January 20, 2011
Today was super fun! Our class got to meet the Masters nursing students. I always enjoy making new Chinese friends. I met three girls named Jin Jin, Xiao Yan, and Qun. They were really nice. I went exploring after during lunch and found a huge park (that was totally fengshui by the way) with lots of tea house and even an amusement park in it! I wish I could remember the name of it. I could spend every day there if I wanted. It was a really relaxing place. I took lots of pictures of it. There were also some really funny English signs.
But the best part about today was getting to go out to dinner with my host father from two years ago, Duan Yiqiang. Although it has been a while, it feels like we picked up right where we left off—almost like no time has passed at all. We went to the hot pot restaurant across the street from our hotel. Liana was with me, and his long-time friend Dan Gan met us there too. I think that Yiqiang might be one of the only Chinese people that I've met whose English is about as good as my Chinese. We're a good combination (although I am sure quite hilarious to outside observers) because I think that we both learn a lot of new words from each other. I remember last time I was in Chengdu, whenever I would spend a whole day with his family I would come back to my dorm feeling like I had learned a lot of Chinese. I was pretty proud! It is because of him that I have decided that I really want a host family in Beijing. But anyways, it was really a good time catching up! I didn't have much of an opportunity to chat with him last week during the concert. It turned out that yesterday was his younger sister's birthday, but everyone was too busy to celebrate it. So, today we were invited to celebrate with the family! We all went to a coffee house and sat around drinking coffee and Tibetan tea. Their family is from Kang Ding which is a prefecture near Tibet, so they like a lot of Tibetan food and drinks.
One funny thing that happened was that Liana and I taught the Duan family how to say "bottoms up!" as a way to say cheers. For some reason they just got the biggest kick out of it. I'm not sure if they thought it was "bottles up" or just how their way of saying cheers: "gan bei" (literally: dry your cup) is so similar to the motion of turning a bottle upside down. But in any case, it was a very entertaining cultural exchange. It was also funny how he couldn't remember Liana's name so he kept calling her by her Chinese name, He Xi 合熙. In total, there were about 8 people: Yiqiang and his wife, his sister and brother, his mom, and a niece (3) and nephew (7). His nephew was quite rambunctious. It is always nice though to be reminded how seven-year-olds all over the world are exactly the same. Overall, it was just a great night reminiscing and catching up. I know that I always have a family in Chengdu! J Yiqiang is really a genuine caring man. I am really glad that he was my host father two years ago and that we were fortunate enough this time around to meet up again. I hope that we can stay in contact a little bit better this time.
~Sarah Swetz
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