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Published: October 16th 2013
The Top
We absolutely love the semi-fresh air up there! And the beautiful view makes all the stairs worth it!Okay, so it has been a little while. Things are always really busy here - I have worked on this entry for two weeks; sometimes I only had time to write a couple of sentences, but here it is!
Everything is an adventure. From merely eating deep fried pig skin to hiking grand mountains, it all has a story. It was our fall break a couple weeks ago so we have been exploring the city of Xi'an. We are so blessed to know such kind Chinese friends who love to take us all over and show us places we have never seen, and on top of that, they never let us pay a dime! We are so blessed!
Before I tell of our adventures, let me introduce you to Sean. Sean is the epitome of a middle-aged Chinese man. He waited outside of our classroom building looking for any white person to walk by so he could talk to them in English. We drew the lucky card and were the first white people who walked by! (There aren't many so that was pretty easy.) He stopped us and asked if we speak English and if we could help him
Hiking by ladder
At one point, instead of stairs on the mountain, they offered this rickety, rusty, long ladder. Nobody was taking it so Jarek and I hopped on and since the foreigners did it, everyone else had to do it, too! practice speaking. He made sure we knew he was not a creep. "I am good guy! I am not a bad guy! You help me learn English, I help you speak Chinese." We agreed and have been entertained ever since. First, he took us out to eat one of my favorite dishes, "yang rou pao mo". It is a Muslim dish that consists of bread in soup with meat, noodles and garlic. Apparently, Jarek was not eating it right, so Sean showed him the “Chinese man” way to eat it: inhale and scoop up the contents into your open mouth. This method is very loud, yet effective. Sean is always teaching Jarek the ways of a Chinese man and likes to tell him not to be so shy. Jarek is not shy, Sean is just... extremely out going. He walks in a restaurant and yells something like, "Who is going to serve me food? What do you have to eat here?" It's a little embarrassing at times, ha. We once walked into a little amphitheater when the musicians were on stage waiting for their next performance. Sean yelled, "Hey! Play something for the foreigners! We just arrived." They said to
Holiday Dinner
Me, Jarek, Sean and Sean's friend at dinner during the holiday. I wish you all could meet Sean; his kindness is never forgotten and his personality is unlike any other! come back at the times specified. Sean is very proud to have American friends.
Despite our differences, Sean is an extremely kind man. One place that he took us was the Guang Zhou Folk Art Museum. This has become our new favorite museum here in Xi'an. It was modeled after the Ming Dynasty, so it is as if you are walking around between the years 1368 and 1644. The creators of this museum actually took buildings from the Ming Dynasty that weren't destroyed, moved them to Xi'an, and restored them to create this museum. It's pretty amazing. Luckily, the day we were there we had blue skies and moderately clear air! We could actually see the beautiful mountains that surrounded us! At one point, Jarek looked up at one of the mountains and noticed some type of temple on the tip top. He asked Sean what that was and expressed desire to go there - Sean said we would go the next day! Score! After the museum, Sean took us out to dinner at a really nice and delicious restaurant. It was October 1st, a holiday in China, so it was very busy with everyone celebrating China. We also
went to a Mahjong place after that. I don't really know what to call it, but it is a building where you drink tea and sit at a special electric table and play Mahjong. It is super fun and the lady who owns the place told us we could come back anytime to play and help her speak English. She lived in Australia for a while so her English is already really good with a hint of an Australian accent. What a great way to spend the Chinese holiday!
So, yes, the next day Sean took us to the temple on the mountain. This is called Wu Tai Shan which means Five Platform Mountain. It coined this name because of five temples atop five mountains. You can hike to all of them, but we went to three out of the five. One thing you have to understand is that hiking in China is not what our American mind would envision hiking. It is stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. You hardly ever hike on the actual ground; you just go up stairs all the way to the top. It's very tiring, but we get great exercise! It was atop
Our Fortune Teller
Here he is, the man who predicted it all! the second temple that we met our fortune teller monk friend. He insisted he tell our fortune without any price. (I'm sure foreigners are great publicity here.) Here is how he told our fortune:
First, we picked a newspaper from a pile of papers and wrote a character on it. Any Chinese character we desired. Next, he had us shuffle a deck of cards and pick two cards. Each card had a Chinese character on it that would tell him something about our future. The pair of characters would also say something about our future...supposedly. So the first thing he wanted to tell us was when we will have a baby. (He already inquired what year we were born, Jarek is the year of the sheep and I am the year of the monkey, and according to him that is a great match! We will never part! At least that part he got right.) One of the cards I chose was the 2 of diamonds. That is the only one in the deck, so he said that was very lucky! He continued to say more in an accent I couldn't understand a whole lot of, and concluded that we
9 Times for Luck
When we were leaving the fortune teller, he yelled at Jarek to ring the bell 9 times for good luck. We must be so lucky now! must have a baby next fall. "So in two months time, you must get her pregnant." Haha...
