XIAMEN and reality setting in...

***disclaimer*** apparently blogspot.com is somewhat limited in China and therefore I am able to post but unable to see any comments that are left. I would love to hear the comments if you would drop me an email and mikesudyk@gmail.com Also blog might be missing details due to editing for China standards.

Well it seems like we have been here for a week already, and maybe we have because my whole time frame is thrown off. Xiamen has been a bit of a surprise because it is a lot more modern than I had expected. I never would have thought it could be so similar to a big city in the states. One thing that is strikingly different is the amount of people, it is crazy everywhere you look you you are seeing tons of people! Well moving on. Saturday, being our first full day in China consisted of us sleeping in a bit then Kevin, my Dad and I headed into the office for a several hour meeting. I spent most of the time attempting to absorb all that was being said and to learn a thing or two about what Bill's (the guy I am living with this summer) company does, their current position, and consulting in general. It was very informative, a bit intimidating, and very cool to see my dad and cousin Kevin in their element doing the consulting thing. After about a couple hours of meeting (all the while I was trying to keep up and not really saying much at all) we headed out to a beach event that some folks from Texas that were hear chillin' with the Chinese and meeting people from Xiamen university. It was a good time, playing beach volleyball and some soccer, somewhat surreal that I was playing volleyball on the beach in China, and minus all the aisan people the beach front was similar to that of one in the states. Most of the Chinese we were playing with were from the university so they could speak some English. After the beach we got some food at a little hole in the wall place for dirt cheap, 6 people with drinks for $20, and we ate a ton of food. Today (sunday) we went to a international christian fellowship that is registered with the government but you needed to show a foreign passport to get in (part of the government regulation). Later in the day we all got massages. The massages were done by blind massage therapists, were 2 hours long, and only cost $13, it was amazing! Tomorrow is an early morning so I must end this post. So much has been going on its hard to try and sum it all up. I will try and post some more pictures and get a link to an online photo album, but I have been not taking my camera around the past two days, I figure I got all summer to take tons of pictures.