i kid you not.

In the words of Jeff Holt, “I kid you not” last week was one of the best weeks of my entire life. My parents and Price flew out to China last week and we traveled around for a week! We went to Beijing, Weihai, X’ian, and Shanghai. The best part of the week was showing them around Weihai and my school and introducing them to my students. It was wonderful to see them and to just be with them for a week straight. We always have such great times on family trips and so many fun adventures together.

The funny thing about this trip was that my parents and I switched rolls. I was the one getting us around China and helping them buy things and figuring out where places were that we wanted to go. It was surreal a little bit but I kind of liked it. It was cool knowing that I could get my way around China when I don’t even know the language.

Price and I had our own hotel room in each city and it was so much fun. I loved spending time with him, laughing at our crazy tour guides, taking lots of pictures, and talking late into the night. Price is hilarious. Have I mentioned this before? He is so witty and always says the funniest things and I can’t help but laugh for hours.

My dad loved China. He kept saying, “Well, next time we are here…”, like it was even an option. My mom loved it too! I think they liked the Silk Market in Beijing the best…haha. How could you not love a place where you can get all your Christmas shopping done for under $300? It’s unbelievable the stuff that you can get there for so cheap. It was so fun bartering for my parents and Price. My mom is too sweet, she couldn’t barter that well so I helped her buy everything.

In Shanghai there are tons of people that haggle you to buy things from them. They hold out these cards with pictures of brand name merchandise and ask if you would like to buy something. They can get pretty annoying and follow you around for a while. Price kept one of the cards and every time someone would come up to us and ask if we wanted to buy something, he would pull his card out and ask if they wanted to buy anything from him. They would laugh and laugh and just walk away. It was so great!

Shanghai was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was such a beautiful exciting city! It reminded me a lot of NYC and Europe. Back in the early 1900’s there was a time of British influence in Shanghai so a lot of their buildings look European. Shanghai is definitely modernized and is the least Chinese city I have been to in China. If I had to live anywhere in China it would be Shanghai. We even went to CPK one night for dinner and it made my life. Red velvet cake for dessert? Yes, please.

I felt like the luckiest girl in the world last week to have my family with me in China. It was the best.

16 more days!