Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day

Today everyone is meeting at the host institution at 10 AM, but I woke up at 7 AM because I didn't feel like sleeping anymore. When I got out of my room, my grandfather was surprised and said, "ahh! ni chi lai le?" (ahh! you woke up?). I don't know why, but that made me laugh, and he laughed too. I just had breakfast, and I am really full. I had dou jiang (soymilk), you tiao (a type of deep fried pastry). yu you tan (fish head soup), and a white peach. My family doesn't keep asking me to eat more and more during meals, which is contrary to what most Chinese people do. I guess that's good because I won't feel bad when I stop eating. It was only my host sister, host grandmother, and I eating breakfast because everyone else was sleeping.

 

I'm deathly afraid of mosquitoes. When I first entered my room last night, I saw the window wide open, without any screens to prevent insects from coming in. My bed has a mosquito net, so I zipped it up tightly. I can feel them following me with a watchful eye, and even some were on the mosquito net waiting for me. I haven't gotten bit, and I sure hope it stays that way.

 

The members in my host family are different than a normal mom, dad, sister, and grandparents. On the host family info paper that NSLI-Y sent me, it shows that I have a host father, mother, sister, and grandparents. When I was introduced to them, I found out that I'm not living with my host father. He's living in a different city, and my family moved to Hangzhou so that my sister and cousin could attend school here. I'm currently living with my uncle, mother, sister, cousin, and grandparents (mom's side). My host grandmother is the one who cooks in the house, and she also plays a lot of games on the computer. It's similar to my grandmother in Fresno who lives with my aunt because she cooks in the house and plays mahjong on the computer.

 

It's 8:41 am, and I'll be leaving at 9 am for school. We're takng another two tests to re-check what level of Chinese we are on. I don't really remember many characters, so I'm a bit nervous for it. Our resident director, D (his name is David but we call him D), is going to take us to exchange money today. So...I guess today is officially my first full day in Hangzhou!