I read in ‘A Rough Guide to travelling for the first time’ that one of the things you must always try and do is ‘burst out of the travel bubble’. The idea that you can travel all around the world and never really ‘experience’ the places you visit, rather just have everything provided for you as if you were back home. Charlie and I made two attempts to burst out of this bubble last week.
The first, was to go to a students house and eat with her family. A very intelligent student with a great grasp of English made for an easier experience it has to be said. Her parents were very nice indeed, mother a business woman and father a builder of some description. We ate a hotpot with all different kinds of meats, vegetables and fish mixed in – delicious. We sat and watched TV and played with their 5year old son, who was overly excited at seeing two foreigners in his house. It was an eye opener to see quite how much they went out of their way to make sure everything was just right for us. They had only just moved into their new apartment the very day before, had only just finished work and yet were nothing less than eager to make it enjoyable for us. A big thank you to Shirley for inviting us to the meal!
The second chance to experience China fully came when Charlie organised a cooking lesson with one of his friends, a Chinese teacher at our school called Nancy. One of our favourite Chinese dishes is a chicken dish called ‘Gung bow ji ding’ (not sure of spelling!?). So we thought it would be a good idea to learn how to cook it for when we come back to England. Nancy took us to her friend’s house and we were shown by a nice chap, who used to be a chef prior to becoming a teacher, how to cook the dish. It was relatively easy and we got to eat the entire meal once it was all finished. Hats off to the chef and his wife (I have forgotten their names I must admit) and to Nancy, we had another great night.
The first, was to go to a students house and eat with her family. A very intelligent student with a great grasp of English made for an easier experience it has to be said. Her parents were very nice indeed, mother a business woman and father a builder of some description. We ate a hotpot with all different kinds of meats, vegetables and fish mixed in – delicious. We sat and watched TV and played with their 5year old son, who was overly excited at seeing two foreigners in his house. It was an eye opener to see quite how much they went out of their way to make sure everything was just right for us. They had only just moved into their new apartment the very day before, had only just finished work and yet were nothing less than eager to make it enjoyable for us. A big thank you to Shirley for inviting us to the meal!
The second chance to experience China fully came when Charlie organised a cooking lesson with one of his friends, a Chinese teacher at our school called Nancy. One of our favourite Chinese dishes is a chicken dish called ‘Gung bow ji ding’ (not sure of spelling!?). So we thought it would be a good idea to learn how to cook it for when we come back to England. Nancy took us to her friend’s house and we were shown by a nice chap, who used to be a chef prior to becoming a teacher, how to cook the dish. It was relatively easy and we got to eat the entire meal once it was all finished. Hats off to the chef and his wife (I have forgotten their names I must admit) and to Nancy, we had another great night.
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