June 20, 2016

Yep, I get to be a tourist now. I thought I was going to be stuck at school for all of this week, but today Miss Huang informed me that I don't have to be there. Of course, I still have to clean out my office and take care of things. And, whatever I do, I have to tell her where I'm going and be safe and stuff, so the school won't be held responsible if I get hurt or whatever. (Shouldn't be a problem. China is pretty safe.) I will probably still find excuses to go back to school, because I want to see the kids as much as possible before I leave and never see them again in this life. I love talking to them in the hall. Today a little boy was pretending to be a zombie and he tried to eat my brain. I bet no one tries to eat the other teachers' brains. I'm kind of special. I WILL MISS THEM SO MUCH!!

This next Sunday is my last week in the Suzhou branch. That makes me really sad, too. This Sunday I will get to go to relief society. That will be so weird. The one time I went to relief society in China was the day that I was in and out because I was talking to President Okeson because I was new in the branch. Other than that, I haven't been to relief society since. . . August last year? Wow. Who will play the piano in primary? I hope it's someone better than me.

Although I'm sad to be leaving China, I'm excited to see Natty, too. And, I will tell her all about silly Chinese kids, and the Monkey King, and whatever else. And, please make her write me an email. I would love to hear from her. If the boys wrote me an email, that would also be awesome. But, I know it's also not realistic to expect that much.

Yes, I have enough to make it home. I also have enough to make it through the last couple of weeks, and finish off my Suzhou bucket list, at least mostly. I might not get to see a panda. But, I'm also not in Western China, so even if I do see one, it won't be the same. Then, after I get home, I will still have a little, assuming I can find a way to put all my RMB in into Zions Bank. Although I'm definitely not going to be rich.

I need to go to bed. I didn't expect to be up this long. Amelia and I just watched a movie. (Our friend Ellie took her Kindle back, and now Amelia is struggling to cope without Harry Potter. She needs to meet Cami. So, the movie made it a little bit better.) I'm sure I will talk to you later.

Goodnight/good morning/whenver

Love,

Me

June 19, 2016

Dear Mom and everyone else,

Da jia hao again! I'm sorry I haven't written any fun emails recently. (The boring ones I sent Mom don't count.)

When last I wrote, I was worried about whether it would rain and if the branch picnic would get canceled. It didn't rain much. It only sprinkled, which was such a blessing! The hard part, as it turns out, was getting there. On the map it looked so simple. But, I wandered around Suzhou Industrial Park for literally two hours, trying to find where the heck this park was. Even the taxi driver didn't know! Finally, a nice British family helped me out and we were finally able to find this park that I was beginning to doubt the existence of, and I made it within half an hour of the opening prayer because they started late. And then, a group of us went to a KTV together and sat around singing karaoke. (KTV is a popular thing in China. Personally, I don't see what the big deal is about, but it beat just going home.) Then, we went to Pingjiang Road and just walked for a bit. It was a pretty good day, but Andrew and Monica weren't able to bring their phone that they'd said I could use.

The next day was Sunday, but, of course, I had to work. I wore my church clothes, and everyone said, "Oh, what a beautiful dress!" (Maybe I should wear church clothes more often?) Amelia had taken the umbrella to Nanjing and hadn't gotten back to the apartment since coming back to Suzhou, so I got to walk to work in the pouring rain. I was not only beautiful, I was drenched. (I wasn't feeling quite desperate enough to wear my umbrella hat.) So, the next day one of the male teachers gave me a brand new umbrella just for me. I don't quite feel like I deserve it, but it was very nice of him. With only a couple weeks left to go, I might get to use it at least once before I leave.

This last week was weird. It was the last week of class before finals, so the teachers and kids have been working hard. My lessons were canceled left and right. I don't think there was a day when I taught more than one lesson. On Wednesday, the day when I only have two classes scheduled, it was very sad, because they were both canceled. I've been really, really bored this week. Boredom on top of the stress of trying to find a plane ride is not a good thing, psychologically. But, at least the kids still say hi to me in the hall. Bless them!

