People wearing coats in the house give me the feeling that they are on
the verge of leaving. In my parents in law’s place it’s more a matter
of being on the verge of eating. And eating we did, morning, afternoon,
evening, in between nuts and other chewable bits and tats and then
again and again. Not too bad actually.
They wore the coat, as it was cold. I didn’t at first and got one. I guess they were smarter..
We met many family and friends of my loved one. Most of them are great,
the not-so-great-one’s I write about. Meeting a white face for real
appears to be scary. It was one of those friends that told my
girlfriend she felt relieved we left. Another friend took care of my
health by providing me with fruit, after she first loudly exclaimed in
Chinese to the other guests that I hadn’t eaten fruit yet. “Laowai me
chi shuiguo”. Being talked about in the third person is always funny, I
murmur in my good moments. Especially because I understood her. Another
friend, not a good one I must add, asked my girlfriend if we were
serious….you know… the relationship. Yeah right, we travel all the
way to Chengdu, meet the parents, meet all the friends just in order
not to be serious and we love traveling in high season. The same friend
who is so desperate for contact she once ended up in a gay bar in
Shanghai. According to her they had to spell it out for her, before she
realized she wouldn’t find a man interested in her. But this is China,
so we stay friendly; at least that is what my girlfriend tells me, as
maybe the not-so-good-friend can be useful. I also intend to
practice my karaoke skills. Man, did I sound bad.