Adjusting back to everyday life

After flying to Sacramento for the weekend and then easily (if you don't count the jet lag) slipping back into Chinese life I've started wondering :Just what is normal life for me and where is my home? Sam would quickly say that China is his home.  He was happy to come back even after just a weekend away.  I on the other hand am not so sure. In Sacramento I felt like I was home but coming back here I feel like I'm home too.  Some vacation huh? I went from "home" to "home" and back again.  It's all comfortable and yet it's all a bit uncomfortable too.  Its scary how quickly I can forget the Mandarin I've learned and yet its strange how familiar it feels to start hearing it again.  It was like music to my ears after hearing so much Japanese on our flight.  I know what you're thinking - It was just a four day trip!  Sorry, I can't help but speculate and even more so because we have another longer trip coming up.  For all of you who don't know we will be back in California for six weeks this summer.    By the way, at the wedding I really enjoyed meeting some of the friends who have commented on my blog.  It encourages me to keep on blogging! 

 

Now, back to business.  On our second night back we were dying to eat tofu and chuar (lamb kabobs).  In China I love to eat tofu and in California I love to eat salads.  Sam and I find that everywhere we go there are foods that we must eat.  People here love to push fish and seafood (Usually jumbo shrimp cooked with their heads still on so their beady black eyes can look at you as you choke them down with a smile for your host who ordered or prepared them for you.) I like the fish...... especially the spicy dishes of it.   We overheard one foreigner tell another that the Chinese just eat the fish bones along with the fish.  This is not true!  I think they were confused because some fish bones are soft enough to eat and people will tell you to go ahead and eat those.  But one of Sam's student's Mom recently had to go to the hospital to have a fish bone, that she accidentally swallowed, removed from her throat.   Actually she had to go to two hospitals.  The first one didn't have the proper tools to remove it.  She couldn't talk or swallow and she said it was very painful.  In the end they had to go through her nose to get it out.  She told us all this while she was eating fish with us not even a week later.  Needless to say I was chewing my meal very slowly.