Social media has been quite dead recently, but I have been intouch with a few people. On Saturday a freind invited me for tea! I havent seen him for ages and thought it would be a good time to catch up on stuff. He runs a hotel in town. We arranged to meet at noon. I went to his hotel. I waited a nohour but he did not manage to get out of bed! I kind of get used to this in China but was a little bit annoyed all the same. Anyway, on teh way there I was having a text conversation with a woman I know and got myself invited to her house to try her dumplings (not a euphemism). So the next day I wandered over to the area she lives and she met me and took me to ehr house. She introduced me to her family. It was Spring Festival, so nearly all of her family were there. Her husband, two daugheters, one of whom had two children and the other had one. One of their husbands. I m\ke that eight in all. I arrived and straight away got given dumplings. They all watched to see if I could use chopsticks. I can, but boiled dumplings are not easy to pick up. One of her daughter's daughters was really keen on english and we spoke quite a lot in English. I spoke a bit of Chinese too, her husband and her twelve year old nephew seemed to understand more of what I was saying than nayone else and they managed to translate my Chinese to Chinese so everyone understood. This still really puzzles me. I was speaking Chinese, but not everyone understood, so the her nephew and husband who did understand spoke the words again to the others. What I find puzzling is that when someone does this, I understnad the Chinese that they say, and wonder why those who don't understand, don't understand what I say!
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| In the front of the picture left to right: daughter number one, daughter number two's son, daughter number two's daughter and daughter number two. In the rear of the picture left to right: The woman's husband, daughter number two's husband and dsughter number one's daughter! |
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| left ot right, one daughter, her sister's son, and her sister's daughter. |
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| The kids playing badminton |
Anyhow, we we ate wel and then went outside for badminton! I can' play it but I tried! I have no videos! Anyhow, I thought it was time to go, so I made my excuses and left. However before I left I was invited back for dinner, and driven home! I invited the kids and one of the daughters to my apartemnt for a look, as everyone is curious. I gave teh kids a couple of ballons, a chinese flag and a union jack each, and a special uk/china flag badge to the girl who was interested in English. Later I went back to dinner. It was really nice and we afterwards we sat aruond the heated table watching Harry Potter! It was a lovely evening! At teh end of the evening I gave each of the kids a 'red envelope' a traditional New Year gift which contains money and wandered home.
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