Mama

11/14/11

Dear Everyone,

            I can’t remember my old standards, but by my post-Ecuadorian ones, I am living in the lap of luxury. For the first time in ten weeks, I have my own room! My own desk, with my own lamp, my own drawers where for the first time I can unpack my clothes. Across the hall is a bathroom, with not only a sit-down toilet (most places in China have squat-toilets) and a mirror, but a bathtub! For a city apartment, I think this place is on the very large size. Besides my bedroom and the bathroom, there are two much larger bedrooms, a nice sized living room, a dining room, a small drying room, and a strangely long and narrow kitchen. Everything is nicely furnished, even if a little doilied for my taste.  And despite the ashtrays everywhere (including the bathtub,) it smells remarkably fresh.

            Today we sat like puppies in a window, sweating in the freezing cold, waiting until five for our families to pick us up. My mother came to fetch me, and I became even more nervous when I realized that she speaks zero English. But she seemed very excited to meet me, and led me out of the room by the elbow, chattering all the way. She told  me to call her “Mama.” It was very reassuring.  Before we left, she even asked one of our language teachers if I like spicy food. With Yunnan’s obsession with spice, thank goodness for that!  I just keep telling myself, with no one speaking English, it’s more of a “cultural experience.”

            We were driven home by a man who did not introduce himself, in a pristine Toyota sedan, with two sets of seat coverings. When we arrived I met my host father, who seemed very enthusiastic. He putters, my host father, a paired with my host mother’s chattering, they are a very endearing couple. I also met the driver who appears to be in his mid-twenties, and a woman also in her mid-twenties who shares his room. I’m not sure if they are my homestay brother and his wife, my homestay sister and her husband, of simply homestay tenants. Either way, they did not seem very interested in me.

            Dinner was wonderful. I hadn’t expected so many options, but there were as many dishes as at the Lazy Susan restaurants. There was a delicious chicken with red peppers, a less delicious meat I think was also chicken with something else, and even a third pretty horrible boiled chicken. There were also stringy potatoes, something I think was lotus, and the best beans of my life. My mother was even kind enough to leave out the spice, and put it in a dish on the side. Here, everyone serves themselves with chopsticks. Some food goes into his or her bowl, some goes straight into the mouth. Originally they left me to serve myself, but when I didn’t eat a satisfactory amount, they started serving me with their chopsticks as they served themselves. It was sweet though, they only served me the dishes they’d figured out I’d liked best. I was doing so well with the chopsticks, until it came to my bowl of rice, which wasn’t quite as sticky as in the restaurants. They handed me a spoon! I was very sad.

            After dinner, I tried to take off my coat, but somehow, without using any English, my mother managed to communicate to me that I had to put it back on or I’d get a cold. Charles, my Chinese teacher, had warned me about the Chinese fear of cold. They don’t even drink their water cold. So in Kunming where no one has heaters (there’re only a couple of months of moderate cold,) everyone goes around with their coats on 24/7. Charles also correctly warned me about the Chinese shoe intricacies. The moment I walked in the house, my street shoes had to come off, and I was handed a pair of slippers. For once in my life they actually fit! But I’m really going to have to kick my habit of sitting on one foot. It’s much too close to showing the soles of my feet, which is apparently a huge insult in Chinese culture.

            But back to after dinner. I spent a good deal of time on Google Translate with my homestay father, asking questions. Meanwhile, my homestay mother tried to force-feed me fruit, nuts, and candy. It was actually really fun.

            On a separate note, I miss the holiday season, I really do. After Halloween the lights are supposed to go up, the carols start intermingling with the regular songs on the radio, and oh, snow! But none of that’s happening here. When I saw a Starbucks, all decked out for Christmas, much to my leaders disgust, I just had to go in. They had red Christmas cups, and the special holiday flavors I love so much! They were playing Christmas carols, and it was just so warm and peaceful. I just wanted to lie down and take a nap in the only place of holiday spirit I may see all year. It made me a little homesick, but the good kind of homesick, I think.

Love,

Katherine