One good thing about this week is that the music teacher, who just got married, went on her honeymoon, and before she left, she told me that she would leave the key to the piano room on her desk, and that I could use it as much as I wanted! Woohoo! I discretely practiced the songs that the primary was going to sing in Sacrament meeting on Father's Day. That was another reason I was able to stay sane. I wonder if the music room will be busy during finals week?

Friday was my last class. It was also the first 5th Grade lesson I had in the whole two-week cycle because the rest got caneled. It was the most chill lesson I have taught the whole school term, we learned nothing new, just played games mostly, but it was fun. It was the nice 5th Grade class, not the crazy one. Next week is going to be so boring! I have no class, and everyone else will be busy, and I get to do nothing! It will be so depressing. But, I can have plenty of time to finish my book. And read more articles on Yahoo!, because that's all I have to do sometimes.

On Friday, I utilized my free time by looking up more places to go in Suzhou. I found two gardens that are free, so I decided to check on of them out yesterday (Saturday). It probably exists. None of the locals in that area were able to tell me where it was, even though I followed the directions on the Internet exactly. But, it was a nice walk, and a nice day, so I thought, rather than get frustrated by continuing my futile mission, I'd do something fun where I knew I wouldn't get lost, so I took myself back to Pingjiang Road. (Three Saturdays in a row!) It was nice to be there by myself, because I was able to take some side streets and see things I'd never seen before. I found the way to Weidao Temple, which was closed, but nearby was Ligeng Hall, or whatever it was called. I'm not sure what it is, probably a former residence of someone important. Now, it's got a gift shop. There was a lovely Chinese woman who worked there, and she showed me around the gift shop, and her level of English is somewhere in the same zone as my Chinese, so we had fun teaching each other. I looked around the beautiful building for a bit, and found a quiet corner where some important guy might have sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet with his lovely wife, and I sat there a bit myself. On the way out, the nice lady gave me a taste of molihua cha, or jasmine tea. (It's okay if it's made of flowers.) It smells nice, but it's very bitter. There was a nice Chinese girl, also a tourist, and she told me that the reason why Chinese people drink bitter tea, is because it's good luck, as sweet things in life always come after the bitter.

I wandered all the way down to the end of Pingjiang Road, and met a nice man who knew some English, and we had fun talking about this and that as we made our way back. Then, I went home so I could get ready for Sunday.

Today, I got to play the piano for the primary in Sacrament meeting, I gave a Sacrament meeting talk, and I taught the CTR class. (Whew!) It was good. I didn't feel my talk was anything special, but what I said was from my heart, and people said they liked it. Julynda even said I made her cry. (Wow.) Primary was fun. Monica and her husband, Andrew usually teach it. Monica was gone, as were half the kids, but we had fun, and so did Andrew. And, he gave me that phone, so, for the next two weeks, at least, I won't be phone-less.

After church, I went to President Okeson's house, so his wife, Effie, could help me book a flight. She really knows what she's doing when it comes to finding cheap flights! I'm glad I didn't try to find one on my own! We found one that was too good to be true. It was super cheap and had a 24-hour layover in Seoul, but the Okesons have a family friend who they talked to on Facebook, and she would have been happy to let me stay with her, and then I could say I've been to Seoul! But, it didn't work out. Darn it! So, I will fly out of Shanghai on Sunday, July 3rd, have a two-hour layover in Seattle, and get to Las Vegas two hours after the time I left Shanghai. (Time difference is funny.) I have my flight booked, and life is good again. That is, if I can make it through this week without losing it. Then, I have a free week to do whatever.

Actually, now that my flight home is booked, I'm kind of depressed. I'm officially leaving Suzhou. I might cry. I don't wanna leave! But, at the same time, I'm excited to go home and see everyone again. Anyway, I hope all is well. Please keep the house standing t until I can get back to it. I love and miss you all.

Love,

Chelsey

June 10, 2016

Dear Mom and everyone,

Nimen hao! I'm still alive. Really tired, though. But, that's just normal lately. I'm recovering from another fabulous adventure that I didn't expect. This one is a lot more fun, though.

