Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Another way too long post! Above are photos of 5 Elephant Square it's basically the city center of Nanning, Ezra and I went there for family night!

Things in China are good! Here are some little blurbs about life in China!

Blurb  #1

The Chinese totally have a thang for colored lights. Lights line the freeways, they're on all the buildings, even the light in our living room changes three different colors- --purple, yellow, and white. And the light in our master bedroom has hello kitty on it, I'm not kidding---it's so romantic! We also have tweety bird in one of the other rooms. Lol Why you would ever want that I have no idea! Funny! (I'll post some pictures soon!)

Blurb #2

The traffic here is absolutely Nutty- Nut—teee. I'm talkin New York times like a million! I took my first bus ride the other day. I could not find enough things to hold onto. There is no such thing as yielding to the pedestrian, or the bike, or anything for that matter.

We were taking some sweet curves at like 50mph and when the bus driver finally used the brake it was not pressed lightly. I'm sitting there thinking "We are so gonna die" and then I look around and everybody else on the bus looks calm and completely content including Ezra (he's weird).

There seem to be no traffic rules and traffic lights are kind of like suggestions. I would NEVER drive here. And I don't want to be in anything smaller than a bus on these roads. There are tons of people on motorized bikes and mopeds. My funny observance is that the Adults always wear the helmets and safety gear while the child/children riding on the back wear nothing. Hmmm.

 Blurb#3

We go out to eat a lot. Luckily there's a pizza hut and a kfc close, they are pretty much the only places that have forks. Everywhere else you have to use chopsticks. Chopsticks were not really something I thought about before I came here.

The first time I used Chopsticks was when we were out with a bunch of people from Ezra's work. They brought out the food and I started looking around for a fork.. And then it finally dawned on me, "my fork days are over!" And of coarse we ordered noodle soup! So I grabbed those puppies and went at it. Before long noodle broth was flying everywhere and I had all the Chinese at my table laughing.

Within about a minute I also had a table of Chinese businessmen across the way laughing.  Finally a guy from Ezra's work had pity on me and decided to give me a few pointers. I am happy to announce that by the end of the meal I was doing quite well and I have been getting better ever since! Ezra is a natural with chopsticks. He even gets compliments from Chinese people on his chopstick abilities.

Blurb#4

We were sitting waiting for our waitress and this women and her little girl walked by. I wasn't really paying much attention. Out of nowhere Ezra says "you've just been the victim of a drive by shooting." Apparently the women had her camera phone out and snuck a picture of me. Ezra caught a glimpse of the picture on her screen. Lol  So funny! I guess if I saw a freak of nature in my hometown I might try to catch a photo too, can't wait til I have a "twin" pregnant belly to add the freakiness!

Blurb#5

Whenever we go out parents try to make their children (studying English in school) talk to us. It's so funny. One lady practically forced her 10 year old boy to speak to us. Another lady taught her two year old to say "hello, how are you?"---so cute!

Another little girl was staring at me in Wal-Mart so I said "ni hao" a few minutes later I heard her say "hello" I was surprised and said "hi" with a really funny inflection in my voice. Soon the mother and her two daughters where repeating the word "hi" over and over with my exact same inflection. It was hilarious!

The same trip to Walmart an old lady walked by me with her cart . A few seconds after passing me she started to laugh and laugh. She looked back at me as she turned the corner with her hand held high above her head.  Apparently my height was amusing to her. I couldn't help but laugh too!

Blurb#6

I'm trying to be open minded.  So when we go out to these Chinese food places I give just about everything that looks safe a try. The other day they brought out what looked like soggy lettuce. I thought "hey…I'll give it a try maybe it 's covered in some magical sauce that makes it taste good." Nope- I'm here to tell you that it looked like soggy lettuce and it tasted like soggy lettuce.

Ezra loves Chinese food (he is so weird!).  He will try anything. Last night they gave us three boiled bird eggs the size of a robin egg with what looked like bacon around it. Ezra gobbled them right up. I was like "I don't know what kind of bird that came out of but it definitely was not a chicken! No thanks!

Blurb #7

My friend Ashley can speak pretty good English but every once in a while the ideas don't completely connect. Yesterday she called me and told me that we were going to meet with the Dr. around 6pm. So I told Ezra that he was going to have to make himself available to accompany us to the appointment.

