Today was exhausting, fun, amazing and strange all combined into one long day. I woke up very early to meet a family that was going to take me to the local street market, then to an area temple. Both of which
we did…the street market was mainly closed because of the holiday and the temple was very beautiful, overlooking the entirety of Wenzhou and to the mountains. After the long climb to the top, the scene was beautiful. It better have been worth the long staircases, I’m pretty sure my rear is going to be sore in the morning. At the temple, there are so many things to comment on…the funny worded Chinese-English signs (Head Above AKA Watch Your Head or my favorite that literally made me laugh out loud…If you missed the newer fixed area, please blame us <--nice someone finally takes the responsibility), the women grabbing a young boy of 2 or 3 to yank down his pants and help him pee in the bushes, the people doing Tai Chi, the funky dancers in the park below, the beautifully arranged flowers in the shape of the local food, the squirrels who are about ½ the size of the US squirrels (figures right, they probably eat rice too!) or the lovely family who brought me.
I know that its Chinese custom when invited out, you don’t pay or even attempt to offer to pay…to me, this is a bit difficult, and especially when they seem to have ordered EVERYTHING (!) off of the menu. Trust me when I say there were easily 12 dishes ordered, at lunch! Considering I usually eat a salad for lunch, with a dessert of PB and chocolate pudding this was a lot of food. Let’s see if I remember the dishes or rather a description of the dishes, (I’m not that good at knowing the names!) there was a tofu and beef dish with gravy, some kind of rice quesadilla pancake with veggies, dumplings with meat and veggies inside, shrimp cucumber and cashews warmed in a brown liquid, jellyfish and cucumber in a cold white liquid (btw, who would have thought jellyfish was crunchy…yeah, me neither!), fish soup, egg and spinach with some meat inside, water chestnuts, some other kind of water chestnuts local to the area, jicama (a root veggie that’s quite sweet), another kind of soup with goat, bean sprout veggie and meat stock, multiple options of fruit…and the list seriously goes on. I can’t even begin to remember the rest. Ohh but it’s not over, they want me to walk after eating this feast…where they spoon fed me delicious food.
I go with them to their home, where the young girl decides its karaoke time or rather entertainment time…and all I really want to do is take a food coma nappy-nap time. But alas, she’s young and full of energy, so I buck-up and watch her entertain. She shows me her talent in music by playing the piano and singing, where she asks me to join. Her cousin comes to their home, who also plays the piano and sings. And if you are wondering what it was like…I felt a bit like Simon Cowell listening to some performances he’d rather not. My student actually sang quite well, I was impressed a bit off key sometimes but hey she’s 16. Her cousin was the normal karaoke singer you might expect, and that’s all I’ll say about that.
They cooked dinner and again had about 12 dishes…I won’t go into detail as you can imagine, it was quite like lunch. Then came dinner conversation, how’s the food? Do you like …? How long have you been
teaching? I was not however, ready for this next set of questions…as it was not on the list of things I ever thought would be brought up, because it said on an informational blog that the Chinese do not often
discuss politics, race or religion with guests…I thought I was in the clear…
I was not in the clear in the least…they asked me about all three topics, back to back! The mother was the main chatter box at dinner. The questions…do you like Obama? What do you think of his international politics? Do you like Clinton? (to which, my follow-up was, are you talking about Bill or Hillary?) Bill and
Lowonski…which of course she was referring to the sex scandal of the 90’s, Monica Lewinsky…what is your religion...I cringe…Black and White, is it still bad? (referring to interracial couples and being black in the US)…all topics were cringe worthy and for the most part I just wanted to crawl under the table. I voted for Obama, I don’t care who knows it (lesser of two evils folks)…they actually like Obama, so I was in the clear. I did think Bill did a good job in office despite his taste in women, didn’t care about his sex
life as long as he was doing a good job…I don’t care who gives him a job. The race question was really just an inquiring question, they didn’t know if it was still bad to be black in the US. Religion, they don’t follow a practice either…they meditate…again in the clear. So all of that ohh $h^7ing I was doing in my brain was all for nothing.
By the way, the dad is very poker-faced most of the day, only speaking in Chinese and the girl interprets his questions…but by the end of the evening, I’m pretty sure I wore him down and I saw a smile! :)
All-in-all a long day, but it was fun…I learned some new Chinese words and I helped a girl with her
international English board test. I say, it was a very successful day for all!
