Day Eleven: A Reunion with Optimus & Bumblebee

Day Eleven

Today was our last full day in Guangzhou! Crazy to think we'd be leaving soon...our main assignment was to pack everything up today, but that wouldn't take all day of course! We waited for everyone to get up and get ready, and then my aunt took us out for a breakfast of steaming hot congee (zhouk). 

The soup contained veggies and fish, and although we were pretty hot eating it, it was pretty tasty! We ate in a ridiculously primitive, garage-sized restaurant that couldn't have screamed "local, tiny restaurant" any louder. I guess we truly get the local flavor everytime we're here! 

Our next stop was the Lucky City mall nearby. Jason and I had been interested in watching the fourth Transformers movie and so our aunt brought us to the movie theater inside the mall to see when they were playing it. Since they had a showing in a few minutes, we ended up seeing it right then and there with my aunt! My aunt got a movie membership while we were there, so we got free soda and popcorn for our movie! I'm glad we went to see it....it was really exciting and intense. Of course, it had all of the visual craziness and epic battles that the three before it featured. I know it's not deep or profound in any way, but it still provided plenty of entertainment. A lot of the scenes took place in China (Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Beijing), which caused many of the movie watchers to giggle excitedly. 

Three hours later, we stumbled out of the theater and made our way back home. We ordered some shuang pi nai from the restaurant, and ate it as our afternoon snack. Then, we made sure everything was packed and ready to go for tomorrow, and went out for one last meal with our closest family members. Every single dish we ordered was delicious! The main favorite they offered at the restaurant was a heaping bowl of rice, mixed with eel, scallions, and other flavors. It's so good...

Once our dinner had been eaten, we took a walk back to the house and watched this adorable tv show with my cousin. She recommended this show called "Dad, Where are you?", which basically revolves around different celebrity dads and their kids going on different adventures together. It's so freaking cute and I definitely would watch it again anyday I'm feeling down or upset. 

Last night in Guangzhou...definitely bittersweet! I'll miss it here for sure.

That local restaurant vibe...

A heaping bowl of soup

Our tickets to see Transformers 4 (my first movie experience in china!)

Delicious veggies during dinner

The eel and rice combo = on point.

 

Day Ten: An Insider Tour of GAC Motors

Day Ten

Well, we were off to Guangzhou today! Shunde, the town in which we were living, was around an hour from the actual city of Guangzhou. Today, we'd be visiting Boeing's dad's company: GAC Engineering! My dad's best friend was the Vice President of the company, which is a Chinese auto company. Pretty cool stuff! He had invited us to come check it out, so he could show us around. Jason is especially interested in cars and engineering, and my dad's friend offered to give him an internship once he's in college! If only it were that easy for the rest of us...geez.

We ate a quick breakfast of bread, buns, and other pastries that my aunt and I had bought that morning after taking a drive on her motorcycle. After our meal, we promptly were off!

My uncle was driving me, Jason, my dad, and my cousin to Guangzhou today...and although I love him to death, it ended up being a nightmare. We got lost because he didn't listen to the GPS and took wrong turns, which was apparently broken or on low-battery, and he wasn't at all familiar with the way. It should've taken us half an hour to get to the company headquarters, according to my dad's friend, but after THREE FLIPPING HOURS of driving, we still weren't anywhere close to our destination. I was furious and annoyed that so much time had been wasted. After all, they'd been SO confident back at the house in terms of how to get there! We were absolutely fuming in the back, as it was a cramped seating situation and my dad and uncle were proving themselves to be incapable in the front seats. My dad ended up bothering his friend and making him come out to get us. We were stranded near a toll station, and waited for at least 20 minutes there in agony. Oh, it was an awful experience. 

After my dad's friend's company car pulled up, we followed him to a restaurant for LUNCH since it was already past noon... we went to this restaurant on the water that had each table in a little wooden cabin type room. It was a feast, as my dad's friend ordered tons of dishes, which we unfortunately couldn't all finish. 

