Double Happiness Papercut.
Boxed lunch Chinese style in the electrical lab.
James's apartment building behind Lili.
The counters are mid thigh on me. It's beyond amazing the meal that came out of there.
James's bedroom. He has a computer under the blanket and a little balcony where his pet lives. He has the biggest and best bedroom of the three.
He has two turtles, they don't have names. He was shocked that we name his pets. I asked if they would eat the turtles and he said no they were pets so I suggested he could name them. It took a couple hours but he named them Michael and Maria. I told him they were great names.
The baby photo is of James when he was three. It is the only photo up in the house. It was the last time he has worn Chinese clothing. He was surprised to hear that we wear it. He does wear red at Spring Festival though.
Found this lovely old temple in the part near their home.
The Universal Language of Angry Birds.
I told Lili to take a picture of the food, but we took it to early. The table was full to the edge and we all ate out of the bowls. They finally after watching our struggles gave us little bowls to use. Lili is loving the dumplings dipped in vinigar. We also had ocra soaked in pineapple juice that was amazing and they served us tomatos sprinkled with sugar (sweet & sour). Apparently Lili is very good with chopsticks and then they looked at me with pity. Not fair though, I've eaten every meal with them and I haven't spilled and I get fed so I'm suggesting that's pretty good.
We went to a Foreign Language school and met the exchange students there. 34 families, 34 host families. We were matched with James, who is 13, going into grade 8, living with his Mom, Dad and paternal Grandparents. The kids and parents all learned some Chinese arts, we choose paper cutting. It was fun and relaxed, nice little ice breaker. Oh, first there were ceremonies and introductions and each bus had to get up on the stage and sing. Yup, Lili and I joined in that too. The Australians had clearly practiced, the Americans and Canadians, not so much :)
Then each student had a parent come pick them up with their guests. James Dad came to get us, nice little standard KIA. We went to his hutong, went through a gate with a soldier guarding them. Drove past tons of appartments and little shops on the street. Very cool. Very old. We went up the six floor walk up into their flat. Tiny kitchen, teeny bathroom, shower sprays right on the floor. Didn't take a picture, thought it might be rude. Three bedrooms and one combination dining/living room. SPOTLESSLY clean. Hot. They asked if we needed air conditioning and we said 'yes please' and then James asked if 26 would be cool enough...ha ha ha....really didn't have the heart to tell him as low as possible so said yes 26 would be good. Add the humidity and it was like an oven in there. Both Lili and I were visably sweating and she was turning red. Not sure what color I was, couldn't see me. The Mom and the Grandma were both checking her for fever. She has a sniffle. A bunch of the American kids were sick, so I suspect a cold is on the way, but she didn't have a fever.
Anyways, Dad and James took us for a walk around the neighborhood and to the park in their area. Lovely. Then we went back up into the heat for dinner. It was amazing. They made so much food for us! They taught us how to make dumplings. Oh my gosh were they ever good. Grandma even took the ones Lili made and cooked them seperate so that she was eating her own. She ate and ate and ate. The Chinese seriously love to watch kids eat and tonight was no different. James is the only child from only children. Grandma and Grampa have basically raised James. He goes to school for 9 hours a day, four to five hours of homework a day, extra classes on Sat. and Sun.
Serious culture shock for both him and Lili. They did bond over Angry Birds. We see Angry Birds stuff everywhere. He's seen them but had no idea what it was. He was thrilled to have Lili show him.
Just lost the bulk of a long post, too tired to redo it. Would love to talk about our day though, so ask me about it when you see me!
Fei, Jame's Mom was thrilled to hear that I had three daughters from China, wondered if anyone minded us having three. Nope. Then I showed her your picture and she said "ah, a Jianxi girl" as translated by James. She just thought Jia was cute. They also want you and I to visit again, they want to make dumplings with and for FeiFei. We exchanged e-mails. What a fun program!
Putting the computer away now.
Off to Xiamen tomorrow (Shemen).
