Nanjing Thanksgiving

The closest LDS branch to me is about two hours away in Nanjing via train. This ward is the best and I’m so grateful to be apart of it! On November 24, the Nanjing branch put on a American Thanksgiving for its members. There was real turkey, mash potatoes, rolls, and pumpkin pie—seriously heaven in China! This Thanksgiving was just really special, because it felt like home and after being gone for about three months…you kind of miss it. All of us girls left Bengbu early in the morning and traveled to Nanjing where we had the Thanksgiving meal. Since this is a religious event, only people with foreign passports could come—and thus mainly only Americans. After dinner, Kiera, Whitney, and Amanda went back to Bengbu while Shayne, Leah, Alysa, and I went shopping and hung out with ward members. We stayed the night in a hostel, went to church the next morning, and had dinner at a member’s house before heading back to Bengbu.

Talent show and the Branch President Jerry Yu—such a great guy!

Shopping with the girls!

Hanging out with ward members:

The biggest group of Americans I have seen in over three months. I just love these people!

I am so very grateful to be a part of the Nanjing branch here! I haven’t been able to attend church each Sunday, but I have loved every time I do go. The people here are absolutely amazing and so giving! Since most of us are Americans and this is our first time being in China—everyone helps each other out and strengthens one another. Most of the ward members don’t live in Nanjing and therefore have to commune a ways in order to make it to church; the families that do live close by offer up every inch of their homes as a place for other people to stay the night (although my program won’t allow us to stay with members so we always have to pay for hostels). We had dinner at the Streeter’s on Sunday and this couple not only lets people sleep at their home, but also makes American home cooked meals each Sunday for different members. Living in America, that doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but I can’t explain how much it meant and how grateful I was to receive that meal in China. I could go on and on about how great of examples these people are and all that they’ve done, but I think my favorite part of the branch is just the spirit here. I’ve noticed that I always felt worse the weeks that I wasn’t able to make it to church compared to the times that I did. Nothing compares to the feeling of love and home (yes I’m calling that a feeling) that comes with this ward and its members. So grateful to be apart of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

Thanksgiving in China

On Thanksgiving day Shayne and I were invited to a different school in Bengbu for their English Festival. We were told we would just say hi to some students and teach a 15 minute lesson to about 20 kids. Sounds fine, right? Well…we arrived at the school and guess who was there to greet us and be our escorts? Why Mickey and Minnie Mouse of course!

They escorted us to the back of the school where ALL the students were lined up, gave us microphones, and told us to give a speech (say what??). Shocked, we gave the stupidest speech ever explaining that today was Thanksgiving and we eat food on Thanksgiving and visit family and be thankful, etc.

After the speech, they took us into a classroom to teach. Turns out a 15 minute lesson for 20 students was actually a 30 minute lesson for about 100 students. I was really nervous because the game I came prepared with—we COULD NOT play with that many students. Luckily, I brought enough supplies for all the kids to make an Indian headband, taught children songs, answered questions and somehow it turned into a decent lesson!

Gifts from the school: a head hand warmer (yes you put your hands in that thing and carry it around) and a Wednesday water bottle.

A picture given to me (which I find hilarious—what little girl draws that?) and kids peeking through a door to look at us.

For Thanksgiving dinner, we all worked on trying to make the most authentic American dinner as we could and I think we did pretty well! We didn’t have turkey, pumpkin pie, or even an oven, but we did make rolls, peas, corn, stuffing, chicken, cornbread, and chocolate pudding pie! We also invited some of our fellow teachers to eat with us: Mary, our native coordinator; Superman (yes that is his real English name), a fellow teacher and friend; and Jef, a fellow teacher from the Philippines and the only other foreigner at our school. These three speak the best English of everyone at the school, but Jef speaks the best.

My China family:

And what better way to end Thanksgiving than the traditional dance party?

I just love these people. So glad they’re all here with me.

Lessons learned today about Chinese culture:

1. White people are equivalent to Mickey and Minnie Mouse in terms of celebrities.

2. It’s totally okay to change plans last minute and not tell your guest until they are in the classroom.

3. There’s no better gift than a giant head for you to carry around.

4. American food is VERY sweet to the Chinese. All this time we’ve had a hard time eating what they eat and it never occurred to me that they wouldn’t like sweet potatoes or gravy because it was too sweet.

5. Dance parties are hilarious with my Chinese friends.

Chinglish

Chinglish: When Chinese is translated into English and the result is either ungrammatical or nonsensical to English speakers.

We saw a lot of Chinglish while in China and they always made us laugh; here are a few of the ones we saw:

And my personal favorite:

Hangzhou and Shanghai

We spent November 14th packing up, traveling to Guilin, wasting a few hours and then getting on a train which traveled through the night to Hangzhou to meet up with Kiera, Whitney, and Amanda for the rest of our vacation. We arrived in the afternoon of the 15th, checked into our hostel and then went exploring around Hangzhou. Kiera, Whitney, and Amanda left for home that night, but the rest of us girls still had another day planned in Hangzhou. Sadly, a rain storm came through so we couldn’t enjoy Hangzhou and instead spent the day wet, cold, and trying to make the best of things.

Trying to make the best of a rainy day.

Shanghai:

On the 16th Alysa, Shayne, and Leah all went back to Bengbu, but I got special permission to meet up with my friend Katie Bell to go to Shanghai and get my mission papers done (see this post for more details). Katie and I took a train to Shanghai, checked into our hostel, and went out on the town. At the hostel we met this girl from Germany, named Jessica, who spoke a little English, even less Chinese, and just BARELY arrived in China where she would be doing an internship for almost a year. She was all alone, a bit nervous coming to this new country, and we remembered how that was when we first arrived so we invited her out to dinner and explore the city with us. We had so much fun with her and we spent the night teaching her about the Chinese culture (crazy how just living here over three months can give you so much experience to share).

From left to right: me, Jessica, and Katie in front of Nanjing Road and pictures of us and other people dancing.

We introduced Jessica to a Muslim noodle place (aka THE BEST CHINESE FOOD EVER) and there we met a family with SIX kids! Chinese families are only allowed to have 1-2 years so 6 kids is unheard of. 

Two extremes of the subway—completely packed and completely empty.