My mother and her fiance, Bud, came to visit me in China! If you are wondering about the name of this post, I will explain...Chinese people have a really difficult time pronouncing the "v" sound and my mom's name is Vickie. When I introduced my mom to all of my students, they happily shouted "Hello Wickie" or "Welcome to China, Wickie!". Also, our boss and good friend, Diana pronounced Bud as "burd", so during their time in China, these were there new names! It was so much fun having some familiar faces in China, getting to show them how I live now, where I work, what life is really like here, and show off all the things I've learned these past seven months! It was a whirlwind trip of 4 days in Beijing, 5 days in Huangshi, and another 4 days in Shanghai. So, blog readers, prepare your eyes for a ton of pictures from the trip....I'll try to keep the stories short and sweet!
BEIJING
Camille and I didn't finish teaching until 5:00 p.m. the day we left to meet mom and Bud in Beijing, so we didn't get to the hotel until midnight. We spent a couple hours talking and catching up. Camille and I were more excited than can be expressed about indoor heating, western toilets, and delicious never-ending western breakfasts! We even got to take our first bath in seven months! Don't worry, we do have a shower, so we are still clean!
This was the second trip to Beijing for Camille and I, so we acted like the tour guides. This is at the Forbidden City.
Great view of the entire Forbidden City.
Awesome! Camille and I talked them into taking these signature tourist photos. Too funny!
I went to buy a souvenir photo for mom and Bud and turned around to see Camille posing with some random Chinese lady! Apparently this couple really wanted a picture with Cam! They even bought her a copy of the photo! Guess we haven't totally lost our celeb status in China yet!
Entering Wang Fu Jing Street. We brought them to see all of the crazy foods like scorpions and spiders on sticks.
YUM!
Entering the Great Wall!
Their first time to touch the Great Wall!
This was such a great experience. I was happy to share it with mom and Bud!
Taking a little break from all of the hiking. Its a lot steeper and more difficult to climb than it appears!
Mr. Bud wanted to walk all the way to the top of the highest tower. We selflessly waited below so we could take pictures for him! Thats what I like to think anyway. Actually, we were all too tired to walk the rest of the way. Camille and I didn't hear the end of it for a while, that the "young people" were too tired to make it all the way! We decided that in our defense, we do live in China now and may be malnourished due to a lack of western food, so really it wasn't our fault :)
He made it!
This was so much fun! You could ride a toboggan down the Great Wall instead of walking/hiking all the way down! I wanted to do it at least five more times!!!
Mom and Bud finishing their ride!
I had to document their first REAL Chinese meal!
Mmmm REAL Chinese food. It was really funny to watch them use chopsticks. Camille and I have improved immensely at our chopstick skills since moving here, but I'm sure we were just as bad as mom and Bud were in the beginning! I do have to give Mr. Bud credit, though, he wasn't too bad at it! Sorry Mom!
Tiananmen Square.
That pretty much sums up Beijing. We also did a lot of eating delicious Western food....mostly for Camille and I's sake! We also took them to the Silk Market and Pearl Market for all of their souvenir shopping and gift shopping to bring back home. I also got to show off my mad bargaining skills...ask either one of them...I rock at it!
HUANGSHI
Their hotel.
This is the street that our apartment is on. I took them to our favorite street vendor who sells jiaozi, which are dumplings. This a typical day for Camille and I. We teach and then get some jiaozi to bring home for lunch.
This is the entrance to our apartment building. It was so funny to watch their reactions to everything in Huangshi. As much as I love it and consider it home now, I distinctly remember being horrified by some things, like our apartment building, when we first arrived back in September. I know it looks a bit sketchy from the outside, but I promise its not as bad as it looks and the insides typically always looks better than the outsides of buildings. I was nervous how they would handle some things like the apartment, the dark alleyway we live down, the spitting, or the children going to the bathroom on the side of the street, but they managed! I think they maybe even liked our "little town" by the end of the week. Huangshi is only a town in China, but has over a million people.
Trying out their jiaozi. They agreed that these were the best kind!
I took them out to the park so that they could see one of the nicer areas of Huangshi. Our apartment is conveniently located in the center of the city, but that means it is a bit nosier and dirtier than other areas. This part of Huangshi is pretty, clean, and relaxing. It was a good change of scenery.
It was funny to see them being touristy in Huangshi, since Huangshi isn't exactly known for bringing in the tourist population. There are only a hand-full of foreigners who live in Huangshi, so they both got to experience the stares and being stopped by people who wanted pictures. When walking in Huangshi, it is possible that you are the first foreigner that the people have ever seen.
