Thankful

In China, I was lucky to have an entire week of Thanksgiving!! Just...lookin' on the bright side of it all--of course I missed my family like crazy. This week was a great one, though. We taught our students what Thanksgiving is and the importance of gratitude. We had the little kids make turkeys and label each feather with something they are grateful for. Of course, there were the given things like mom, dad, family, friends, China, food. But I loved to see the creative ones my kids came up with, like God, tomorrow, teacher, and the earth. These kids really have the Spirit of Thanksgiving inside of them. It was so sweet to see. I'm so thankful for my students' example of love. I don't think I could've survived this experience with out them.

On actual Thanksgiving day I ate Campbell's chicken noodle soup that we got in Hong Kong. Mmmmmmmm. I was just thankful for American food. Plus, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving this weekend. So it was alllll good in da hood.

So Saturday we visited the city and hit up KFC and got our favorite Sichuan Chicken Sandwich. Yum. Spicy. But good enough. And we walked around and sat down on the edge of a river looking at all the small Chinese houses scrunched together when a cute old lady, around 60, came up to us and started talking to us in Chinese. I could kinda guess what she was asking--the usual "where are you from? How many people in your family? How old are you? What are you doing in China?" And I could answer in my broken Chinglish but mostly I could just say "ting bu dong" which is "I don't understand." She then pointed to her head and my head and said "ting bu dong" and then pointed to our hearts and said "ting da dong." And I truly felt a connection with her, like we understood each other. I am so thankful for little experiences like that. And I'm really excited for that day when I get to see her again and we WILL be able to understand each other and remember that day sitting on the edge of the river.

Today we were planning to go to the city and continue our Thanksgiving festivites by finding a yummy, hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant to eat at. But those plans were interrupted when our friend said she was visiting with her family to meet up with us. And we've never met in person and they came to Tongcheng so they could meet us. Hahaha oh...the Chinese always spring up on you like that. So we met up with Sufei, whom I've been texting back and forth that is friends with our liaison. We drove with her grandma, parents, and Sufei to the city and her parents took us out to lunch to a VERY nice restaurant. One of those in China in a private room where they bring you at least 10 dishes and you all share and it is DELICIOUS. It was so sweet of them and they were so kind. It was nice to be with a family and you could feel the love they had for each other. They were so kind and giving. They even gave us these warmers that are filled with water that you plug into the wall, heat up, and keep you warm! Mine has a fuzzy bear on it. So even though our Thanksgiving plans got upstaged, it turned out to be even better.