mi familia en guangzhou :)

during my trip in guangzhou last week i was able to see my cousins/uncle/aunt and meet some new "old relatives"- my grandfathers younger sister and her family! it was pretty sweet- i never met them before but they took me in and treated me like their own... here's some pictures from my time with them:

my uncle, janet, aunt, and charlotte (their english names hehe)














hanging out w/ my cousin and her friends at a park (gettin ready for the year of the cow!)















pictures of my great grandfather- 1895 (a good looking chap!) and my grandfathers family- 1957














me, jenny (their grandaughter) and my great aunt/uncle- so cute!!














beautiful city!














it was a good time of rest and getting to see another city too- it's much much different than nanchang! as my teammates would say... big cities like guangzhou would be like LA and nanchang is like Boise, Idaho... but i still like it better- it's like the "real" china :) .. i think i had some culture shock visiting that city too.. i used an actual shower instead of shoilet for the first time in a while, drove in taxis that drove on the right side of the road, ate mcdonalds and japanese food, and saw many "laowai's" -foreigners!... it was slightly overwhelming and strange to be somewhere very different but i'm glad to be back home in nanchang for a bit until i'm headed off to thailand next week!!

oink oink

went to a pig farm yesterday in a nearby village and the smell from my clothes and shoes still lingers in the air, lovely.

so yesterday joelle, frances, amy, and i went to a village maybe 45 minutes away to "teach english" (more like sings songs and play) with 30+ kids...

it was an adventure getting there.. we took the bus- which had the craziest ads everywhere in the bus saying that this man is looking for a wife and he's 37 years old and owns a business or something.. so if you're interested you can call him! j/k hehe... then we had to walk a mile because the bridge was under construction- i'm clearly still not in the BEST shape... then we met up with some motorbikers and hitch a ride the rest of the way!





























once we got there the hosts were extremely generous and cooked not one.. not five.. but 15 dishes for us! i tried to be brave and try a little of it all but it was SO much! "hao chi" (pronounced: how chir- means taste good!)... we also drank our orange juice out of the bowl instead of cup- saves dishes















we also got a sweet tour of the hosts pig farm! they had piglets, mama jumbo pigs, teenager pigs, and hefty pigs to sell... i haven't been around pigs very much in my life and i'm quite thankful for that. haha... it was a neat experience for frances and amy because it was their first time to see them ever!





























after the grub we ventured off upstairs where we met with with children aged 10-13 mainly and taught them the hokey pokey, making melodies, head-shoulder-knees-and-toes, pharoah pharaoh, and shake a friend's hand (good thing i use to work at a camp!) they had so much energy but were embarrassed at first to do the motions and then they warmed up :) joelle was able to share the christmas story with them and one of the students translated- it was really neat because they were listening very carefully and it was probably their first time to ever hear it! :)















well blog readers.. that's it for now- i'm off to guangzhou for the week and hopefully back again for another post to keep you informed. :)