Anshan

After spending the night at my aunt's, I met up with the family around noon at my paternal grandparents' house. They've lived there for over 20 years, and it remains one of the most recognizable places in China for me still. The house looks pretty much the same after 4 years, minus the blooming flowers that my grandmother ardently maintains (not spring here yet).

Lunch was a festive affair, with all of my favorite home dishes and plenty of encouragements to drink up. Grandfather, as per tradition, delivered to me a recitation of the family mantra, of which I only understood about half, and the rest is to be translated by my father later. I came back to their house later in the day, but it wasn't as fun, as my cousin and I were forced to awkwardly discuss jobs and dating. Upshot is that I'm glad I live in America, where match-making is NOT done by the parents and where 26 is not considered spinster age. Woot!

Rest of the day was spent running necessary errands, the first of which was getting me a cell phone to use in China. My aunt also considered it of utmost importance to cure my cough, which I brought with me from America. Her solution was Chinese medicine, socks, and long underwear. I am, to say the least, reluctant, but I appreciated her good will.

Finally, weird as it sounds, I must put in a plug for my aunt's ridiculously fancy toilet, which comes with its own remote control and has automatically heated seats. It's so complicated that I was just PLAIN CONFUSED using it, and almost got sprayed in the face with bidet water. Who says China isn't meeting the technology wave? They're riding it, from toilet to shining toilet.