So this morning I got up at about 8:00 AM, got dressed, and went down to go eat breakfast. Everyone was surprised to see me get up this early, even though we had all gone to bed about 12 hours earlier! Breakfast was really good, we had rice with eggs and carrots, some kind of cured meat, and several different kinds of vegetables. There was even a bowl of some kind of farina which I think pales in comparison to Cream of Wheat. But maybe I'm biased.
Every time I would get close to finishing what was on my plate, Auntie would push dishes of food towards me while saying 吃吧，吃吧，吃吧！(chī ba, chī ba, chī ba!/Eat, eat, eat!) To be polite, I would take some more food the first two or three times she did this, but eventually I felt that I was about to burst and so I declared "我吃饱了!"(wǒ chī bǎo le, I'm full) and then we took our plates to the kitchen. This is the first major cultural difference I've found, here the families will literally shove food down your throat until you're full. I almost felt bad saying I was full, but then I realized that it was probably just a common thing and it wasn't a big deal, they just want to make sure you're well fed.
I'm looking forward to a fun day in Beijing today, I'll post more about it later!
Until next time,
Ben
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