Crossing Cultures

We have had some great opportunities to experience other cultures recently - part of the plus of having foreign exchange students! Charles' parents, Judy and Lindon (actually, Shiu-Chuan and Chen-Tai - not sure how they got Judy and Lindon out of those Chinese names, but whatever) came to visit for a few days last week. It was great to meet them. Judy speaks excellent English, Lindon- not so much. It was fun trying to communicate by speaking slower, louder and with exaggerated hand motions (side note: why is it that when we have trouble communicating due to a language barrier, we end up speaking louder - they aren't deaf, just don't speak English... hmm)
This past Saturday (Oct. 3) was the Chinese New Moon Festival. Judy described it as similar to Thanksgiving in America- basically a holiday before the main holiday (Chinese New Year or our Christmas) when family gets together, prepares and enjoys a large meal, and celebrates together with traditions and customs. There is a legend that goes along with the New Moon Festival - something about 7 suns and one god shooting down 6 suns. This god eventually became a hero and then turned evil.... I don't really know how it goes. Judy had a hard time explaining it and Charles didn't even know the legend. If our computer was working well, I'd google it but I'm just happy to be able to get on the internet as it is, so if you're really curious you can google it on your own, how's that? :)
Regardless of how the legend goes, Charles' parents wanted to celebrate the New Moon Festival with us. They found a Chinese market and bought all the foods necessary for this feast and spent the afternoon cooking up a storm. In Charles' family, it is their tradition that the men do the cooking, so Charles' dad cooked, Judy took care of Luke and Matt and I got to relax! So nice.

The food was delicious. We definately had to stretch ourselves with some dishes - neither Matt nor I had ever had squid before or had eaten a fish that was still looking at us, but it was good food, great company, and a fun experience overall.

Judy and Luke

Lindon cooking up a storm
Some of the dishes as they were being prepared

Still cooking... notice the fish on the stove-

it was probably swimming in the ocean just hours before this.

Getting ready to enjoy the feast! Using chopsticks of course

Mmmmmmm After the meal is over and the bulk of the dishes are cleaned up the tradition is to drink green tea and eat moon cake. We were supposed to go outside and eat the moon cake while looking at the moon, but for some reason we opted to stay inside. The moon cakes were pretty good - like a little pastry with a surprise inside, either fruit or chocolate. We also had a fruit called "Dragon's Eye". It seriously looks like and feels like an eyeball (or what I would assume an eyeball would feel like) when you peel the shell off.

Enjoying tea and moon cake

Peeling the shell off the Dragon's Eye

... and the fruit - I told you it really looked like an eye

The week previously was Jung's birthday. His main wish was for us to take him and some friends to Korea Town (I guess that's somewhere near LA) for Korean food. Well, Jung's birthday was on a Thursday and Matt was in Catalina at science camp and I wasn't super excited about taking a bunch of high school boys and Luke to 'Korea Town' when I had no idea where exactly that was, we opted to go out for Korean food instead. :) There is a little restuarant by the San Bernardino airport (seriously, a very little restuarant - like half hamburger joint, half Korean food - random). Matt missed out on eating the Korean food but the rest of us enjoyed it. On Friday, after Matt got home, we celebrated "American style" with a nice meal, birthday cake and gifts.

At the restuarant with all the Korean food spread out - in Korean culture you don't order individual plates for each person but order 'family style' for the group and everyone eats off the dishes in the middle of the table. We got our own bowl of rice and soup but that was it.
Luke and Charles having a good time - waiting for Jung to finish dinner... WOW can that kid eat!

Jung ordered a "cold noodle" for dessert. I was expecting it to more like a dessert - like cake or ice cream or something along those lines. NOPE - it was like another meal, with noodles, vegetable and a hard boiled egg. Interesting. Jung was SUPER excited about it though.

Ok, so I just had a picture here of Jung eating the cold noodle, but for some reason it disappeared... or I accidentally deleted it. Luke is now awake from his nap and demanding attention (he's scooting around like mad lately and is into EVERYTHING) so I'm not going to re-post the picture, at least not right now. Maybe next post, we'll see.