Beijing - Dinner and Homestay in Beijing

        Austin lives with a Chinese family while he is in China. He is doing an immersion program at Peking University, and part of that program is living with a family. That night we went to his families house for dinner. When we arrived no one was home, he showed me around their apartment and and let me drop all my stuff off. Soon after the family arrives home. Neither the father nor the mother speak any English, but the son has been studying English for a while, and his skills are tentatively good (I'll explain more later). They graciously welcomed me into their home, and had us sit down for dinner. They had prepared a massive feast for us. They must have put out eleven or twelve different plates of food.

        I can honestly say I've had a variety of different, real Chinese food due to my friend Justin. Jong, which I am probably misspelling horribly, is one of my favorite foods. I challenge anyone to find it in the United States outside of China Town or around Chinese New Years. I didn't recognize anything they put before us save the dumplings. Everything was delicious, in particular I remember these deep fried carrot ball things, and a particular white sausage.

        In addition to dinner I spoke with the son for a while. To elaborate on his English skills, his verbal skills are definitely lacking. It is difficult for him to converse. However, his vocabulary is exceptional, I was showing him pictures from when I was in Africa on Safari, and he immediately named most of the animals I showed him, from elephants to penguins. I also gather that his written skills are exceptional as well. If my other experiences in China are to show, the Chinese study English for a long time. However, they rarely if ever have a chance to speak it. Thus, their written skills are highly developed, but they struggle to speak the language.

        After dinner we took several pictures with the family and they headed out to catch a train to Shanghai so the son could take a test to study in the Untied States next year.