reelin' in the year (of the rat)
the year of the rat. i bid you farewell, year of the pig. you've been a good one. one i shan't forget.
today has been one of those days that provides way too much for my feeble mind to sort out for blogging purposes. so, as an attempt to eliminate the boring stuff, i'll probably end up without interesting stuff too. meh. so is life.
so new year's eve/day is a huge time for chinese people. daisy told me it was sort of like christmas back in the states-- a time for families to get to get together and celebrate. since my family is far away (except maggie33, whom i will see in two days!), daisy invited me to join her family to celebrate the big day.
she and i hung out all day until around 3, when we met up with her family. and i'll tell you... within an instant, i felt welcome. i had tea, and was offered fruit and little things. i played chess with her grandpa (probably one of the coolest old chinese men i've ever met. simonite, i think he goes on the list). i lost both games, but i felt i put up a pretty good fight for a guy with a big nose.
daisy and i escaped for a little while to walk around an area of hangzhou far more interesting than where my apartment is. there was a pretty little river that we wandered down, stopping in for a cup of coffee at a near deserted cafe.
upon our return, the feast was nearly ready. there were more dishes than i could count on all my digits, each one looking more beautiful than the next. except for her cousins, daisy's family doesn't speak much mandarin, so i was sad that i couldn't understand anything (ha. as if i could otherwise), but daisy did a good job translating everything for me. and really, it's amazing how much you can communicate without language, and given even a little common ground, you can communicate all you need to (though the cab driver on the way home may disagree).
and they pulled out the nice 白酒 (bai jiu, white liquor). simonite, this stuff was a zillion times better than anything we guzzled down back in kunming. i wish i knew the customs better, because i wanted badly to be able to raise an american-style toast and thank them all for a wonderful evening. we drank some wine, too, that i had gotten in san francisco when with nellie. i'm still not clear on the whole gift thing here, so i hope that was enough.
anyway, i couldn't think of a better way to spend 春节。thanks daisy!
comments:
What a special day, Peter! Daisy, thank you for opening up your family's home to Peter and making him feel welcome.
Happy New Year!
klcomp | February 6 @ 9:38am
i think everyone in my family likes peter so much. he is very welcome. this was a great dinner. Happy New Year!
daisy | February 6 @ 9:51am