First, I'd better tell you more about what's going on at school. It's the last month of the school term, so everyone is getting ready for the big end of term exams. This week was weird, because it was a three day week. Wednesday was our Friday. It was almost like the week before a holiday at home, except that, instead of giving us a four day weekend, they're making us work on Sunday. Classes were good, for the most part. On Wednesday, two of my classes were canceled because the teachers wanted to do tests, and the one class I did teach was really rowdy, and most of the students didn't want to listen. It didn't help that there was a monstrous thunderstorm outside. I've been showing a picture of the characters of Big Hero 6 having a birthday party, so we could talk about birthdays a little, because I know they all know it. I learned that the Chinese name for Baymax is "Da Bai," or "Big White." Now you can check "learn a bit of random useless trivia" off your to-do list today. You're welcome.

Yesterday (Thursday) was Dragon Boat Festival. I was so excited last year when I learned that I would be in China for this. Cami and I had our own little "party" for it, but this year was way more exciting.

The history behind this holiday is kind of fun. There was a man called Qu Yuan, who was a famous ancient Chinese poet, and also the king's most trusted advisor. The king loved him. But, the king's other advisors were jealous of him, so they spread rumors about him. When the king wanted to make an alliance with a neighboring kingdom, Qu Yuan warned against it. The king not only wouldn't listen, he sent Qu Yuan to exile. The two kingdoms formed an alliance, but then the other kingdom attacked, just as Qu Yuan warned they would. Everything went wrong. When Qu Yuan learned about this, he was so upset, he went up to a cliff and jumped into the river below. The local people rushed out in their boats to save him, or at least to find his body, throwing rice in the water to keep the fish from eating him, but they never found him. The Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate Qu Yuan's death. The dragon boat races are to represent the villagers racing out to find his body, and the rice dumplings called zongzi are to represent the rice they threw in the water.

In Suzhou, they supposedly have the biggest dragon boat race event in all of China on Jinji Hu ("Golden Rooster Lake"), near the Culture and Expo Center. I was so excited to go to it! I know that watching boat races can only be exciting for so long, but I was excited to see the boats. Coming off the subway, I met with a group of other foreigners. I learned that most of them are actually in my branch, but I haven't met them because they're always traveling on weekends. Also, their friend, Ecki the German guy. (His real name is Eckhart.) I ended up spending the whole day with some of them. Also, I passed by a guy dressed as the Monkey King. It amuses me how obsessed everyone in China is with the Monkey King. Even I've developed a bit of an obsession. But, anyway. . . There were so many people! It was impossible to get a good view. Walking around and around the lake, I finally had at least a decent view, meaning I could actually see the boats racing. I was also able to see a couple takeoffs. It was very interesting. There was a guy in the front of every boat beating a drum. When we briefly met with President Okeson and his family, his wife said that the reason for the drummer is so the rowers can keep the rhythm. If they don't keep the rhythm, then the boat will tip over, which she says is hilarious. We didn't see that, though.

Having seen a couple races, we didn't feel the need to hang around where there were so many people. Personally, I wouldn't have minded staying a little longer, but I also knew it would get old really fast, so I went with them. We went and got something to eat, then everyone went divied up to go their separate ways. Some of the group went to go to some big music festival on Tai Hu somewhere. Ecki and two girls were going to Mudu to do something (they hadn't planned what yet) and they invited me to go with them. I was more than happy to go. Otherwise, I would have spent the remainder of the holiday cleaning house.

I'm a little confused about what Mudu is. It's like it's own town, but still part of Suzhou. I don't know. We talked about going to Mudu Ancient Town, or going further on to the islands. I didn't know what islands they were talking about, but the two girls had been there before and they said it was really good and worth doing again. So, that's what we ended up doing. Once we got to Mudu, we had to ride a bus for a long, long time. Finally, we made it across a long bridge to an island on Tai Hu, but we were going further on to another island. I realized that the island we were going to was Xishan, or "West Mountain" where the pipafruit that the teachers brought to school had come from. There was a lot of traffic, so we got off the bus on the first island, made a bathroom break, and walked across the bridge ourselves. On the water were some Chinese junks. They weren't moving, not even bobbing up and down, so I don't know if they're real. But, later on the way back, I noticed the sails had been furled up, so they must do something on them.

