Amoy Wanderings

The last few months, I have been relatively silent for many reasons, not the least of which is all the changes in our lives which seem very insignificant when compared with the issues many of you have been facing in the States. The COVID crisis seems largely to have passed, which is what benefits the political situation here, although there are significant monitoring policies still in place. In our previous city, Xiamen, students have been allowed to return to their universities for the new school year, but they have been locked on campus and must apply for permission to leave campus. Over the most recent break (which should have been at least a week long) the students merely given a long weekend vacation which was designed to prevent them from returning home and bringing the virus back with them. In our current situation, we are merely facing occasional mask requirements and a few health code checks, though that may also be because we are living in a much more rural setting. As to...

After three years in Xiamen (Amoy), we are moving on to another school and another city, BASIS International School in Huizhou, China. So, I thought I would close our chapter in Xiamen with a collection of some of my favorite photos of Xiamen. It has been a very memorable time and we are sad to leave, but we are very excited for what awaits us. I am dedicating this video to my classmate and lifelong friend, Kyle Liedtke, who passed away this year. All the music in the video comes from his album Longing. Though the video is a little long (about 26 minutes) I hope it is worth the length. And please feel free to leave a comment and to follow my blog. For the full size video, go to Remembering Xiamen

"Wuhan jiayou! Zhongguo jiayou!" A commonly heard refrain of encouragement for Wuhand and China in the fight against COVID-19. Life has settled in to the new normal for us now. We basically are housebound, going out for walks usually in the evening (always with our masks on) but generally feeling like we are on a staycation without the fun aspect of a vacation. We are able to get the food we need and have stocked up a bit just in case food gets scarce, but for now it doesn’t look like we will be facing any shortages. The real challenge right now comes with the future. How bad is the virus really? How long will this last? When will school begin again? When will life return to normal? What will that normal look like? And this provides us a look into the cultural window of living in China.  So, as it stands, all schools are shut down by order of the government, and schools will reopen when the government deems it safe. Then, they will give us a one-week notice...