It could always be worse. Take that as you will. : )

---

This is my village vacation located near Anfu city 3 1/2 hours south of Nanchang. Enjoy!

2.9.13





Well, it’s New Year’s Eve and it’s pretty much going how I
thought it would. There’ s little heat, almost no communication between me and
the family, and plenty of time to do nothing since Shelly is spending time with
her family and participating in the traditions of the day. I really need to see if she can send me home
Wednesday because I just don’t think I want to handle day after day of this.
Maybe if there was central heating I’d be ok, but when I’m bundled in bed with
no internet and no TV I’m not a happy camper. I’m definitely glad I came, but
I’m also glad this is a onetime thing. : )





It really has been a good day so far though. This morning
Shelly and I both had our quiet times and we then got to eat some breakfast
noodles in the kitchen with her family. After that we headed back inside so we
could put up the doorway signs. For every doorway. It was cute seeing Shelly so
excited and running door to door to put up the signs and telling me what some
of them meant.





It also meant we got to take a little walk to their other
house which is currently unused since there were some extra signs. After dropping off some tofu to some
neighbors we made our way down the road to her father and uncle’s home. She
said it was where she grew up, but her father and uncle didn’t have a good
relationship so they decided to move apart to different houses. It was really
neat exploring the house because originally I thought Shelly’s current house
was traditional. It is to a degree, but it’s “new” traditional. Her old house
is what you’d read about in a novel. It’s probably what most westerners think
about when we think China. We were able to put up the signs, sweep up a bit and
then head back to get ready for lunch.





Shelly warned me that before lunch there would be firecrackers
going off and boy were there. There had been fireworks going off all day, but
right before lunch Shelly’s dad let off a whole string of them plus some super
loud grenade type ones. After that, both her mom and dad brought out lunch and
then presented some of it to their ancestors.
Thankfully after that we got to eat … and eat and eat and eat. Her
family made 9 dishes and most of them were some type of meat. It was super
delicious, but I feel like I should just eat salads for the rest of my stay
here in China.





After lunch Shelly’s brother took us up the hill behind
their house. Along the way they showed me their other gardens and then led the
way up to the top. It was quite the view. It didn’t take long and we weren’t
that high up, but we could really look out and see the areas around us.





The rest of the afternoon has been Shelly doing her NYE
rituals such as showering, washing her clothes and putting on the “new” for the
NY. I’m pretty much calling this day done, but I’ll guess I’ll see as it comes.





Pt2: The day was
pretty much over, but there were still a few things worth recording. First off:
CCTV is actually pretty cool and the Chinese NY TV special they had for all
three days (Fri-Sun) was incredibly rockin. They put together a wide variety of
talent mostly from China, but there were also a few international appearances
such as Celine Dionne. When Celine came on I didn’t recognize her, but when she
did “My Heart Will Go On” all I could think was that there are probably
billions of happy Chinese people tonight. I managed to stay up till midnight,
but after that I was spent. After making sure Shelly was alright (she had a
spontaneous crying/sobbing session where she was overwhelmed with gratitude
from her mother) I went to bed and found out first hand that EARLY in the
morning on NY day the father sets off lots and lots of fireworks. Thankfully it
wasn’t anything that kept me awake long and before I knew it Shelly was waking
me up for breakfast once again.





Interlude – Shelly: Oh, my zodiac is the snake.





Me: Oh wow! How cool. : )





Shelly: Yeah, during the New Year when your sign matches you
should wear all red (*shows me her new red shirt*). I also bought new red
trousers and my friend from school; he sent
me some red underwear.





Me: 0_o… He sent you red underwear? You have a guy friend
who sent you underwear???





Shelly: Oh NO NO NO! She! She sent them to me.





*This is an incredibly common mistake with Chinese students
since there really isn’t any gender distinction in the Mandarin language. I
mostly point it out because they can be inconsistent about it and it’s rather
funny. I often have students who will change the gender of who they’re talking
about several times within one conversation.*





Interlude – Happened while we were watching the NY TV
performances on CCTV.





Shelly: She is mayor. (*What I heard*)





Me: Oh, where is she mayor of?





Shelly: … what?





Me: Where is she mayor of? A big province, a little
province? Where in China?





Shelly: Oh, no no no. She is m-a-l-e. Male. She’s a guy.





Me: She’s a guy? (*Looks at the TV where a beautiful woman
is singing a high vocal song*) Oh my gosh!









*Oh that one was a doozy. I
don’t think the guy was gay, but he pulled off cross-dressing REALLY well and
with his voice I would have NEVER known if Shelly hadn’t said something.









2.10.13





New Year’s Day of course started with fireworks and after I
woke up again I got to have another wonderful Chinese breakfast. Shelly’s
parents really make the best food and so much of it is from scratch. They grow
their own vegetables, keep some of their own chickens, make their own olive oil
and wine (which I can’t get enough of) and really just know how to provide for
themselves.





