Looking through someone else's eyes (i.e., their photos) really gives you an idea of how far you've acclimatised - so many things I thought were strange at the start of my stay in China, now barely register as odd.
Grandie and Poppie visited us in Xiamen in June 2010 - yes, last year! We really enjoyed seeing them and were pleased to hear that they found their Wendy Wu tour to be excellent (they toured China first with a group then broke off at the end to visit us) - so much so that they are thinking of touring with Wendy Wu in 2011 to a different Asian country.
This is typically how your tour guide will have you identify them - with a flag (or some object) flying from a car antenna -- well it looks like a car antenna. (It must be important information - Mum's in "The Thinker" pose.)
They took in the Beijing hutongs in something smaller than the tour bus.
They arrived in Xiamen at night (Mummy met them their first night at the airport to get them to their hotel) so it wasn't until the following afternoon that Alex knew they were actually here - they met her off the schoolbus.
Storytime during that week was more exciting than usual.
They enjoyed being dragged around campus by Sebastien Brett.
While Alex spent the day at school, we toured the Botanic Gardens together - getting a close-up look at some old tanks and planes.
Later in the week we took Alex out of school for the day and took a tour of the Hakka houses - missile-silo-shaped dwellings of the Hakka minority people. Yes, these dwellings were apparently mistaken for missile silos by the US satelites overhead back in the 1960s.
We took them to see Gulangyu (we can see it from our balcony but decided to brave the crowds anyway) and Alex and Sebastien were very excited because they were finally able to take a ride on the electric touriset car around the island. We saw some very bad wax impressions including Princess Diana, Mao, and Hitler - interestingly the business had changed its name to Celebrity World from Madame Tussaud's since we were last on the island...
One outcome of their visit is that Alex is absolutely, 100% sure that she now wants to live in a hotel. And not just on any old floor, on the top floor. After all, hotels are fun!
However before we knew it, the week was up. We sadly said goodbye to Grandie and Poppie - until our next visit to Australia.
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