Once we got to Xishan, we did a fair amount of traveling around it. There was a mixture of walking and bus rides. I thought, "How big is this island?" I looked at my map of Suzhou later that night, and we had made it pretty far from home. But, Xishan is beautiful! It's so green, and looks like what you would imagine China to look like. Not the Westernized city that the rest of Suzhou has turned into. In fact, they must not get very many Westerners at all, because everyone who saw us walking past smiled and pointed, or took pictures on their phones, which we're all used to by now, but it was even more intense here. All the children exclaimed, "Waiguo ren! Waiguo ren!" Foreigners! Foreigners! One time, we responded by exclaiming, "Zhongguo ren!" Chinese people!

We spent a good amount of time on the island. We walked to some historic place, but it was fifty kuai to get in. The two girls had been before, and they didn't feel the need to spend that much again. I'm on a budget, so they didn't recommend that I pay that much, either. (Which is good, because then I couldn't afford the rest of my Suzhou bucket list.) We walked along Tai Hu and enjoyed the scenery, and Ecki and I went inside a small Buddhist shrine. It wasn't nearly as fancy as the other ones I'd been to, but in a way, that made it really nice. Sometime, I've seriously got to learn about the deities that are always in the temples. I wonder who they are every time.

At length, we decided to head back. We rode the bus all the way to the Mudu subway station, and it must have been about an hour and a half. Then, we all took the subway home, which was a different stop for each of us. I've spent today relaxing and doing the cleaning that I got out of yesterday. (My bathroom is clean! Hooray!) Tomorrow, if it's not raining too much, there's a branch picnic at some park near Jinji Hu. I hope it doesn't rain. If there's no picnic, I can't meet Monica, and then she can't give me her phone. Me having a phone or not depends on whether it rains tomorrow. That's so random! But, it is what it is.

So, Ally is all moved in to Cami's apartment, then? Crazy stuff. How are the rest of you? How are Jacques and Benson? I haven't heard from them at all. And, what about Grandma and Grandpa, the rest of you who read this? Give me news! Anyway, I love you. Zaijian!

Love,

Chelsey<3

June 6, 2016

Dear Mom, and anyone else who is reading this,

Da jia hao once again. I hope you're all having a blissful, relatively non-stressful time over in the U.S. Because, over here, I'm not. Although, I still love China. In fact, a lot of the stress is because I'm trying to figure out if I actually can/should stay here, and if I did stay, would it be in Suzhou or some other part of China? Who knows? Plans made in China are about as stable as leaves on the wind. Literally no one ever knows what's going on! Not even the Chinese! Which is what makes it such a crazy, wonderful, stressful adventure. So, as I've learned from experience, whatever I decide on and dare to get excited about, is only going to turn upside-down as soon as I do.

I believe I mentioned in last week's email that Amelia was going to go to church with me, but she had to figure things out because she lost her passport. Do you have any idea how scary that is? She was going crazy all last week. She had to go back to Shanghai twice, and the first time, she spent seven hours going every which way, and accomplishing very little. She's joked about how she's seen so much of Shanghai, like police stations, and the Australian, U.S., and British embassies, where apparently no one speaks English. However, she has yet to see the Bund. When she was telling everyone about this, I said I think Shanghai is bad luck. It seems like every time someone goes there, something goes wrong. (Or, maybe it's just me.)

I've been really impressed by how well she's handled it, though. I love how she comes home from a really awful day and smiles and says, "Hello! Are you all right?" And she always manages to have a smile on her face. I don't know how she does it. She was really looking forward to flying to Australia, but her plans have all changed, and she has to go back to England instead. She keeps saying, "There must be a reason." On Saturday, she and I had a conversation about why bad things happen to good people, and about how trials can make us bitter or stronger, depending how we take them.