Once we were all set with lunch, Jason and I got in his GAC car and we drove off to his company. At the gate, he got us all passes, and showed us the lay of the land in detail. I'm not a huge lover engineering or cars, but this stuff was so interesting to me all the same...we saw the amount of testing they did on every facet of their cars, from sound (with quiet chambers and sound-maximizing chambers), temperature (with heating and cooling chambers), weather conditions (a car was placed under constantly running water jets), safety, and so much more. 

The building was enormous, and had these tall long hallways that you could easily drive two lanes of traffic through! The testing was so cool...they had machines constantly opening and closing the doors and trunk to test durability, an area to make dummies for the test drives, a massive racetrack in the back, etc. We walked through offices where workers were testing different batteries, charging the batteries, and working on the engine components. We walked through hangar-sized warehouses where car doors were being installed into vehicles, or engines were being installed. I've never been inside an actual factory or experimentation area like this before, and it was seriously the coolest thing ever! The process of building cars seems much more interesting to me now. 

We took a spin around the massive office that my dad's friend had, checked out the priceless view there, and then said our goodbyes. It didn't take us as long to get back (thank The Lord), and we enjoyed a homemade dinner once home. After taking more strolls around the city, we called it a day. G'night!! Only a few days left in Guangzhou!

Some of our breakfast! Yum yum 😍

On the way to Guangzhou...

The beautiful water-side restaurant

Feasting it up!!

Our pass to tour the building! 

A car on display

A real-life version of the model my dad's friend brought the other day! 

The workers at GAC built a Decepticon out of spare parts! So impressed...

Part of the amazing view from the offices there

Day Nine: Kafka, Biking, and More Relatives

Day Nine

Today was a day with relatively few plans, since we had been so booked yesterday. I spent a good chunk of the day finishing Kafka on the Shore. It was the first Murakami novel I'd read, but I've definitely been inspired to go through all of his works. He's an incredible writer, with really beautiful themes and ideas throughout the plot, and I loved his writing style. I don't want to give away anything about the actual plot...just give it a chance and read it! I highly recommend it and am still thinking about the ideas in Kafka. 

I also got a chance to Skype with my mother, as well as my best friend Sam, who is also currently exploring a foreign country. She's in India, doing research in the field in Mumbai!! I'm so excited for her, and was so happy to catch up with her. It's monsoon season there, so hopefully she makes it out unscathed! If you want to check out her amazing cooking blog, it's whatwillicooktoday.wordpress.com!

The dinner plan was to eat out with my dad's half siblings and thier families. My grandfather had six children total, and they all get along really well. Before we went to the restaurant, we stopped for an hour or so at a massive park and garden nearby. We'd gone here during our last visit as well, and had so much fun on the two and three-person bikes they offered. When we came back this time, we also rented bikes and after some shaky starts, were off and running on a three-person bike! 

Biking around the lake there and in the forests was so peaceful, beautiful, and breathtaking! There were dragon boat races going on that we saw, as well as the most beautiful buildings, views, and plants. I can't get enough of the amazing sights here, that's for sure! 

We then had a nice dinner with our relatives, in which Jason and I downed coconut milk juice like shots (they'd ordered way too much for us and we weren't about to waste such yummy-ness), and I displayed my Indian and British accents for the entire group (my dad had mentioned my skill for languages and accents, since he's always been extremely amused with my Indian accent). It was a great night with family, as always. I'm so happy I've been getting the chance to see them all again! 

The entrance to the park

A tea drink favored by countless Chinese...Jason and I love mimicking the dramatic commercials where they're seriously in love with these

Our three-person bike...before we tried and failed to ride it (feat. A very cranky and not-photo-ready Jason)

Dragon boats!! 

A government official's building? So so pretty.

Gardens

Such a great view

Contrasting the old and the new 

A cute little boy running down the bridge! Yeah, I'm a stalker. 

