Our First Anniversary + A New City!

Ni Hao! And Happy Anniversary to us! 

I cannot believe it's been an entire year since Alex and I got married but when I stop to think about all we've done this year I guess it feels more like 2! We didn't have a chance to celebrate too much today since we got moved to a new city in China and had to pack our things and drive north on the mainland 3 hours to Fuzhou. This is the capital of the Fujian Province and much bigger than Xiamen was. It's also a bit colder here, 45-60 degrees for the next couple months. I think we explored Xiamen pretty thoroughly so I'm excited to be here where there is much more to see and do. This city dates back to 5000 BC, so I think there will be more interesting culture here with less of a touristy feel than Xiamen had. But, with the touristy feel goes the clean open sidewalks too, so there will be some trade-offs. To celebrate our anniversary we splurged on a fancy hot springs spa in Xiamen last weekend. They had about 30 different hot springs pools of different temperatures and infused with different ingredients like fruits and teas. We also got an essential oil body scrub and traditional Chinese massage. The best part of the whole day was our fish spa experience which you kinda have to see to believe. These little fishes swarm you and snack on the dead top layer of your skin....and it tickles, a lot! It seems pretty gross, I know, but hey its a cool story to tell now :) 

We also visited Gulangyu Island off the south west corner of Xiamen Island. The ferry ride over there was actually a nightmare. The Chinese don't exactly like to wait in lines so waiting for tickets and getting on and off the boat was very frustrating because they all just elbowed and pushed their way through the crowd. To us this seems extremely rude but to them it's totally normal. Not much to see on the island, we went on a polluted day so we didn't hike up to the highest point because there wouldn't have been a view but this is what it looks like- Sunlight Rock. 
The beach was nice though! Hulishan Fortress was my last tourist trap stop before leaving Xiamen. The fortress was built during the Ming dynasty to defend the island and has the largest rear loading, coastal cannon in existence today which looks like this-

We are a little sad to be spending the holidays in China, but that's the deal so we're making the best of it. Nothing would have topped last Christmas anyways :) We even sent out Christmas cards from China! It was a little expensive so only a few people got them but this was our Christmas picture! 

Merry Christmas! 

xoxo, Jenna

Shopping, Gardens, and Temple Seeing in Xiamen

Ni Hao! 

Alex and I have been told not to dilly dally on our touristy things here in Xiamen since we will probably be here closer to one month than three. So last week we did some shopping and sight seeing and tomorrow we're going to attempt to travel over to mainland China for a hot springs spa experience (clapping hands in excitement)! 

The main shopping area is on a famous street called Zhongshan Pedestrian Street. There are tons of department stores, shops, and restaurants along here. There isn't a lot of fun market style shopping that China is known for though, it's very similar to shopping in America. 

 Even though nobody speaks English all the stores are playing Christmas music in English and selling Christmas trees! I had to buy this little mini one to make our hotel feel more like home for the holidays :)

 We explored Wanshi Botanical Gardens over the weekend which was really pretty and huge. I love all the palm trees! 

I enjoy going to the park by the river to read so I can get out of the hotel and a couple days ago I noticed this woman, Judy, taking pictures of me with her phone. At first I was thinking how rude! But when she saw me catch her she smiled and sat down with me, told me all the English words she knew, read a couple pages of my book, and then continued with her selfie taking (with my sunglasses), this time with my knowledge haha. She was such a sweet person and was just really interested in why I was so far away from home. My nonverbal communication could use some work though...my airplane gestures made her think Alex was a fisherman instead of an airplane guy :-/ 

My most recent adventure was to see the Nanputuo Buddhist Temple which was built into the surrounding mountains in the Tang era. I got lucky and witnessed a ceremony of some sort going on.

The Chinese are big on carving stuff into rocks I have gathered. 

 I'm a little sad we won't be here for Chinese New Year which is February 19th. because I've heard these cool lanterns are all over the place and there are tons of parties. 

Thanks for reading my blog :) 

xoxo, Jenna

Adventure Number Two: Xiamen, China!

Ni Hao!

After a little more than a month bouncing around between Seattle, Michigan, Canada, and Dallas, Alex and I have unpacked in Xiamen, China for 1-3 ish months! It's a small island about 10 miles across right off the coast of southeast China. We're staying at the Westin which is so super fancy I feel strange walking around in shorts and a tee shirt (oh yes, shorts! It's 75-80 degrees here!). A couple things I am excited about:

• Free gelato in the lounge, every. single. day. 
• Really awesome fitness center complete with a yoga studio that I will have to visit frequently because of the gelato.
• Going to the beach :)
• Hiking! There are some small mountains/ really big hills here to hike with temples and other cool stuff at the top. 
• Christmas shopping China style. Alex is our designated bargainer.

