Suzhou

Sorry that it has taken me so long to blog about this, I have a lot of old news I want to blog about, so the next few posts will just be catch up!

Our adventure begins!

My family and I went to Suzhou during a school break!  It was actually quite an experience!  It was a mini backpacking trip through China (my family also went to HangZhuo after  Suzhou, but I had to go home earlier).  We packed our backpacks with the minimum amount of stuff, and left for the train station.  Other than the fact we wanted to go to Suzhou and a few of the things we wanted to do in Suzhou, we had no plans.  Train tickets had not been purchased, and a hotel had not been booked.  Let me assure you, this is so far out of the ordinary for our family, but it was one of the best vacations we've had.  One thing that made it even more fun is before we went my dad asked on Facebook for Chinese things (not specific places like the Great Wall, but something like "Stinky Tofu") people wanted a picture of, and as the trip went along we attempted to find all these thing and post the pictures on Facebook.

Now Suzhou is known as the "Venice of China" because parts of the city has waterways instead of roads.  We knew we wanted to go to a part of the city like that, but we didn't know where exactly to go, so when we got to  Suzhou, we asked a man in the metro station which stop had the canals, and he pointed us in the right direction.  There was a hotel right next to the metro station the man recommended we went to, but we decided to walk down to the canals and check that out before booking a room, and boy and I glad we did that!  There was this cute little hotel right next to the waterway, and it was amazing staying right on the banks.

So after got all settled in, we went on a boat ride, it was so beautiful!  But it was also quite entertaining.  When we got on the boat, there was a group of chinese people who gathered on the banks of the canal to gawk at the lao wai (foreigners), as often happens.  We talked to them about where we were from, why we were in China, how amazing our parents were for having 7 children, you know, just the basics. Oh and of course, lots of pictures were taken.  It was a beautiful ride, but of course after a few minutes my brothers became restless, so we pretended like we were being followed by pirates, and if we were caught we'd be killed, so every time another boat would come by we would duck down and hide.  My brothers had quite a lot of fun with that!

The Suzhou specialty

Then we went to dinner at this cute restaurant where all the seating was outside.  One of our hotel rooms actually looked out onto the restaurant, and that's how we found out about it in the first place! There's this specialty dish in Suzhou, I can't remember what it's called, but it's like a sweetish soup with this little doughy balls made out of some sort of flower. Not everyone in my family liked it, but my mom and I quite enjoyed it.

After dinner, we decided to explore this area we were in.  There were lots of Chinese shops, and in one I bought an abacus keychain (I actually collect keychains from everywhere I go, and have over 30), and ever since I've secretly hoped that someone will need some calculation done, and I can just pull out my abacus and do it, and now I guess I don't "secretly" hope that anymore, but it is still a hope!  As we walked a little further down the street there was this man selling clay keychains that he had made.  He had made all these little characters, and they were really impressive.  He had a newspaper clipping hung up about him making these keychains, and the keychains were so cheap, my dad bought us each one.  It amazes me when people have the skill and patience to do something like that!

"He ain't heavy, He's my brother" -My Dad

The next morning we went to the "ancient theatrical stage"  We had seen a sign for it the night before, and I wanted desperately to see it.  I was expecting some cool Chinese stage, but it was actually a place to dress up in traditional Chinese garb and get your picture taken.  To do all that was expensive, but they did have a guan jiao, or a sedan chair, and they let us take our own pictures for free (but we did end up buying one of the ones they took).  So now we have a cute picture of us carrying Declan and Trevon (The two little emperors) with Liam just chillin' in the from.  

We then went to Eden, which is a chocolate factory.  Marissa heard that you could take tours of the factory, but when we got there we found out that they must be scheduled in advance.  Luckily, my dad was able to use his awesome Chinese speaking skills, and he talked the lady into having someone give us an impromptu tour.  She did speak english, but I know if we had just been random lao wai who didn't speak Chinese we would have had no chance of going on the tour, so luckily we were random lao wai with a dad who's fluent!  There wasn't much going on in the factory due to the fact that it was the "off season".  But they were packaging some chocolate, which was interesting to watch because in China it's actually cheaper to hire people to package all the chocolate than to have a machine do it.  It's crazy to even think about, but it totally shows why everything is "MADE IN CHINA".  

After we had taken the tour and bought more chocolate than was probably necessary (who am I kidding, it's chocolate) Everyone was pretty hangry (So hungry you're just in a foul mood).  We hadn't really eaten breakfast or lunch that day, so we went back to where our hotel was, and ate at the restaurant next door again, gathered up our luggage and left for Shanghai.  

We wanted to be in Shanghai longer than one night, but we ended up leaving Suzhou later than expected, so we stayed in Shanghai for a night, then the next day my family headed off to Hangzhou, and I back to Nanjing.  While we were in Shanghai, I did have a very neat experience.  Walking back to the hotel from dinner, my parents and a few of the siblings got quite a bit behind, so we stopped at a corner to wait for them, and some old Chinese women started talking to us.  At first they thought I was the mother, and were quite impressed with my 4 kids, so I explained to them that I wasn't actually the mother, I was the oldest sister, and my parents actually had 7 kids.  They believe me, and I think they just thought I didn't know what I was saying, and I tried to explain that my parents were back aways, but I couldn't quite figure out how to say it.  So we began to go into the usual stuff that they always ask us, but this conversation was different, for me at least.  I was able to understand everything they said, and answer most everything.  The conversation did go more indepth than usual because we were waiting there for awhile, and talking them seemed to come naturally, it was fun.   Chinese is a very hard language to learn, but at that moment I felt like I had accomplished quite a lot in the realm of learning Chinese.  It was a moment when I realized how much I loved it.  It was a moment that showed me I might actually be able to pass my Mandarin final exam (I had, and continued to be until I received the results, so scared that I wouldn't pass).  

It was great just to be able to have this time with my family before I left.  I had so much fun, and I wouldn't trade those people for the world.  It's weird to think I might not have anymore Chinese Westover Family Adventures again, hopefully I'll go back for Christmas, and I can have some then, but who knows what might happen!  All I know is that this is one of the many memories I will cherish forever, and when I say forever, I truly mean for eternity.  I love you guys, and I miss you.  

Here's to the best siblings in the world!