Chinese New Year: the world's largest migration of people, as family members all compete to secure train, plane and automobile seats back to their hometowns.
This year, I will go to Yoyo's hometown to meet the dad's side of the family. The side that is apparently rather less crazy friendly than the mother's side. You know: siblings who haven't spoken in years, etc etc.
But the dad is pretty stoked to meet me, apparently. He bought a cot for me to sleep on months ago! The mom got special slippers for me and my comparatively large (in China) feet.
And i got a crazy expensive bottle of baijiu as is traditional, and I'm very curious to see if it actually tastes much better than the cheap stuff.
Yoyo's warned me that I'll be expected to drink quite a bit this holiday, which could be pretty entertaining, though i know that my Chinese skills will make conversation tricky. Plus apparently there's a somewhat different dialect out there, sure to complicate matters.
The town is Hanzhong: one of those little towns that noone's ever heard of, even if it's home to almost 4 million people. "It's near Xian" is the best you can do to prove its existence.
So, after an extensive fiasco of passport issues (had to renew my passport so CRI can renew my visa, handed in my passport, realized i can't buy plane/train tickets without a passport, applied for temporary passport [which required lying], and dealt with the woman who insisted that i have to get the visa into my temporary passport before my real passport arrives), me and Yoyo will fly out to Xian tomorrow too bloody early.
I'll be there for 7 days, yay, fun.
新年快乐！＝ Xinnian kuaile! = Happy (Chinese) New Year!
Note: Yes, there is an implied message when meeting the gf's parents.
This year, I will go to Yoyo's hometown to meet the dad's side of the family. The side that is apparently rather less crazy friendly than the mother's side. You know: siblings who haven't spoken in years, etc etc.
But the dad is pretty stoked to meet me, apparently. He bought a cot for me to sleep on months ago! The mom got special slippers for me and my comparatively large (in China) feet.
And i got a crazy expensive bottle of baijiu as is traditional, and I'm very curious to see if it actually tastes much better than the cheap stuff.
Yoyo's warned me that I'll be expected to drink quite a bit this holiday, which could be pretty entertaining, though i know that my Chinese skills will make conversation tricky. Plus apparently there's a somewhat different dialect out there, sure to complicate matters.
The town is Hanzhong: one of those little towns that noone's ever heard of, even if it's home to almost 4 million people. "It's near Xian" is the best you can do to prove its existence.
So, after an extensive fiasco of passport issues (had to renew my passport so CRI can renew my visa, handed in my passport, realized i can't buy plane/train tickets without a passport, applied for temporary passport [which required lying], and dealt with the woman who insisted that i have to get the visa into my temporary passport before my real passport arrives), me and Yoyo will fly out to Xian tomorrow too bloody early.
I'll be there for 7 days, yay, fun.
新年快乐！＝ Xinnian kuaile! = Happy (Chinese) New Year!
Note: Yes, there is an implied message when meeting the gf's parents.
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