Hainan

Hainan was awesome. I flew solo and didn't take many photos because I was too busy soaking in the sunshine and making new friends. The first photo is me at "The End of the Earth" (the symbol means "love") and the second photo is me fishing in the South China Sea. Now that I'm back in the real world, my brain is occupied with how I am supposed to interview all of my students by the end of next week...so an excerpt from my journal, where I was describing the scene:

The amateurs are wearing matching Hawaiian print outfits: shirts, shorts, beach hat. It is so cute. They gleefully race towards the water and strike creative poses for the camera. Wife! Take a picture of me trying to do handstand! Now, pretending to drown! Look at meeee! Anything goes. They haven't forgotten how to play. There is absolutely no limit to their self-expression. A 50-something year old digs a hole and triumphantly sits in it. The old ladies dance like little girls, screaming when the waves hit their calves, holding hands. Foreigners are easy to spot, they are either too fat, too hairy, or too "cool." The Chinese people bring grocery bags to the water to wrap their feet in after they've washed them clean. Ingenious! The grandma/mom/toddler I've been watching trek back to their towel to suck on a straw that is stuck inside a watermelon. Strangers sit next to each other and laugh together. Hugging each others children.

I think I'm falling in love with China.