Naked Turtles

When I was a kid, I remember being told that if you dug far enough into the ground, you would reach China. As I am now many years older and can realize the truth yet impossible nature of that experience, the thoughts of digging a hole to America come to mind at times. In no means do I dislike my experiences here or have feelings of homesickness, I just truly miss one aspect of life….convenience. We are spoiled individuals in multiple ways, and life in China has taught me so much about it. We really need to work for things here, right down to eating. The once a month treat of filling Chinese food and using chopsticks is a daily thing. Yes, the food is different, but chopsticks are a ton of work that we don’t realize when we dine at P.F. Chang’s and Panda Express. Some things we take for granted (aka conveniences) are things that we struggle with daily. These include protecting ourselves from foreign germs every second, access to internet, familiar foods, understanding of languages, and all those things we call “home.” Sometimes a simple taco, cheese, milk, and chips would be really nice. You really learn about yourself when you are put in such situations for a long period of time….meaning months.
Sunday marks the start of a two week count down until our trek through Xi’an, Beijing and Shanghai. As much as I am extremely excited, I am also going to miss aspects of Xiamen. Besides the summer, I hardly have the luxury of running up the beach on a daily basis….the California students who are with me getting that all the time which must be nice. The past week or so has taught me so much about Chinese culture. At first, some of these things just seem ridiculous or instill anger in my heart, some blow my mind and others just leave me in a confused state. When I reflect on all these situations, I can only shake my head and realize that it is part of daily life here, and truly interesting. Here are some of those experiences that just make you wonder…
• Sitting on the bus or in a restaurant and see a friendly cock roach running across the table…For me….this was an absolute first, however it is life here. Now I realize why I take my shoes off when I enter my dorm room….
• I go for my run, see kids peeing in the streets, smashed roaches in the road, poop chilling on the curb, workers trimming the flowers and trees perfectly, a Bentley and a Masarati passing BMW’s and Mercedes on the road, and men in suits getting on the buses.
• Beautiful Beach homes emptied out with cameras and odd devices affixed to the roof with a guard sitting at the front door and government postings surrounding the building
• Walking in a Wal-mart and seeing a wet seafood market in the middle……While gazing at all the products, the sight of shell-less turtles catch my eye, especially one crawling out of the box….all I can think of saying is “Qing Wen (Let me please ask…) get your turtle!” Within seconds of being amazed by that, I was graced with chicken feet sprawled across my feet from a box that was dropped 10 feet away shooting frozen chicken feet all over the place
As always, there are many more things that I could add to my ever ending list of incredible events. I often get to laugh at many of these experiences, especially ones like the Wal-mart experience, and try to understand why things are the way they are. There is one conclusion I have come to understand, and that is that there are two worlds co-existing and living amongst themselves. China is a developing nation living amongst the developed with the constant influence of the western world intertwined. It is a concept hard to understand unless you live within it. I see these things that are much different than the life I am used to existing with a life that is much more advanced than I have seen. These are the two worlds that I see existing amongst each other.
On an incredible note, this past week has been eventful with National Day which is actually an 8 day vacation as well as the Autumn Moon Festival. We have spent a lot of time hanging out with Chinese friends who have guided us through Chinese culture and have given us an incredible tour of Xiamen. ZhongShanLu is what I consider the “downtown of Xiamen,” and happened to be our romping ground for the weekend. I found the street to be filled with authentic Chinese shops, modern shopping plazas, bootleg DVD stores, restaurants, and street vendors. We ate Sea worms….gross, we tried some “famous” Chinese soup…which was drug through the sea of people, across the gross floor, and dumped into a basin, and we went into this cd store, winked and asked to see DVD’s…..and then immediately we were brought out of the store, down an ally and into an apartment filled floor to ceiling with DVD’s. Aaron and I call this our nights out on the town, and they sure are eventful.
It is hard to believe that the first week of October is over, and I cannot believe how fast time is flying by. As a Zambian friend of mine says… “That is Life.”

Life is what we make of it, so I am going to try to make mine….an incredible life.