a tyfoon that is on his way to Taiwan and will pass Xiamen tomorrow, but the aftereffects (strong wind) will last for 4 days.
It's a pity, because our 15 pupils only had two days to understand the basics of sailing.
Secondly, we can't cash the extra time and visit other corners of china (the planes don't take off) or explore Xiamen (everybody stays inside).

For the most interested among us, here's an update about the sailing camp.



Yesterday we let them choose another name and wrote it on their caps (see picture below of Mathieu with 'da boyzz'), we organised a paddle race and in the afternoon we (Mathieu & Barbara) gave a how-to-sail-'perfectly' demonstration while the children watched from the motorboat and eventually accompanied us one by one.



This morning we sent all the boats on the water and let the group sail around two marks but the wind dropped after lunch (literally 'quiet before the storm') so Mathieu gave a capsize demonstration and we took all the sailing gear and boats inside so that they wouldn't get damaged.









Remarkable about today: we ate bread (that tasted like bread) with the badest and most expensive camenbert we ever tried, all found in the carrefour(the camenbert was german). If cheese was like chicken paws we would be in heaven!


kind regards (and for Niko: stay high!!), to the others:


Barbara & Mathieu (who's lying sick on the bed)

I'm an alien, I'm a legal alien

…I'm a white stranger in Xiamen!

When we enter a shop, we’re followed by three or four saleswomen/men, people stare at us all the time or ask us if they can take pictures: locals seem to find white people extraordinary. This might sound strange, but even on the traditional tourist spots, we saw but Chinese people.

Today we planned to visit the famous University of Xiamen(left) and the Nanputuo temple(right) nearby. Earlier Pauline wrote about the beauty of the university, and she wasn’t lying, it was.

The discovery of the buddhist Nanputuo temple and the 10.000 rock botanical garden took us a much more time and effort (proof: Barbara’s face) than we had thought. But the result are these beautiful pictures (top and below).

After the laborious work we treated ourself to a nice steak with French fries which was accompanied by garlic bread, salade, minestrone soup, tea, water and red wine, preceded by spring rolls and a Cesar salad. Not only was it way to much, there was something odd about the timing as well(See facts)

So as promised, new facts:
1. Chinese supermarkets sell living toads (padden) per kilo (yes, to eat them, mjammie)

2. It’s forbidden at Xiamen University to play the trumpet

3. Chinese restaurants don’t understand the difference between appetizers and main dishes, they just serve everything all at once. Result: your ice cream isn’t ice cream anymore when you finish your steak

Tomorrow: first sailing classes!

Greets from China,

Babs en Thieu

what's on xiamen

Yesterday we already got a first impression of Xiamen, due to our hostesses, but after a good night's rest in our room-for-one-night we were ready to stand on our own feet. We helped Pauline and Evelien organising a race, the traditional end of a sailing week.

While they spent their last afternoon cleaning the boats, we started our quest for a digital camera, so you no longer only have to rely on our words anymore. Computer city made the choice very difficult: imagine the biggest mall in Belgium, multiply it by three and cram it with comuters, digital camera's and any electric device you can think of. Quite impressive.
At five o'clock we waved Pauline and Evelien goodbye and...went shopping.

Facts of the day:

1. All chinese women carry an umbrella while it never rains here. Martin (coach) gave us an explanation in the form of a chinese saying: 'beter een lelijke, dikke witte dan een mooie slanke bruine'.




2. There grows money in chinese trees. Explanation: we don't really have. We were standing next to a tree in the middle of the city when a man suddenly grabbed a bundle of money from between the branches.




3. you pay 4 euro for two big mac menus! Explanation: don't ask us.
   
   

Hope to see you tomorrow, with new facts!

Barbara and Mathieu

once upon a time in china

Our story begins where that of Evelien and Pauline ends. When our plane took off in Brussels, we had a long day to go: ten hours to Bejing, six hours in the Starbucks (playing cards - the famous 'stronten', roughely translated as 'shitting') and three hours to Xiamen.
Local time of arrival: 13 o'clock. We went directly to the Asian gulf hotel to drop our luggage. Afterwards our trip brought us to the sailing club, where Pauline and Evelien guided us around. This long day finally came to an end with a very nice dinner in a Chinese Italian restaurant.