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
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