Weekend in 福州 (Fuzhou)

I spent this past weekend in Fuzhou--a last minute trip that my parents graciously offered to pay for--so that I could visit our old friends from when we lived there. I invited my friend Melissa to come with me, we bought our plane tickets Wednesday, and left Friday.

We caught a cab Friday afternoon to a travel agency and then got on a bus to take us to the airport in Shanghai. It took about two hours on the bus because of traffic, but both of us were able to sleep. We got to the airport at 6, grabbed some McDonalds, and checked in. About half the domestic flights leaving our terminal were delayed for some reason, so we were wondering if we would even be able to leave that night. While we were waiting for them to announce the time of our flight, we headed down to the lost & found. On the way back from our week-long trip, Melissa left her Chinese electronic dictionary in the plane. She had already called the airline asking about it, but we decided going to the lost and found ourselves would be more effective. 45 minutes later they told us for sure no one found it. We're pretty sure someone found it and is selling it on eBay, but at least we tried. They still hadn't announced anything about our flight, so we headed to a bookstore and I splurged and bought an English book while Melissa checked up on the latest US celebrity gossip in People. Finally we went through security and were able to board. The flight was only an hour but we hit some pretty bad turbulence. We decided it would be super sad to die in a plane crash in China and were thankful we landed safely.

Our good friend Jimmy and his wife MeiYun picked us up from the airport. It was so good to see them- it had been four years! It took a little over an hour to get to the city so the whole way we were able to talk and catch up. My Chinese has improved drastically from when I saw them last and from when we lived in China, and it was so fun to be able to talk to them about anything. It was also really fun to talk about funny memories we have. They took us to our hotel and we checked in and settled into our room no problem. Melissa and I were really tired after taking three tests that morning and then traveling all afternoon and night, so we both crashed.

Saturday morning we slept in a little and then went to Chinese breakfast for a total of 2 minutes before we returned to our room to eat granola bars. (Thank God for granola bars, I've eaten one every day this entire summer.) Then we headed out of our hotel and walked down the street we always used to walk up and down when we lived there. Our hotel was on the intersection of two streets that I was really familiar with, so that was really great. Our first stop was a hair salon to get our hair washed. We laid down on the beds and got a 30 minute head massage/hair wash. It was amazing. It was one of those times that you're so comfortable you just want to fall asleep, but at the same time you don't want to sleep because staying awake is better. It was so relaxing and for $3 we decided we need to find a place in Suzhou and go about eight more times before we go home. After our hair wash we walked to the town square and looked at Mao and then climbed up this hill behind the square. There were some old people hanging around, putting up personal ads for their single children who are looking for spouses, so we chatted with them for a minute. Then this one woman grabs onto mine and Melissa's arms and drags us over to this bench where she proceeds to go on and on about her son living in New York. She seriously was trying to sell him to us - telling us his height, what he's doing, his age, she pulled the picture of her purse, the whole nine yards. Then she started grilling us on our education level, what our parents do, how far away from New York we live, etc. So we're thinking oh geez woman we do not want to marry your son. Then she yanks us off the bench and we march up to this pagoda where she tells this dude playing some ancient Chinese instrument to stop playing so we can have a quiet place to chat. So she continues going on and on about her wonderful son (who is 31 by the way and not that cute) and finally we were like sorry we both have boyfriends (whoops a lie, but I really didn't want to get contracted into an arranged marriage). But really she told us our age was not suitable for her son and she really wants him to marry a Chinese woman living in the States and do we know any such person, particularly working on her doctorate? At that point we were both dying of heat because it was so humid and I was tired of her slapping my leg and yelling in my ear every time we got excited. So we told her sorry no such acquaintances and left. Oh China, funny situations everywhere you turn.

After that ordeal we grabbed some lunch and went back to our hotel where a friend was meeting us. Vanessa has really good English and is very funny, so it was a lot of fun catching up with her. I caught her up on what was going on with our family, and then she asked to see a picture. I showed her the only picture of my family I brought on the trip, and when she saw it she started crying because she misses everyone so much. She asked if she could have the picture so I gave it to her, even though I kind of still wanted it. I'm so glad we were able to see her because I know it meant a lot to her. After about an hour of talking in English we switched to Chinese, which was really good practice for Melissa and I.

After Vanessa left Jimmy picked us up and took us to Deng Yun, the neighborhood I used to live in. We got to see Jimmy's son for a little bit before he had to go to work at the Karaoke place. We had a lot of time to kill before MeiYun got off work, so we drove around the golf course, stopping every few minutes to get out of the car to take pictures. It felt so strange to be back in DengYun without my family and our old life there. We drove by our old house and they turned it into a restaurant, which is weird. Even though it felt really strange to be there, it was also fun seeing it again. I picked some flowers on the side of the road just like I always used to do when I would ride my bike and fill my basked with flowers. And DengYun just has this certain smell that just smells like home to me. On the way out of the resort we saw Jimmy's mom and I was glad to be able to see her too. Then Jimmy wanted to take us to this part of town that is being newly developed. It was on the side of the river and a bunch of people were swimming/standing knee-deep in the water with umbrellas since it was raining. Jimmy wanted us to look at the river so we got out of the car and ran up to this pagoda for cover from the rain. Too bad the pagoda was leaking and we got wet anyway. There was this man biking past us selling fish balls, so Jimmy asked if we wanted some. I said no but he had already yelled to the fishball man to stop and bring us a bowl. I think fishballs smell like urine, so I was not about to eat any. The fishball man came running up to us and I was like no thank you, and Melissa didn't want them either. Then the fishball man stuck his hand down the cup/bowl thing to grab the spoon that had gone under, and we were all like gross. Jimmy was like you just put your hand in the water, I'm scared of it, I don't want it anymore. Whew sigh of relief - thanks to the dirty hand and Jimmy's germophobia we were spared from the bathroom tasting/smelling fishballs.

