Mianyang Host Family #2

I went to Chengdu again last weekend. Same old, same old. Just realized even more how much I love it there, and how I wish I had picked a volunteer position there instead...oh well.

Anyways, I came back to Mianyang on Sunday and, within a an hour or two, met my new host family. There were two boys and two adult women - the women were sisters and the boys were their sons, although, of course, the boys referred to each other as brothers. I never met their fathers, who were absent the entire time I was there, and they never told me anything about the absentee fathers.

They did not speak much English, so I spent a lot of the last two days just using Chinese, which is always a good experience but incredibly exhausting. In fact, one of the boys really likes writing and his mom is very proud of his work - so proud that she brought up an essay he wrote on the computer and we read through together, out loud. We read in unison and every time I didn't know a character (which was frequently enough), she would read it and have me repeat after, and then try to explain the meaning if I didn't recognize the word. There were so many words I remember learning, but just. couldn't. remember. I really need to review more.

The boys and I went swimming together at a nearby university, which happens to really close to the Children's Palace, so hopefully I can go back there. The pool was very crowded but filled with a lot of people who didn't actually know how to swim - so they mostly lined the edges (the entire pool was 3 meters deep, so they could not even stand at any part of the pool). My host mom and aunt can't swim either, so they just kind of stood by the pool, talking. It seems to me that leisurely swimming and public pools is very new to China.

Monday morning, I went with the boys for a walk through the university. We stopped to see one of the boys' ping pong instructor, who had me play a bit with him. I've never really played ping pong much before, but it was fun and I held my own. It's a little funny to me how serious people here are about their ping pong. We also stopped to see his Tae Kwon Do instructor (chinese pinyin: Tai Quan Dao), who I talked with a little bit. We watched one of the classes go through exercises.

Ate a home cooked lunch (yum!) that included Mapo Dofu (a Sichuan-style Tofu dish). Took a way long nap. Went swimming again. Had more yummy food (roasted duck, cucumber, pancake things - all so good!). Returned to the school. Lamented the loss of my new family, the comfy bed, and the yummy food...