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Sunday was my host mom's birthday! But birthdays aren't a huge thing here and so we just celebrated it along with the ongoing new year celebrations at my host grandparents' farm (we did have a cake though)!

This time we celebrated with my host grandma's relatives, including a college student back from Nanjing University and an aunty with a two year old daughter. We plays cards, ma jiang and ate lots of food (as per usual). I also made my host mom a birthday card (which is really rare but appreciated here) and she said "we're so lucky to have this cute of an American daughter! I love you!" which made my heart melt. 

Monday we went to my host dad's parents' house in the country. There was a particularly spirited uncle who cooked all the food; he was pretty funny and offered a good challenge to understand drunkly slurred and accented Mandarin. He kept telling me I looked exactly like Mona Lisa and there was a pretty hilarious (and slightly disturbing?) miscommunication where he was talking about young ladies being like unopened flower buds (han2 bao1) and I thought he was talking about hamburgers (han4 bao3). 

My host dad's side of the family is really into playing majiang for money (although my host dad isn't. He is a "good child" according to my host mom) so we watched them play for a little and then played our own card games with these really interesting "Stop AIDS" cards that had all sorts of crazy drawings, using sunflower seeds as currency. 

Tuesday, my host mom and I rode two buses and two metro lines to bring Carmen back to the city. Although her host family was frustratingly unclear about when they were coming back and ended up being gone for a week rather than a couple of days, we turned out to have a fine time. 

After delivering Carmen, my host mom and I brought some new year gifts to an aunt and uncle and drank some honey-pomelo tea before we went to the famous Yu yuan gardens to see the Spring Festival decorations and taste some of Shanghai's famous "snacks" (小吃). We had some sesame balls, flower tofu, vegetarian duck leg, and potato flour pudding with red bean, peanuts, corn and gogi berries. The duck leg and sesame balls were particularly tasty in my opinion.

Although I abhor shopping and tourist sites, sometimes it's fun to go to them even just for the pleasure and surprise when salespeople realize I speak Chinese (even if not superbly). While my host mom bought some clothes, I even had two sales ladies ask for my help in translating for a European tourist buying a Chinese style coat. 

I also got to bond a lot with my host mom. We talked about relationships, marriage and parenting and although the commute was long, it was good practice for next semester when my host family will no longer rent the apartment right by the school and I'll return this way to the Nanqiao apartment every weekend. 

Wednesday we went to bring more New Years gifts to relatives on my host grandfather's side. 

We got to watch the second Hobbit on a cousin's home theater, which was super cool. The cousin is obsessed with new television technology and has about about a hundred DVDs (including lots of American classics like Blade Runner and Pulp Fiction) as well as many magazines on the subject. 

I had a lot of fun playing with the cousin's 8 year old daughter Xiaoqiao (who was in the wedding with me a while back). 

My host grandmother is really close with a family that owns a hair salon in that area, so after dinner my host mom and sister got haircuts.

The hair stylist thought I was Russian or from Xin Jiang again (I still don't get it)! 

I have really started to feel at home with the extended family on my host mom's side though, which is a nice feeling. 

Thursday we went to baby cousin Kai Xin ("Happy's") 1 year old birthday banquet (the Chinese version of a baby shower but a year after the birth and where ALL the relatives are invited).

Kai Xin is honestly the happiest baby I have ever met (pretty solid supporting evidence for those who say names have influence over personality); in all the times I've seen him, I have never once seen him cry and usually he is continuously shrieking with pleasure and glee. 

One thing I have come to realize with Chinese celebrations: in those that involve cake (or sweets), the cake is always eaten first / along with the other food. I still find this a little disconcerting, coming from a culture with the strong belief that the sweets should be eaten after the more nutritious aspects of a meal... And although I am still not a huge fan of Chinese versions of Western cakes, I've decided I love the tradition of eating shou mian (super long life noodles) on birthdays and that is something I would like to carry on. 

On Friday we headed back to the apartment in inner Shanghai and Saturday we head to Hangzhou to meet up with the Beijing kids for a wicked last week of break!