A beautiful day for a Wedding!

While we were at the park with our teacher and her family there were many, many, many weddings going on. Why so many weddings Jennifer?

Well, let me tell you. Here the number 8 is considered very lucky to have because it is associated with wealth or fortune. Many people and companies will pay a lot of money to have a phone number with a lot of 8's in it. Anyways... Sunday was the 18th of October so there were a lot of weddings happening on that day.

First up: Beautiful couple (even waving to us...we are so cool) It is becoming more common to have a "western" style wedding with a white dress. Many couples even have 2 weddings, on with a white dress and one with more traditional dress.

Here is a scene from a traditional wedding ceremony. 

 

I can't believe the background! Am I still in Asia? It looks so real! (ha!)

Ha! For some reason they thought this was a great idea. I want to see how their pictures turned out! 

Last but not least is the couple between the dancing dragons. When we were there up close and personal the bride didn't seem to happy about this one.

These were all different couples and there were a few more that we didn't get pictures of. It was really a fun expereince and see how a differnt culture celebrates weddings. Talking with our teacher and finding out more about her own wedding was very interesting. There are things that were similar to our own wedding but then again some things were very different. I hope someday to expereince attending a wedding here for real, not just as an onlooker.

Fun with a fun family!

So, we have been asked by one particular teacher, since last year, if we could come to her house. Things happened and we finally got around to going over. At first I was admittedly not so excited about this. I mean it was taking up my Sunday and I really enjoy my Sundays. Plus it was going to be a huge stretch for our language.

She came and picked us up a little after 11 in the morning in her personal car. That was a first, the only vehicles we have been in here were taxis or buses. Taking a ride in a personal car was a different story. People here are not known for their great traffic behaviors so I didn't know what to expect. To sum up the experience was not so bad, I only thought we were going to hit someone just once.

Our teacher is married and has one daughter. Their daughter is so precious! She is only 4 and that worked out just fine because that is about where my language level is....a 4 year old! Ha! My oh my does she have a lot of toys too! Since she is the only child I think she has complete domain over that whole space in their apartment.  It was fun getting to play games with her and our teacher said that she could tell that I was meant to work with children. Her husband knows some English and was wanting to have a chance to practice using English so it was spent 50/50 English and non English. I felt like it was a very sucessful language day for both of us.

The family made us lunch and were the most hospitable people I have ever been with. For lunch we had 2 kinds of jiaozi (dumplings), stringed potatoes, and scrambled egg with peppers. We had a pork dumpling that was probably one of the best I have eaten and they also made some sweet dumplings, which literally were filled with sugar and steamed. They were pretty good but I couldn't eat more than 3 they were pure sugar! I also think I have consumed enough sodium for the entire month, my lips are kind of raw right now.

Here are some of the pictures with them. Enjoy!

This is a picture of one of their walls in the apartment. Yes, those are stickers. Jared called it a Milky-Way of stickers.  That will be a huge pain for someone to clean off someday.

Me and our teacher!

 The food was so delicious! By the time we sat down to eat there was 3 times as much food on that table and I am not even kidding.

This is their daughter. After lunch we went to a nearby park to play. She took her pink bunny and picked some flowers along the way. Here she is pretending she is asleep under a tree.

And, here I am with some of the many toys she kept giving to me to play with.

It was such a fun day and I am so glad we had the opportunity to spend some quality time with them. Not such a bad way to spend a Sunday after all! 

Now for something a little more upbeat!

There is not a lot of Halloween stuff to be found here in Asia; however, it has been found!  On a shopping excursion, totally unrelated to Halloween, we came across some fun costume props and decorations. They are all ridiculously over priced so we just had fun with them in the store and here are some pictures that came from it.

Wow I just turned into a Pretty Pretty Princess! Face to body proportion...a little off!

Pretty Princess turned into evil witch. Maybe not too evil just weird looking. Jared said I looked like the character in The Teacher from the Black Lagoon. Oh my Jared!

Here is Meredith behind the child size Harry Potter cut out. I think it is a great disguise, who would ever know it was not the really Harry!

Last but not least, Jared trying to be little HP. I don't think this is going to work out.

It was a fun excursion and bought some other things besides the over prices cut outs. These ideas won't work for us this Halloween, so give us some help and make some suggestions for home-made costumes. My skills and equipment are limited.  I will be sure to give you an update of what is decided as well as a review of our famous 2nd annual Halloween party here in Asia.

Tragedy Strikes

So, I hope you all cherish those last photos I posted. I have to tell you some sad news. Today...well, now yesterday October 5th, Bunny moved on to a bunny's paradise in the big sky...she died. I was deeply saddened at this and cried for quite a while actually. I know she wasn't even my pet, but I cared and loved that animal. We had 2 great days together.

It made me think, man, I can't even take care of a rabbit for 3 days while my friend is gone! I know there is nothing I did that caused this to happen, and its not like we have a vet to take it or any other animal to go see when it becomes sick. Maybe in the States I will have better luck with animals.  Oh! Another gift a friend gave me is called Mrs. Garden. It is a small pot that came with seeds, you water it and watch it grow..... still has not grown!  I hope this isn't a sign of how well I will care for children in the future! ha!

I just cried so much over this rabbit I took care of for 2 days, I know I will be a wreck when we have a dog that lives a long good life passes away!  Good Bye Bunny, I will miss you!

Bunny-sitting!

As of today we are caring for a pet. This has never happened for Jared and I as a couple, so it could get interesting. Our friends here have a pet rabbit and its name is.....Bunny! We have a long holiday with week and so some of the girls decided to go visit another city, and they asked if we would bunny sit.  I was more excited than Jared at this great opportunity. I loved going over last year and playing with her when she was just a baby bunny, now she is full grown! Here are some pictures of Bunny and Me. Jared just hopes this does not become a permanent move or desire for me to have my own bunny.