Day Four: Discovering Asian Wonderlands

Day Four

The next day, we spent the day in an Asian-style wonderland. It's known as 宝墨园 (Bao Mo Yuan) and its a huge tourist attraction in Guangzhou. We had gone there four years ago and remembered that there was a huge kiddie pool full of tiny fish that you could catch with nets and bring home. Last time we went, Jason and I had a ball running through the water, in full pursuit of little fish. We were excited to go back because other than the fish, we didn't really remember the beautiful scenery and views the park also offered. 

With my grandma, aunt, uncle, and cousin with us, we left the house and walked to the nearest bus station. We took a bus to the end of the line, and transferred buses at the station. The park was also the last stop on our new bus. All in all, it took us about an hour and a half to get there. There was a little kid on our bus that was wearing red superman pants, a blue superman shirt, and red cape! Clearly, we had been graced with the presence of the one and only Superman. 

Once at the park, we took in the gorgeous sights that it offered. There were huge pieces of art, carved out of stone, marble, and much more. Many of the other people in the park with us were young; they were there practicing to become tour guides. I was rather annoyed because they ended up photobombing a ton of our pictures. Oh well. 

There truly was a lot to see inside! They had dozens of pools of fat, hungry fish that viciously fought over the food you threw in, as well as numerous turtles that napped, basked in the sun, and excited viewers to no end with their lethargy. 

Besides the great, historical and cultural pieces that we saw, Bao Mo Yuan had an extensive collection of excruciatingly awful English translations on their signs. It was this day that I re-devoted myself to the hobby of taking photos of the worst translations that I stumbled upon. 

The architecture was my favorite part. I've always been very fond of different types of architecture and styling, and I've found Asian buildings, gardens, and statues to be truly stunning and timeless. I took tons of photos of spiritual figures, rock gardens, lotus flowers, and colorful buildings during our adventure inside. 

Lunch was also inside the park, in a large restaurant where other park-goers were also dining. It consisted of many traditional Chinese dishes, like duck, greens, tofu, and of course, more tea. We've been having hot tea with all of our meals and it's so strange to me...sure, this doesn't differ from the customs of our previous trips, but I just don't understand why you would drink so much hot liquid when it's ridiculously hot and humid already. You're sweating buckets just by standing there...add the boiling hot soups and teas, and you'd just suffer more! I've pestered my relatives here about it to no end, and they always say the same thing: they aren't used to drinking cold things and their bodies would feel uncomfortable if they eat our way. Hmmm.

After lunch, we ventured deeper into the garden and wandered through so many rooms of calligraphy, paintings, wax figures, and statues. There was this particular museum inside with thousands of ceramic, jade, stone, and porcelain artifacts: bowls, jewelry, figurines, toys, plates, etc. We were all mind blown to learn that a single family had donated the entire collection to the park. These were all thousands of years old, from China's earliest dynasties! Pretty cool family, huh?? Not only that, but the heir to all of these artifacts (one of the family members) was IN the museum at the same time that we were!! There were tons of monks taking pictures with him on the museum steps, and we learned from him that one of the bowls on display was worth over 30 million yuan. That meant that this entire collection (and it's owner) were worth....billions. So cool. 

Around 4 pm, we finished our visit to Bao Mo Yuan and took the same buses back. It was interesting of course, but after an entire day of it, we were all pretty fried from looking at painting after painting. It had been like history, art, and cultural museums all packed into one...on steroids. 

For dinner, we went to a restaurant that was known for one of our absolute favorite foods that we remembered from our last visit: Shuang Pi Nai （双皮奶）. It's a sweet dessert that's made with eggs, milk, sugar, and other good stuff. You can eat it hot or cold, and we had seriously been obsessed with it last time we came....our aunt would order it and they'd deliver it to her house. Dangerous, dangerous thing, that delivery service. 

We went directly to the restaurant this time, ordered it first for all of us, and we enjoyed it happily. I can't really describe the taste; it's dairy-based obviously, and isn't too sweet, while the texture is solid but squishy. You'll just have to try it to understand what I mean, I suppose! Other than that, we had greens, fried rice, chow he fun, a type of taro root, and more. 

