Here we are at midday on Tuesday -- working hard as you can see, with our friend Gary, the visiting prof from Syracuse anticipating what is rumored to be the best American food in Xiamen, at a new place along the island ring road.

There was plenty of outdoor beach ambiance to the place, including this little guy. We are experiencing what can only be classified as an insect "bloom" here -- overnight the heat and humidity have exploded the insect population and affected our lives..more on that in a minute.

First we must celebrate the arrival at our table of not only real hamburgers not made with preformed patties, actual burritos with sour cream....just when we thought it could not get any better...chili cheese fries. I mean we are talking not just about American food here, but almost Detroit Coney Island chili cheese fries -- except the cheese was too high quality for Coney Island. Above you see the happy sabbatical professor..and below another happy professor while teaching abroad! Could it be the beer with lunch?!?!?!?



If you are ever in Xiamen and need real American cuisine (at real American prices by the way) -- here is the place. I told my classmates about it and they are all psyched..

OK -- now the lizard. With the increased population of our apartment on an insect level (although no cockroaches yet, thank heavens, just ants, mosquitoes and for 2 days dozens of moth pupa crawling around) it stands to reason that a predator might find its way in as well, in the form of the house gecko. He took up residence in the sink one morning and we have taken to him and are allowing him to roam freely, provided he 1) eats bugs 2) stays in the kitchen 3) stays out of the bedrooms 4) does not run across my toes while I do the dishes. Helen has named him Wushu (like the martial art?!?) and although she has been warned that a free roaming gecko is not likely to make a long term commitment to us, she has rushed home from school to see him the past 2 days (oh yes -- he is still here after 2 days -- he sleeps in a quiet corner in the day time and does his roaming at night) and has made him a water cup out of the lid of the toothpaste tube. It think she misses the cats.

This picture is here because this is a very cute child, don't you agree?!?! Still working on the "V" sign, though..we are killing time waiting for Helen's bus, which one of us does with Sophia every day because her school gets to at 4:30 and Helen's bus doesn't arrive until 5. It is Sophia's daily public appearance on campus -- she does get tired of the attention sometimes and declares "Why is that lady LOOKING at me?!"

Finally..the haircut. Over the last week Xiamen has become a very hot, but especially humid place. We have A/C at home and in my classroom (not Michael's or the kids though) which helps. But it is hot and we are all slowing into the tropical rhythm of slowing down in the heat of the day and expecting rain every afternoon. Then Thomas agreed to have haircut...now you know its gotta be hot. We started cutting and just couldn't stop. Here he is at dinner tonight...

And at bedtime with his head a lot lighter! Now you know it must be hot for T. to give up his beloved long hair. Or I guess he decided it was time for a change. By the way he wanted me to wait to post this until he had time to email Uncle Dave and see if his uncle would give him $5 if he got his hair cut.


The blog is celebrating its 10,000th visit this week. Wow! Lots of loyal readers from family and friends and some new "e-friends" too! If you make a comment and want a personal reply -- include your email address if I do not have it. I do not need to post the comments if they contain personal info.

Please continue to hold the people of China and Sichuan province in your thoughts. The death toll form the earthquake, not to mention the injured and homeless, is staggering. And there is some political trouble brewing over the fact that so many of the buildings which collapsed were schools. Some grieving parents have begun protesting quite angrily in the hardest hit areas, contending that officials knew that some schools were unsafe-- a serious allegation which will hopefully be taken seriously and investigated.