Ahh…relaxing cup of green tea.
we did…the street market was mainly closed because of the holiday and the temple was very beautiful, overlooking the entirety of Wenzhou and to the mountains. After the long climb to the top, the scene was beautiful. It better have been worth the long staircases, I’m pretty sure my rear is going to be sore in the morning. At the temple, there are so many things to comment on…the funny worded Chinese-English signs (Head Above AKA Watch Your Head or my favorite that literally made me laugh out loud…If you missed the newer fixed area, please blame us <--nice someone finally takes the responsibility), the women grabbing a young boy of 2 or 3 to yank down his pants and help him pee in the bushes, the people doing Tai Chi, the funky dancers in the park below, the beautifully arranged flowers in the shape of the local food, the squirrels who are about ½ the size of the US squirrels (figures right, they probably eat rice too!) or the lovely family who brought me.
I know that its Chinese custom when invited out, you don’t pay or even attempt to offer to pay…to me, this is a bit difficult, and especially when they seem to have ordered EVERYTHING (!) off of the menu. Trust me when I say there were easily 12 dishes ordered, at lunch! Considering I usually eat a salad for lunch, with a dessert of PB and chocolate pudding this was a lot of food. Let’s see if I remember the dishes or rather a description of the dishes, (I’m not that good at knowing the names!) there was a tofu and beef dish with gravy, some kind of rice quesadilla pancake with veggies, dumplings with meat and veggies inside, shrimp cucumber and cashews warmed in a brown liquid, jellyfish and cucumber in a cold white liquid (btw, who would have thought jellyfish was crunchy…yeah, me neither!), fish soup, egg and spinach with some meat inside, water chestnuts, some other kind of water chestnuts local to the area, jicama (a root veggie that’s quite sweet), another kind of soup with goat, bean sprout veggie and meat stock, multiple options of fruit…and the list seriously goes on. I can’t even begin to remember the rest. Ohh but it’s not over, they want me to walk after eating this feast…where they spoon fed me delicious food.
I go with them to their home, where the young girl decides its karaoke time or rather entertainment time…and all I really want to do is take a food coma nappy-nap time. But alas, she’s young and full of energy, so I buck-up and watch her entertain. She shows me her talent in music by playing the piano and singing, where she asks me to join. Her cousin comes to their home, who also plays the piano and sings. And if you are wondering what it was like…I felt a bit like Simon Cowell listening to some performances he’d rather not. My student actually sang quite well, I was impressed a bit off key sometimes but hey she’s 16. Her cousin was the normal karaoke singer you might expect, and that’s all I’ll say about that.
They cooked dinner and again had about 12 dishes…I won’t go into detail as you can imagine, it was quite like lunch. Then came dinner conversation, how’s the food? Do you like …? How long have you been
teaching? I was not however, ready for this next set of questions…as it was not on the list of things I ever thought would be brought up, because it said on an informational blog that the Chinese do not often
discuss politics, race or religion with guests…I thought I was in the clear…
I was not in the clear in the least…they asked me about all three topics, back to back! The mother was the main chatter box at dinner. The questions…do you like Obama? What do you think of his international politics? Do you like Clinton? (to which, my follow-up was, are you talking about Bill or Hillary?) Bill and
Lowonski…which of course she was referring to the sex scandal of the 90’s, Monica Lewinsky…what is your religion...I cringe…Black and White, is it still bad? (referring to interracial couples and being black in the US)…all topics were cringe worthy and for the most part I just wanted to crawl under the table. I voted for Obama, I don’t care who knows it (lesser of two evils folks)…they actually like Obama, so I was in the clear. I did think Bill did a good job in office despite his taste in women, didn’t care about his sex
life as long as he was doing a good job…I don’t care who gives him a job. The race question was really just an inquiring question, they didn’t know if it was still bad to be black in the US. Religion, they don’t follow a practice either…they meditate…again in the clear. So all of that ohh $h^7ing I was doing in my brain was all for nothing.
By the way, the dad is very poker-faced most of the day, only speaking in Chinese and the girl interprets his questions…but by the end of the evening, I’m pretty sure I wore him down and I saw a smile! :)
All-in-all a long day, but it was fun…I learned some new Chinese words and I helped a girl with her
international English board test. I say, it was a very successful day for all!
Ahh…relaxing cup of green tea.