Taking a break in my office at school. Mom and Bud came with me to all of my classes that week to meet all of my students. It was so much fun. Every single time, the students would erupt into cheers and questions, some even applauded. They were shocked when they found out how old my mom is, claiming she looks so young! Although, half the time, they tell me that I'm old! Go figure! They always applauded when I explained to them what a fiance is...see, Mom and Bud provided them with a new vocabulary word. I let mom and Bud facilitate a game of "20 questions" in each class and the students absolutely loved it. They were much better behaved with mom and Bud there. I guess I'm old news to them!
We had a crazy, chaotic dinner with all of the other Zhong Relations teachers and our friends, the Randalls. There was a wedding taking place at the restaurant about 20 feet from our table and as all Chinese weddings are, it was incredibly loud!!! It was definitely a T.I.C. moment (This is China!), but unfortunately I don't think mom and Bud were mentally prepared for some of the craziness that comes with living in China! It was fun, though, and I was glad mom and Bud got to meet all of my friends.
Dinner with Diana and her daughter, Yue Yue. We also had lunch one day with all of Diana's family. Another day, we had dinner with our Chinese friends, Wang hao and Wu Xia. That was fun because mom and Bud got to experience what its like to communicate with Chinese people. Camille and I have become experts at "Chenglish". Several times, we had to translate my mom and Bud's English into the appropriate Chenglish translation so that the Chinese people understood what they meant and vise versa. Basically, you have to use the simplest forms of English words. Also, there are just certain words that Chinese people know instead of another word with an identical meaning. For example, maybe they know supermarket but not grocery store. This is just something you pick up on after living here. Cam and I hadn't noticed how much our language had changed until mom and Bud got here!
Yue Yue. She is quite the character.
No trip to China is complete without KTV. (karaoke)
Paul and Erin at Ktv.
Mom and Bud rockin' out!
I was trying to get an example of some of the funny English mistakes. This is the only one I was able to get! "all mu life".
Ha, not ready for that one!
This is the machine that has a list of all the songs you can choose from. Ktv is much more impressive and high tech than I had expected.
Diana brought us out to the new campus being built for our school. It is a very expensive rebuild that our school is very proud of. They brought us out here, hoping to reel us in for another year of teaching! It is amazing: a huge library, music room, gymnasium, swimming pool, dining hall and way more!
New classrooms.
New track and field with bleacher seats. These were the first bleacher seats I have seen in Huangshi.
In front of the library with Diana and one of the many Headmasters.
The school is huge and impressive, but its outside of the city, literally in the middle of nowhere!
SHANGHAI.
Nanjing Street. Similar to Times Square.
Nanjing Street.
On the tour bus.
The Bund. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty gross the entire time we were in Shanghai.
Entering Yu Yuan Garden. Beautiful, traditional, Chinese-style buildings filled with touristy shops and a garden at the center.
This is palm weaving and I have never seen it before. All of these are made by hand out of palm leaves!
His very first Starbucks coffee! Maybe China isn't the best place to give Starbucks a shot, though! Its just not as good as in America.
Nanjing at night.
Water Village. The Chinese Venice.
The very first post office in China.
They used to transport the mail on these boats.
Old postcards.
Going for a boat ride.
Our rower.
This used to be part of someone's home in this village. Needless to say, they were very wealthy.
Still part of the person's home.
We went to see Shanghai's famous acrobat show. As you can see, the whirlwind trip was starting to catch up with some of us....taking a cat nap while waiting for the show to begin. Just for the record, Camille and I were doing the same thing.
I am a goody-two shoes and follow the rules so I didn't take any pictures during the show and only snapped this one as the curtains were closing. It was an absolutely amazing show, though! Well worth it if you are ever in Shanghai.
I have ALWAYS, I repeat ALWAYS wanted to go to Madame Tussauds! I was so excited! I think you can tell from the picture that I was the only one really happy about this!
Meet my good pal, Jackie. Jackie Chan that is.
The one eye symbol is part of the sign language that we have created with our friend Wang hao, who barely speaks English. The one eye symbol means Lady Gaga. The two eye symbol means we are talking about our other Chinese friend, Dawn. Its a system!
They go well together, don't ya think?
Me and Al...just thinking...
I thought this was so funny, to see the little Chinese girl excited to pose as President with Obama. She was too cute.
Bond girls.
I thought this would be fun....
Pathetic! I need to start going to the gym again!
We took this one for our students. They all love the NBA especially Kobe Bryant.
Cam and I have this great relationship.... I have funny ideas and say something like "hey Cam, why don't you...." And she always says something along the lines of "ok" or "sure, why not".....
The result. Awesome!
His dream!
He is sooooo tall!!!!
Ok, well that was pretty much the overview of my mom and Mr. Bud's two week visit! It was a lot of fun and sad to say goodbye again when I had to return to normalcy in Huangshi. Who would have thought my mom would ever go to China!
