Asia Trip Day 17: Chill and Eat (1/4/18)

How do I taste, man?

On this day, I spent the afternoon at her parent's house while Xuezhu went to hospital to spend time with her mother and her grandfather. On her usual trips to China, Xuezhu's parents would her take her all over the country to different provinces. However, this trip was different because of my presence, as well the preoccupations of her parents. Her father was also visiting a hospital to get a consultation on his hip joint, which is likely osteoarthritis. He was an athlete in college, and got a scholarship for high jumping. Her parents actually met at an international sports meet, where her mother was a heptathlon athlete. He had since remained active physically, but age always catches up. 

So it was for the best that we were able to split up and do what we wanted to do. Xuezhu was able to spend more time with her family, and I was able to enjoy a quiet afternoon alone. I brought my laptop, which allowed to begin writing notes for these blogs. At their home, they left some duck for me to eat, which was tasty, but I wasn't expecting the duck head. 

I borrowed her mother's coat, because they were worried I was cold

In the evening, Xuezhu picked me up and took me to Lan Kwai Fong, which was a well-developed area with many bars, clubs, and music lounges. We were meeting with a close friend of Xuezhu. Their parents are close friends, so they would spend a lot of time together as children. This made her effectively Xuezhu's older sister, her "Jiejie". 

Panda heads and rabbit heads

Pig heads (oh man, a real pig head would be horrific)

We had dinner at a Sichuan-style dim sum place. They ordered a variety of dishes, such as daan daan mein, sour chili noodles, chili pork wontons, egg noodle soup, pea shoots, cumin beef, rabbit skulls, crepes, panda mochi, and tea jelly. There were also sweet, pig-shaped custard dumplings. What I didn't appreciate as much was how dessert was served at the same time as everything else, which goes against the order of things. I suppose that is typical dim sum style.

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