1. 9/6/16
a. Breakfast at home, sweet
potato rice. (More like a rice soup actually). Eat awkwardly with Xin’s 90+
grandma smiling at me over her own rice.
b. Abs workout and counting
lesson. (Xin has an inclined situp bench in his room; as I do situps, Xin helps
me count using the numbers I barely learned on the plane over.
c. Ping pong! Awesome tiled
area with table inside their apartment complex. I play Xin, then his dad, who
is quite good. @Mike: after watching that video you sent me, I work on
returning hard smashes with lobs from several paces behind the table. It’s
actually kind of effective! End with two games to seven—Xin crushes me
mercilessly, which surprised me since I thought I was playing well. But his
forehand is very powerful.
d. Laundry. Washer is
outside on their balcony, and after washing, we hang the clothes from rails on
the balcony.
e. This is actually one of
the most striking things about CQ—all of the residential buildings have laundry
draped on rails on every balcony.
f. Get into a minor tiff
with Xin as I’m trying to learn the pronunciation of some Chinese syllables. He
declares that he gives up, after a few attempts on my part. After some minutes
of silence I inform him that this will not do J. Give up, perhaps;
vocalize this, never!
g. Hop on the light rail
and hop off again at a random place. Tickets: < $1 for the both of us.
h. Walk through a park.
Some ladies are spinning tops by whipping them with ropes, for exercise. First
lady will not let me try; the other does. It’s surprisingly difficult and I
knock the top over.
i. We get on the light rail
again, this time aboveground, which is awesome. Get out at a mall thingy in the
outskirts, where we meet an old friend of Xin’s.
j. She drives us to a new
development where we can see the river. I learn to ask for a name, learn hers,
which I’ve now forgotten. Then we take a long walk through a lovely park built
as part of the massive skyrise residential development.
k. She’s a Chinese
(history) student going off to grad school, speaks a little English. Xin
translates a little bit of their conversation, suffers a Chinese pronunciation
lesson for me (she thinks Xin’s Chinese is bad, in terms of vocab :P)
l. Dinner is not hot pot,
but more dim-sum-y kind of deal (lazy susan with lots of dishes) with more
relatives! Very interesting. Much shorter than hot pot dinner. Xin explains
that Chinese people don’t spend very long eating, unless they are also
drinking.
m. Go with Xin, his friend,
and some cousins to a strange club. Looks like a big athletic club or hotel
from the outside. Inside, we’re ushered to a table with traditional tea
implements, and we make some tea. Xin’s friend jokes about the tea—younger
generation likes the cachet of the traditional tea setup but doesn’t know the
tradition. Then we go downstairs and suddenly: Karaoke party! Room with tea and
fruit and two TVs dishing out karaoke. Xin’s friends sing very well. The few English
pop songs they have, I don’t know the tune to… Also there are these little jars
full of dice for Liar’s Dice. Get my heinie handed to me at the game,
fortunately no money involved :D
n. Return via Uber to the
apartment for some ludicrously cheap fare. Really one should never use the bus
system.
o. Pack and crash!
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