He asked us to ask a question next. We decided to ask whether we will stay in China next summer or go to New Zealand (for Jarek's internship - more about that later). We already knew what he was going to say regardless of what newspaper we chose, what character we wrote, or which cards we drew. And we were right. He said we need to stay in China. "Going to another land will be bad for baby, bad for pregnancy." Right... don't get me started on Chinese medicine.
We then asked whether we will have a boy or a girl next year. I had a hunch that his answer would follow customs, dreams and the chauvinistic ways of China. Well, I was right! He said next year we should have a baby boy! Having a baby boy in the year of the horse is very lucky for us! (Besides the year of the snake, when isn't it lucky to have a baby boy in China?) He also said after we have this baby boy, we will be very successful and
Publicity
Chinese people love white people so we take pictures with lots of random people all the time. Jarek caught this precious moment, haha. get rich! Hooray! We also asked him how many kids we will have. His answer: 5. Very likely, so I gave him points for that one. We then asked when we will return to China again. His answer: in 6 or 7 years. Also very impressive. He knew we are still in undergraduate school and counseled Jarek on the rest of his career plans, so it made sense to return in 6 or 7 years after Jarek is working for the foreign service. He told Jarek that he needs to be a republican, go to the Confucius Institute in China, then finish college and he will rise to the top very quickly! Oh, and the most important thing he said to Jarek after all of this fortune telling: "Listen to your wife." I like that fortune telling monk 😉
Now, I will introduce you to my friend Lilly. When we had our first English class, Jarek taught the class while I interviewed all the students to see where their level was and to get to know each one. Lilly really stood out to me and I remembered her after all 20 short interviews of similar Chinese girls. I wanted
Tang Dynasty Park
Pretty smoggy that day, but it was an awesome park with lots of history. to find a Chinese friend just to talk with to help me practice Chinese and she immediately came to my mind. I invited her over and she brought us coffee and snacks. So sweet! She is super cute! She is an art student majoring in environment landscape and design and is also 20 years old. She invited us the following week to meet her at this really amazing Tang Dynasty Park with her parents. We had a great time! Her family is extremely generous and paid for our tickets and took us to eat hot pot (my favorite!) afterward. Their generosity paid off and they didn’t have to pay a dime (or “jiao”) for dinner. It was their friend’s restaurant and she wouldn’t let them pay for anything while giving them more than they asked for. It was a fantastic day. Oh, and Lilly’s dad didn’t smoke or drink, even when offered, so that was a huge plus! That is very rare in China.
Earlier I mentioned Jarek’s internship. Our plan after China was to go home until Jarek’s internship in the fall. He must do an internship in order to graduate so it made sense to
Best Friends
Chinese girls like to hold hands when they are friends. I think it's so adorable. (That is Lilly and me) do it before going back to Hawaii so we wouldn’t have to leave school again. Well, we recently found out that the internships in the summer don’t start until early July, which is when school in China gets out. We decided to go for it. The classes that I need to graduate from BYUH are only offered at a certain time sometimes every other year so next fall is my only chance to take them. It works perfectly that he can do the internship in the summer. For the application, Jarek had to choose two countries to go to. After a lot of prayer and discussion, we decided on China and New Zealand. Jarek has already filled out the application and everything so now we just wait to see where he will get accepted.
Well, there is so much more to write about, but we won't spoil the fun and put it all in one blog! Again, sorry about the delay, things are really busy over here! Stay tuned to read about:
Racist jokes on Tai Bai Mountain
Kaylee's TV interview
Chinese "Costco"
The Worst Bus Ride of Our Whole Lives
...and more!
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