Yangzhou

This weekend I went back with my assistant teacher to her home town to meet her parents.  She is from Yangzhou.  It is about an hour away by bus from Nanjing. Jojo's city is a smaller city.  Not many high rise buildings and only a few million people. :)  Her parents speak no English, so the weekend was already an adventure.  We arrived at her home town in time for dinner.  Those of you that know me, know that I am a bit of a plain eater, so I knew this weekend would be a bit scary for me as far as food went because I am usually picky about what I eat and I have found many ways that meat in China is prepared does not work well with me.

So anyways we met her parents at the bus station and they drove us to a Chinese style dishes restaurant.  It is customary in a Chinese restaurant for everyone to order a dish and it goes in the middle of the table on a lazy Susan and then you share it.  This is fine but me being not so great with chop sticks was a little embarrassed to use them in front of her parents.

The first dish was the lotus root.  This was interesting cause it was in slices that were covered in a sauce which made it very hard to pick up and immediately I failed at the chopsticks so her parents got me a fork.  So sweet.  We also had freshwater shrimp which I don't normally eat fish but for fear of offending I tried it and it was pretty good.  Then there was a noodle dish with veggies, a veggies fried rice, a whole fish fried in Ketchup which was again an experiment for me because I don't eat fish....it was surprisingly really good and this delightful duck dish that you dip duck in bbq like sauce and put it in a wrap...yummmy and I think that was it.  I made it through dinner and ended up liking every dish I tried...I was so surprised but it was really good.

At dinner Jojo's parents were very curious about me and asked her lots of questions, it was really fun because they had lots of questions about America.  Like about prices of stuff how much we get paid.  And other questions about Florida.

After dinner we went back to their apartment. It was so nice to be in a home for once after 8 months of being away from my home it was so nice to be in a home with parents there.  Her parents got me coke and much to their shock I wanted it cold so they made it cold.  Her mom had lots of snacks for us that night and then the next morning cooked us lunch. This was my first time having Chinese food that was cooked at home.  It was good it was beef noodles.  They always had a coke ready for me though apparently they were worried because they don't think cold drinks are good for you :) Very common in China.

Wednesday we went to a famous garden in their town.  Jojo hadn't been there in forever so she forgot how big it was.  We spent hours walking around the park.  There was a famous bridge there that was called five pavilion bridge.   Jojo has never been out to a park or an attraction with a foreigner so she has never really seen what happens when people see foreigners that don't see them all the time.  We got to the bridge and a girl was coming down the stairs... all of sudden she kinda squealed and giggled and said in Chinese foreign person.  Jojo said at first she didn't know why the girl was excited she thought the girl knew me and then she realized she was excited because she saw a foreigner.  The girl of course asked Jojo to ask me if I would take a photo with her.  Which of course I agreed.  I still wonder what people do with all the photos they take of us.  Jojo thought it was really funny that the girl wanted a photo with me.  After that we wandered the park and then met her parents for dinner.

This time we went for Western food and we got Pizza and pasta and other good foods.  Then we went and met some of Jojo's friends at their work and again no one spoke English :).  Then we went to the river and Jojo's dad explained that the river in their town goes through several different big cities and is man made.  I thought that was cool.  We also went to an old street where they have lots of little shops. And I got some cute things for my neices.  Jojo's Dad was full of facts about the street and about a lot of the stuff in the shops.  He was excited to tell us about it.

After that we went back home and just relaxed I took in the last few hours of being in a home and having parents around me.  It is funny I wanted so bad to move out but sometimes all you want is to be in a house with parents.  It is somehow comforting and relaxing.

okay so it is said that in Ancient China people would sit in a certain order.  The two chairs in front would host the guest of a house...like a child's aunt and uncle and then their kids would sit behind them.

This morning we were running late to go back to Nanjing and the only bus we could get was at 12 and that would make us late to work.  There are always people outside the bus station asking to take you to Nanjing.  So we took the risk and went with them they are self employed taxi drivers.  They put four people in a car and for 50 rmb take you to Nanjing.  So we road in the car and got back to Nanjing in time :)

China nights

Well it is safe to say that if you are living in China you are a bit strange...def. me included. But I have to say that is always what makes for the most interesting conversations.  I swear everyone's favorite question to ask is how you ended up in China...everyone always has the most fun answers.  But these weird people are truly what makes for a great time in China.  Everyone has a story.  Everyone has new experiences... People's past  and people's stories always make for the most entertaining nights.   China is truly a place for individuals. For people that don't fit the cookie cutter mold that is so often forced upon people.

