Tasting America

With Mom and Dad in town, I've gotten more than just parental attention. Last night Mom said she would cook for me. At first I thought she meant some Chinese dish, but then she clarified that she wanted to make something that she would make at home. I was skeptical that this was possible in China, but the friends my parents are staying with have an oven, so it wasn't as out of reach as I thought.

Of course, I chose spaghetti and meatballs, only the best dish ever. Mom went shopping all day to buy ingredients and talk to people in Chinese, but Dad was interested in something cultural, so we went to Dufu's Cottage.

Dufu's Cottage is where I recited my poem at the beginning of the semester, so I'd been there several times. When I went, though, it was the dead of winter, and I think it happened to rain every time I went. Yesterday was a beautiful day, though. The sun was out, there was a slight breeze, the air was warm. Dad and I enjoyed all the scenery. Dufu's Cottage is in memorial of Dufu, one of China's most famous poets. He lived around 750 AD, spent a few years in Chengdu where he built a thatched-roof cottage, and now they've reconstructed it and made it into a huge park.

And when I say huge, I mean it. Dad and I wandered leisurely for about half an hour, looking at one little museum after another, and gradually learned about Dufu through the signs in fairly good English. The park was not big on signs on the map, though, and we had a difficult time finding the main deal: Dufu's Cottage.

Eventually we got tired and wanted to find the cottage, but we couldn't. I tried to ask some people, but since the whole park is called "Dufu's Cottage," asking where Dufu's cottage was didn't get me anywhere.

Dad and I finally started to leave without even seeing Dufu's cottage, but as we got lost on our way to the right exit (there were three), we stumbled onto the right path and finally found it.

When we got back home, I ate spaghetti and meatballs with my parents. Tonight we went out to the new Papa John's pizza place, and after that we walked to the city square and I ate Dairy Queen. It's a good thing I got to taste so much of home, because once Mom and Dad leave Tuesday, I'll have an even longer time of not seeing them than I did before they came. I don't come back to America until late August, which is still four months away. It's a good thing I can hug my parents now.