DECEMBER!
CHRISTMAS TIME!
SUNDAY!
Where has the time gone? Seriously?
No idea.
Anyways, we had a Sunday but no money on our skype accounts
and with Abby and Greg out of town for the weekend, we didn’t really have a way
to listen into church. So we did our thing, listened to Christmas music, wrote
our missionaries, and I still have the most of General Conference on my thumb
drive so we listened to a bit of that for our church session.
Afterwards, I showered and we watched the Three Musketeers
[the newest version].
By three, we were at the school because we’d been invited to
Jerry’s house with his parents for the evening. Super sweet! I was personally
trying not to dread it because I was afraid they’d want us to play and gamble
or something.
Except it turned out to be such an awesome, relaxing and
nice evening! Seriously. We’d brought another gift bag, except we found out
they had invited Linda and her mom to join us again… so again, we couldn’t
bring out the package! Ridiculous, it made us feel bad for not doing anything
for them, you know? After all they’re doing for us…
We finally got to their house inside a gated area, up to the
second or third floor, and inside to a cute little home. Not really fancy, but
it had such a nice casual feel, it reminded me of America a bit, actually. It
was awesome! We sat down, and they started cutting up some dragon fruit and
something else, and then Jerry pulled out his violin to show us.
Super cute! He’s getting good, too!
Not that I would know much, but still. We gladly clapped
after his performance, but we couldn’t get him play an encore for us,
unfortunately… oh well. Then his mom had a violin herself she doesn’t play
often so she lent it to Katie to play for her, who played a lovely song for
everyone. Jerry’s mom took a ton of pictures!
Then we settled down on their couch to enjoy some of their
food- they pulled out some kettle corn, more candy, some tea, toothpicks for
the fruit, tomato flavored chips, some oatmeal chocolate chunks and then this
rice gel wrapped bean paste which even from my view was pretty decent [I know,
crazy, I enjoyed something with beans]. They pulled up The X Factor British
Invasion but Jerry got bored with that, even when we asked him to draw Iron Man
for us [he’s quiet in class but that’s usually because he’s drawing
superheroes], so there was a little tussle between him and Linda before finally
settling on Hotel Transylvania.
Cute movie! And through it, Jerry’s adorable mom would head
to the kitchen to start cooking and come back for a quick chat and we still did
some talking in between. Chinese differences,
fashion, growing up, schools, and more!
Finally it was time to eat. It had already been smelling
delicious and it looked great, crowded on their cute family table. It was nice
to see something not so extravagant, personally, but just so peaceful and
together with that family feel! That made the night spectacular, seriously.
Okay, back to the food: delicious. Yes, we may have avoided
the shrimp. And yes, I had eaten like half the snacks during the movies. But I
wasn’t even phased, prepping to eat enough at dinner- as was Katie doing- so
for once we wouldn’t get remarks on how little we eat.
I mean, seriously, we eat a ton. We eat enough to be very
uncomfortable at some meals, that’s how much we eat. So we ate! There was a
delicious potato dish- I had several helpings, it was so tasty. And then some
of the meat with fat chunks [I managed three, and that’s the most I’ve done at
a time- no wait, I did FOUR], and a yummy green bean dish, too. One of those
shoved a chunk of food between my gums in back, and I couldn’t get it out so
after that I cut down on eating because it was starting to hurt and I couldn’t
very well shove my fingers in my mouth to fish it out. Very impolite. And
painful.
Still, there was plenty of delicious food. Like dumplings,
yum- I had at 5, which I think was more than most people had. She even refilled
the plate and stuck them next to me, which made me feel bad like I was eating
too many so I stopped. They also had some of their kung pao chicken out- a bit
spicy but still delicious. Oh, and I think it was mango juice that they served
us? Anyways, it was delicious. Everything was so good, and I don’t remember the
other half of dishes. I just know it was great.
And yet… as usual… they thought we ate nothing. It’s a bit
affronting. And offending. Haha, but it wasn’t as bad as usual and I think they
realized we were doing pretty good on eating a ton of stuff, you know? And we
told them over and over how good it was- because it was delicious, seriously. I
wanted to shove everything in my pockets and purse and take them home with me.
Except that would have been quite the mess…
Anyways, after that we sat down back at the couch and
chatted. We ended up talking for maybe two hours? The kids started goofing
around. First to Jerry’s room to peacefully play on the ipad- such a boy!- and
then to play with toys in the hallway. At one point he was a fish swimming on
the ground and then she fished him out, and it was super funny and cute!
Us ladies talked for a bit, and about kids and about
ourselves and movies and doing things in Guiyang, and then we got invited to do
another dinner with Linda’s mom at their house! That was so sweet of them! Such
beautiful people inside and out, I swear, they’re all sweethearts and they’re
not so desperate to talk to us because we’re white Americans, but because we’re
people and they’re just super chill about it. And it’s funny when we all get
hung up on a word, that’s my favorite part. Five adults struggling to
communicate because of one missing word. It’s so cool.
It was getting late, so we eventually had to make our way
home.
Linda and her mom agreed to take us home, which was sweet-
and handy since they live super close to us! Right behind the Poly Resort, I
believe. Anyways, we said our goodbyes [they walked out with us to the car, the
whole family], and thanked them over and over and over for the lovely night,
and promised to hang out again sometime.
Katie climbed into shotgun in the car and I was in the back
with Linda as we headed out. Linda is a master at thumb war, by the way, and
completely creamed me. I was even trying maybe… half the time? A little less?
Still, she’s getting good! Then she did it with Katie, and then two hands with
each of us at the same time until we got back onto our street.
QQ numbers were exchanged, and we promised we’d let them
know a good time to have dinner during the weekend. We said our goodbyes,
climbed out, and headed up to our place. By then it was only after ten a bit…
and knowing we didn’t have to go to bed yet, we decided to watch a movie!
‘Into the Wild’ based on a true story about whatshisface who
finishes college then wanders in the west before deciding on Alaska, lives off
the land until [oops I’m giving it away] he accidentally eats an inedible plant
and… dies from poison. Yay!
Okay that was mean. The story in itself of his life is
pretty good, though Katie’s wandering spirit allowed her to enjoy it a little
more than myself. Still, it was actually really good- the words and script were
genius and the guy was super chill, thoughtful, and smart. It took a few
philosophical turns through the story, and I really loved it. There’s a reason
it’s on the top 100 movies to see. Or at least on one of those lists. Still,
definitely worth watching, huge recommendation. Slightly depressing at the end,
but still, it was amazing.
And then we both ended up lying in bed for about two hours,
just thinking about it.
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