Sensory Overload

Early yesterday morning my roommate Chelsey and I maneuvered our way through the city and hopped (actually ran) onto a bus that would take us about an hour North to a city called Tieling. This is the hometown of her boyfriend and was said to be a smaller city (small to Chinese standards -- not American). It was here that we were to spend the Chinese New Year, allowing us the opportunity to celebrate this holiday with a true Chinese family.

We got there pretty early, met up with Caleb (the boyfriend), and eventually made our way to his grandparents tiny apartment. The evening included all of the following (in no particular order): a big meal of mostly meat (when they don't know what exactly something is here, it's usually just referred to as "meat"), some competitive card games, a bit of fireworks (more on that later), a short visit to a different relative's house, an interesting lesson on how to make a dumpling (which is harder than it sounds), another huge meal of the homemade dumplings and some other random food, a lot of translating between English and Chinese, and a tiny puppy who I took more pictures of then anything else so far in China.

Ok -- a little more details about the first night. Picture the 4th of July in America, and multiply it by a couple thousand. Then take legal fireworks (and I mean legal to buy, and set off -- anywhere you want), and add in a city of 3 million people. This country takes this holiday seriously. We were lucky enough to witness a firework demonstration right above our heads (literally), but the noise and chaos didn't stop all night (and the next morning). The air was full of smoke and you had to be careful where you walked because fireworks were being set off everywhere. Completely unlike America -- and awesome.

Now about the puppy. This tiny thing (which fit into my hand and could hardly walk straight because it was so small and young), was the cutest thing I've ever seen. It should not have been taken away from it's mother, but it seemed to be okay. The family fed it meat, so what more did it need! I played with it and held it for hours, and wanted to take it with me!

Today was also an interesting cultural day. We ended up going out to a big restaurant (it was more like a private banquet room), and had lunch with the other side of Caleb's family. This family was loud and super nice, and loved to drink! We had a ton of food and took a lot of pictures, and just had a great time. Afterwards we made our way to the train station and enjoyed a quick 50-minute ride back to Shenyang.

Now I'm relaxing in the comforts of my warm apartment, preparing for our 3-day trip even further up North to Harbin, which starts early tomorrow. I am excited to get to see another part of China, and am sure I'll have more stories to share once I get back! Much love.