Sept 14 2013

9/14/13

Like Katie’s been saying over and over for the last few hours- Best Saturday in Guiyang yet! So this was the day, as Yoyo and Nicole have been reminding us all week, we would spend time with Nancy and her family!

We’d supposed it would just be a few hours, and we also tried to not look too casual, so we wore something we would wear to teach in. Both of us had odd dreams so we were up a bit early, eating yogurt and watching the older women in the courtyard performing Tai Chi. We finally got dressed and headed out for a day we had no idea how to really prepare for!

For once we were actually early, so we took a minute to sit down before we saw Greg & Abby who had remembered to bring a gift. [Huge in their culture here], and they were sweet enough to add our names to it! Seriously, they rock.

Yoyo was there, she would be coming with us. So we exited the school and found two cars waiting for us, instead of the school van we thought we would ride over in. Her parents were there, very sweet, and Nicole welcomed us over. We climbed into the cars, Katie and I with Yoyo and Wendy’s Father. Super nice BMW with padding over the seats. Driving through more of town, we’re only barely beginning to understand how big and beautiful Guiyang really is. It’s spectacular! They’re building SO many buildings at the moment, and you can still see all of the mountains and hills. Just amazing!

We soon reached the park… which is so much more than a park. Part of it’s literally a club, basically. Resort style club, I mean. Oh, driving through, they had pinwheels hung up in the air everywhere. It was adorable, and it made me feel very childish and very happy! It just really lightens the spirit.

We reached the spot, apparently, and climbed out and headed inside to play badminton. They had a ton of courts…. It was 10, I think, smaller tennis courts inside the large gym room. And man these people are good at it! I thought I was okay… yeah, folks, it definitely takes a while to get back into the swing of everything [haha, get it?].  But Katie and I were laughing through it all.

We eventually got a few hits going, but we definitely looked bad compared to Nancy’s parents! They looked pro! And by the way, Nancy’s mother is beautiful. She has that calm, happy aura that she’s making the best of her life and loving it- she’s such a sweetheart! That family is awesome, I swear, but I’ll get into that more later on.

Abby with Greg and Katie and I, the four of us switched on and off a few times until we finally played against each other, but all of us were totally sweating and I was pretty darn dehydrated so we finally stopped after an hour or so, worn out. It had been so much fun, though! We had a blast, and it was fun watching Nancy goof around a lot.

Once we were finally finished, we headed out to the cars to put our gear away. That was where the mother gave Nancy gifts to give to us, and she worked on her English saying that for us [super cute!], and they gave us Chinese music! Katie and I couldn’t believe it. We’ve had no idea where to look to get any, nor how to judge what kind we even want. And they just gave us 3 discs each filled with Chinese music! That was the one hard part of the day: not being able to open them and listen to them

[Ehm. Guess what we’re listening to right now!!]

We switched out the gear and grabbed some food, and then headed down the hill to start finding a place to go eat. The father had a friend who owned one of the old houses [can’t live in them, but you can… do stuff], and so we went to hunt that down. It took a while of walking, but we honestly didn’t mind. There was greenery EVERYWHERE. Katie says it was just like Hawaii, except the latter has more flowers. Which I don’t mind, I love the green variety here.

And there’s a river through it, too! It was so beautiful, it was my idea of paradise. I can’t even explain  the beauty of this creation, the greenery in the trees and on the ground. Stepping stones through some parts of the river, adding character, and wooden posts and sidewalks to stroll on, filled with cheerful families. Trees hanging over with their green leaves, bamboo growing all over, with the occasional white or pink flower to just add to the overall harmony. OH and Katie spotted these deep, deep purple flowers rising into the clouds, they were spectacular. I can’t remember what they looked like… almost in the shape of some large lily flowers, I think? Oh, this was just beautiful.

We loved it so much.

After a very, very enjoyable stroll [China definitely gets you in shape], we eventually reached the house and they brought out the food for us. They tried to talk us into wine, but we declined. I also think they didn’t want to open it without us, so they were never opened which made me feel bad. Not bad enough to set aside my morals, but bad all the same.

