A weekend full of surprises

This past weekend, a friend of mine invited me to her home in a town about two hours from Suzhou, where I live and teach. I had a wonderful time meeting her family, seeing her town, and getting to know her better, but there were many surprises as well.

The first surprise came the first night I was there. We were at dinner (we hadn't even stopped at her place yet) and she asked me if I was ok with going to the public bathrooms. I thought that she meant to ask if I was ok with using the public washrooms to go to bathroom, so I said I was. Then, however, she clarified. She asked if I was ok with using the public bathrooms to take a shower. Oh. I suppose I could have, but I didn't have the right things with me - towel, shampoo, conditioner, etc. And after talking about it with her, she decided that maybe it wasn't a good idea, since I am a foreigner and people would stare at me, as they always stare at foreigners, while I was showering. So I didn't use the public bathrooms in the end, but it surprised me that she and her family used them even though they have a shower their home. It also surprised me that it was such a common thing there. It seemed like many people in that town used it.

The next surprise came when we were driving one of her mom's friends somewhere. As soon as the woman got into the car, she looked at me and said, straight to my face, "Laowai". Yes, I know that I am a laowai, and many people have said that towards me before, but never to my face like that. It really took me aback. I was very surprised and I think that she was too. It is not exactly polite to say that, which is why I was so surprised (as was my friend). Then the woman asked me, in Chinese, if I could eat Chinese food. What an interesting question - can I eat Chinese food? I was very confused about her. She also told me that her son was studying in New Zealand and that I should meet him. So that was the second surprise - the woman and her statements/topics of conversation.

The next two things that surprised me during my weekend trip had to do with food. We were at a restaurant for dinner one night to celebrate one of my friends family member's birthday, so the food was pretty fancy. One of the foods was decorated to look like a platter of fruits and cheeses, but what looked like fruit was actually raw fish. I thought, though, that the cheese could still be cheese. When I asked, hoping that I could eat some cheese (since my meal thus far had consisted of only vegetables), I was told that it was something made out of vegetables - vegetarian, but not cheese. So sad!

Then, at breakfast the next day, we had steamed rolls (baozi) to eat. My friend went to the refrigerator and got out two jars, which she put on the table. She told me that the jars had jam inside. I was so excited - in the United States I don't get excited about jam, but I haven't had jam for four months, it is rare to eat here, and it would have gone really well with the steamed buns, so it was exciting. Then she told me that one of the jars was spicy jam and one was meat jam. Not fruit jam, like I had thought. Again, a surprise with the food being very different than I had anticipated. Oh well. It was still good - I used the spicy jam for my steamed buns and I very much enjoyed them.

And that was my weekend of surprises. Which each surprise, I got to learn more and more about parts of the Chinese culture, food, etc. Surprises are always fun, right?