Suzhou

Suzhou is known as the "Venice of China" because it's built on canals. And we were so excited to go and have a relaxing weekend riding boats and whatnot... Well... we sure did have a relaxing weekend... staying in! It POURED rain the entire time. And not a light sprinkle like it does in Vegas. no. It pours and pours and pours here. And there's always puddles everywhere that soak your shoes because China can't figure out a good drainage system apparently. 

Anyways. We still had a great time! We went to "Wedding Street" for my friend Ashley to get her wedding dress!  It is more than just one street. All four sides of the intersection were lined with dress shop after dress shop, and then they went back behind into alleys of dress shop after dress shop after dress shop. We only made it through about 15 by the time we found a good one where she got a custom made dress for only 1190¥. (193$USD) I wish I was engaged so I could get my wedding dress here! 

We also spent Easter Sunday here. We were able to go to a ward, which was so lucky. Suzhou has one of the few wards there are in China. It was held in someone's home! We just went to church, and then ended up heading back home, when we ran into some girls on the metro and they showed us where some great shopping was, and we went shopping for the rest of the day. It wasn't the most ideal way to spend Easter, and it sure didn't feel like a holiday. It really made us appreciate having our families around on holidays though, and I can't wait to be back with mine next year! 

Suzhou is set up like New York City. They had a metro stop downtown that was called "Central Park", and another one called "Times Square". We went to Times Square one day and were a bit disappointed.

Okay not really. It was actually a really cool mall, and they had this great Italian restaurant that we went to twice because it was so good, and cheap! They also had frozen yogurt that was just like Yogurtland. Delicious. There was a big two-story family arcade that we decided to go to because it was raining and we were all just a little down and didn't know what to do. It ended up being so much fun! And me being the competitive person that I am- ended up playing a ton of games and I won the jackpot! I ended up buying some prizes with all my tickets to give to my kids.

Our hostel was really one of my favorites! Besides the squatter toilets and the crappy wifi, it was really great! We had real mattesses. REAL MATTRESSES!! Ones that weren't 2 inches thick! They were heavenly. We had a roommate from China, and he didn't have an English name so we named him Gary. He loved it. He was the funniest kid ever. He told us all about how he hates the Chinese government (which is illegal here. hahaha). He said he came from a small town of 500,000 people. He hates Ramen Noodles, because I was making those for dinner one night when I was lazy and he saw and he said they were not good. Emily walked in the room with a towel on her head after a shower one day and he told her he thought she was Indian. Then when he left he was riding his bike back home, 4 hours away, in the pouring rain! Man that boy was hilarious. We're gonna miss Gary. 

My favorite part of hostels is they often have little bars or lounge areas. This hostel had a huge bar with live music playing every night, and a fireplace with couches that we sat around. It's so much fun! And Sunday I decided to sit down at the bar and read my scriptures for the day. I thought it was pretty ironic and funny. lol. 

Also- bullet trains are my new favorite thing here. They turn a 4 hour train ride into 1 1/2 hours. And they look like airplanes on the inside. But they wait for no one! They literally stop at each station for maybe 30 seconds. We were barely on the train before it started moving again! They're great. 

Zài jiàn Suzhou!