a happy tuesday to you too

Today I ventured around Suzhou's "college town" by myself. It was so darn warm and it made my time incredibly enjoyable. I had my jacket off the whole time and it was just plain peachy. My Dad and I jumped on the 2 express bus and when we got there we went our separate ways. I think he had a nice day too. 

First, I walked into 85° Cafe and ordered a cappuccino, then I walked around and shopped for my sister's upcoming birthday. I did buy something for her and maybe she'll reveal what it is when she opens it on the 10th... who knows.

I bought myself some red/orange nail polish. It's really great. I think it'll match the outfit I wore today: my new jeans, dark gray sweater, brown belt and white converse. The cashiers saw the writing on my hand (I had to remind myself to get my Mom a coffee) and they told me "Hen Piao Liang!" or "Very beautiful!" Hah. I like living in the midst of Chinese people.

Oh and this morning my sister and I rode bikes down to our market. Also a great addition to my day.

In about an hour I'll leave again... this time for pizza. 

Happy Tuesday!

Love, a

p.s. The college town I'm talking about is basically five colleges very near to each other and right in the middle of them are coffee places and a shopping area and all sorts of other stuff. There are also tons of students there (naturally) which makes it really fun. <3

p.p.s. Did you notice the new picture/category things on my sidebar? Just go ahead and click on 'em!

us girls

Yesterday was wonderful. Actually yesterday and on into today. I spent both days with Lydia and Leah!

Yesterday I hopped on the bus at about 3:00 p.m.--a common start to every trip--and soon found myself at the Wirgau home.

We decided to have dinner at one of their favorite little restaurants, so we bundled up in a million and one different garments and left. I sat on the back of Lydia's bike and she rode me all the way there: through the darkness and the city streets, until we got to the tiny, Chinese restaurant. We all enjoyed the food a lot, and the company and warmth of the place was also lovely. After that the six of us (the three Wirgau boys came too) rode home. 

That night we worked on making a video. It was really fun and hilarious, and I'm pretty sure you'd want to see it, so I'm going to have to put it up sometime :)

We watched a Doctor Who episode (love!) and drank tea and coffee and laughed and talked. 

Today we hung out at their house some more then Lydia, Leah and I headed over to our house. On the way over we stopped at Coco and bought pearl milk teas (you should know by now that we kind of love them) and then got back on the bus to go to my house. We edited our video a bunch, ate dinner, laughed some more and then the girls left, ending the 25 some hours I'd been with the two of them.

I love them and I'm so thankful for them! God has really blessed our family with the Wirgaus.

While waiting for the bus we realized that we all had rolled-up jeans on and converse! Picture taken by Leah Wirgau with her camera. I'm in the white ones, Lydia's in the grey and Leah's in the purple :)

Love, a

*Our way of transportation*

This is us. Waiting for the express 2 bus :) We do this most everyday... Climb on the bus and go to wherever we want! I personally love taking buses. It's a way to be with people and it's a fun way to get to your destination.
Plus the bus drivers go slower than the regular taxi drivers would, and it makes us feel safe :)
We recently each got our own Bus card, that you scan every time you get on the bus, oh yeah we're local! haha.

By Becca Jones :)

 That's my Mom, sister Rachael, brother Andrew and I.

                            (You know which one's me right? Well if you're new then the one smiling is me :)                                  

                                                    I'm very happy with the way I get around.
                                                                             Love, a

Music

Lately I have been SO into music.

I guess I've always been but being in the city, taking a bus to wherever (literally, we take them everywhere,) is the perfect time to listen to your favorite music (or don't get me wrong, talk to your family!)

Whenever I hop on the bus and am looking around at all the people, those massive buildings creating the skyline and the city, my music just makes me feel so alive and energetic! 

Right now I'm really into "Adele" and "Colbie Caillat" and have a ton of others that I continue to love.

What are some of your favorite artists right now? Its just lovely.

                                                      Music just makes me happy.

