Spring Festival Visiting

After Spring Festival day there are two weeks of visiting and eating meals with friends and relatives.
1. Julia and Nieve visited from the English department bringing apples, sweet pears, and a monster bag of WaWa junk food for Caleb. We served them some home made pizza.
2. HaiBin, her husband, little boy, and in-laws invited us to eat lunch at the Hot Fish restaurant in our old neighborhood. They are moving to Beijing so we will miss them.
3. We brought chicken curry over to Cambridge’s house one night. They are also expecting a baby just a week before us. Their five year old boy suffered brain damage at birth. We are always amazed and encouraged by their love and patience. Cambridge shot off Roman candles with us on the way home.
4. A mother and daughter who attend our Friday night study invited us to their home with a big gathering of friends. They served turtle and eel. We watched the Winter Olympics and Caleb tried to run from their big black poodle.
5. DongHong invited us to his new home with a group of his friends. DongHong is the university president’s driver. He is the kind of person who shakes your hand for a long long time like you have been friends since childhood. For the past six years DongHong has been renting in a 4 square meter apartment, no kitchen, no shower for just over 10 dollars a month. DongHong is so proud of his new home.
6. Just after the snow we visited the bee keepers who live in tents at the bottom of our hill. Their teenage children were visiting, so we brought big bags of snacks. We thought we had gotten away with giving a gift, but a few days later they stopped us and gave a free jar of honey. I raced back down the hill with money to try and pay for the honey, but that turned into some polite pushing and “No No No keep your money.”
7. On the Lantern Festival we ate lunch with LiJun, the stem cell researcher, and family. They take us to fancy meals when we eat with them, so GaoYan got an expensive fruit basket and we gave some books to their son Eric. Always wanting to give more, they sent us home with Eric’s old bike for Caleb to ride.