May 2, 2016

Dear Mom, and all who are reading this, Da jia hao! I survived another week. This one actually felt pretty easy. Since we had the field trip on Monday, it was really more like a four-day week. And, we all had a three-day weekend to look forward to. The kids in fourth and fifth grades love "Little Red Riding Hood". In Chinese, it's called "Xiao Hong Ma," or something, in case you ever wondered. In second and third grades I used pictures of one of their favorite things, Kung Fu Panda, to teach them action words. In first grade, I'm teaching them "inside" and "outside", but on Friday, we had extra time at the end of the lessons, so I taught them "Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree." It was great! They always get so excited when the crocodile snaps a monkey out of the tree. In one class we even had time to role-play it, and I learned which kids would sacrifice their friends to the hungry crocodile to stay alive longer. Hilarious! Then, at the end of the day I went home, and Amelia, Ellie, Lola, and I hung out together at our apartment and watched Lilo and Stitch. The next day we went to Mudu, the section of town where Rosie and Ali live, because Ali's birthday was on Thursday, and we had his birthday party. The plan was to hike to a pagoda in the Ancient Town, but we got a late start, so we couldn't. We did walk around a bit and look around, though. It's so nice! I finally found myself a Chinese bamboo flute, which I've been looking for since I got to China. There was a man selling them, and I almost bought one from him, because I thought he was saying "fourteen," bu he was actually saying "forty." ("Si shi," or "forty," and "shi si," or "fourteen," sound almost the same, and even Chinese people have trouble with that.) But there was a store that sold them for a lot cheaper. There were a lot of pretty things to see there, and it felt less tourist-y than Pingjian Road, where all the prices are insanely high. We walked through Little Hong Kong, which is really not all that exciting, and then went back to Ali's apartment, where he fed us pasta. They wanted to go to a KTV, but it was too late to do that and still catch the subway home. Sunday was testimony meeting. A lot of people were traveling for the holiday, and most of the Curtis family was sick with chicken pox, so we had a very small, intimate group. There were some awesome testimonies. We learned that the government may be making changes soon, so after this year, we may be able to share the gospel with our Chinese friends. That will be so wonderful! But, there will be some kind of catch, by the sound of it. I didn't understand completely, but it's very interesting news. I bore my testimony, and I talked about the same thing that we learned in Sunday school, which was about King Benjamin, so they kept referring to my testimony, which was interesting. Primary was also interesting. There was only one white kid, and Eve is pretty fluent in Chinese, so most of primary wasn't in English. It was fun, though. After church, the rest of the day was pretty boring. I went for a little walk in our park, just for the sake of getting out of the house. (Amelia was out, and it was lonely and boring.) There was a firework show in the distance, and I had a pretty good view of it. I could also see a few stars in the sky, which is a big deal here. I wanted to do something for the holiday today, so I sent a WeChat message to my Chinese friend, Owen, asking for a suggestion. He teaches English in Grade 6, and we're about the same age. He suggested we go to the Suzhou Museum together, and he would be my "guider," so we made plans to meet at Panli Lu Subway Station. He was waiting outside exit 4, and I actually went inside and bought a ticket, so we couldn't find each other for a long time. (I seriously need to top up my phone.) But, in the end, we had a really nice time. He showed me Shantong Street, which is another old-time China place. We went to the Suzhou Museum, but the line was monstrously huge, and we didn't want to wait two hours to go inside, so instead we went to the Lion Forest Garden and went for a boat ride. Lion Forest Garden was really fun. It's got a labyrinth of stones from Tai Hu, so it feels a bit like Indiana Jones. It was built by some monk several hundred years ago. We had to walk with a group to get on a bus to ride to the place with the boat rides. The tour guide on our boat talked in Chinese, so I have no idea what he said, except for when Owen translated the jokes. But, Owen said he learned a lot of things about Suzhou that he never knew, so I guess I was missing out. I think we were meant to go to another garden, but Owen had things to do, and we didn't have time, so we went back home. I'm now relaxing at home after the big adventure today. (I have many souvenirs, and a lot of them are for you at home.) I was very glad to get your email. It's so weird to think that at home it's snowing still, when it's getting so hot here. Although it does rain a lot, so I can relate with you on that. It sounds like Dad had a nice birthday party, or as nice as can be expected, anyway. I guess Keldyn would be old enough for tee ball now, wouldn't he? Time flies by so quickly! Thank you for praying for me. Please don't stop. I love you. Love, Chelsey<3 hpaich on