To make a long story short Ashley picks us up, takes us to her house to park her car and we start walking down the street in front of this Chinese strip mall. All of the sudden she turns into this little building. Two women wearing white robes greet us at the door, and I can see fish swimming in a little brook next to the stairs. I'm thinking, "we have had a big miscommunication here, this is some sort of Chinese spa, not a hospital."

Ezra and I look at each other but just continue to follow her up the stairs. Soon we come to this little room where we are asked to take off our shoes. And it finally dawns on us. We are going to dinner (Japanese style). Soon the Doctor, her husband, and a few others show up and we all have dinner. The whole time I thought I was going to a Dr. s appointment! But turns out we were just meeting for dinner.

Dinner was actually really fun. 2 English speakers: Me and Ezra. 4 Chinese: The doctor, her husband, Ashley's best friend, and Ashley our translator. I have to say, we hardly need a translator with Ezra. I am in complete awe at his ability to make friends. It's like a language barrier does not even exist. He is able to connect with these people so quickly, the way they respond to him is seriously almost magical.

The doctor is a cute old lady that's been delivering babies for 34 years, she told us that our babies are going to look like angels and the Chinese women were calling Ezra handsome boy in Chinese. lol At dinner Ezra had everybody laughing and laughing. The cute little Dr. is like totally in love with him. When we showed up at our real appointment the next day and the doctor realized that Ezra had also come along she about fell out of her chair with excitement, I was like "what I am? Chop liver?" jk

I was really nervous but everything was fairly normal. The Hospital(which is actually a women's center) was not like anything you see in the states, many people were waiting on every floor. 

Turns out this cute little Dr. is a head hauncho, she let us cut in the probably four hour long line. We felt kind of bad, the other patients were probably thinking, "hoity toity Americans." Oh well….

They poked around and then took us in for and ultrasound. Their equipment is not quite as advanced as in the states but we were still able to get some pretty good ultrasound pictures. They said that the babies are healthy and they could see all the normal body parts and their little hearts beating. Ashley said that they were talking to each other. Baby one is about 1milameter bigger than baby 2. Maybe we have a boy and a girl in there, that would be cool! Best part was we didn't have to fill out any paperwork and the Dr. said that we did not need to pay a dime! Sweet!  It's good to make connections.

Blurb#8

Ashley took me shopping. She is all about finding the best price and since she grew up in Nanning she knows where all the best prices are. Everything here is soooo cute. I'm looking at the clothes and shoes thinking "these are so much cuter than anything I find in the states."  I can actually fit in most of the clothes (right now, wink), but the shoes just taunt me. They do not come in my size-not even close and they are soooo cute and cheap and there are sooooo many of them, awwwwww!, its torture. Maybe Ashley and I will get lucky one of these days and find some in my size, she says she knows where some wholesale places are where they sell exports so maybe Ill have luck there. Ashley explained to me that in the South of China everyone is really small.

When we looked up what the weather was going to be like here it said subtropical, well it feels more like sub-zero. I have been so cold, the humidity makes it stick to you! We were told it was going to be like Florida. Maybe in a few months! Anyway I didn't really bring a good warm coat and I've been freezing my toosh off, literally. So Ashley helped me find a cute coat that is soo warm. I got it for such a great deal. I've always been a bargain shopper so I'm like in heaven right now!

Here is the best news of all, we found out that Ashley has immigrated to New Zealand so she is now considered a foreigner in China. Which means that she can join us for church meetings! She is thrilled that Ezra can bless the sacrament for her. Now we have four members in Nanning: Me, Ezra, Dan(Ezra's coworker), and Ashley! Woo hoo! Ashley  has been such a huge blessing to us, I seriously don't know what I would do with out her. I 'm still amazed that in a city with over 6.5 million people Heavenly Father got the only 2 Mormon girls together within a week! I really don't know how we would have been able to find a doctor with out her.

Ezra and I are not sure why we're getting the royal treatment, but we do know that we are very thankful that everything is falling into place so nicely.

Right now is kind of crazy because Chinese New Year is just around the corner, everything shuts down for about two weeks. No one works and there are lots of parties and LOTS of fireworks! They say it sounds like a war and feet of ash and firework wrappings cover the ground! I guess we will just have to get out and try to enjoy some of the festivities! When in Rome do as the Romans, right? We are headed to Hong Kong for a few days  over the holiday! I'm excited to go there, the plane ride is only and hour, whew! Ezra says it's his favorite city, we're going to hit up the sites, and hopefully be able to go to the temple.