It was a good day and we were thoroughly spent once we got back to the house afterwards. It was nighty night before waking up to another exciting day! 

Suuuuupermaaaan! 

The entrance to the park

The vicious fish eating our fish pellets (the fight to the death)

Gorgeous arquitecture everywhere

Shuang Pi Nai: a freaking amazing dessert

Peace be with y'all, my friends 🙏

Day Three: Dim Sum, Money Probs, & Gorgeous Views

Kicking it on a motorcycle! SO much fun.

On day three, I woke up really early; unfortunately, my jet lag had started kicking in. However, my early morning rising was rewarded because my aunt needed to go to the marketplace again! After a breakfast of chow he fun (a type of thick noodle) made by my grandmother, we got ready to leave. So, we hopped on her motorcycle and were off to shop! 

A few minutes later, I found myself in the middle of a gigantic maze of booths. Navigating through strollers, carts, and motorcycles, I peered curiously at the things each vendor was offering. There was literally everything: fruits (mainly exotic ones), veggies, meat, fish, nuts, herbs and medicine, tea leaves, flowers, clothes, and so much more. 

My aunt picked up some fruits, Asian vegetables, tea, and flowers before deciding to call it a day. While she was paying for things and choosing her groceries, I was snapping photos of the hectic, bustling crowd around me. You could seriously stand there all day, people-watching and observing, and not be bored. All of my senses were on overload.

Of course, it wouldn't have been a characteristic trip to the marketplace if I didn't see anything crazy or strange. Here are just a few things that you don't see everyday: people aelling groups of live toads tied together for cooking later on, a massive pile of dried starfish (apparently for medicinal purposes...it's a shame that they're still being consumed like this, since they're becoming more endangered), buckets full of snakes, eels, and turtles to be sold and cooked, and last but not least, dried lizard skins strung up on wooden sticks! I have NO idea what these could possibly be for, but they looked absolutely revolting. I did a major double take when I saw them. 

Once back home, I went out again with my dad and uncle to go exchange our American money for Chinese RMB at a nearby bank. I don't know if all banks in China are like this, but this one was ridiculously slow and inefficient. We waited over 45 minutes after taking a number, since each client took forever and only 2/5 of the available counters were open. 

Then, my dad couldn't even exchange the money because you had to create an account or something complicated like that. So, we went back to the house RMB-less and cranky. However, we weren't in bad moods for long, because we were now off to...

...eat dim sum!! You can't stay mad for long when delicious little treats are in your midst! Furthermore, we went to the biggest dim sum place I have ever seen...it was on one floor of this fancy hotel, and was literally a dining hall. There were hundreds of people sitting at these round 8-person tables, eating dim sum off of lazy Susan's while dozens of servers rushed about toting trays. There were chandeliers everywhere, beautiful decorations, and a stage at one end with a massive tv screen above it that was showing the World Cup on the left and pictures of dim sum on the right. 

Jason and I stood there with our mouths on the floor while our aunt found an empty table in the throng of people. Then, she invited me to go up with her to choose our dishes. Their dim sum system was unique and smart; since it was such a big place, it would've been chaos to have servers pushing carts around and navigating through everything. Instead, patrons sent "an emissary" (to quote my favorite teacher, Mr. O'Brien) to a station on the side where all the options were laid out. You'd pick what you wanted, get your card stamped, and then a server would bring everything to your table. 

We ordered some delicious sweet buns with a custardy yellow paste inside, fish and veggie soup, shu mai, chicken feet (a dim sum staple), vegetables, pot stickers, and much more. We were happy campers after our tummies had been filled, and we sat back looking at the scene before us after our meal. 

Once we were done, we returned to the bank with our grandmother to finish what we had started that morning. She had an account, so after sitting and waiting another hour, we had finally gotten our RMB! I spent a loooong time sitting on a bank bench that day. Not fun. 

