May Is Over!

What a whirlwind of a month May was! It went by so fast and now here we are in JUNE!!!! 

We board that blessed plane to the U.S. in 16 days!! Are we ready to go home? That is simple... YES!!! On Friday morning (June 1st) I was out on a run and was thinking about what I would do when I went back to our dorm and the only desire I had was to start packing. I understand that would have been 3 weeks before we leave so I refrained. I need to at least wait 10 more days! 

SO EXCITED FOR JUNE!! (Joey and I will be at that waterfall with my aunt one month from today!!! Vernal Falls in Yosemite! CAN'T WAIT!!!!)

I have a lot to catch up on. So here’s the rundown. 

The first Saturday of May we went on another “homestay” (a day spent with a student and their family). This particular homestay Joey and I were with 4 students. Rosy, Kurt, Amy, and Jessica. We did a craft project, went to a wedding, KTV, and back to the school for some basketball. The wedding was extremely untraditional. It was as if we were at a Chinese gameshow due to the announcer who was dueling as a “priest”, if you will. Loud music was playing coupled with strobe lights as the couple yelled “Oh Yeah!” to his questions. Cigarettes were passed around on trays as if they were hors d'oeuvres. Being the only Americans in the crowd, they were all drawn to us and wanted us to play a game in front of everyone, so we did. It involved getting way too close to the necks of Chinese men trying to pass a bottle around using only our shoulders and heads. The winner was ultimately determined through a very official game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” only I didn’t know thats what we were about to play. So 3 seconds later when everyone was throwing out their “rock” or “scissors” I stood there oblivious. But then I put my game face on and ended up winning the competition! A large teddy bear was my reward. They also wanted Joe and I to sing in front of the audience of about 400 people, so we recruited our 4 students to sing with us. Per their request (the kids), we offered a beautiful rendition of “BINGO.” : ) Then we were off to KTV for some karaoke. They take their karaoke very seriously so there was no laughing at the crappy singing or anything. KTV is a right of passage in China.

Joey gettin' all crafty!

The finished products!

The man to the right of the groom is holding a tray of cigarettes. Don't worry, we passed!

Another couple standing right next to the other. Two reception lines at once.

Walking up to the stage for the actual "ceremony", spotlight and all!

Our homestay moms. All so nice!

Party favors -- Box of cigarettes and a lottery ticket. Classy.

Playing the awkward bottle passing game.

Battling in rock, paper, scissors.

I Win!!

Prepping to sing BINGO

Turtle. Need I say more?

Picking our karaoke song at KTV.

Pretty sure they are singing Justin Bieber. 

Our collection of "gifts" from our homestay. 

The next weekend, we headed to Shanghai for a ridiculously awesome day of shopping. We bargained our little hearts out and spent WAY too much money. The next day I joined up with the girls in our group and we attended the Relief Society activity in Shanghai where Sister Allred (former 1st counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency) addressed us. It was so fun to hear stories about her from her daughter-in-law and hug her 4-foot 10” frame. She was so sweet! It was such a great day! Joey hung out with the other guy in the group, Alex, and ultimately ended up attending the Relief Society activity just in time for a Subway lunch and delicious treats! That night we went to Suzhou and picked up his suit he had made. He looked smokin’ in his new suit!!! I caved and bought a beautiful pea coat while waiting for him to try on the suit. What can I say? It was staring me in the face and he took too long. :) We spent the rest of the Mother’s Day weekend with our China Family! We love them! 

Who knew you could get custom glasses made at the underground knock off market in Shanghai! They checked his eyes and 10 minutes later... Voila! A new pair of RayBan glasses. They are super cool! :)

Five-days later, we were back in Shanghai for our ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND! Par-taaay!!!!! We had some unfinished business with the underground bargain shopping so we made sure to settle things there. We stayed at a nice hotel and enjoyed dinner at one of our favorites, Kebabs on the Grille! Sunday, the 20th, was our actual 2-year anniversary!! We went to church then to lunch at our new favorite place in China, WAGAS! It was so flipping good. I wish we had it in the States! 

Anniversary-eve dinner! 

This is our church building in Shanghai.

Post church. Our anniversary lunch! So flipping good!!

This makes my mouth water just looking at it! I want more! I had a spinach wrap stuffed with falafel, tabouli, tomato, and hummus. Joey had a pastrami sandwich on rye bread with spinach, havarti cheese, and a fruit chutney piled in the middle. THEN we ordered a pasta -- spaghetti, roasted pumpkin, pine nuts, spinach, tomato cream sauce and feta cheese. We ended up saving the pasta for later along with an insanely good chocolate covered macaroon and zucchini carrot cake.
Happy Anniversary indeed! :)

We thought our train left at 4 pm so we arrived at the station only to find out that it actually left at 2 pm!!! Dang military time. We have since re-learned that 14:00 is in fact 2pm and not 4pm. After a few battles with various train attendants, we were allowed on to the next train. Since we didn’t officially have seats on that one, we played musical chairs each time the train would stop and new people would get on. 

A few months ago, when we first took a “slow” train I swore we would never take one again because it was so disgusting and smelly. Well, 4 months later we have been on more “slow” trains than I can count and I actually found myself genuinely and completely happy and grateful to be on the slow train this time. I was squashed between 3 other Chinese people on a bench that was only meant for 3, with one man leaning on me as he slept. I couldn’t believe I wasn’t bothered. I was filled joy and love for China! In that moment, I knew I was not the same girl I was when we first arrived here 4 months ago. It's a miracle. :) 

Tomorrow I will post the finale weekend of May! It was extra special! ;)