it's a small world after all (even in China)

For some awesome reason, I seem to have this ability to make the world a tiny tiny place.

One of my favorite ways is to play the "do you know" game and connect to a person by someone else-i'm pretty great at it if i may say so.

A not so great way is if i were to be talking about someone, then unavoidably they always seemed to be right there

And the greatest way is when you run into people who against ALL odds you shouldn't have.

ex. 1 my cousin in Shanghai

ex. 2 the teachers and one of my students from my Ningbo school in Xiamen at a random temple.

Caroline and i decided to go see the University (where we were surprise videoed for a birthday party) and then we walked through a temple where you try to get coins into the statue (behind me in the above picture). I was just being my normal competitive self trying to get the highest, when someone groped me into a hug and I could see Caroline so I knew it wasn't her (plus my family isn't really one of the hugging families...)

And who was it?

Angel my coordinator from Ningbo. Against all odds I tell ya.

This Day

This Temple

This EXACT time

5 million people

...i'm just happy i didn't spend more time at the turtle pond

life you're pretty great.

An arranged marriage

Today we yet again went to the tailor where he asked if I had a husband and then offered his apprentice to me. My husband could make all my clothes for me, what could be better?
We're the same age and i'm single, so in his mind it's perfect.
What do you think?
The tailor (whom we have yet to give an English name to) started talking so fast neither of us could catch his Chinese so we called a translator and she said he asked if we would stay and hang out with him. So the apprentice gave us a cold strange drink and after drinking it, very hesitantly though, apprentice brought out the red bull can with three times as much energy as American ones.
Guess we'll see if I can sleep tonight...
So we stayed and watched him sew and he took pictures with us and then we talked about the electronics, some nice girl talk while we sewed.

Mr. Miyagi

After a great Subway Relief Society lunch we went to the fabric market and hung out with Mr. Miyagi and his apprentice while they sewed. We bought some really "nice" Hawaiian fabric and had Mr. Miyagi make the boys surprise matching shirts. He pulled up some chairs and faced the fan directly in front of us while we chatted. Then we ate at Chairman Mao's with the visitor from Utah and took the ferry to Gulong Yu to see the Island with all the lights