The food was interesting. They started out with just meat for us. There were strips of beef, chopped up chicken with a foot and a beak somewhere, then tiny chicken wings [not like the States. Nothing like the states. Nothing], which didn’t really taste good and I think I was the only one who tried. However I could NOT get myself to eat the chicken feet sitting right in front of me. The bone was sticking out, and the claws were still in. I WILL taste it before I leave China, I swear- but this time I just didn’t have it  in me, and… chickened out!

Greg tried it, though. Said it wasn’t too bad, but very tricky to eat and super rubbery.

We ate some of that, along with some grapefruit and oranges. OH! And they gave us small bowls of Guiyang’s famous dish. Len mien? That’s what Katie said! She loved it. The sauce wasn’t my favorite, but it was still pretty enjoyable! A lot of fun to eat, to be honest. It’s name means “cold noodles.” They mash rice and make large thick strips of noodles to add, which is cool. But they did top it with the numbing peppers, which Katie and I deftly avoided this time around. Oh, and it added what looked like pink hickama [sp?]. But it’s not! And it’s spicy! I didn’t like that. But it had sprouts and other normal noodles. So the sauce was a little wonky, but it was a ton of fun to eat and Katie loved it. Also it had dried soy beans! Guess who found a healthy bean she can handle? This girl! It made me really happy, guys, because normal beans like black and refried really can make me hurl, and I can’t stop it. But those were pretty tasty! And it’s definitely one of Katie’s new favorite dishes! Woohoo!

She’s been pretty impressed with my adaption with everything, which made me really happy to know I’m not messing anything up or being tough with her. Because let’s face it since I faced it forever ago, but I would NOT be doing any of this without Katie Barnes. Here in China, this lady is pretty much my rock. I have realized as long as I get close to handling what she can, then I’m doing good! We’ve talked about this before, because we have awesome conversations, and we’re pretty awesome for each other!

Speaking of conversations, after journaling last night, we started reading our scriptures as usual [because we are awesome!], and we were almost done when I brought something up and that led into a three hour conversation of so many different things that took us from her bed to the couch to finish it up, and it’s probably been one of the best conversations we’ve had as friends, ever.

Anyways, we finished eating up, and then we went to check out the house behind us. Two stories, made of wood. All of the doors are higher up so you really have to lift up your feet to get over the threshold. This house really was beautiful, as we looked around- and the family had set up a calligraphy table set for us! They brought out a huge sheet of paper, chose the nicer paint brush and put out the black ink.

Katie and I definitely felt pretty lame with most of them writing in Chinese- and Nancy’s mother is such an expert with that paintbrush! Writing Chinese AND while drawing bamboo- she made a simple plant look so beautiful, I couldn’t believe it! We all wrote our names in one language or another, and that was super cool [except for my lame signature], then we tried drawing a bit. I tried a cat- because I’ve done this art before, even though it was at least ten years ago- anyways that really didn’t work out but some other artwork was fun. We left it to dry and checked out the upstairs. There’s a pretty balcony where we took some fun pictures, and then there’s these two fancy bamboo rocking chairs which were super nice to relax in!

Greg found a card set so we headed back to the lunch table, cleared it a little bit, and started playing a few games. We played war, and then they showed us a few games. One was a lot like War- you start putting out one card at a time and once there’s two of a kind, you get to take all the cards that match and are in the middle. Then there was a really confusing one, and though we played about five times, we were never very clear about the rules! There were some aspects of BS to it, but also kind of like Uno? I don’t even know. But Nancy’s father was there to help Katie and I out, so we won a few times! Haha so that was a blast. It’s name translates into something like ‘Everyone is watching.’

It was about that time that Nancy’s father’s friend and his wife came around, and took a ton of pictures of us. They also really liked Katie’s nose [and her eyes?], so they’re going to send Yoyo some of the pictures to give to Katie. That was pretty funny, but we’re getting pretty good at ignoring all the cameras so that’s good.

