New Year's Day 元旦

(kitty in the kitchen)

(we got one of these roosters as a gift when we left the farm)

(Mao lurking on the wall of their bedroom)

(Chongqing's countryside in winter)

(a view of the house from the main courtyard, I took this when we had just arrived)

After getting seven hours of sleep I was woken up at nine o'clock in the morning and taken by my host family to the countryside of Chongqing, about one hour away from the city center. Luckily I fell asleep in the car! In the car all I knew was that we were going to visit some friends at their parent's farm. I didn't know when we were coming back or what we were to do there besides eat. Meanwhile outside it is -6C (21.2F) and overcast. Most of my warm clothes are back at home sitting in the washer. I still hadn't washed them yet after coming back from Shanghai.

The placed where we stopped the car did not even look like a village. It looked like a row of houses along several muddy fields. The houses were on high ground above the fields, and across the fields was another shorter row of houses. Some of the houses had a pee-yellow tile facade while others were just plain red brick. Bright white geese were milling about in the brown muddy fields occasionally squawking to themselves.

A tan man greeted us, chatting in rapid Chongqing dialect and led us to the main courtyard of the farmhouse pictured above. My stomach was a bit upset from the bumpy roads so I mostly spent the time sitting and watching my host brother and his cousin play badminton with my host mother.

The food we had was incredibly though! I have never had such good Chinese food in my whole life! The table was made of metal and had a small stove inside so the surface was warm to the touch. What a relief, I have been so cold here lately. I was asked a lot of questions about life in Los Angeles at this point, how many people made up my family, the differences between American school and Chinese school, how much my dad makes, whether my mom works etc. Most of the time the room went silent as if everyone was hanging on every word I said.

Following lunch all the adults went into the dirt-floored living room to watch television. The TV was the only modern thing I saw in the whole house. It looked out of place. To heat themselves there were cast-iron bowls filled with ashes and hot coals laid at their feet.

I ventured outside and found my host mom and my host aunt giving badminton advice to my host brother and host cousin. After about a half an hour we started getting ready to leave. But I needed to use the bathroom...I was pointed to a dark room off the barn. Little did I know that the bathroom was also the pig sty.