It's good for the skin!
Sorry for the long absence! My dad has been complaining he is tired of looking at the same old picture of bibimbap.
Things have been getting really busy. Teaching is a lot work, not just the actual hours in the classroom but all the grading, planning, and office hours that go with it. More details about the teaching to come.
A bit about my new family first though. My university decided that as a means of helping me integrate into my community they would hook me up with a host family. I’ll still have my own apartment of course but across the street is a family that will keep up with me and make sure that I’m doing OK. First let me say, I love host families. I loved them in Georgia and I adore them here. But it’s far more interesting when the host family hasn’t been through Peace Corps sessions about how to deal with Americans. It was clear my PST family was carefully trained on American versus Chinese culture. For example, Ayi constantly ask me if I needed “alone time” or “quiet time”. They never ever pushed food on me and were just generally very careful around me. My CUIT family however is a little more…traditional.
Right off the bat my host mom insisted I call her “Mama” (mom) and she takes her role as Mama very seriously. One of the first question she asked me was if I missed my mother in America and when I said of course I did her eyes kind of went wide and I could see that she was on a mission. Within the afternoon she was smacking my back if I started to slouch, picking crust from my eyes (last week she pulled a booger from my nose), and fixing my collar. She tells me I am her second child.
Then there’s Grandma. Mama’s mama is “Waipo” in Chinese and Waipo actually started crying when I told them of course I missed my mother in America. When I’m eating she’ll carefully watch what I’m eating most of and push the plate closer to my bowl or sometimes simply just put some more on my plate for me. When I finish a meal and tell her it was delicious and I’m full her response is a huge grin and another scoop of rice and a dish for me. The whole family speaks Sichuanese and since I can barely understand Mandarin there’s always some miscommunication. But more than once when the whole family is bewildered it’s been Waipo that came to the rescue and miraculously understood what I was trying to get across. I think it’s because she doesn’t take her eyes off me.
Last week they took me out for hot pot. Hot pot is like fondue except instead of cheese it’s boiling spicy/numbing pepper oil. It’s delicious! I went a few times with my PST family and as always they were super careful to order very American friendly menu items. I love my hot pot with lotus roots, noodles, bean sprouts and tofu. My CUIT family didn’t get the Peace Corps memo though about what Americans normally eat and thought I’d enjoy among other things: pig esophagus, pig brains, tripe, something greenish brown that was sort of hairy I couldn’t figure out what it was they just kept pointing at their stomach, and duck tongue. I gamely tried a tiny bit of each, partly telling myself it was cultural exchange and partly because I had to because they kept putting things in my bowl. As I put the brains in my mouth I starting panicking but I didn’t want to offend anyone so to help me get it down I actually started thinking to myself, “Think of all the people who starved to death during the Great Leap Forward…they would have eaten this. I shouldn’t be so self-important…” I finally gagged though when the duck tongue touched MY tongue and I think that was when they finally took the hint. Mama gave me a half smile and fished the brains and remaining tongue out of my bowl and said I really should at least eat the esophagus because it’s good for women’s skin.
I promise to be better about maintaining this blog. Stay tuned for teaching tales!
Things have been getting really busy. Teaching is a lot work, not just the actual hours in the classroom but all the grading, planning, and office hours that go with it. More details about the teaching to come.
A bit about my new family first though. My university decided that as a means of helping me integrate into my community they would hook me up with a host family. I’ll still have my own apartment of course but across the street is a family that will keep up with me and make sure that I’m doing OK. First let me say, I love host families. I loved them in Georgia and I adore them here. But it’s far more interesting when the host family hasn’t been through Peace Corps sessions about how to deal with Americans. It was clear my PST family was carefully trained on American versus Chinese culture. For example, Ayi constantly ask me if I needed “alone time” or “quiet time”. They never ever pushed food on me and were just generally very careful around me. My CUIT family however is a little more…traditional.
Right off the bat my host mom insisted I call her “Mama” (mom) and she takes her role as Mama very seriously. One of the first question she asked me was if I missed my mother in America and when I said of course I did her eyes kind of went wide and I could see that she was on a mission. Within the afternoon she was smacking my back if I started to slouch, picking crust from my eyes (last week she pulled a booger from my nose), and fixing my collar. She tells me I am her second child.
Then there’s Grandma. Mama’s mama is “Waipo” in Chinese and Waipo actually started crying when I told them of course I missed my mother in America. When I’m eating she’ll carefully watch what I’m eating most of and push the plate closer to my bowl or sometimes simply just put some more on my plate for me. When I finish a meal and tell her it was delicious and I’m full her response is a huge grin and another scoop of rice and a dish for me. The whole family speaks Sichuanese and since I can barely understand Mandarin there’s always some miscommunication. But more than once when the whole family is bewildered it’s been Waipo that came to the rescue and miraculously understood what I was trying to get across. I think it’s because she doesn’t take her eyes off me.
Last week they took me out for hot pot. Hot pot is like fondue except instead of cheese it’s boiling spicy/numbing pepper oil. It’s delicious! I went a few times with my PST family and as always they were super careful to order very American friendly menu items. I love my hot pot with lotus roots, noodles, bean sprouts and tofu. My CUIT family didn’t get the Peace Corps memo though about what Americans normally eat and thought I’d enjoy among other things: pig esophagus, pig brains, tripe, something greenish brown that was sort of hairy I couldn’t figure out what it was they just kept pointing at their stomach, and duck tongue. I gamely tried a tiny bit of each, partly telling myself it was cultural exchange and partly because I had to because they kept putting things in my bowl. As I put the brains in my mouth I starting panicking but I didn’t want to offend anyone so to help me get it down I actually started thinking to myself, “Think of all the people who starved to death during the Great Leap Forward…they would have eaten this. I shouldn’t be so self-important…” I finally gagged though when the duck tongue touched MY tongue and I think that was when they finally took the hint. Mama gave me a half smile and fished the brains and remaining tongue out of my bowl and said I really should at least eat the esophagus because it’s good for women’s skin.
I promise to be better about maintaining this blog. Stay tuned for teaching tales!
posted by Jeesun @ 9:24 AM
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