I am like your father

Wow, it sure has been a while hasn't it bloggsters! Rebekah is putting me to shame on the posting of fresh new material so here it goes.

I recently lived with a Chinese family for about 9 days as part of my Chinese program's homestay. It was a lot like living at home actually, no one really understands each other, though I certainly tried a lot harder to understand living with my Chinese family. Both my Chinese parents are teachers at Qingdao University but somehow (and I didn't pry too much) they are able to afford a very nice apartment with a prized view of the ocean. I had a younger brother as well (funnily enough, the week and a half this family puts up a foreign student each year is the closest thing this kid is gonna get to having a brother as long as the one child policy is in effect)--he is 13. Part of the purpose for having a sibling in the program is to serve as a translator in difficult situations but my brother spoke little English. My Chinese family, much like my real family is pretty laid back, as part of the family for the week I could easily ignore formalities and my Chinese mom almost had identical mannerisms to my own mother's. (as a result I only missed home even more)
*as an aside, I have found in my experience here in China that though many students are currently learning English and by the time of graduation have already had a minimum of 8-10 years of English study, many people refuse to try and speak English. Many of them, I believe, are very nervous to make mistakes or potentially become embarrassed in front of foreigners--its a bit frustrating especially since I try my damnedest to use Chinese.

Anyway, here are a few experiences of note with the homestay

• Shoes.... that's it. Some places in the house you wear em and some places you don't
• Food like pigs head meat and chicken feet are not unusual within the Chinese home.
• You will eat fruit before and after meals even if you don't want to.
• Your Chinese mother will find a way to put some sort of sausage on everything.
• My Chinese father insisted that I praise him because "Today, I am like your father"
• My Chinese father also insisted that I drink Qingdao beer at every meal as it is a Qingdao specialty.
• At restaurants, toasting is very important, especially at specific times and in a specific order.
• Your Chinese family will think that you have over paid for everything.
• Chinese brothers love to hold hands, mine wouldn't stop touching mine.--The only thing I'm touchy about is being touched.
• Skipping stones with my Chinese father at the beach was a Kodak moment.
• 80% percent of the time I understood %60 percent of what they said to me.
• It was an overall great experience, but now, I want go home.

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