Running Away to China: Quanzhou, Ziamen & Piano Island.

First things first, only way to survive in Quanzhou, China -

1) Don’t look inside the food after you've taken a bite
and
2) Don’t ask what it is.

I have eaten the most bazaar things the past two weeks. And since it is Spring Festival they are bringing out the big guns…. Chicken feet, slugs, snails (which surprisingly aren’t bad at all), pig veins, you name it. And those are just the things I’ve asked about. The rest, too gruesome. One of them is literally what you find in a child’s nightmare. I couldn’t get myself to eat it let alone really look at it. I sat there and watched one of the aunts eat it for like 10 minutes. She looked over at me half way through and started cracking up because my jaw was wide open and I had the most disgusted look on my face.

Clams are very good

Chicken foot and the child's nightmare.

pig veins

no clue....

this dinner was actually awesome

and this is what a cloud tastes like. so good!

It has been rough here. No play, all work. And it’s 60 degrees outside! I just want to go explore on my own without anyone yelling at me. Yesterday I was able to go out with my host mom, her sister, husband, Jerry and Emma (the newest babe I've been taking care of). We went to a completely different city called Xiamen which has a beach! Sadly instead of spending the day on the beach we went from home to home saying happy new year to relatives, friends, random people…. haha we ended up stopping at about 17 different houses. Some of them are quick hellos and get out of there as fast as you can, but some of these Chinese people are really good at trapping you in the second you enter through the door. It all goes the exact same - “Who is this blonde girl? Please sit down! Here is this huge box of candy for the children, please eat all of it! Drink our tea! Drink more tea. Okay now here is some more……… (then a bunch of conversing that I don’t know) Let me get you some more tea (this whole tea thing isn’t very good for a girl with the smallest bladder known to man) Okay before you leave drink some more tea really quick. Okay bye! Happy New Year!”

And that is what I went through all day long. Haha but get this, I found a candy that I like! It’s Chinese but tastes like a starburst and laffytaffy mixed together. So all day I smuggled as many of those as I could whenever everyones heads were turned.

After the visitations were done we got in a boat and went to Piano Island. My host mom said during Spring Festival is a terrible time to go because there are so many people, and boy was she right. Took a couple pictures with people here and there, carried my babies around, the usual, but it was actually really awesome! Some very beautiful scenery that I wish I could have spent the whole day walking around and looking at. And I got to be right by the ocean :)

Emma, aka the cutest thing on Earth

Xiamen city

This line was fun to wait in....

Dinner was weirrrrrrrd. We met up at this restaurant with a bunch of people I don’t know that spoke English. First time I’ve wished that someone didn't speak English…. They were so rude! And is it weird that I get offended when someone asks me if I need a fork and spoon? Haha 4 months ago I would have been asking for one myself, but now since I am pretty much a pro I feel like I’m being made fun of almost. Like, “haha stupid American can’t use chopsticks.” K hold on, I use chopsticks better then some Chinese people thank you very much. My ego is not my amigo… Anyway, later on in the meal I randomly got this feeling of, hmmmm lets use the word content. Yes, content is a good word for it. As I was looking around watching all of these Chinese people slurp up this disgusting food in a disgusting way I realized that they all have this cute way about them. Every single one of them had something so beautiful about them. So as one of the moms was opening and closing her mouth with the baby that she was feeding like it would make her child open it’s mouth, as one of the Children were screaming Cinderella at me, as one of the nannies was lecturing me that all Americans are fat, and as one of the men that I strongly disliked was making rude remarks at my Chinese, I was happy.

Fast forward to today.

More visiting home, more tea, more small talk, more people laughing at me whenever I speak Chinese. I don't know why they do so much! I don't know if it's a "we are laughing because it's so cute when you speak it" or if it's a "wow, you are dumb and need to stop." So thanks to them I am too self conscious to speak...... BUT GUESS WHAT? We went to the beach today! Only for like 10 minutes but I was so giddy.