Quanzhou, China

Well hi! Currently I am in the Southeast of China being mom. For the Spring Festival (which you know as the Chinese New Year) everyone goes back to their hometowns to visit family and play and stuff. So Quanzhou is where I have ended up! The mom is joining us later in the week because she has to work so I get to be mom for a while. Let me tell you, it's rough. Jerry has it in his head that since his mom isn't here he is in charge and won't listen to anything I tell him. He throws the most obnoxious fits I've ever seen (apparently all Chinese children are very good at this). I will admit it, I have sunk down to the level of bribing him..... It is the only thing that works these days though. I have to hand it to him that he is adorable. Why did no one ever tell me how cute babies were when you bathed them?

The family is really nice. I get along with one of the aunts really well and we just make fun of each other in Chinglish (Chinese & English mixed together). The grandma is driving me insane but you gotta love her. She is trying to feed me at every moment of the day and when I say no she will literally try and shove it in my mouth or just drop it in my bowl. So of course, me being me I have started dropping things in her bowl that she doesn't want. K, it sounds a little immature when I say it out loud but we will get over it. And the grandpa is just adorable like them all. I just love old people.

We have visited 3 different Buddhist temples which are so interesting! I have so much respect for how much they worship their Buddha. One of them we took like 4783 pounds of food up a mountain and then it ended up all being a donation. Then I watched the grandma, aunt and uncle worship for two hours. Some of it is so bazaar though! We went into this tiny little room where you could only walk while smashed against the wall and there is this bed just sitting there all decorated in colorful ribbons and streamers. Then the next thing I know the grandma throws me down on the bed and everyone starts shouting and chanting. I was laughing so hard! So I guess I have been blessed. Haha a couple of other times we would walk around some circle on the ground and when I got around it everyone would start cheering. So I have no idea what we were doing but it was making them so happy!

We also climbed a mountain that in exact translation is called The Garden of Eden. It was so beautiful! I ended up carrying Jerry half way up, but I have to stay in shape somehow right? I ended up making a Chinese friend that speaks English! She came up to me so excited and said the famous English line that Chinese people learn in school, "Hi my name is Melissa, I am 19 years old, I am good and you?" haha It was darling. So she ended up hiking up with me and told me about 78 times how brave of a girl I am for coming to China by myself. After she kept telling me how happy she was that I had entered her life and she wanted to be friends everyday. Kept a smile on my face for a while.

So ya! Now Here we are all caught up on my life. 

xoxox