I figure I'll try to write some of the things we did over the three weeks.
The day after I arrived, we drove to her parents home. My wife rented a car, that is, she rented a couple seats in a small van. It was about a 3 hour drive to her home, then another hour to her parents place. It was night when we arrived so we quickly met her family then went to bed. She has her own room at her parent's home. This home is very old and there are pictures of it in the local museum and temple. There are three or four families living there.
The next day was spent vising and meeting family and friends. Everyone was very nice and gracious. Her family is huge, with four older brothers (one owns a cell phone store, one has a cement business, one runs a small store attached to the home, and the oldest is a farmer) and an older sister. All are married and have a child or two.
Day three was Chinese New Year, and was spent vising each family member, and having tea or a meal while the kids blew stuff up with fire crackers and bottle rockets. By nightfall the fireworks started, and every hour it got more intense. At midnight, we were trying to sleep, and the fireworks were incredible. She kept telling me to go watch, but I figured they must be almost done. Finally I got dressed and ran outside. This small town put on a bigger fireworks show than I had ever seen in my life up to that point. Every home and business has a fireworks budget I think. Everywhere you looked were fireworks.
The next day she took me to the doctor. I had caught a cold on the plane, and it went straight to my chest. It was still a holiday in China so his office was closed, but the brother was able to convince him to see me. It's nice to have connections, especially concerned brothers. It didn't cost me anything to see him, I only had to pay for the pills he gave me, and brother paid for the next bunch.
After a few more days, my wife decided it's time we took care of this wedding thing. A quick bus ride to her apartment, shower, and off to get wedding photos. I thought it was a bit premature - what if there are problems and we can't get married? Ah, I figured, why argue? I figured she knows what she's doing. And she did. 6 hours later and 6 outfits later we were back in our own clothes and in possession of our small photos we would need to put in our red books (wedding certificates kinda).
The next day we caught a bus - 8 hours to Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province. Rented a hotel room, then the next day we visited the government office for marriage with a foreigner. Apparently I didn't have the right papers, so we had to go to the Canadian consulate in either Shanghai or Guangzhou. This was a Tuesday, and Shanghai does marriage papers (I forget the proper word) on Tuesdays, so we made an appointment with Guangzhou for 4:00 pm on Wednesday. Down to the bus station we go. Twelve hours later on a sleeper bus, we arrived in Guangzhou. It was 6 am and we watched the sun rise in a park.
We hung out in the consulate a couple hours early in case we could get in early, but we didn't. We saw 6 or 7 couples doing the same thing. It was a quick interview. I went in by myself. Gave her my papers, signed and swore it was true, had it stamped and paid just under 300 RMB. Papers in hand, we caught a taxi back to the bus station.
Another quick 12 hour overnight bus ride back to Fuzhou, taxi to the hotel, shower, shave and off to the marriage office for another try. No problems this time. She had to read aloud and sign, I only had to sign. She had to take my paper across the street to be notarized, but apparently not translated. 5 minutes later we both had our red books. She said she felt like she was dreaming. We walked hand-in-hand to a temple. I think she wanted to say a prayer or burn an incense or something, but felt embarrassed because it was very crowded. I asked her if she wanted to, but she said no. I regret not pushing harder, but we were both too happy to really think straight. We ended up walking back to the hotel. We were really married.
That's the first half - I'll finish it off in another post later.
