Just Another “Normal” Day

Potato and I chilling with 吴璨. This picture is actually from the day before.

First movie I’ve seen in China was Skyscraper, which is 99% in English.

I know it’s Saturday, but I woke up rather early this morning. It’s like I have this internal alarm clock that is practically impossible to turn off. No matter the time I go to sleep, I always seem to wake up around 6 to 6:30 am. This morning, I got up around 6:30 am, got ready for the day, and then proceeded to read Babar in Chinese for about an hour. After breakfast and a run, my host family and I headed again to 婆婆’s home. Before heading there, 吴璨, my host mom, and I went to this large market to purchase food. At this outside market, there were pieces of meat hanging on hooks in the warm, midday air. There were large blocks of tofu on cutting boards of wood and plastic. There were many stands with lots and lots and lots of different produce: from plums and pears to lotus roots and ginger. We purchased some butternut squash like vegetable, lotus root, towel gourd, tofu, plums, and watermelon. At a small shop nearby, my host mom purchased duck cooked sticky and sweet and a Sichuan specialty that was a combination of different vegetables in a spicy broth. Upon arriving, they prepared a glass of tea for me, insisted on having me eat fruit, and gave me a sizable seat on the couch. After fruit and tea, we all sat down for a lunch of duck, cabbage, orange squash, Chinese yams, pork, the spicy miscellaneous vegetable mix, and of course, rice. I absolutely love the orange squash because it tastes like butternut squash, being a little sweet and cooked soft. It was also the first time I tried duck. Duck is very rich, and in this dish, the duck was cooked sweet and tender. Full again, 吴璨, my host mom, and I went for a bike ride through some nearby parks. 吴璨 and I got to use the shared bikes found throughout Chengdu. These bikes can be found in practically any public location and are incredibly cheap, costing about 1 American dollar for 6 hours of biking. We biked along public paths in parks nearby. Before turning around, we stopped at a tree that apparently 吴璨’s grandfather had planted. It was a very tall tree among others, but it was special in that it was theirs. We biked back soon after, ate a little more fruit, and then headed home. Around 8:00 pm, 吴璨, my host mom, and I headed to the movie theater to watch a movie that neither I nor 吴璨 knew what it was. It turned out to be the movie “Skyscraper” in 3D, which is an action-packed drama that is a little unrealistic and 99% in English. I really wasn’t expecting an English movie. There were Chinese subtitles, which I tried to read to the best of my ability. I believe this movie was allowed to stream in China because the movie took place in Hong Kong and one of the main characters were Chinese. All very interesting.