Friends and Easter

Me: Today is one of those days that I feel like I could just quit my job and go home...and not look back.
Karen: But I was just telling Jesse that I'm so glad you are here because I have learned so much from you.
Me: Karen, you know just what to say to make me happy.

And just like that, a few words of affirmation, and China reels me back in.  In the short seven months that I've spent in China I feel like I've already learned a lot about myself.  One of the many things that I've learned, is that, as much as I try to be a independent woman, my relationships are the most important thing in my life.  I have to share my life with quality people or else life has little meaning to me.  And I also feel like I can survive anything as long as I have friends.

On my worst days, when I feel like a failure at living in China and just totally overwhelmed by being here just having a few drinks or a funny conversation with a friend can give me enough perspective to realize that I don't really have that much to complain about.
One day Ben and I had made tentative plans to hang out. Tired of our old routines I had spent a couple of hours pouring over online articles and maps trying to find something interesting to do.  This is not any easy task when you can't read enough Chinese to read a newspaper or a bus schedule.  If you can find something cool to do, good luck getting to it.  Finally, I got sick of searching and decided to go out and just try and navigate myself someplace, but I quickly got frustrated. I ended up standing on a street corner, just completely paralyzed with confusion and self-disappointment.
Right at the moment when the tightness in my chest was transferring to tears welling up in my eyes, Ben called.
Me: "I'm standing on a street corner and I'm overwhelmed and I'm about to have a nervous breakdown! Tell me it's going to get better."
Ben: "It's going to get better.  Where are you?"
We managed to put our heads together and point me in the right direction. We met up and we actually ended up having a really great time talking and hanging out.  A few hours later and nothing really seemed that bad. 

Below is a picture that I took that night of Pingjiang Road, popular street that runs along a canal in Suzhou.  During the day it's bustling with people and street venders.  When Ben and I walked down it at 2am it was deserted and super eerie.  I kept feeling like the headless horseman was going to come around the corner and steal my brains.   

 Of course no one celebrates Easter in China but that didn't stop my darling parents from sending me a box filled with Easter and egg dye.  I can't describe to you how happy I am when a packet arrives from home.  It was perfect because a couple of days later Karen, Helen and Jesse came over for a slumber party at my apartment. In addition to beer, 'Would You Rather' and Pride and Prejudice (with encore showings of the scene under the gazebo in the rain) we did some fancy decorating.

 I was just writing peoples' names on the eggs while Helen was creating legit works of art.

 Karen pretending one of Helen's eggs was hers.

 Jesse is the cutest Chinese girl ever.

 Two weeks later we had the foreigners over (plus Karen) for Easter dinner.  I was thankful that I got to talk to my sister-in-law, Karla, that morning so she could give me some cooking encouragement. Dinner was mostly good, I managed to make some deviled eggs and Jan Votroubek's awesome cherry dessert.

After whipping cream by hand using a wire whisk I have such new appreciate for my Grandmother.