Hey everyone!
Sorry we haven't posted in a while. We're really good at it for about 48 hours, then not so good for a week or two. I'll try to be more regular but that will probably never happen....
So this last week was full of wonderful events! Monday was a very happy day for me. I went shopping with a Chinese lady named Lily. She's so cute! She is a very bad person to go shopping with because she tells me to buy everything! Not what I need, I can do that without anyone's help. But with that in my head, I kinda go crazy.... On this last shopping trip I bought 6 pairs of shoes. Yep you heard me, 6! 2 pairs of shoes I bought for 10RMB each. That equals about $1.75 US. I paid $10US for one pair and the other three were from $3.00-$6.00 US. Yep shopping here is pretty great!
This is almost everything I've bought while I've been here!
Tuesday was just an average day.
Wednesday, we went to a Portuguese/Macau restaurant for Larry's, another foreign teacher, birthday. The school has money and likes to show it off. Not only was the cake very similar to a wedding cake, but the party was held in the VIP Lounge! I've never been to a VIP lounge, so I have nothing to compare it to, but the Chinese know how to make you feel special! The food was great, the night was wonderful, everything was perfect. A great start to our week! Here's a peek at the menu.
Mmmm, slobber eggplant!
Thursday I taught at the Primary school and I was teaching the children "Tall and Small". I taught them the song "Once there was a snowman". Once they got the song down I would call two students to the front of the class room. Usually a bigger student, and a tiny student. The weight of a 2nd grader in this school ranges from 30LBS to 100LBS. The smaller kids I'd lift into the air on the "tall tall tall" part and I'd point to the kid on the ground for the "small small small" part. One time, after we had sang the song 6 or 7 times, I choose the smallest kid I could find, and the biggest kid. The small kid weighed less than my niece Jacqui. So he felt like he was a 3 or 4 year old rather than an 8 year old. The SUPER fat kid ran, or quickly waddled, to the front of the room and belly slide onto the floor. I thought it was so funny because he saw the other kid I picked and he knew there was no way he'd be lifted into the air. I almost peed my pants because I was laughing so hard. First at his waddling, then how he just knew he was to big. I and the other 2 teachers in the room we're laughing so hard, we were all crying! I don't think I ever stopped laughing fully until I left that room. The atmosphere in that room was just electric! Everyone was happy, everyone was milling, everyone was happy. It's moments like that, that I realize just how lucky we are to be here. It's seeing the students blearing, having fun and growing. I love China. I love my students. I love teaching them. I love being a rock star here. I love all the presents I get from my younger students. I love the hugs I get. I wouldn't trade any of this for the things we sacrificed to be here!
Another thing I'm so thankful Jared and I have to be here is the food. Some places you go it's quite strange. Others, well I'm going to miss not having real Chinese food, because American Chinese food sucks, I hardly ever ate it before I came here and I'm sure I'll eat it even less when I come back! On Saturday Gail, another foreign teacher, took us to "Water Banquet" Luoyang is famous for their soups. I don't know why because they don't taste very good, but to a Chinese person if you want good soup come here. So we went to a restaurant, ate some excellent food. Tried some not very good soups, and saw a Chinese wedding. I never saw the groom, but the bride was a midget! She looked pretty, but I couldn't get over she was a midget. For some reason it didn't occur to me that a midget could be anything but a white person, just because I've only seen a handful of them and they all happened to be white. That's what you get for mostly staying in Idaho and Utah. So I think we're getting a little cultured here:)
On Easter Sunday, Jared and I went to a wedding, we were actually invited to! The bride is a English teacher at our school, and she married someone in the army. It was very different from an American wedding. They had pump up music before the groom came out. The had and MC for the whole show. There were strobe lights and other crazy light things going on. It was very entertaining. Once the couple was on the stage things became a little more calm and it was very romantic. The groom had a video for the bride of him making her a giant banquet of flowers, I don't know what was said in the video, but you don't need to know a language when to know something is beautiful. The whole room was full of sobs and sniffs. I started crying, and Jared even enjoyed it. After the ceremony was done we started eating. The bride and groom came around to every table to make a toast.
Pretty different right?
In China, the Bride changes at least once, usually twice. So during the toasters she wore a very elegant, earful plum dress, with matching accessories. When we left we saw her in a prom dress looking red and gold dress. It was amazing! She looked so beautiful! I loved the Chinese wedding!
With all the happiness and love a wedding could bring, I was still sad on Easter. I had Jared, but I got a small glimpse of what a Missionary goes through. That's a big holiday and I didn't have the people I'm us to sharing it with around me. Homesickness was strong, but I had 2 even stronger arms around me to help me not be sad anymore!:) have I mentioned lately what a great husband I have? Well if I haven't.... He's the best!
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It looks like Leslie summed up our week pretty well, so I'll keep it brief. This week is a holiday in China, so no classes! We decided to take a week trip to go see the "Terracota Army" in the city of Xi'an (Google it if you have never heard of it. I hadn't, but it is suppossed to be one of China's highlights). Tommorrow we will take our first train ride of China (7 hours) and then will spend a few days exploring the city. We booked a hotel right in the middle of downtown, so we are eagerly anticipating enriching day trips to see some of the cities rich historical areas as well as kicking back to enjoy some exciting nightlife when the sun goes down :) We will update with pictures and stories next week when we get back to Luoyang. We also finalized our Thailand trip for the beggining May. We are stoked about a week and a half on the beach! Life is so great right now. Every day is a new adventure and I am so happy to have my best friend with me here to share this adventure with every step of the way :) SHE is the best wife in the world!
