China Survival 101

I love to eat as most of you know. I had the most delicious sticky rice dumpling with peanuts and coconut inside that I have ever had a few mornings ago. It only cost 1 yen which is equivalent to like 13 cents. My foreign teacher liaison David says that you can easily gain a lot of weight your first few weeks in China as you discover all the good food. I had a sublime meal today with ginger rice, snowpeas (my favorite) bean sprout and baked tofu, lots of garlic, onion and more ginger which I concocted myself.


I know its been nearly a week since I arrived in Hainan and I haven't even finished unpacking. Who needs to unpack when we are so busy getting to know the town, the people and tidying the house itself which has been quite a nuisance since two Brit bachelors moved outt.
It is strange to "blend" in with the crowd so to speak. It is easy to pick out the other foreign teachers who are blonde and tall and white. I on the other hand am an anomaly only when I speak and am found to be American.


The mosquito plague has been momentarily averted by mosquito net, anti-mosquito plant and mosquito repellent air freshner. Apparently I have type 0 blood which is the kind they are most attracted to. They seem to leave type As and Bs alone.

Anyway, it rained lots yesterday, my first holy Sunday. Many of the teachers are devoted Christians and had service over at Anne and John Maher's. Afterwards, I joined them in an outing to the nicest hotel in town where we had lunch.

We have lots of new plants now thanks to Deanna who took me to the nursery. She is familiar with the owner Mr. Hong who in turn, gave me every fern or flower I complimented. Now the house feels more like home thanks to his incredible generosity.

so afraid of mosquitos

My body is covered with mosquito bites. I wake up wishing I was not my body. When I dream, it is rapid and intense. Yesterday, when taking a mid-afternoon nap, I dreamt that I found a door to another dimension that had a reality similar to our own, just slightly different. A child got lost in that dimension and I had to help the family find her. Then I became the second wife to some guy and was attending some kind of funeral service. In the dream, I realize I am looking at the future, at me walking three tall dusky gray greyhounds and leading my new family. Very strange. Itch, itch. They could be ticks. Or bed bugs. Or fleas too. I have little and big bites. From my travel photos you can never tell that I am suffering. Those are pictures of how much I am actually enjoying Hainan and its sweet, humble peoples. I have a lovely Canadian housemate whose been all around the world. She's the same age as my mother but feels and acts like a 21 year old. Next door is a wonderful family of James and Deanna Dick, who have five children, four of which live with them: James jr. 15 and loves basketball, Elizabeth who is affecitonedly called Liz, Jenai who is about to turn 9 and little Mihela who is about 2. The eldest, Beatrice is away beginning college in the states. James and Deanna are both from the south, I think the Carolinas and West Virginia but met in Eugene, Oregon where they raised the family before moving to China. The Dicks lived in Haikou for four years and now live in Wenchang. This will be their third year. Deanna and Liz took me out for coconut juice which can be served as a dessert soup from a local stand, with dates, peanuts, green peas, red beans, ice and other assorted toppings like taro. It is very nice and filling. There is a river than runs through town and divides it into two halves which revolve around a ciruclar road. Wenchang is not very large only spanning a couple of boulevards but feels much like a bustling town. There are many stores at the ground level of tall buildings. Everyone rides motorbikes and scooters, sometimes a family of four can be seen on a bike. It is amazing to watch the traffic that is unregulated by lights and not see a single crash.