水 Shuǐ Water
A few weeks ago, I spent my whole weekend in Suzhou with friends from church. They are ILP teachers here from the semester and are so awesome! We had some miracles that day I'm here to share.
We decided that on Saturday morning at 8:45 a.m. sharp we were going to leave for Tiger Hill. Tiger Hill is a beautiful, huge park with the tallest pagoda in Suzhou (that's leaning like the leaning tower of Pisa) as well as a bonsai tree garden, rock garden, bamboo forest, several Buddhist temples and gorgeous flowers everywhere. Well, at 8:45 a.m. there happened to be a torrential rainstorm/thunderstorm. But we were determined. Brooke, the head ILP teacher lent me her umbrella and we walked to the bus stop to catch a bus to the metro station. I don't know why we didn't just wait 30 more minutes (: I have never walked in rain like that. Maybe driven, but it was like walking submerged in the ocean. Insane. Sadly, my phone and my passport which were in a ziploc bag in my backpack still managed to get wet, and my phone wouldn't start! Hence, I didn't take any pictures all day, but Brooke sent me these to share! We eventually made it to the metro station when Brooke realized her purse was missing. Her purse not only had her wallet but also the ILP cell phones. We figured there was no way anyone stole it while we were walking because no one else was out there walking in the rain. So Brooke hopped back on a bus to go back and look for the purse. By a miracle, she found it, sitting in a puddle, but her cell phones were not ruined. The strap on the purse had broken as we walked, hence why it dropped. Have you ever lost your purse, wallet and phone in a foreign country? Terrifying.
We made it to Tiger Hill eventually, and the rain let up! It was so gorgeous. Unfortunately, I was stressed about my phone so much, I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have - but I did enjoy it!
That night, our church congregation had a delicious potluck dinner and talent show. I played piano for a guy while he played viola, and we had never practiced together. In fact, I had never practiced that song in my life. But it came together! And all the talents were so sweet and fun. I seriously love my small church group here. They are from several different countries and speak different languages, but we can all feel united in our faith and love for each other.
水 Shuǐ Water - too much Shuǐ that weekend - but my phone was fixed a few days later, so I really had nothing to worry about! Love Suzhou. Love China.
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| I don't know if you can tell, but all of our shoes and pants are SOAKED. Especially our shoes. |
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