                                                                    Love, A

*My Suzhou town* (It'a really a City)

I've been in my new home, a.k.a Suzhou China for 8 months. It's amazing and I love it. But theres obviously things I miss A TON about America and Colorado. Anyway this post i'll be talking about China. Next post i'll be posting about America and going home, sound good? Okay.


So Suzhou has been really great. The city, buses, taxi's, Chinese people, new friends, train's. Let me start with the first one, The City... I don't have much to write right now about living in the city but mainly it's just fun after living in a small town for so long (i'll talk about missing colorado soon).

The buses... Okay so I can get around Suzhou on the buses. I don't go by myself but I could get home and to certain places on the buses. The buses are a way to be with the chinese people all the time and try to speak some chinese. You get to your bus stop and see how many stops there are until it gets there. Let's say 4. In about 5 minutes it comes and you jump on, drop in your two qui (about $0.30) and either find a seat or if there all taken, stand up. And sometimes your SO, incredibly squished. Thats when there's about 60 people on the bus...!!! I figured out that i've been on a bus approx. 450 to 500 times since i've lived here!!! So I do like/love the buses. "Xie Xie bus driver." The taxi's are basically just, if we can't get a bus or it's easier. It's a little more expensive and the drive really fast so...

Chinese people. I say "Ni Hao" to a lot of people. A lot of the people are just people in our neighborhood, or our guards. Some people smile and say it back, but some people just stare---
In the bus a lot of times somebody will get up from there seat and offer it to one of us, which is sweet :)
There are a TON of them!!! Everybody know's that. Lot's of scooters and bikes and cars. I'll definitely tell so much more when I see you. 


New friends. Well we obviously have a lot of new friends from the Church and such but like my new friends? Lydia and Leah Wirgau are our very good friends! They have nine kids and we met them at church, and i'm very thankful for them! I love them.

Train's. We take the high speed train about every month or so. We'll go to Shanghai for certain events or birthday's or a three day visit or something so thats when we would take a train. They go like 210 miles an hour and cover about 100 miles in 18 minutes, making it very convenient and fun, to go to Shanghai on :) Oh and it's about 5 bucks each way.

Subways. We don't have a subway in Suzhou yet (another 6 months and we'll have "Line 1"!) but i've been on, I guess quite a few in Shanghai.

Sometimes it's really hard to believe that "I" actually live in China. I mean I don't always think about what that means and you know, living in another Country! I live in China! AHHH!  It's just pretty crazy. And fun.

Okay well I suppose thats enough about Suzhou. Although I can't wait to tell you in PERSON! All my friends and family, i'm so excited to talk about everything with you guys!
I love you all and miss you too!!!!

Jinji Lake as we drive by on the bus. (Can you see the pollution!? But the water is pretty in this picture)

Becca's, Beth's and I's room. It curves to the Left and there's a hallway with closets and a bathroom over there.  Were on the third floor.


Love, ARLJ

Tuesday in Suzhou (Somewhat of a typical day for us)

Tuesday:

Today I woke up, went downstairs and started off my Tuesday with eating (like usual :) Then my two brothers came! Andrew and William were in Shanghai (Andrew lives there and William was there for a little bit) They came pretty early and it was nice having some boys in the house again (since Ben left and Matt is not normally here :() Andrew looked through some of his stuff that had come in our shipment and took care of his Cello. William headed up to his room to put away his things from his trip. We then played a game of Phase 10 which is such a great game! Andrew, Becca, Bethy and I all played and it was fun!
Then after a while we decided to go to Singa Plaza. We got on a bus and got off at Singa. Sometimes you see stray cats and now I actually look since i'm very possibly getting one.
We first went to a bakery and got some pastries. Then we went to..... Starbucks! And sat around and drank coffee and talked with "Our Chuthers". After that we went to a dvd store and looked for some of our movies that we have gotten rid of because we were coming here, you can't find a whole lot of old classics :( The funny thing is you can find a movie there about the day after it comes out! But there usually bad quality are sometimes filmed by someone holding there camera at the tv. We walked down to a grocery store, A western one! Got my Mom and got on the bus home. It was fun and brothers made it more fun.