Pretty Good Stuff to the Chinese
We had a short opportunity to host a Chinese family this past weekend.
Well we didn't exactly know we would get a whole family when we offered to help but that's who came. Gaofeng, Jingjing and Luke (Xiyu).
An email went out earlier in the week requesting homes for about a dozen or so Chinese visiting from Boston. So since we had two vacant bedrooms I said I could take at least two. I didn't even hesitate which is kind of funny with the packing and yard sale stuff going on but really wanted to do this. Tim wrote back asking if I could accomodate a married couple. I said sure and that we'd be able to take three then. He said ok and that he'd drop them off Saturday afternoon. He said all we had to do was provide dinner and breakfast Sunday morning.
Knowing I would be packing and working on the garage sale all day, I mentally prepared an easy dinner and breakfast that would utilize food we had on hand. I'm trying my best to use up my well stocked pantry hoping to take as little as I can when we go. So late in the afternoon between yard sale shoppers I went into the house and prepared a new Apple Cake Recipe, a salad and a Pasta Vegetable Dish using up some of my Alfredo Sauce tucked away in the pantry.
Of course it started to rain while I was in the house and I had to rush out and run around putting things back into the garage that I had laying around the driveway for the sale including a lot of clothing.
Soon after this, the Zhao/Seng family showed up. At first it's awkard not knowing how much we'd be able to understand since they are still learning the language. Within moments we knew we had truly made new friends. They were not Christians, new to the country and were actually investigating Christianity having really no idea about it. They came with a group to visit the fair here.
Both Gaofeng (the dad) and Jingjing (mom) are surgeons at Mass General and I would estimate in their 30's. Luke, their nine year old was soooo cute. We had a nice dinner. I got out the salad dressing and put on the table for the salad without thinking they may not understand what it is for. I explained the different varieties thinking they would know it was for the green salad, and Jingjing promptly poured it over her Alfredo Pasta hot dinner. I kind of winced thinking that can't taste too good. She picked out a spicy Zesty Italian for herself and poured creamy Ranch on her son's plate of pasta. Oh well. I did notice she had a second helping once again pouring that Italian dressing over it. She must have liked it.
We then got out a puzzle and worked it together. I don't think the Dad was too into it but Mom and Luke really were. But the five of us worked on it together for about an hour or so and had a few laughs while talking about their culture in comparison to ours. They had to change their wording every once in a while choosing their words carefully at times so we could understand them.
They told me they had only been here two months and it was the first time out of their country. They were only allowed one child, yet he was from a family of six children and she had two siblings. If they were to have another child, they would be fired from their jobs. Only if they were talented in some way where they could run their own business would they be able to support themselves by defying a government order. They also said couples that live abroad for a few years can come back with more than one child and not be penalized.
They live in Zhengzhou which is the province of Henao, home of 4,000,000 people. Wow. We live in a town of about 4,000 people. Big difference. They rent an apartment in Boston with one large room sharing a kitchen with another family. Our house was huge to them.
So after saying goodnight I woke up early to make sure they had a good breakfast. I cut up the apple cake I made the day before and put that on a platter along with freshly made banana pancakes, applesauce and potato cakes. They had never had pancakes before. After the night before, with the salad dressing thing, I did better at explaining things. I showed them how to have the pancakes with syrup even helping her squeeze out the syrup from a new fangled ego waffle syrup container. She was absolutely thrilled with those pancakes especially. She loved the apple cake as well but, they both had questions as to how we make these pancakes.
Since it was such a hit, I asked if she'd like to try making them at her home if I gave her some mix. She said yes but had no idea how to cook them. So I brought her into the kitchen showed her a frying pan and told her when she gets home to take a cup of the mix and put with almost a cup of water and mix together. I showed her the formula on the package. They both asked simulatenously "cup?" So I took out a measuring cup to show her. "Ahhhhhh yes" they said and I continued on with the directions totally forgetting to show her about the spatula part. I only said she had to flip them over after about a minute or when it got all bubbly. Later I could only imagine her standing over the pan trying to figure out how to turn the freshly cooked one sided pancake over.
So after breakfast we were off to church. She took her bag of pancake mix, bannan and a plate of apple cake with her. I gave Luke a brand new puzzle I had in my gift closet which he oooohed and awwwwed over. He put his hand over his eyes thinking it was going to be as hard as the 1,000 piece one we were working on the night before. But I showed him how this was a 500 piece puzzle, and the cat and flower picture was much easier than the Martha's Vinyard we worked on the night before.
After church Gaofeng wanted a picture of all of us together which we obliged. He then wanted my email to stay in touch. I asked if he'd write his info down as well. Well he did. He opened up his book and pulled out a sanitary napkin bag he must have got out of the bathroom earlier and wrote all his info on the back of it. He had no idea what that bag was supposed to be used for. Anyhow he practically gave me his whole life history. He gave me not only his email but both he and his wife's phone numbers along with their address both in Boston and in China. He also wrote everything in English and Chinese. It was pretty cool actually. He shook my hand with a little bow, and I thought he was never going to get on that waiting van. It was like he was very attached to us. Tim had to come and get him as all the others had been loaded up into the van including Gaofeng's wife and son.
I asked Tim if he could show Jingjing what a spatula was used for. He smiled and said he would.