Next, all of us went to our grandfather's burial site to visit him. Unfortunately, my brother and I never got to meet him because he passed away before we were born. We brought him flowers and paid our respects to him. There were two parts to the beautiful, serene cemetery area. It was on a hillside with all of the graves laid out in rows, while those who were cremated had a plaque in these large rooms. The entire place was so beautiful and consisted mainly of traditional Chinese architecture. Just stunning. 

Once we left, we then went to my uncles new apartment to take a look. It was located in this beautiful little cluster of apartment buildings, with a pool, stone walkways, and elegant shrubs/plants lining all of the buildings. 

My uncle is retired now, but he's always been an artist and mainly uses oil paints and ink for his work. Throughout the years, I've gotten the chance to see a lot of his work, and it's absolutely fantastic. Especially the ink pen pieces, because they're so ridiculously detailed since the lines are so fine. I have a few of his framed drawings in my room. 

This time, he made laser copies of his newest pieces for us to bring back. Much to my delight as a lifelong horse lover, many of them are of horses! I'll definitely be bringing some of them with me to college. He never ceases to amaze me with how good he is at drawing and painting! If only his crazy artistic talent ran in the family :( 

Finally, we returned home. I was exhausted, so I took a nap before we had a hot pot dinner! We cooked fish, dumplings, veggies, mushrooms, and shrimp in a pot of boiling water in the middle of the table, and then ladled it out into our bowls. Dinner is much more interactive with a hot pot! 

Afterwards, we sprawled out on the couches and watched some Cantonese soap operas before going to bed. It was definitely another eventful day in China! 

My grandma, preparing chow he fun for breakfast

Veggies at the marketplace

Yeah, just a bit overwhelmed...

Seriously, what are these dried lizard things for??

The marketplace with all of the parked motorcycles

A whole new level of Dim Sum....

Our delectable selections

The beautiful cemetery where my grandfather and many others are

The view from my uncle's apartment (that pool, though...)

An example of the phenomenal work that my uncle does (it's a horsieee!!) 

Hot pot for din din! 

 

Day Two: Settling In & Proper Welcomes (originally written on 6/22/14)

I slept like a rock despite my jet lag. When I woke up, my dad and brother had already been up for hours; they hadn't been so lucky. My grandma greeted me with a breakfast of her homemade zongzi with meat and beans (zongzi are a type of rice dish that is wrapped in bamboo leaves and cooked. They can be either sweet or savory), some almond cakes, and lychees from the marketplace that my aunt had just bought. 

Like most of the locals, my aunt owns a motorcycle. We aren't talking Harleys or anything: it's more of a moped for sure. She has a car too m, but it's really convenient to drive the motorcycle for short trips. I've been obsessed with motorcycle rides ever since I came to China as a little girl. Whenever a relative took me out for a spin, I was the happiest person alive. It's on my bucket list to own and ride a motorcycle...we'll find out in the future if I'm actually that bad ass or not! 

Jason, my brother, got the first motorcycle ride of the trip since he was awake then, so he got dibs while I snored away. That's okay; I'll fight anyone who tries to get the next one. 

We spent a really long time looking at photos that day. I had made a photobook documenting the past four years of high school, at my mother's request. She thought they would make great gifts (I don't see why our relatives would be that interested in having a book full of Melissa, Melissa, and Melissa, but it wasn't my call). Thus, I went through it with each relative and explained things when they asked (ex: "what in the name of God is prom and why do you need to be dress so nicely for it?" or "colleges invite you to go VISIT before you decide you're going to go there??"). Jason had also brought his yearbook, and my cousin Joyce had photos from all her trips. 

We enjoyed a nice homemade lunch of dumplings, congee soup also known as zhouk (a staple in the Cantonese diet), and Asian veggies. My uncle also ate with us after getting over here on his motorcycle (YAAAAY). 

Afterwards, we went out to get bus tickets to go to Hong Kong in a few days. They were sold in this gorgeous, pristine five star hotel that had waterfalls everywhere inside, a gargantuan flower pot in the middle of the football-field length lobby, and elephant statues greeting you at the door. Not too shabby! 