We began to clean up finally, and then Nancy brought out all of the artwork to give to us! How sweet! Greg and Abby can have one, Katie and I get one, and there’s the third we can put in our office! It’s perfect, and we can’t wait to put them up! Everything got cleaned up and we said goodbye to the sweet couple we never really knew, and headed off back into the beautiful landscape.

The bathrooms were nice though dark, and we continued on our lovely walk. This time it was a lot shorter- I think this time they actually knew where they were going, and the two guys let us sit down as they brought the cars down to us. It was Nancy’s father driving along with… a family friend? An uncle? We’re not that sure, unfortunately. But he seemed nice enough!

By this time, it was already 3 PM. So crazy! We had done so much, but time was just flying us by! It was insane how fast time was getting away from us, even a little ridiculous. But we really enjoyed it, and that family is just the sweetest!

So we left the park [goodbye pretty pinwheels], and headed off to their family home! I know, they were taking us into their home for the evening, I couldn’t believe it. They really were spoiling us, it was ridiculous how good to us they were. Randomly, on the way there, we realized our seat warmers were on… which was pretty lame, because we were still a bit hot from being outside, and so the A/C didn’t even effect us because the seat warmers were on! But we were able to take it in stride and secretly laugh about it.

The city, though! Beautiful! We parked, and then walked across the street into what looks kind of ghetto, to be honest, but the family does pretty well so it must not be as ghetto for them as it would be for us [as in I probably wouldn’t go by those buildings], but it was pretty awesome! We climbed a few stairs, and were welcomed into their home.

Oh, and they had extra shoes to give us to wear in the house! Most Chinese do that still, I suppose. Which is awesome! Anyways, we sat around for a little while. It’s just a little bigger than our place from what I saw, but there were already about 8 people there besides us four guests. But it was pretty awesome- I loved their house! All the windows kinda look like window seats but there are bars around all of them, and people use it to store stuff, like they had their broom and some plants there. Pretty cool!

After visiting for a little, they let us up and we started making dumplings! Well, the mixes were already done, we just needed to roll the dough and close them up like potstickers. But we learned to do it! It took me the longest to figure out how to make it look super awesome, but I eventually got the hang of it [Katie may or may not have had to explain and show me a few times], and then it got to be a ton of fun! Took a while, but it was pretty cool.

After that, we sat back down as the food cooked. We watched part of a girl’s volleyball team on their large television for a bit, and they showed us their instruments. I don’t remember what it was called, but it was about five times the size of a lap harp thing, that sits like a piano and you wear special picks wrapped around three of your fingers for it. Nancy performed for us, which was pretty cool.

I tried to pluck something on the guitar, but now literally everything has left me and I have no idea anymore, though I had some fun on their drum! Nancy’s older sister Jessica hung out with us as well- she speaks just a little English, but we still had a fun time! They gave us some fruit to enjoy, along with some red date yogurt that Katie could NOT get enough of. We had some of a white grapefruit thing, as well as a persimmon! Which none of us had ever had before, and it’s kind of like cantaloupe and pretty awesome!

We watched Nancy and Jessica try some Lemonheads [that was hilarious!], and then we taught them hand games, like the slap version of Rock-Paper-Scissors [please remind me never to play against Katie again- somehow she always wins! And that hurts], Hanky Pank [????], and thumb wars. We got an intense thumb war going on- about six of us doing it, crossing arms and such with each other. Pretty awesome!

Nancy’s mother even came over, and since she won we decided that she should perform for us, so she pulled out the guitar and played a song for us! She even sang! That women was so talented, and so sweet. She picked up some English words that we taught her very well, and that made her twice as enduring. Already one of my favorite Chinese people….

Finally the food was ready! And man, was there food. There were cucumber slices with a sourish sesame seed paste- Nancy pulled that for me so I had to eat it. Not too bad! I eat cucumber now, apparently, because I ended up eating about 5 slices more after that. Including one dipped in their chili sauce which was a very bad idea! Haha. Katie had possibly up to 30 dumblings [they’re half the size of average American potstickers], and I know I downed at least 10 if not more. They had some more beef, as well as soy beans, and this pig meat… It’s like half fat/skin and then the actual meat is charred or something? Not burned, I guess, but looks like it… anyways, the school has put it out a bit but I never eat fat. Except Yoyo kept pressuring us to try some because it was Nancy’s mother’s famous dish, so of course I had to try.

