China Day 12

Back to Guangzhou today, and a late morning at 10:30am. Off to yum Cha it was (again!)

This was one I was looking forward to. It was a big lunch with a lot of family relatives that I haven't seen in a really long time, and I always love seeing old faces again.

The restaurant was a really nice one, actually.

Once again, despite not seeing each other for so long, it's almost too familiar to be true. Everyone is still the same, good ol' person that you know and it's such a nice feeling to catch up and chat and laugh.

Something that I'm thankful for is that both my mother's and father's sides of the family are... How do I put it? 'Chill'.

Always full of laughter, jokes, and smiles, and a comfortable environment. This is one of the reasons why I love visiting back here.

Also, one of my cousin's husband is a photography fanatic too, so that makes up for a good chat (checking out each other's gear, etc., and marvelling at mutual understanding of terms and photography problems).

The food was absolutely delish (how many times have I said that already on this trip?), and well worth the price. Unfortunately, I didn't take many photos of the food, or of the restaurant at all. The reason for this was because I was too busy chatting and catching up, and marvelling at the new addition to the family (my first niece!). 

Also seeing some new faces!

On the car ride back to my house, it hit me. The realisation that this is how my life is, and how alternative other people's families may be. This is my family and as I always said, there's something familiar about family. There's something about family ties that extend beyond friendships. A few years apart is nothing -- no distance or time apart can quell the relations we have among us all, and the sphere of that bond that emits from us, sitting around that table with the biggest Lazy Susan that I've ever seen.

I don't know how to explain it.

I only wonder how I'll keep in contact in the future.

Night brought me dinner with my father's childhood friends, who have had the pleasure of knowing each other for 42 years (wow). I guess that's the sign of true friendship. 

After a long drive out into the semi-rural areas out of Guangzhou, they treated us to a winter melon hot pot, in which the hot pot itself was a winter melon. Strange, I know, but oddly fascinating as well. Also we consumed snails -- not the French kind, but the Chinese kind.

I'm not a big fan of snails, although they taste quite similar to other meat. I suppose it's the cultural and subconscious knowledge that it's a snail that stops me from devouring them. I did eat one though, and was horrified when I bit into its egg sac and found my mouth filled with tiny semi-hard shells of its offspring. I spat them all out in shock before my mother informed me they were edible.

I also seemed to have lost my appetite in general because of overeating cheese and those small mandarin fruits prior to dinner, which I regret, because it means I wasn't able to try a lot of the food.

Afterwards, it was just a drive home, relaxing, and then sleeping for the next day.