1st day of the Wedding

This is the first wedding that I've attended that I actually knew the person that was getting married! It was big Big Momma's niece. It was definitely a special occasion because we had been invited to the family celebration!

Hui weddings are usually a 2-3 day extravaganza. We got out of class on Friday and then headed towards Hui Men Jia Area- the area of town were all the Hui Chinese live (there are 56 different people groups in China - Hui is considered one of largest groups, they are ethnically Chinese and culturally are all Muslim).

The celebrations are an all day thing, just hanging out with family and friends, chatting, and eating pretty much all day! It was a lot of fun getting to be apart of the celebration and getting to know the family more.

Hanging out in 奶奶 (nai nai -grandma's) house waiting for the ceremony

The lady in the middle is the grandma of our friend

The view from the house

Preparing to go down the street
Part of the cermony is moving the bride and all her stuff to her new home - which we were part of and was a lot of fun

We got to see her before the ceremony - she said she was so nervous... tradition is that the bride has to wait in her room until the groom comes and knocks on the door and gets her

Then he brought her down to the room where we and the rest of the family were all waiting. They did the cermony in Chinese and Arabic as they did the vows, prayers, and blessed them.


Some of the fathers and grandpas all waiting in anticipation

We were crammed in the room with all the family

This was the first day of celebrations... wait till you see the second day!

Art exhibit found inside a textile factory outside of town

We heard there might be an art exhibit about an hour outside of our city in a small town, so we boarded a bus and was on our way!

Once we arrived we asked people along the way where it was located... they pointed us in the direction towards a factory...?!?

Walked onto the factory grounds....

And found this!

Amazed that we found a random art gallery in a textile factory

Some terracotta soldiers!

Put this on here just to show you the size of these huge paintings! Sean is a tall guy, he's 6'4 (195cm) and these tower him

Interesting... kinda scary

Bell Tower

This was a huge painting on the wall

Visiting friends in Yulin!

When I was here two years ago in the south I met a girl named Sherry on the street. She and I became really good friends and stayed in touch. During our Chinese Year break I took a train with a few friends to go visit her and her family and another classmate that lives there.

Sherry's hometown is in Yulin, its far north and borders inner Mongolia and the Ordos Desert. They get a lot of sandstorms and the weather is very dry. Its a small city with
roughly 300,000 people.

Sherry and her family are originally from a little village called Wubo (north of Yulin). While in high school she moved to Yulin, then she went to the very south part of China to Kunming to go to college (and thats when I met her).

Just got off the 12hr train got to see Sherry (the one in green) for the first time in 2 years!

Sherry's mom insisted on cooking all the meals! She's an amazing cook! It was such an amazing experience getting to see her home, family, and how they live and eat everyday!

Sherry, her sister Nancy, and their little cousin (who they call little sister) who lives with Sherry's parents in Yulin-there a is better school there for her, so she attends that and sees her real parents once a month -also the most independent and rambunctious little girl! Her and I had a lot of fun together!

Streets of Yulin

Sherry and her sister Nancy

Fort

We had to walk up this to get to the Wall, it was a complete sheet of ice all the way up

This is the original city wall that was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644) - which we got to walk along!

Sherry and her cousins that came and joined us for the day

There were houses built inside the wall! People lived inside the walls of the city! Amazing!

Another friend of ours, named Sky, is from Yulin. We also hung out with him and his family. They served us 'you tiao' (fried bread with date/red bean), 'millet zhou' (water and millet), veggies, and pig ears.

Pieces of the Great Wall being restored from the Qin Dynasty (221 BCE - 206 BCE)!

Huge Fort! Amazing to see parts of the Great wall!


Parts of the Great Wall being restored
All of us!

This is Red Stone Gorge- outlined with grottoes craved in ancient writing

At night walking up to the Pagoda

Inside and climbing our way up!

The ancient Pagoda

Loved getting to see Sherry, meeting her family, and seeing her hometown. Last week she had to travel down south and she stopped for the day in my city and we got to spend it together.

Later this week she's coming back through and and is staying for a few days in my home! Super excited!

Li Na's Birthday!

We were invited to go and celebrate Li Na's birthday with her friends and family! It was a lot of fun!

Some of the employees came in and sang Happy Birthday!



Li Na is the one standing up in black

Our table and some of our friends

Hot Pot! See the plates of raw meat and veggies behind my pot, you take those and throw them into the little pot and it cooks. Its actually really good. Although this night... I had to eat my meat out of Rachel's pot because my little fire that heats the pot wasn't working... and I didn't want to accidently eat raw meat not cooked all the way

Krista, Rach, and I at the end of the evening

Spring Festival! *FIREWORKS*

During Chinese Spring Festival the last night is called 元宵节 Yuánxiāojié Lantern Festival. There is an estimated 8 million people that live in my city and 1 billion that live in this country and I do believe most them were out that night shooting off fireworks! Needless to say, there were moments when I actually feared for my life!

Click here to see VIDEOS!

Huge fireworks sold on every street corner!

Thousands of people take to the streets! (Look- the fireworks are being shot off next to the firework stands)! Crazier than any 4th of July party I've ever been too!

The police standing by and watching

Sean and our friends doing some shopping!

They are happy guys! They purchased their fireworks!

Headed to the street to set off??

Going off! (yikes-see the bus???) Thankfully I never saw anyone get hurt (on my intersection)


The result!

A still shot from a video - go the link "My videos" (at the top of the page) and watch what happens! They are shooting the fireworks off in the street - very normal apparently?!?

The firework shooting off! (ahh... next to the cars-scary!)


Another firework shot off in the middle of the intersection

I live on the 23rd floor of my building and watched fireworks from above- and as they hit my windows!

For about an entire 24 fours all I heard were fireworks going off. They started that morning around 8am (not sure why- because you can't see them in the daylight) but just sounds like gun shots and bombs going off the entire time! It was such a fun day! We hung out with friends and lite off our own fireworks - I highly recommend watching the videos!