Not sure how she was able to do this…

For starters, I want to thank everyone for their kind comments and emails. I love hearing from friends and family back home, and it warms my heart to know that people are reading (and hopefully enjoying) these posts. Unfortunately, due to poor internet access, I cannot respond to most of them before the wifi crashes. But please keep the messages coming!

Okay, so I’ll start with something that happened after I posted last night. Following my walk with my grandmother, we both plopped down on the couch in front of the TV. Handing the remote over to me, I started scrolling through the Chinese channels, and found the Musketeers! The BBC television series about Paris in the 17th century! One of my favorites!

Well, I turned it on, and I noticed that the whole series was available for them through streaming, so I showed my grandmother the first episode. Considering I caught her watching a gory war movie with decapitations every 5 seconds the other night, I figured the occasional violence in the Musketeers wouldn’t bother her. Plus, it had enough drama to match her favorite Chinese soap operas.

I think she liked it…? She left halfway through… Oh, well.

My day was pretty uneventful, but there are always a few stories I would like to share.

At dinner tonight, only my grandmother and I were present to eat together, so we shared a very awkward meal in which she would point to something and say the word for it in Chinese, but I would forget it rather quickly. She gestured to a loaf of bread at one point and asked me how to address it in English. “Oh, uh, bread,” I said, a little caught off guard since my mouth was stuffed with the beef she had been piling into my bowl.

“Ohablehn” she repeated, trying to imitate my speech.

“No, Bread”

“Neblehema”

“Brrrread”

“Blemha”

“Breaaad”

“Lebaaad”

“B r e a d”

“Bled”

“Bb rr ee aa dd”

“Blood”

“Yes, hao, close enough. Good job. Fei chang hao.”

Oh well, I tried. The only thing I’m worried about is since she’s obsessed with making people eat, she might accidentally offer someone “blood” instead of “bread”… It’s fine, it’s okay, mistakes happen.

I’m actually going to wrap up this post a little early because I’m exhausted, and the other stories I had were just fillers for a day when I didn’t have anything to write about (which would be a day like today, but again I’m extremely tired). Don’t worry! You’ll read all of the weird culture things I’ve witnessed in due time, but I’ll save them a little longer.

I love suspense.

So anyway, here’s the closer…

Tonight, after my walk with my grandmother, we (again) plopped down on the couch in front of the TV. But, since she just handed me practically an entire watermelon to eat, she held possession of the remote.

Suddenly, a familiar tune sounded from the television, and I lifted my head to see that she put on another episode of the Musketeers!

Now, at first, I thought “oh, she knows I like the show, and she decided to put on another one for me…”

BUT! The TV remembers which episode you last watched, and so it plays the next episode automatically…

Well, the episode she put on was in the beginning of season 2… MEANING SHE WATCHED ALL OF SEASON ONE BETWEEN TONIGHT AND YESTERDAY EVENING. I’m not sure if that’s even possible, but someone did it.

I asked her “you like this show?” and she responded with “yes! The men are very handsome!”

(We have more in common then I originally thought).

Then again, who doesn’t like British men acting as French Musketeers in the 1600s?

(Don’t worry mom, I’m still studying… I’m not just watching British television… although, I did find the Doctor Who goldmine).

I think my grandmother likes Porthos the most ’cause he eats a lot.

More later,

Ana