whoo... I caught up!

As you can tell by the next 6 posts there has been a lot going on here in china. I am sorry for not keeping up with my blog. I just get overwhelmed every time I think about doing it. Luckily I got sick on the last day of our vacation so instead of not moving and completely miserable I got to update my blog and still feel miserable. What is the deal with my body lately?! I have been sick more often in the past 4 months then I have in the past 5 years.
I am sorry for the order that some of the posts. I kept mixing them up so it might not make as much sense. You probably should just look at the pictures and not read what I typed. I feel like my vocabulary has taken a hit since we have been here. We have to use really simple words to be understood by anyone. And the little grammar ability I had has gone down the drain. So just keep to the pictures.
Well, I am going to stop doing all this jazz and go lay down for a while. Have a good day!

My Chinese Family

This is Jenny and Brian. Brian is Pan Su Xiang's (bus lady) son. We went over to their house again on Sunday. We had a good time. As we were talking my name came up. I was telling them that I just need a new chinese name because the characters are too hard for me to write and it is too hard for me to say correctly. I hate the confused look I get every time I say my name. Everyone always thinks my name is a type of tea because I can't ever get the tones right. I am officially renamed. My name is Liu Chun Hua. We changed mine and Seantay's sir name to Liu because we decided we should just be family. It made me so happy to see how excited Jenny got as we told her our idea of changing our sir names. When Brian came home he renamed me to be Chun Hua. Chun means/can be used to describle spring, a fresh start, lively, or lovely. Hua means/can be used to describe royalty, to save or help grow. I love it! So we are officially a part of the Liu family. I am so happy!

Our cute little mixed family. As I think about it I am amazed at how a little thing like talking to a lady on a bus can lead us to such awesome people. We have become such good friends and now we are family. I am so happy for the opportunity we have to get to know them better and do things with them. They are so incredibly good to us. I hope we can help them as much as they help us.

"The Stairs of Death Hike"

Kate and I went with Celina (our native coordinator) and her husband on a hike this saturday. Apparently there is only one hike in Zhongshan and it is this one. I felt bad because Kate wasn't going to come if it was the same hike we went on a couple months ago. I told her it probably wasn't so she decided to come. I hope she doesn't hate me for the rest of her life. eek!

Up and up and up... they never end!

Kate, me and Celina. Hooray! We made it to the top! It wasn't as smoggy this time so we were actually able to see the city below.

Andrew, Celina and I. It was fun to spend some time with Celina outside of school. I really admire how level headed she is. I love talking to her and hearing her opinions about things/life. I just felt bad that we couldn't talk to her husband as much. He didn't know too much english and my chinese... well we all know where my chinese leads me. It was a lot of fun.

Chen Na's wedding

Jenny was so nice and invited us to her friend's wedding. It was very fun I was glad we got to go and see what it was like.

This is the deep fat fried, gutted, baby pig they brought out for us to eat. I don't know why this surprised me but the baby pig thing threw me for a loop. I wanted to crawl under the table when they started cutting it up and put a piece in front of me. I was strong and ate it... along with the usual crazy chinese food. I am so glad I haven't gotten sick from all this weird stuff I have been eating since we have been here.

The parade before the food came out.

HERE COMES THE BRIDE...AND GROOM. This is the beginning of the parade to the front of the ball room. I don't quite understand the car but it is cute. My favorite part about the car is the two stuffed animals on the from of the car clapping hands as they drove.
Jenny, Angel, Seantay, Chen Na, and me before the party began. Chen Na is so cute and nice I am so glad she was ok with us randomly showing up to her wedding uninvited. Doesn't she so pretty?! She had four different gorgious dresses she wore. The wedding was really nice. You could tell a lot of plannning went into it.

What happens when I speak Chinese...

