Chinese New Year

The vacation began with my friend Ben coming to Nanjing where we caught a train the next day together.  He arrived on Chinese New Years Eve.  We decided that we would try to find a tomb in the mountain here that is famous and ended up climbing to mountains instead.  It was a lot of fun but a  bad choice because we were going to be climbing for three days after that.  Here are some pictures from Chinese New Years Eve and climbing the mountain. Fun times!!!

 Dead from the mountain climbing!

 Fireworks were everywhere so awesome!!!! Love Chinese New Years!

 Matt and Megan!! Hot Pot on New Years Eve!

 Brains!!! YES WE TRIED IT

 So much food!

Dog in bar!! Dressed and ready to go out!

Hot Pot

I just got a new class from a my manager who is moving up so he is getting rid of his classes.  He has really friendly parents and they love to practice English.  They wanted to take us out to Dinner and so we agreed to go with them.  Me speaking no Chinese and Chinese being really interesting eaters while me preferring to eat like a five year old, I knew I was in for an adventure.

We got to dinner...a really nice Hot Pot place.  Hot Pot is a type of eating where they give you a pot of broth      divided into two sides spicy and not spicy.  You order food and it all goes into the pot at the same time and cooks and then you fish it out as it cooks.  So there we were with a few different families and they order the most interesting things squid tentacles, duck tongue, sea food sea food and more sea food.  I don't like sea food so it was an adventure tasting new things.  There was also a guy making noodles fresh for people. Noodle making is really neat and it is like a rope of noodles the guy was whirling the noodles all around our heads and his it was like ribbon dancing very awesome.  

During dinner Chinese drink a lot and they do a lot of cheer sing with little glasses of beer and when they cheers you you have to drink the whole cup at once.  Needless to say most Chinese guys don't walk out of dinner sober.  Thankfully for us they slowed down on the cheers and we all made it through dinner :)  

After Dinner they wanted to go to KTV...Private Kareokee.   Which is another adventure...when we go with   westerners it is usually a wild time of crazy singing and dancing.  When Chinese people go it is a serious thing they love to sing and show off their singing...and they can sing.  For us we can't sing so when they were wanting us to sing it was really embarrassing.  They also play a fun dice drinking game which was fun to learn with them.

The night was a success and adventure all in one!

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!