Weekend in Nanjing

10/23/12
Another trip to Nanjing this weekend! All of us girls in yongzhoung decided to make our way to Nanjing this weekend to attend church on Sunday. On Friday we finished all of our classes at around 3:00, packed our bags, and left on the 3 hour bus ride to Nanjing. When we arrived we had to take subway line 1 to the intercrossing line 2 then had to get off at the gouzhou station. I’m basically a pro at subways now..I think they are the greatest invention rather than taking taxis all over. Grace Idaho really needs to invest in some! We finally arrived at the westovers around 8:00. The westovers are a family who are from Utah. They have 6 kids all under the age 16. About 5 months ago they all had to pack up and make the journey over to china. It would be such a hard thing to do, and now after living here I really learned to appreciate that mom and the things she has to do of her kids. China is NOT an easy country to cook at..especially for 6 kids. The things they were all used to in America is not there..like normal diapers for her 1 year old, since they don’t even use diapers in china. Their house is quite big, and extremely nice! It was so nice to be able to spend all weekend at their house and have things be a little normal for 2 days. Saturday we had to meet sister yu, the branch presidents wife, and she took me Bridget and kiffyn to the doctor to get a physical. I don’t think I have officially announced it on my blog yet, but yes, I’m going on a mission. My papers should be all done and sent in by next week! I can’t wait!! Anyways…the physical went good, there was definitely a language barrier, but sister yu was there to help with that. After the physical president and sister yu took us to their home to have some lunch. They had some lasagna, garlic bread, and salad all prepared for us. Oh man I was really feeling at home eating a fresh salad!! After lunch we visited with them for awhile about their lives..they are really amazing people who have been everywhere! After visiting for a little bit sister yu told us of an American grocery store that is located by the nanjing university, so we got on another subway and off we went. We eventually found the grocery store, and man it was great to see normal foods, except for everything being so dang expensive! Turns out it costs and arm and a leg to buy any American food in china. We did meet a lot of nice English speaking people in the store, so it was worth it. One girl we really liked and got her number so we could contact her for the next time we went to Nanjing, her name was Ocybell. She definitely had the southern accent! The first thing she asked us was, “have ya’ll seen any baked beans in here, I’m really craving me some taste of home”. She was such a hoot to talk to, so we wandered around the store with her for a little bit. It was becoming dark so we decided to head home. On the subway back to the westovers there was an African American on the subway. So in china if you ever hear someone speaking English you automatically look to see who’s speaking it, even if its 4 carts down on the subway, you can definitely hear it. Well we heard the African American talking on his phone in English, so we go ever to meet him. He introduces himself and tells us a little about him. His name is lotus, and he is from Africa here teaching English as well. He had a little bit of an accent, so we really had to listen closely to what he was saying…pretty much like everyone else who speaks English here! After giving him our number and talking with him we went back to the westovers and watched Matilda with the family. It was a lot of fun! It was great to be with that family setting that I’m familiar to. It was great to see my Chinese parents (president and sister yu) and Chinese American family (the westovers).