A couple of weeks ago I was got on the bus and sat next to this really nice lady. She just kept talking to me even though it was obvious that I didn't understand a whole lot. We finally got down on the level where I was understanding... more. We talked the whole bus ride. And when I say we talked I mean tried to talk the whole bus ride. She lives in the same community we do. We got off and kept walking and talking. She took me up to her room and showed me some pictures, where she worshipped, and some ancient medical tools that looked like they had been used in world war 1. It was really random but fun to see. We left her apartment and she walked me up to my apartment. When I was getting ready to go inside she kept saying we should get together for breakfast. I said, "yes, yes, that would be good."I was thinking ya sometime we will get together but she was not saying "sometime" we should get together. She was saying "On sunday we should get together." I am stupid and just kept saying yes without really knowing what she was saying.
Sunday morning came and I just got out of the shower and was enjoying sitting on the couch reading when the doorbell rang. I thougt it was one of the girls from downstairs but I opened the door and it was her! She kept motioning for me to go brush my teeth and wash my face so we could go. I didn't know what else to except to invite her in and go get ready. I went into my room to change. Annie was just waking up and I said, "Annie that lady from the bus is here. I don't know what we are going to do or where we are going. All I know is that food will be involved and you are coming with me!" So she got ready real fast and came. Seantay woke up around the same time and came with us too. We just blindly followed her just hoping for the best. She took us to her apartment and we tried talking for a while until she got a phone call and she motioned for us to follow her out. We went outside and got in this little golf cart with this lady we didn't know. The lady ended up being her daughter in law and we went over to her house for breakfast. And the best part was that her daughter in law, Jenny, speaks a little bit of english so we were able to get some things clarified. It was an interesting morning. We had a good laugh about the whole crazy situation when we got back.
In Jenny's living room. They live in a very nice house. They even had a back yard with grass!

This is Pan Su Xiang the lady I met on the bus. She is an awesome lady. She was a doctor for 40 years and she had 5 kids. Yes, you read right 5 kids. She has traveled all over the world and is determined for me to understand her when she is speaking Chinese. I am so grateful she keeps talking to me even though she knows I hardly understand a thing she is saying. We were all able to learn a lot that day. The main thing I learned though was to make sure before you know what a person is saying before you say yes to something.

We ended up having a really fun morning. It was just surprising. We actually ended up making some more plans with their family for the next week.

The lion dance competition

I am glad I got this picture of Seantay because this is the perfect look of pure amazement that I was feeling. This was one of the coolest things we have been able to see!

Ok, I did a bad job at downloading these in a good order so just bare with me as I tell this little story. Then we will get to the competition. These little kids behind us we so cute and so we kept turning around to play with them. One time Katie was playing this game with them where she would hide behind the chair and pop up to scare them. Their reactions every time were so funny I was laughing really hard. So as I am laughing Seantay yells over to me. "Hey you guys are on the t.v.!" So I looked up at the big screen and there we were. Katie was hiding behind the chair and I am just laughing my butt off. I GOT ON THE BIG SCREEN! I have never been on the big screen at anything!

The competition was incredible! There is two guys underneath this costume and they have to do this routine on these poles. I couldn't believe the things they were doing! They would get on top of each other and do all this footwork from pole to pole. They would even do these cool jumps from pole to pole. I was so nervous for them the entire time I was letting out these involuntary screams. I am glad it was noisy in there. I would have been really annoying to everyone around me. IT WAS SO COOL! These pictures don't even do it justice.

Candice, me, Katie, Seantay and our Kung Fu teacher Spring. Spring is so good to us. We have been able to do Kungfu for the past 3 months, 3 times a week, for free. We have learned a lot. I really enjoy it. I especially love the kicking. I have come to a couple of conclusions about myself. I was born to be in the mountains and I was born to kick things. I can't get enough of either one. I miss the mountains so much. Ok, I have learned more about myself than that while I have been here...I promise!

Chinese night... karaoke style

This was a really fun night. It was so fun being able to get to know all the teachers more. It is hard to really get to talk to them or be around them at school. I was surprised at how much everyone opened up. YES! it is about time!

Chinese people love to go do karaoke. I was so excited that we finally got to go for chinese night. We know a couple of chinese songs so when ever one would come on we all would start screaming and jump up to sing. This is just one of those moments when we were all really excited.

Cute little Tina and Seantay. Tina is one of our coordinators. She and Candi teach us Chinese every monday, tuesday, wednesday, and friday. They are so good to us all the time. I am so grateful for all the hard work they put in for us to have a good experience here.

Aiki and Tina just doing their thing. You should have seen some of the dance moves that Aiki pulled out. She is quite the little dancer. I have a lot to learn.

Katie, Debbie and Annie. You gotta love that coke mixed with a bunch of spazes!

Coke a cola... our saving grace from the tea and alcoholic beverages. I wish I liked it because every time we go out with our friends they always make sure we have as much coke as we can drink.

Jasmine and Amy. These are two of the many people that I just wish I could talk to about more in depth things than "what do you like?" "I have this many people in my family." I hate being so limited! Jasmine is the lady over all the Chinese teachers and is an incredible lady. I am really lucky and get to be her chinese friend. And Amy is one of the great Chinese teachers for the little baby class.