April 4, 2016

Dear everyone, As I've told you, today was Qingming Festival, so we had a lovely three day weekend. Although Friday was beautiful and sunny, Saturday and Sunday were wet and rainy, though personally, I thought it was beautiful, being from Nevada. I didn't even mind shopping in the street market and carrying all my groceries home, even though I was pretty soggy by the time I made it back. Sunday was pretty uneventful. I made it to church and back with no incidents. I have a calling. I'm the pianist in primary. (Saw that one coming from a mile away.) Amelia's been out all weekend, so I've had the apartment to myself. It's a good thing I have the TV, otherwise it would get really lonely here. Even though I have no idea what they're saying, and I can't get the remote to work to flip through channels, there's a couple of shows on in the evening that I kind of like watching. Today, as we had no school, a few of us went out on an adventure. Thankfully, the weather was nice and sunny again. There were only three of us, as a lot of other interns were either traveling or had friends in town, but I thought it was nice to have a smaller group. It was Julie (the only other American) and Amy and me. For once, the Americans outnumbered the English. We went to one of the famous Suzhou Gardens. The one we visited is called Ou Yuan, or "Couple's Retreat Garden." It was originally built long ago, so that a man and a woman could live a "harmonious life in seclusion" or something. It's one of the lesser known ones, but it's SO PRETTY!! There are lots of flowers and pretty things, and there were even a couple of old women playing stringed instruments and singing. I recognized the instrument called the pipa, but I don't know what the other one was called. We took tons of pictures. We wanted to get a group picture, and we found some Chinese people who were eager to have their pictures taken with us. So, we posed for several pictures with several Chinese people, and in return, they took a picture on Amy's camera for us. It was a good choice to visit that particular place today, because, as it's lesser known, there were fewer people there, which was good for a holiday weekend, and also, after April 15th, the ticket price raises. After the garden, we did some exploring in the surrounding park. We sat and had a picnic with the snacks that the students gave me in Baimajian, then walked along the river on the "Ancient Moatring Fitness Trail." We enjoyed the spring weather and the flowers and trees. We found a spot called Swan Lake, and saw some black and white swans. We came across a big sign that showed a map, and thought we might try and find the pagoda, but after a while decided it wasn't worth risking getting lost when Julie had to be back at the subway in time to catch her bus later. We did explore an intriguing food market for a couple minutes, though. As we walked back through the park, we found a spot with some kids' rides, like a mini-amusement park. We were a little tempted to ride the roller coaster, but decided against spending more money. Then, we made our way back to the subway station, which was a nice walk in itself. It was a pretty good day. Now, I have to think about going back to school tomorrow. Good thing I got my lesson planning done last week. Tomorrow is just a normal Tuesday of teaching. Man, I hope those kids are more cooperative than they were when I last had them. Oh, well. Best not worry about it till I have to. Anyway, I hope all is well at home. Mom, thanks for the email. Keep the news coming. I wish you the best. I love you all! Love, Chelsey*:x lovestruck hpaich on