Our dinner was eaten at a local restaurant that was less than five minutes away on foot. The place was packed with people and I could barely hear my own voice over the noise. That's local dining for ya! 🍴

If the Cantonese are known for anything, it's food. Every time we come back, we've experienced the most insane and incredible meals, flavors, and dishes. According to my dad, Guangzhou is noted for its cuisine throughout China, and then within Guangzhou, Shunde (a smaller region within Guangzhou where we were) was famous for its food. I'm very grateful to have been born into a family that literally lives in a paradise for food lovers. Praise The Lord. 

We dined in many dishes: steamed fish, eggdrop and vegetable soup, sesame sweet and sour pork, chicken, chives with cashews and seafood, green beans and pork, stuffed peppers, and sweet red bean cakes for dessert. The English names for Chinese dishes sound terribly unappetizing, so you'll just have to take my word for it that it was all delicious. 

Our bellies stuffed, we took a long walk around the city, observing the nightlife. There was a huge mall nearby and all of the streets were lined with salons, boutiques, shops, cafés, and much more. Once back at the house, we just relaxed and got in some internet use before bed. A great first full day in Guangzhou! 

My breakfast that first morning: zongzi, almond cakes, a butter cookie, and fruit (not pictured)

Lunch! My relatives like using newspapers as placemats 😄

 An exotic fruit known as mangosteen! They're absolutely delicious; I've eaten quite a few since we got here! 

Inside the Golden Hotel (aka a place too fancy for me 😞)

A picstitch of our dinner! These red bean things were super yummy...they were crispy and not super sweet! 

A tower we walked past that night on our stroll

Day One: Welcome to Canton!! (originally written on 6/22/14)

***Also meant to publish this way earlier since I had it ready on the 22nd! Thanks for always screwing with me, wifi...

Hello from China!!🇨🇳 

We are finally here, after a marathon of three plane rides, hours of waiting in various airports, very interesting airline food, and an excruciating delay in Beijing due to weather issues. Here's a summary: 

Day One

Basically, we flew from Boston to New York in the early morn after a rough 4:30 alarm, then to Beijing (14 hours of awkward naps, reading, and heavy use of my tv screen), and lastly from Beijing to Guangzhou. This was the 1st time I'd ever done so many flights in a row and it was rather awful. 

We got stuck in Beijing for awhile due to thunderstorm alerts there. The plane sat stubbornly for at least an hour while we napped, read, and glared at the window, willing the plane to move. The only good thing was that there weren't that many people on our flight, so some people stretched out and slept on the entire middle row...lucky. 

Finally, we landed in Guangzhou, where it was hot and muggy after just raining like crazy. Our aunt and cousin were waiting for us there; they had rented a van to transport us back to Shunde, the smaller region where my aunt lives. 

I chatted with my cousin in the back during the hour long ride. She's in her twenties and works for a kitchenware company that has international connections, so she gets to travel a lot. I was turning green with envy listening to her talk about her visits to Barcelona, Germany, Brazil, Korea, and Russia. She's seen Gaudi's work in Spain, visited Stonehenge, and much more. There's just too much to see and too little time! In the future, it'll definitely happen..

We got back to the house and it was essentially the same as what I remembered. My aunt, grandma, and cousin live in a three-story house with a very nice porch and terrace on the second and third floors. I feel like its unusual to have a house in the city with a gate and one-car garage, so I'm super thankful every time we come here to stay. This time, I have a room all to myself! Scoooore 😝 

We unpacked the numerous ginseng packs, pill bottles, and other gifts we brought for them before heading to bed. Finally- sleepy time! 

Leaving our beautiful Boston for a month! 

The Beijing airport! We had noodles there before getting on yet another flight. 

A view of the street that my aunts house is on

The living room area (other couches aren't present because I was too lazy to get up off the one I was sitting on 😒)