After we left the riverside Jimmy drove us to the orphanage where he works. The kids were all watching a movie on TV so we didn't really get to interact with them much. Most of them are older- probably ages 7-18. We talked to a couple American students who were there teaching the kids English. I had been to the orphanage before but they've since built a really nice, new building. After we hung out there for a while, we went back to pick MeiYun up and go to dinner. We had really good conversation at dinner which was great. They miss our family so much and I know they are so glad whenever they can see any of us. Jimmy especially is thankful for all that my parents taught him by example as he observed them teaching and loving David and me and watching our family interact. It's encouraging to see how the time we spent in Fuzhou is still impacting their lives as they raise their son and make decisions. After dinner Melissa and I went back to the hotel and rested for a bit, and then went to walk around for a little bit. I saw a bakery we used to go to, so we went and bought some cookies and cake. Baked goods are always a gamble here, so the more you buy the better chances you have of something being good. The cake was okay, the chocolate cookies were pretty good, and the butter cookies were even better. It was a success as far as Chinese bakeries go. There was a bar next to our hotel so we went and hung out there and danced for a couple of hours. It's definitely a test of my Chinese to try to understand drunk Chinese people slurring their tones and words with loud music in the background.

We had every intention of sleeping in pretty late this morning, but the banging and drilling in the room above us woke us at 9:15. We were both like really? I called the front desk and told them the construction interrupted our sleep and it stopped after that, but that might just be coincidental. We lounged a little in our room, eating more granola bars and our cookies from the night before. Vanessa was coming back at 11 to take us to lunch. We took a cab to a restaurant where we met her father and mother-in-law, her two daughters, and her sister-in-law. Her husband was away on business so we weren't able to meet him. Her little girls are 2 and 4 so they are quite a handful. They were very cute there. Most of lunch consisted of us watching them do cute/kind of naughty things and listening to them practice a couple of English words or say funny things. I realized I've only really interacted with either really little babies or older children so it was fun to see a different age. The food we had at lunch was all really good, and it made me miss all of the dinners we used to eat with our friends in Fuzhou. We had shrimp, a crab & noodle dish, sweet & sour pork, Beijing roasted duck, dumplings, cauliflower, another noodle dish, tofu soup (ew I don't eat tofu though), sweet peanuts, corn, and we drank yogurt drink. Yum it was a good lunch. It was really fun watching Vanessa interact with her girls though. She was a teacher and loves kids, and she is such a good mother too. After lunch we said goodbye and headed back to the hotel. Jimmy and MeiYun picked us up and took us to where we could catch the bus to the airport.

Once we got to the airport we both really wanted a blended coffee drink. We went to this coffee shop and the menu said BOGO free coffee and we were like oh great, this place is a rip-off so this deal can make it semi-affordable. But then they tell us that the blended coffee drinks aren't included in the deal, just ice and regular coffee. Well Melissa has no fear, so she proceeded to tell them that that actually doesn't make very much sense, because the only difference between ice coffee and blended iced coffee is turning on the blender. Despite her logic they still told us they couldn't blend the coffee so we didn't buy anything. Once we got through security, we went to another coffee shop who also had ridiculous prices but they didn't have any BOGO deal. Melissa then told them that on the other side of security they had a BOGO deal, why don't you. They didn't feel pity for us poor college students so no coffee for us and we got on our plane. Thankfully when we checked in the guy asked us where we wanted to sit, so we got the front row of coach. Did you know foreigners can't sit in the exit aisle? That was my first choice and he said we couldn't. I hate being discriminated against.

Our flight was again very turbulent and the guy next to me did not know plane etiquette: he was hogging the whole arm rest, kept bumping into my shoulder while I was sleeping, was trying to cross his leg into my leg space, and was doing the pick, roll and flick deal with his boogers. Gross. Once we landed in Shanghai we hurried to the bus station at the airport to buy return bus tickets to Suzhou. We tried to buy them on Friday when we got there, but they told us you can only buy them the day of. Sooo inconvenient. Thankfully they had seats left on the bus and it was leaving in 15 minutes so we didn't have to wait long. Once we got back to Suzhou we went to a late dinner and even stopped in a bakery where they let you sample anything you want. Since we tried 3 different cheesecakes, tiramisu, and 3 other things, we felt obligated to buy something. So we bought a piece of cheesecake to split and brought it home. Yum I can't wait to eat it.

It was a really fun weekend, and I am so thankful I was able to see our friends. It means so much to them and the whole time I was there they kept talking about the next time when I could come back and visit. I hope that one day our whole family, or at least Dave, my parents and I, can go to Fuzhou together just like the old days. I'm also thankful that Melissa came with me. It would have been lonely traveling by myself! She has become a good friend and I'm thankful the Lord put us together on this program! I know I've done such a bad job at blogging lately... my goal is to catch up this week so hopefully it will happen!