Weifen's China Wedding, 2019

As a teacher, it is amazing the connection you make with some of the students - connections which sometimes last for many years.

Such a connection was built between Dean and one of his ISS students in Singapore: Weifen.  Weifen is a wonderful young lady from the "little town" of Foshan, (urban population around 7.2 million in 2012) which is located just over an hour outside of Guangzhou, China. She, as many do, went to Singapore to complete her IB education at a private school, which happened (thankfully) to be our school!

Weifen invited Dean and I to her Chinese wedding, in her home town; the answer was an immediate "YES"!!

When we arrived, the smog was as thick as everyone said China was known for - however, that did not last the whole time we were there; in fact it was quite nice most of the time.

In the hotel, if you wanted room service, you call for this "house keeper" to bring you whatever groceries or food items you desire. She will then retrieve the items, bring them to your room, then she goes back to main floor reception and attaches back onto her dock - just like Wilson (our Rumba vacuum)! I love her. 😍

The other thing I had never seen before was gas masks in the coat closet by the door in our room.  Rather disconcerting! 😟

Pushing jet-lag aside, we stopped at Starbucks -
Chinese style!
I have never been in one so fancy! 😮 Impressive.

← Cheese Danish anyone?

Or how about a →

"Christmas House" (there is a little bird inside the house...)?

Different.  😐

Coffee in hand, now to begin our day, the day before the wedding traditions begin; so it's off to a park on the edge of town.

I am sad I did not take my camera to the park with me, the photos were done with my phone, thus the quality is just not very good.  😞
Ah well, I had fun taking photos of this and that throughout the park.

These are a few of the ones I like:

↑ Railing on the guardrail going across the bridge into the park.

↑ The hand carved detailing is amazing!  ↓

↑ I love the random dragons here and there. 😊

 Boogie critters to guard the monies inside your home, (usually on wealthy individuals homes).  ↑

↑  Average means of transportation.

 What a cute puppy - I would totally have one of these in my yard!  😻

 According to Shuowen by Xu Shen, the ram, or Yang羊 in Chinese, means auspiciousness or good fortune (Xiang祥).

The lotus is one of the most significant flowers in the Chinese culture. It symbolizes the holy seat of Buddha. Because the flower rises from the mud and blooms in exquisite beauty it symbolizes perfection and purity of both the heart and mind. It also represents long life and honour.

They really do rise up out of the mud!  (wish it was a bloom, not just the seedhead - but still cool to see that much of them).
It is also an important symbol/flower in Taoism.

To the Chinese this flower symbolizes:

• One who comes out of the mud clean
• Inwardly empty, outwardly upright 
• Purity
• Fruit, flower and the stalk of the lotus = past, present, and future

Very cool.

Water trees -






















trees that grow in water.  😂

A photo of Candice taking a photo of Sharon taking a photo of ... yea, basically everyone was being all artsy = FUN.

Girls being girls,
         as only girls can. 😎




































Eventually we even got Weifen in on the fun.

Dean enjoyed some time catching up with some of his former students, which was awesome! 

There were some ladies working in the park, planting something, little tiny plants, by hand in the rock hard soil; basically pick-axing it in!
I understand - I had a couple of clients with soil like that to work in this past summer...
not nice.

There they were, toiling away, smiling the whole time.

They were super cute!!

Speaking of cute - hahaha!

And there is Weifen on top of the bridge, peacing ✌

Some were having more fun than others... actually no, we were all enjoying it very much!






















And then we posed. 



































And then we posed again - 
such posers.  😁

Sharon, (a good friend of Weifen's) asked me to pose for a portrait photo with some beautiful flowers we found, (they really were very beautiful!).

Apparently I have gorgeous eyes; must be the gold flecks in them, after all, who doesn't love gold?!  😊  (I do)






Following a nice dinner with Weifens parents and some of her bridesmades, that concluded day one; what a wonderful day it was!
Weifen was such a good hostess: spending her time with us the day before her wedding, (I am so thankful she did).