Xiamen, China

We hit the ground running when we arrived in Xiamen on the 24th.  After getting settled in our hotel and getting cleaned up, we met our friends who work there down in the lobby.  Then we took a walk down to a street mall (a lot like the 16th Street mall in Denver) where thousands of people walked the streets shopping.  The masses of people made Bangladesh look less crowded (if you can imagine that).

V took us to some places for food after the kids had their fill of McDonalds.  We went into one place and you are literally shoulder-to-shoulder, pushing and shoving your way to the front where you can place your order.  She told us that was how the culture goes.  They are taught, “If there’s a space, there’s a space for ME.”  It took some getting used to but I found that by the time we left China we had figured the system out and were holding our own as we worked our way through the airports, etc.

We knew from our first few hours with our friends that this was going to be a fun-filled week with a lot of new adventures and good laughs.