I kind of got used to the fat with the other meat, and the flavoring was very good! I was pretty impressed, and ended up eating more of that as well! At the end there was this yam and corn soup thing that we were all served. It was pretty odd, but I could have downed it… If I wasn’t so stuffed! Okay, I definitely had more than 10 dumplings. Maybe 20? They had some with meat and the other with chives. Of course I prefer the meat, but the chives were pretty swell also!

They had also given us coke cans with straws, which was fun but neither Katie nor I could finish the drink either. We were so stuffed, we couldn’t get up for a bit- until they started cleaning things up, and that’s when we tried to be of service.

It’s so cute and funny the way the Chinese work with hospitality. We try and once in a while actually get to help out. Katie got a dish almost to the kitchen before they took it from her. Also we’d walked with the meat and fruit on the way up, and we had fought for that. They totally got the bag from me on the way down which made me feel so lame! But they are so sweet, refusing to let us do anything even though we’d be more than willing to clean all those dishes and more.

We played around and talked a little more. Katie and I told Nancy’s mom it was the best Saturday we’ve had in Guiyang yet, which made her so happy that she hugged us. Then Nancy’s grandmother came around. She’s so adorable! I could never tell if her eyes were open or not. She was in a red t-shirt and what looked like shortish green plaid boxers. Pretty silly but so adorable! She grabbed Katie and I into a tight hug, and then kept a hold on Katie as she called for Yoyo to come translate and let us know that she really really liked us and really approved of us! She was so precious! They were so kind to us. Yoyo translated that we’re welcome again and maybe sometime they can come to our place!

Not sure about how the latter would work, but Katie’s hopeful!

Speak of the devil, she wants me to remind on two points: the volleyball between the Iraqi and Chinese. The Iraqi were pretty good but their defense was terrible and that’s why they were losing so terribly, just saying. That, and the yogurt! She was so in love with it, I don’t even understand. I didn’t finish mine so we traded cups when she finished hers. And then Abby and Greg hadn’t finished theirs after making dumplings so she downed those as well!

Reminding me, we got another flavored milk drink when we bought all those snacks! Huge thing… it’s kind of apple-ish and it’s not bad as long as there’s no other taste lingering in your mouth- like first thing in the morning, it’s pretty good! After weird crackers, not so smart, basically.

Anyways, it was finally time to go and by then, we almost didn’t want to leave that awesome family! The quiet wandering grandfather who can’t hear and just sits on those bright colored stools smoking, the random aunt and random dude in the kitchen, the other guy who told me I could put more meat in my dumplings, Nancy and Jessica, and their awesome sweet parents! We felt at home and completely welcomed! Nancy’s mother is so sweet, I tried to let her sit on the couch with me and she just smiled and sat on the arm. They’re really stubborn but the sweetness hides it pretty well, folks!

We all stuffed into a car with the random guy [seriously, we don’t know if he’s related to them or getting paid or something], and head home. Didn’t take as long as we thought… but yeah, we got home, and have been checking out our music and have spent at least an hour writing in our journals/blogs about this INCREDIBLE day. If every day of my life was something like this… wow.  I don’t even know if I’d be able to handle the greatness.

From all that action I’m probably going to be sore in the morning, actually. Especially because Katie and I also turned on some music and did some stretching this morning- we’d done it last night as well and we really like adding that to our daily routines!

Plus, Katie had this exercise thing in her class and the book said to find out how high the kids can kick… and they can really kick! Like, knee to the head kind of kick, she kids you not. So we want to get a wee bit more flexible and not let those tiny loveable twerps beat us too much, haha!

Such a wonderful day overall, I still can’t believe it. Still feels a bit like a dream, it was almost too good to be true. The family was so sweet, and though we didn’t plan on it taking so long, we wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on anything of the time or activities with this great family.