And a few things I am not so excited about:

• Communicating solely with hand gestures and google translate. I was spoiled in Bangkok where most people knew enough English to get by and Thai was relatively easy to learn the basic words. Not the case here, everyone speaks Mandarin and Mandarin only.
• Eating Chinese food for Thanksgiving and possibly Christmas :( I'm on the lookout for a western style restaurant with mashed potatoes! 
• Everyone staring at me...creepy! The locals don't see many westerners around here so when they do apparently they feel the need to take a mental picture and openly gawk at me. 
• Pollution. Anyone who doesn't believe that we're ruining the planet should visit China. No wonder lung cancer is on the rise here! I was pretty surprised the first morning to look out and see all the smog since this is just a small island, but it does clear up a lot as the day goes on. This was taken around 7am. 

But the good news is the skyline is really pretty at night!

There's a river that goes through the island and a really pretty walking path we found next to it. I'm loving all the palm trees and flowers around here.

We also took a taxi over to the beach which has a great 10 km walking/biking path. You can rent tandem bikes along here...pictures to come hehe ;-)

One of Alex's coworkers told me he loves Asia so much because you just never know what you're going to see, and that guy was right! Here's a random Mickey Mouse on the beach!

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and don't forget to eat extra mashed potatoes, and turkey, and gravy, and corn casserole, and now I'm hungry! I'm thankful for you :)

xoxo, Jenna

Koh Samed

Sawadee Kha!

How did Alex and I spend our last two weekends in Thailand? On Koh Samed Island! We took a  2.5 hour drive south and then hired a speed boat to take us to the island both weekends. It was just as awesome as an island off the coast of Thailand sounds :) Here are some pictures to prove it!

This was our first hut. Not on the sand but pretty close.

There were ladies walking around selling coconuts, fried chicken, and papaya salad!

The beach was full of jelly fish...kind of weird. This one was HUGE!

The beach had dogs too! This was my favorite one Khun Jon! He wouldn't eat our leftovers though so we were a little confused.

At night there was a fire throwing show and a guy selling Chinese lanterns!

So that was really cool. So cool that we decided to go back and stay in this hut! On the sand this time!

This was our view :) We opened the windows at night and could hear the waves while we laid sleepless on the hardest bed ever made.

We were really amazed at how much time people spend taking selfies on vacation. There were couples busy taking selfies for hours without stopping. So, we tried to make peace signs and pick our noses in the background as much as possible :) And then we took one of our own.

The kids in the hut next to ours made this sand art...a house with hearts and jelly fish everywhere :)

And that's it for Thailand! We had a blast and learned a lot of Thai words we'll never use again. It's kind of bittersweet to be flying back to Seattle in the morning but we can't wait to eat a lot of American food and see our friends and family! We are flying to Michigan on October 22nd and Alex is staying until the 27th but I'm staying until November 4th.

Bye Thailand!

xoxo, Jenna

Temples, Temples, Everywhere

Sawatdee Kah!!

This week I set out to find the famous Reclining Buddha inside Wat Po, and got more than I bargained for! There were TONS of temples. Hard to believe our Thailand adventure (honeymoon #2) is almost over but these are probably the last temples I'll explore here. We officially booked tickets to Seattle October 14th! We leave at 6 AM and arrive at 8 AM short trip haha...not!

This is when I realized wearing capri pants was a terrible idea. I think it was 100 degrees outside. Mr. Reclining Buddha was HUGE! Hard to get a good picture because he was so enormous! 

So that was the main attraction, but surrounding Wat Po I took all the rest of these-

See what I mean about my outfit? You have to cover your knees and shoulders but the better strategy is to wear your short shorts and bring a little scarf to tie around when you go into a temple. Next time.

I guess there are ashes under all these Buddhas of whole families, they just keep adding them. 

 I was admiring this guy's winged eyeliner...mine is never that even haha!

I liked this rustic temple area and I want the tiles for my kitchen...or storage unit I guess :)

Can anyone tell I miss Coco? I snap a picture of every kitty I see! We're hoping to get a MI trip in before our next assignment to cuddle with her...and see you guys too!

Okay if you guys are as sick of seeing temple pictures as Alex is then you can breathe a sigh of relief, I'm done! They are just so pretty! We over heard a tour guide teaching some tourists about the teachings of Buddhism and apparently there's only 5 rules- No killing, no stealing, no cheating, no drinking or doing drugs, and my favorite explanation- one wife one love! And then the guide admitted that the last 2 are particularly hard for Thai people....nobody is perfect he says haha!

We are off to Koh Samed to lay on the beach and sleep in a beach hut yay!! 

xoxo, Jenna