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