The Day of Homework and College Apps

Even though I went to bed well past 12 last night, my body didn't seem to register that that meant I should sleep later. Instead, with the light pouring in from my window, I opened my eyes at 8:15, and kept them that way. Even though I had a lot to do this morning, I wasn't quite ready to do them. Instead, I grabbed my computer (what else?) and got comfy. I went to a movie website that my friend gave me, and started browsing. I had been thinking about buying Babylon AD, so I started watching that. I'm not going to lie, it looked like it had potential. But before I even got 20 minutes into it, I got a knock on my door. It was my mom. At first I thought that she was making sure that I was awake, but then she informed me that they were going to the market, because my sister needed to buy a bike. After a dance of Should I Go, Should I Stay (as everyone knows, when it comes to unimportant decisions, I am hopeless) I made up my mind to go, and ran to my room to get changed. (In case you were wondering, I wore my grey and black stripey dress with my black leggings, because it is so comfortable, and I felt like it.) On the way out, my mom handed me this Korean rice cake thing, which was basically just flavored sticky rice. It wasn't half bad, actually. That was my breakfast, so I ate it regardless.

I don't know what I was expecting when my mom said market, but it certainly wasn't what I got. First we went to a big food market, where there were a lot of sellers packed into a huge building. We (me, my sister, my dad and mom) went to the veggies first, and navigated our way through the massive amount of bodies to get to the wares. My mom kept offering me things, but I didn't know half the things she pointed to, so I just shrugged and said ok. If they are going to eat it, it probably won't kill me (although now that I am in China I may have to adjust that assumption...) I thought we were going to get away without going to the meat section, but I had no such luck.

It is quite an experience to go to the meat section of a Chinese market. You first see (and smell) the fish. Every where are huge tanks stuffed with so many fish that they can barely move. Most places also have crabs and shrimp, in a similar state. The ground is wet (don't want to think about that) and for people who don't like fish (i.e. me) the smell leaves something to be desired. My parents went to go buy fish (really long fish that was frozen, by the way) and my sister and I followed. I was trying to teach her the lyrics to Mamma Mia (she loves that song. No joke) and I told her that my mom wanted to hear me and her sing it. She got a kick out of that.

After buying the fish, we moved over to the pork/chicken/beef/whatever section. I watched as all the butchers hacked into huge hunks of meat. It was rather revolting. I will eat meat, but I would rather not think about where it comes from. Call me whatever you want, I don't care. I don't want to see what i am eating (especially not in China.) That whole trip into the meat only took about 10 minutes before we high tailed it out of there. I wasn't disappointed to see the end of it.

However, that wasn't even the market that my parents had intended on going to. So with our new purchases, we walked back to the car, and started driving again. I am starting to recognize some of the places we pass, which is nice. Maybe I will learn my way around the city after all. We went to another market, this time one that was all inside. (Apparently it is some french supermarket, or so my mother informed me.) We bought some bread (for my breakfasts) and Saqima (which is the greatest snack ever. I don't care if it is bad for me, it is tasty) before heading for the bikes. It didn't take long for my sister to pick a bike she liked (hey, I rhymed) and we were out of there. By this time, it was almost lunch time, and I was getting hungry.

My parents, clearly, were also getting hungry, and they certainly didn't feel like cooking. So they just ordered Domino's pizza. I didn't realize until it got to our house (actually, a friend told me, and then I realized) that cheese is a milk product, and I can't eat milk products. I told my sister and my mom this, but they told me not to worry about it. So I didn't worry. I haven't been eating milk products, so I figured it wouldn't hurt. And I didn't know what else I was supposed to eat for lunch.

After lunch, it was time to study. And study I did. It took me about 2 hours to finish my Chinese homework, and I didn't finish until about 4. Then it was history time (not only do I have to do the history homework for this weekend, I still have to finish the history homework from last week. Oops.) That didn't even get finished before people came over. (Seriously, when will people start warning me when we have company?) It was my cousin and her boyfriend, and my aunt (the aunt that really likes me, no less.)

Apparently my aunt wasn't feeling well, because my family busted out the Chinese medicine, and invited me to watch. All I had to see was the lighter and the jar of alcohol to know that this could have disastrous consequences. What happened was this. My aunt lay down on her stomach, and pulled her shirt up to her shoulders. My mom dipped a big hunk of gauze in the alcohol, and lit it on fire. She then proceeded to pop the flaming gauze into a jar, and then stick the jar onto my aunts back really quickly, so it created suction and stayed there. She did this with about 5 jars, and then we all left my aunt to rest. It was weird.

Dinner passed without a hitch, although as soon as my parents decided that I couldn't get the meat off of the bone without help, they decided to help me, and proceeded to put obscene amounts of meat onto my rice. I was tempted to follow Chinese tradition and simply grab my bowl and move it out of their reach. That seems to work well with other people.

My aunt kept trying to talk to me, and I kept trying to answer her to the best of my abilities, but it was hard. She spoke fast, and with a thick accent, and combining that with my tiredness and oncoming headache, I could tell that it was bound for trouble. But I gave it a go, and sometimes my mom would repeat what she had said, only slower. That was the best thing that worked.

The rest of the night passed without a glitch. I had to go back to my room to do homework, but I popped my head outside to say good bye to everyone. People don't hug here, so I have just settled for waving awkwardly. I'm not sure what else to do. And that, my friends, is my story. I'm starting to get into a habit of only writing half of the story and then stopping, but what are you going to do?