So anyway, breakfast came and went, but during the meal we
got our first visitors. Shelly had informed of what we’d be doing that day but
I really didn’t know what to expect. Some of the neighbors came to wish us all
a Happy New Year and some of the students even knew how to say it in English
for me. After we got ready we all put on our shoes and headed house to house to
say ‘sheen yen how’ (this is how it sounds, not the pinion). It was fun getting
to see all the people in the village and their reactions to seeing possibly
their first foreigner.





At one house that
held a couple of older ladies I got to experience one of my first cultural
mistakes. We greeted the first older lady and had the normal reaction of
staring at me and holding my hand a bit too long, and then we went to greet the
other baba at the back. When we came back up to the front however the first
lady had a string of fireworks ready. I was thinking maybe she was trying to
get rid of the bad spirits I had tracked in, but Shelly told me after I left
that she had assumed I was her brother’s fiancé/bride and was ready to
celebrate! I couldn’t help but laugh and from then on Shelly introduced me
first as her friend. : )





Lunch came soon after we had rested from our visitations and
it was a rather big family affair. One of her father’s brother lives next door
and we got to have a meal with several of her cousins, aunts and uncles. I felt
pretty lost at that point because shelly couldn’t act as translator all the
time, but it turned out a couple of her “brothers/sisters” (this only applies
to cousins on the father’s side) were able to speak some passing English so I
got to ask and be asked some questions to pass the time.





2.11.13





So on this day we were supposed to visit Shelly’s mother’s
side of the family since on NY we had gotten to see so much of her father’s
side. Plans changed however so we just hung around the house. Now, I felt I had
handled being inactive pretty well, but at this point I needed SOMETHING to do.
So I went for a walk. I calmly informed Shelly of my decision, and even though
she was pretty nervous of letting me wander off on my own, she bid me goodbye
and I wandered away from her house and down the muddy road.





The time I spent away from the house was very cathartic. As
kind as Shelly and her family had been to me up to that point, I just felt
overwhelmed with all the family and friends being in and out, not being able to
understand anyone, just wanting to be warm, wanting to be busy doing something,
and just wanting to have some time to myself.





I wandered far and wide, but mostly kept myself to the
railroad tracks I had found. I ended up going pretty far down and by the time I
got back to Shelly’s they were pretty worked up at the time I had spent away.
It was a good time though. I had fun taking pictures and just having some
blessed time to myself. : )





2.12.13





So on this day we did make it to the mother’s side of the
family. I thought we would mainly be staying with the grandma, who we did stop
by to see first, but we wandered from house to house accepting tea and having
relatives stare at the weird foreigner being included in the festivities. Thankfully
at one point Shelly took pity on me and her sister, her brother, and herself
took me out for a walk around the village. We walked within the village and
even took a walk into the country to visit her sister’s husband’s family.





There were plenty of traditional houses in the villages, but
what was really cool was seeing the more modern homes sitting side by side the
traditional ones as well. There was also an interesting building that wasn’t a
shrine, but just a village gathering place for festivals and celebrations.





2.13.12





This was a day that Shelly was
really excited about. She had gotten a hold of some of her old school friends
and they had agreed to make the journey and come over for a visit with her. I
was decidedly much less excited. I of course didn’t say anything, but was
puzzled when Shelly seemed to expect me to sit with her and her friends as they
talked. None of her friends knew English as well as she does, so I couldn’t
really be included in the conversations and was really not sure what to do. So
I went for a walk.





I again let Shelly know and then
just walked as long as I could before having to turn back. The walk was much
less scenic, but it was much better than sitting awkwardly in a room full of
chatting friends. Sadly it didn’t save me from all of it once I did get back,
but it wasn’t quite as long.





Eventually just one friend was
left and Shelly asked if we could walk her half-way back to her village. I of
course said yes seeing as the other option was to sit in our room and read. So we
walked on a familiar road, seeing as I had just been on it a couple hours
before, and we had fun walking and talking and seeing the village where
Shelly’s friend’s sister was picking her up.





While touring the mid-way
village, we also went and visited the middle school where Shelly had gone to
when she was young. It turns out she actually lived at the school for a few
years since it was too hard to travel to it every day. It sounded like it
sucked. There was no hot water, you had to race to the extremely small
cafeteria to make sure you got some food, it smelled cause no one wanted to
bathe, and I’m sure there was plenty of other things that could make living
there a totally not fun. And kids back in the US complain about their childhood
schools.












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Photos

0_o
It's exactly what it looks like. Right in the dining room next to the kitchen table.

Front gate
We're taking down the old NY papers so we can put up the new ones.

Teaching award.
This belongs to Shelly's mom's brother who is a teacher. It was given in 85.

The beginning.
of a long stream of fireworks for the next week.