Markevis Gideon: A Day with a Chongqing Family

So yesterday was an excellent experience, for the most part. We were all afforded the opportunity to spend an entire day with a local family, and it was quite an adventure. The day began pretty normal, you know I woke up at a decent hour, took a shower, ate some cookies for breakfast and met in front of the dorm to prepare for the day’s outing. We all walked over to the administrative building and as we walked in, we were greeted by several different families. As our names were called off we were briefly introduced to our family for the day, and I must admit I was a bit nervous, but quickly overcame the fear. It was my pleasure to meet Mrs. Catherine, an English Teacher at the school and her husband. As soon as I stepped out of her car, at her place of residence, I was immediately greeted by her 2 year old daughter! She called me “Co Co”, which means brother, and I felt honored! In addition to her 2 year old daughter, her parents, brother, sister and nanny also were there. We all discussed the program for about a hour and then we went to a wedding. I was a bit confused, being that I was wearing cargo pants and a hoody, but it was totally acceptable. In a way I guess this wedding could be described to be a Western Style wedding, but it was still pretty different. There were no exchange of rings, in the background there was a narrator during the whole wedding and the overall layout was different, but interesting. We remained there for about an hour and then we left. They noticed that I did not eat anything so they parked the car and within a few minutes jumped back in with some KFC, and I was soooo happy. So we went back to their place of residence and then I ate. Afterwards, Catherine’s husband asked if I would like to learn some Tai Chi, which is a slower form of Karate! We practiced for about an hour, and boy was that a work out. It looks fairly simple, but it is actually pretty difficult and at times strains the muscles. Once I finished that, I got my butt beat in a game of ping pong by a neighbor. This lady was great, she tried to give me some pointers, but you know the whole not being able to understand Chinese did not help! So after being beat, about seven games in a row, Catherine asked if I would like to take a nap. So I rested on the couch and about an hour or so later woke up. Then the big moment arrived....DINNER TIME! They were so excited to take me to hot pot, and it was such an experience. Though I did not remotely enjoy the food, I had a grand time. There was about five different performers strolling around with an amplifier strapped to their back with some type of instrument and a microphone to sing! It was very noisy, but funny at the same time. I will not go into too much detail about hot pot because I do not want to ruin anyone’s experience, but on a brighter note...it did smell good! So following hot pot we went back to the campus and I gave them a small gift of appreciation for all of the hard planning they did for this day. They were the greatest, and I would encourage them to look into doing it again for a second time next year!