Fall Arrives in the Middle Kingdom

Because the only person in the world I'm competitive with is my sister, and she has managed to do a good job keeping up with her blog while in Ghana, it's time for me to post one again.

It's been nearly 6 weeks since I've last posted, and it's been a good few weeks. I enjoyed some time off after summer classes ended- sleeping in, seeing friends. My mom and Holmes arrived in Suzhou, which was great. Their stay in Suzhou was short but sweet, they got to meet some of my friends and see the famous Suzhou gardens in their peak, opposed to the bitter winter, when my mom last came.

We also traveled down to southern China, to Guilin and Yangshou, beautiful areas with unique mountains. We took a boat ride down the Li River, went for a bike ride in the country side and took a Chinese cooking class. We spent a day up in the rice terraces, which were really cool. You have to hike way up into the mountains to get to the hotels. This also means you have to pay teeny-tiny old ladies to carry your luggage on their backs. Imagine my Chazie or Grandma carrying a 30lb suitcase in a basket on her back up to the top of a mountain.

We also headed to Hong Kong, which I love. Being in Hong Kong for a few days is almost like being home for me. There is Western food, but unlike the Western food in Suzhou, it is actually good! I fool myself into thinking the familiar food in Suzhou is decent, but in reality it's a step down from eating at a Friendly's or a Bob Evans but is twice as expensive. But the food in Hong Kong is first class. And shopping is better too :).

I sadly had to say goodbye to them in Hong Kong, and I headed back to Suzhou. I worked two days, and then headed into the National Day holiday, which is about 7 days for Chinese people, but nearly 2 full weeks for me. I spent part of my holiday sick in bed with a cold, and the other half just getting my life back together after all the time off- cleaning, organizing, and going to the gym.

Next week I will begin my Chinese lessons. I'm doing 3 days a week of oral Chinese lessons with 3 friends, and then 2 days a week on my own with a different teacher to learn reading and writing. I am really looking forward to getting into it.I've been studying a lot on my own the last few weeks, but nothing beats having a teacher.

So a bit of randomness for the end:

Danny and I took his 88 year old grandmother and his father out to dinner for the Chinese National Day. She is in a wheelchair, and since most of China is not handicap accessible, she rarely gets out. We'd planned to take her to a Chinese restaurant, but the wait was too long, so we went to the restaurant next door- Mexican. His grandma had never had Western food before. We got fajitas, pizza, soup and quesidillas in the hope she could find something she liked. She hated the food but loved the experience, so it was worth it.

When I returned home from Hong Kong, I traveled by bus from Hong Kong back across the border into the mainland of China, because it is much cheaper to fly home from there. When I walked through Immigration into China, I was stopped, and they wanted to inspect my backpack. The only thing they wanted to look at were the books I had- a book about learning to write Chinese characters and another about astronauts (shocking, I know). They carefully looked them over, and finally gave them back. Weird China.

My friend Yang took me, Danny, Sharrif and his wife Ivy to an area just outside of Suzhou called Dongshan to see his uncle's farm. Sharrif and Ivy brought their newborn son Charlie, and apparently it is tradition to give a son a live chicken as a gift. So Yang's uncle gave Sharrif the biggest free-range chicken I have ever seen in my life. We tied it up and stuck it in the trunk of Yang's car, where it sat and pooped for the next few hours. When we arrived back in Suzhou, we brought the chicken to a shop in Sharrif's apartment complex to kill and clean it. The man killed the chicken, but refused to clean it. So we carried that stupid, bloody chicken to another shop, where a little old man spent the better part of an hour plucking and cleaning it. Sharrif said it tasted good, but after spending the day with the chicken, it was a little hard to choke down.

I love China more and more each day I'm here. Of course, there are days I am beyond frustrated. But really, it's great. So you should all move here immediately.

I will leave you with some pictures from the last few weeks.

Fall in China

Miss and love you all.

XOXO,
RDG