I meet the coolest people here and they are unique in their own way.  Tonight I had the opportunity to go out for a quiet night out.  We went to dinner and then a friend and I went to another restaurant bar and just hung out for a bit with some people there...it is so fun just to talk to new people and here their stories.  They always have crazy funny experiences to share.

After we left this place Blue Sky we walked down to a place we go all the time called Jimmy's.  It is an American owner and we are there quite often.  We went tonight and it was a quieter night there were the regulars there and then there was this table of people that were having a fight.  We got to witness classic drunk moments which are my favorite.  The girls were crying and the guys were trying to sort it out.

They ended up leaving except for a gay guy and a girl who ended up in a fight and before we knew it we were betting one which person would leave first.  It was just so fun to watch...and not be involved. in the drama...  I won 40 rmb tonight because I bet the girl would leave first and she did.

It is dumb little things like tonight that really make my time in China special.  I love that here little things make a huge impact.  Hanging out with friends and making little bets while people watching make for such great memories.


Tomorrow I go home with my assistant teacher to her hometown for the weekend.  I am so excited to hang out and get to meet her parents...more to come along with photos of the fun event!

Beijing Christmas

This Christmas was a different kind of Christmas for sure.  I wasn't able to be home for Christmas so my friend Brandon and I decided to spend Christmas in Beijing.    

I just have to add this side note in that it is very weird to be in a place that does not celebrate Christmas.  It is hard to get excited about Christmas because there is no Christmas buzz. No last min. shopping.  No children giddy because of Santa coming.  No elf on the shelf.  There are Christmas decorations everywhere and Christmas trees everywhere but they seemed to have missed the concept of Christmas.  To them it is a fun Foreigner holiday that they can decorate for and that is about it.  

It was a busy two days but it was well worth it.    We went to Forbidden City.  That was an interesting experience. It is fun to be able to say I did it but like many people told me it isn't really anything too special.  

I think that some of the reason it is so famous is because people that are visiting China get to see real Chinese architecture. It is very pretty and very cool to see but it is very much like a temple or any other Chinese architecture.  

Christmas night we went back to the area and took photos it was really neat to see at night too.

Beijing is very very cold right now. It stays well below freezing all the time.  It was neat to see snow and ice everywhere.  We decided for Christmas dinner we would eat Burger King because it was there and because I wanted to eat  something a little more American.  

The next day we went to the Great Wall. This is where the real adventure began.  My friend Brandon is a bit of an adventurer he likes to try to find off the beaten path places to go...so he decided that we just had to go to this one part of the wall that not many tourist go to and then we could walk over to the tourist spot.  I agreed to this not knowing what I had just gotten myself into.  By agreeing to this it meant that I got to walk up a mountain for the better part of three hours that was covered in Ice and snow all the while wearing the wrong shoes and slipping every five seconds spending most of the three hours either on my butt or on my stomach.   Brandon wearing some cheap shoes was completely fine and didn't slip once.  We finally get to the top of the mountain and to the wall...brandon only surviving my annoyance and anger from falling up the mountain because I couldn't catch him.  We finally get to the top and what do we find tourist that had walked over to this spot....less than excited to see tourist at this point seeing as we skipped the cable cars and walked up a mountain to this super secret spot only to find tourist....I asked out of curiousty where they had gotten on the Great Wall at. well low and behold they had used the cable cars and walked over from 8 watch towers over....had I not slipped five seconds after I tried to kill Brandon he would have been dead for making me climb the ice covered mountain.  

Well we started climbing the stairs and the Great Wall to get to the highest point and everything on the Great Wall was covered in Ice.  It was the scariest few hours of my life cause I kept thinking I was gonna slip down really steep stairs.  We made it to the top and the view was beautiful.  We then realized sun was setting and we had to get off the Great Wall before the chair lift closed.  We barely made it slipping and sliding the whole way down on the ice covered wall but we made it last people off the wall and managed not to kill each other the whole trip :)