A Short Letter Home

Welcome to Hongyuan

Visiting Gail's hometown was quite a lesson in hospitality. As I mentioned before, we had declined an offer to stay in her home, citing the need for Western-style toilets. She had mentioned that she could arrange a hotel for us, but when we got to Hongyuan, I wondered if the town was even big enough for a hotel. It turns out that the town did have a hotel--sort of. Apparently one of Gail's relatives had recently bought a building and were in the process of converting it into a hotel. It wasn't open to the public yet, but we got a chance to stay there anyway. Gail's father met us right away and helped take our suitcases up to the room. We didn't spend too much time there, but rather headed over to their house.

Both Gail's house and the hotel were in the busy part of town. (I suppose I should 'fess up and mention that this was the only part of Hongyuan we got a chance to see. But looking over the rooftops, the town didn't appear to be all that large, so I'm assuming we were in the busy part.) Commerce was in full swing as we walked down the few blocks. The buildings in Hongyuan looked older than those in our city, giving the place a sense of history. It's kind of like comparing the main streets of a 50 year old town to a 100 year old town back in the States. Gail's father had his own business, what looked like a feed supply company. There was a "storefront" on the main level, behind which was a typical Chinese courtyard and then the kitchen. On the next level were the living room and bedrooms. The third floor was vacant, set up as a guest suite. I suppose it could be a potential "mother-in-law apartment". Up above that was a small room in the "attic". Gail said that her Dad was thinking about turning it into a computer room for her once she graduated.

To start, we sat down in the storefront. We met Gail's mom and had some tea and sunflower seeds. Due to the language barrier, idle chit-chat was not really an option. When you can't converse, the next best option for sociability is to eat. So despite the fact that we were noshing on sunflower seeds and the family was preparing a meal for us, Gail's father went to a vendor across the street and ordered bowls of dumplings for everyone. Now either service in Hongyuan is among the best in the world or Gail's family has pretty good connections in the hood since the vendor actually delivered the dumplings to us. The food, of course, was delicious.

After a bit, Gail took us upstairs and gave us a tour of her home. We then settled down in the living room and got a chance to peruse her family photographs. It was kind of interesting that despite our different cultures and ages, that our family albums were a lot alike. Like me, she had old black and white photos of her Dad's army days. Then the variety of photos of family and friends on different trips and at different holidays. The one big difference that we noted is that the trips were taken with coworkers rather than with family. We had shots of Gail's mom in Beijing and her Dad in Hainan, but not a big selection of family vacations.

Finally it was time for dinner, so we were ushered down to the kitchen. In a classical Chinese home, the dining room is removed from the kitchen. In the case of Gail's family, they only have a dining nook which seats three comfortably. Gail apologized for having to host us in the kitchen, but it actually felt much more homelike to us mei guo ren. Of course, once we started eating, where we were eating really didn't matter. In previous conversations, Gail had claimed that her father was a good cook. This proved to be quite true. (Assuming, of course, that he did the cooking. We weren't privy to the preparations.) Dinner was delicious and I almost regretted having eaten the dumplings earlier. If this was what it was like to visit a student at home, maybe we should just stay in Yunnan in the summer and go visiting.

posted by John @ 4:16 AM