Day 85 & 86: Victoria's House

This Friday and Saturday, Lexi, Jenna, and I got to spend the weekend with the Lu family at their home in DongFeng. Victoria, one of the kindergarten teachers (for our class at Kaiyin) wanted us to see her town and meet her parents, so Friday afternoon we packed up and traveled for about two hours to her city. Once we arrived, we dropped our things off at Victoria's beautiful home, and walked down the street to her uncle's house. The cool thing about the location of her home is that it is tucked away on a small and hidden street, yet it is still within the hustle and bustle of the city. It has a really sweet feel to it, surrounded by her mother's garden and her family, seeing as how all of her neighbors on the street are members of her family (her grandma had ten kids, so she has a huge family here in China).

We met her adorable mother and sister, and then went next door and were warmly welcomed by a handful of cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, nieces and nephews, etc. Although we couldn't understand a word they were saying, we could just feel their love and excitement radiating about. It was such a good feeling, I absolutely loved being there. After a few minutes of talking, they explained that they wanted to do something nice for us, so they decided that we would all go to KTV to "sing a song", aka, sing karaoke. Like I've said before, the Chinese love karaoke, and I'm really beginning to develop the same love for it so I was all for this plan.

Victoria's handsome cousin (we kept calling him that because we couldn't remember his Chinese name, and he was a handsome fellow) drove us girls and Victoria's sister Kristen over to the KTV and we all began the night singing some good ole Taylor Swift. It started out being just the six of us, but as the night went on, more and more family members began to show up, along with a few bosses, bosses of bosses, KTV employees, etc. We had a serious party going in our room, it was unreal. Also, they were all so kind, they ordered us so much food and fruit for us to snack on while singing. They mostly loved listening to us sing Taylor swift and Adele (we sang some of their same songs about, hmm, three or four times each), and just treated us like we were family. It was an absolutely perfect night.

The next day, Victoria's mother made us an early lunch; I would call it brunch, but it was very lunch like food, if that makes sense. She was an amazing cook. I haven't had home cooked Chinese food here yet, I've just eaten out and had what they serve in the cafeteria. All of the food, well most actually, that I've tried here has been so delicious, but there sas something. About her food that I especially loved; it just tasted so fresh and savory. She brought out some collared greens in some kind of sauce, some kind of meat, some chicken wings (not like American though, much better with a lot less fat on them) and some straight up fish, eyes, bones, fins, and all, in a serving bowl. If I were to be handed fish like this at the beginning of my trip, I wouldn't have known what to do with myself. However, Jenna and I just dug in ever so naturally and actually really enjoyed it. Kristen kept telling us to "take careful" when eating it because there were bones in it, and she didn't want us to choke. I just love her.

That afternoon, Victoria, Kristen, and their brother all took us to Xiaolan to go shopping. Side note about her brother: he is very tall for a southern Chinese boy, and kind of thicker, but by no means fat, or overweight. However, Victoria pointed out to me several times throughout the weekend that he was so ugly because he was so fat, and that he eats way too much, so that's why he became so fat. It kind of killed me, it's not offensive to call people fat here, it just is what it is. I kind of love how honest these people are, it's refreshing to know that people will not try to just please you. They also called their brother a zhu, or pig, multiple times while we were there, and i just couldnt help but smile and shake my head. Anyways, they took us shopping and showed us around all of the wonderful shops in this mall. Victoria was especially good at making sure we didn't pay too much for anything, and to make sure to follow her very closely so we didn't get lost.

After about an hour of shopping, Kristen and her brother went to check movie show times, and invited us to a movie. Little did we know, when they asked us if we would like to go, they had already bought tickets for us to Iron Man 3. Not only did they buy us 3-D movie tickets, they insisted that we get a smoothie drink to take into the movie. They covered everything and refused for us to pay, I couldn't believe it. They went so far out of their way to make sure we had an enjoyable time, and they hardly know us. They are seriously just too good.

The movie was great; I've never really been into these types of movies before, but I liked this one. Victoria and Kristen's first remark after the movie was that they thought it was just ok, because it was so scary to them! I couldn't help but laugh, they are just so sweet and innocent!

After the movie got out, they took us back to their home, we met their father (who is equally as amazing as the rest of their family) and he wanted to take us out to eat for dinner. We excitedly accepted, and went off to a cute but very popular little restaurant with again, almost every family member in their family. I seriously can't get over how tightly knit they are with one another, I love how much they care about each other and value the time they spend together.

The food came out and it was simply a braised chicken on a metal rod, with a buttery sauce in the bottom of the tray to dip the chicken in. Victoria noticed all of our confused faces, and instantly decided to help us figure out how to execute this meal. I felt like she was my mother, just getting me little bites, one at a time, and sticking them in my bowl; so thoughtful. I was a little hesitant to eat it at first, there were "slippies", yes mom, slippies, organs, etc. inside, but after the first bite, I forgot about all of the gross things and realized how tasty it was. It had such a tremendous flavor and tasted so fresh, and clean; this is definitely a taste I've missed from home.

After a lovely meal with her family, Victoria and her sister drove us all the way back to Kaiyin and we said our goodbyes. We will see Victoria on Monday in class, but we don't have plans to see Kristen, so it was kind of a sad goodbye. However, Victoria, her mother and father, her cousins, etc. all invited us back to visit next weekend, so we might just have to go again. It was a wonderful time and a much needed break from Kaiyin. Victoria and her family are such wonderful people, they make me want to do so much more good in the world.