China's National Holiday

So I have started this blog entry many times already but never actually posted anything...one time internet stopped working...one time power went off...one time - oh excuses: I admit, it's hard to update this regularly...

So many things have happened since last time I posted...a short version of it all:

I got to attend a 2 day long wedding (Sept. 30 - Oct. 1). It was a great experience that I could probably write a book about! Things that stood out:
-- Sept. 30th was celebrated at the bride's home by eating lunch an dinner together with an average of about 300 other guests. However, the groom did not get to the bride's home until later that evening. All night many guests stayed at the bride's home to play Mahjong (a game involving winning and losing of money) along with the bride and groom.
-- Oct. 1st started out early...at about 6 a.m. the groom went to the ancestor shelf of the bride's family and bowed several time. There were several other rituals. At about 7 a.m. about 6 carloads of guests went on their way to the groom's village (a 2 hour drive and a 1 hour hike -see picture). The bride's parents are not allowed to come with the wedding party to the groom's home...so at 7 a.m. the bride bid farewell to her parents. In China, the bride and groom do not really come together and form their own family - instead, the bride becomes part of the groom's family.
-- It was an extremely casual wedding. Only the bride and groom dressed up (see picture) for about a quarter of the day on Oct. 1st to present the bride to the groom's family...everybody else was in jeans and t-shirts, it was great! -- Oct. 1st also consisted mostly of eating food at the groom's village. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was soo nice to be able to be part of this wedding. Karen has a great family and even though she is back in university now I would definitely feel comfortable just stopping by at her parent's home to say hi. It was cute, after we brought Karen back to the bus station (to go back to university) Karen's mom (who does not speak English) just took my arm and walked me back to my home - I like her.

On Oct. 2 and 3 I went to a village about 3 hours into the boonies to visit some of my students. I love to see my students in their home setting! This village trip was especially nice because they let me help out with many things...like the rice harvest (see pictures), cooking etc. I learned so much and it was sooo much more fun than just sitting and talking to the people and being stared at!

The rest of the holiday I basically spent with some of my friends who were home from university (Karen, Ruth, Ted, Sky). It was really, really nice to have them around and to spend lots of time with them! Not only is their English good but they are just really cool people! Because it was China's National holiday there were many activities going on in town...duck hunt (ducks were thrown into the river and lots and lots of men swim after them. Who ever catches the duck is allowed to take it home and eat it - see picture), boat races, art displays etc. It was very neat to be part of it all!

Besides all that I have also been learning how to cook like a Chinese person, been teaching myself how to make bread, and have actually opened up one of the instant muffin mix packages from Canada...I figure I brought 6 so I am allowed to open one every 2 months.

Last but not least: I now have a "Janneke and Karen the second" (see picture). They are super cute turtles and although I have already let them fall off the table...I will try to take good care of them. It helps that they have a hard shell...they might be able to handle some unintentional abuse.