When all of us Americans got off the plane in Chengdu, we were greeted by a gaggle of excited Chinese families. They all had signs with our names, flashing cameras, and flowers (you should try it sometime). My host mom and 16-year-old host sister, Lily, met me at the airport to drive me to my new home for six weeks. The mom speaks a little English, and Lily's English is passable, thus really helpful for me. Her aunt and her grandparents also live in the house (a common custom), but none of them speak any English. When you enter the house, you switch your street shoes for house shoes (that means too small Crocs for me). My host sister just switches from one pair of Crocs to another; Crocs are extremely popular as are platform flip-flops. It seemed really ridiculous at first (at least all the three-inch platform shoes), but I understood after my feet turned black from walking around the city in normal flats.
I have my own bedroom with air conditioning (yay!).
Instead of a mattress I have a bamboo mat complete with a bamboo pillow. It is rather hard, but my sleeping skills are unrivaled.
For dinner, there was a multitude of different dishes of vegetables and meat set out on a Lazy Susan. Weirdest thing I ate: chicken eyebrows (or some other hairy part of a chicken). Also, boneless meat is essentially undiscovered here. Needless to say, I prefer the vegetables, although some are unbearably spicy.
During dinner, the grandmother told me that I had a very pretty white face. Chinese people often powder their face and use soaps with whitening product to make their skin look paler, opposite to the West and its obsession with being tan. Many dye their hair brown, a color that ends up looking the exact same on all Chinese hair, but I have yet to see blond.
My host family has a really cute three-month-old cat named MaoMi (cats are much more common than dogs), but it got sick the first night I was here, so the entire evening we went on a hunt for a vet, resulting in a nice tour of the HUGE city for me. Once we returned home, I was asleep within minutes.
For dinner, there was a multitude of different dishes of vegetables and meat set out on a Lazy Susan. Weirdest thing I ate: chicken eyebrows (or some other hairy part of a chicken). Also, boneless meat is essentially undiscovered here. Needless to say, I prefer the vegetables, although some are unbearably spicy.
During dinner, the grandmother told me that I had a very pretty white face. Chinese people often powder their face and use soaps with whitening product to make their skin look paler, opposite to the West and its obsession with being tan. Many dye their hair brown, a color that ends up looking the exact same on all Chinese hair, but I have yet to see blond.
My host family has a really cute three-month-old cat named MaoMi (cats are much more common than dogs), but it got sick the first night I was here, so the entire evening we went on a hunt for a vet, resulting in a nice tour of the HUGE city for me. Once we returned home, I was asleep within minutes.
Your host family sounds awesome. Are you stoked you got a "sister"?! Sounds like your have a great time! Can't wait to hear more!
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