It’s getting harder to keep up with the blog, so I apologize for the delay in posting. I’m also not going to put up any pictures for now, just because it takes too long. If you want to see pictures, go to Matthew’s blog. I have a ton of pictures, so I’m just going to make an album when I get home and you can see them all then.
This past weekend was a great one. We started out by going out to dinner with our Chinese friends, Echo and Avery. They took us to a Sichuan Chinese restaurant, which we thought was what American chinese food was modeled after. Not quite. It was good, but still very different from American (we knew it would be, just thought there would be SOME similarities). Everything the girls ordered was very hot (taste, not temperature). It was even a little too hot for Avery & Echo, so it was very entertaining watching everyone freak out because their mouths were on fire. But the best part of the meal came at the end. Our dessert was fried bananas covered in what we called “sugary goodness”. It was a syrup-like consistency, that once cooled, turned hard. I think it was the same kind of sugar that bakers use to create those sugar masterpieces (for those who watch the Food Network, you know what I’m talking about). Anywho, it was sooo good that once all the bananas were eaten, we were all trying to break off the sugar from the plate that had already hardened. Mmmmm……
We had a very long day on Saturday. We traveled to Suzhou, a small town of 2 million people just outside Shanghai. The bullet train took about 40 min to get there. Our welcome in to Suzhou was a little boy peeing in the train station while squatting right next to his mother. His split pants gave him ample room to go to the bathroom without messing up his clothes. How convenient. I actually remember this happening the last time I was in China with Anna, but I hadn’t seen it in Shanghai. Ahh, memories…. what fun.
The train station was a madhouse of people. There was everything from beggars, to travelers, to people trying to sell tours and cheap junk. We decided to walk to our first destination, even though we weren’t quite sure where that was. Suzhou at first impression is not a good city. A lot of construction. A lot of smog. A lot of people.
To keep a long story short, here’s Suzhou in a nutshell (look, I’m in a nutshell!! -sorry, couldn’t help it): The city goes on forever, as does Shanghai, but the buildings are only 5 stories tall as opposed to 80. The people stare a lot (felt like Kunming again). I don’t think they’ve seen may westerners and we stuck out like sore thumbs. Especially Michael. Suzhou has many gardens, but we only went to 1 (you see one, you see them all). We climbed a 9 story pagoda. We went to a silk museum and saw silkworms eating leaves. We rode in a rickshaw. It was fun times.
Our train didn’t leave Suzhou until 9:50 that night, so it made for a very long day. But that didn’t stop us from getting up Sunday morning for church! We were invited by 2 girls that work in our hotel to go to church with them. Mary & Linda (sisters) are from the Philippines and go to a Filipino church in the city. We all attended with them and it was quite an experience. The pastor flipped between Filipino and English, so we understood most of it. All the worship was done in English, and people who gave testimonies spoke both languages. The service lasted 3 hrs long! It was very interesting and very uplifting. The Lord is definitely moving and working in that place.
Afterwards, we were invited to lunch at the pastor’s apartment, as is the whole church every Sunday. Some of the older women cook lunch, so we had ourselves an authentic Filipino meal. It was very good. While at the pastor’s house, we learned about their church and how it all works in China. Apparently, having a Christian church in China is illegal. There is a Christian church in Shanghai, but they are regulated by the government and can’t teach everything that is in the Bible. The Filipinos don’t try to hide the fact that they are holding a church service. You can get that by just how loud their worship service is. The pastor informed us that they have been going now for 6 years and only by the grace of God because they are being illegal. Mary told us one of the reasons she thinks the church has lasted so long is because no Chinese attend. It really makes you appreciate the freedoms that we have in the U.S. We are so blessed to be in a country that allows us to worship freely.
After lunch, Mary took the girls out shopping to a cheap mall. By cheap mall, I mean a big building filled with little shops (and I mean little) selling either junk or knock-off goodies. It is fun to barter and “insult” them with my prices, however it’s a very exhausting process. You get tired of people saying “lady, looky looky, cheapy cheapy. You want bag, watch? Prada, Gucci? You my friend. You very beautiful. Looky.” Yeah, that’s our life. But it’s well worth it when you can get a nice “North Face” jacket for $20. Gotta love it!
Anyways, I have more to write and more to say, but I think you’ve read long enough for now. I will add some more later. So for now, God bless! We miss you all!!