On Friday night, a few of the other girls came over and we watched Kung Fu Panda. It was my third time watching in since coming to China, but Georgia had never seen it. And, Caitlin kept humming along with the soundtrack. But, it was a good pick-me-up.

Saturday was a really nice day. It was just what we needed after that stressful week. We didn't get to sleep in, which I was only a little miffed about. Irene from the company had a party for us in her office at 9 a.m. It was really nice! This week is Dragon Boat Festival, which is when people watch dragon boat races and eat zongzi, or pyramid-shaped rice dumplings with either pork or red beans in the middle, wrapped in leaves. At the party, we learned how to make dumplings, both baozi and zongzi. (Baoziare more like pot stickers.) When Chinese people make dumplings, they look nice and pretty. When foreigners attempt to make dumplings, they look like a misshapen mess. Except for Georgina's, but she's an overachiever or something, I don't know. But, at least they tasted good. When I come home, I can probably make you zongzi, as long as you don't care how pretty it is. We also got to meet Irene's mother and daughter. Zan Zan is such a cute little girl!

Amelia and I were planning to go to Pingjian Road in the ancient part of Suzhou for a nice, relaxing time together. But, after making (and consuming) countless dumplings and then walking home, we were exhausted. So, we had a two-hour nap, andthen we went to Pingjian Road! We met some college students who were stopping all the tourists and having them write their names and what country they were from and taking their pictures for some school project. We ate at a ridiculously cheap, and amazingly delicious restaurant (you don't find many cheap things on Pingjian), and then walked back the other way, where we met some more college students who wanted us to do the same thing again for the same school project. On the subway home, Amelia got a message from Julie, who had just gotten to Pingjian after we left, saying, "Did you meet some girls who made you write your name took your picture?" Then, we got home, she worked on booking another flight (which hopefully worked), and we had another movie night with just the two of us.

Sunday was cool, because after Caitlin had been saying for so long that she wanted to go to church with me and always having things come up, she finally made it! She had a good time, and she didn't seem weirded out or anything, so that's good. She even said she wanted to come back. She got to hear testimony meeting, which was such a new concept to her. There was no gospel doctrines class, as the teacher was gone, so we went to gospel principals. I guess it was all right. She didn't seem too lost. I had to play the piano in primary, and I would've felt weird making her go to relief society alone, but she was pretty excited about sitting in on sharing time. Brooke is the music director, and she's about the same age, so they got along pretty well while I sat at the keyboard. I've never taken a friend to church before, so it was a new experience for both of us.

Today (Monday) I woke up in a weird mood. It's another week. I struggled to get up, but somehow I still made it to work on time. I'm back to stewing about what I'm going to do. The Chinese teachers were talking in Suzhounese really loudly again. I was also informed that Alisa, the lovely girl who was kind enough to lend me her phone, needs it back because her brother's broke. She felt really bad, but it's her phone after all, and I'm sure I will get by. On the way home I bought a cheap little alarm clock, so part of the problem is solved. I told people on WeChat, and Monica from my branch says I may be able to borrow theirs if I go to the branch picnic on Saturday. I love my branch! The members are all like a family. And, a lot of them have lived in China for years and years, and they know how things work a lot better than naive little me. When they say you get blessings for going to church, they aren't kidding. Especially when you live in a crazy place like China.

Well, this promises to be a very interesting week. As I mentioned, Dragon Boat Festival is this week, so I get Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off, and I'll teach Friday's lessons at school on Sunday. It will be so weird. But, I'm excited to see the dragon boat races, and sleep in two days in a row! I'm still figuring things out, but I know whatever I choose to do, it will be okay, because if we really try, the Lord won't let us fail. (That's what Jonah learned deep down inside the whale. I betcha I know what song is in your head now.) Anyway, good luck to you in everything. (Wow, Ally is moving out! That's so scary! But, exciting.) I love you all.

Love,

Chelsey