Note: nai nai = father’s mother, da bo = father’s older brother, shu shu = father’s younger brother, da ma = father’s older sister (in this case da bo’s wife), sen sen = father’s younger sister (in this case shu shu’s wife), er bo = adopted uncle.
Look at that gap. Anyways,…
When we first arrived at Nanfeng, we went directly to nai nai’s house. There, we were greeted by nai nai and one of my grand-aunts. Nai nai and my grand-aunt exclaimed how I had grown so much since two years ago. They offered us tons of fruit–apples, grapes, and canteloupe, but we took little. Then, nai nai took us into one of her rooms specially dedicated to the Buddha. She instructed us how to pray to Buddha. My mother, sister, and I did so. My mother noticed some sores on nai nai’s knees. Nai nai said she got them from praying every day. Then, after fifteen minutes, we were driven to da bo’s house (or rather, apartment), a stately place with five bedrooms and air conditioning. Da ma was there to greet us. Soon, visitors began pouring in. Sen sen was the first to arrive. Our 20-year-old cousin, Sisi, came along with her mother. Finally, da bo arrived. He explained that he had a big emergency–he had been investigating why police had been slow to arrive at the murder scene of a child. (The killer committed suicide, but not before killing his victims.) That night, my two grand-uncles arrived. Two years ago I did not recognize them. Now I could. Finally, er bo with his wife and daughter came.
Jiangxi is a very rural area overall, though Nanfeng is a bustling city of over 100,000 (therefore bigger than Cary). The result is not many places to visit (if you excluded a whitewater rafting site two hours away). At da bo’s house, I talked to my dad via webcam about Shanghai and Jiangxi. The computer at da bo’s house is as fast as my computer in America, so that’s why I used it more.
One of the major things was that I learned how to play Chinese checkers (nai nai taught it to me). When a few guests came to see us, I played a few rounds with them. A family friend (a week older than my sister) also took the time to come over, and I played countless rounds of Chinese checkers with him. We also played marbles, but he had experience playing with his classmates while I was just a novice. It wasn’t fun losing round after round.
On the last day, da bo surprised us by inviting us to an outside restaurant. Though we protested, he said it was my mother’s birthday. At the restaurant, we had all types of seafood (a huge lobster, delectable crab, and oysters). I made sure to eat my crab leg perfectly clean, a habit I have when eating my meals. When we arrived back home, my mother was given a flower candle that sprouted and hummed “Happy Birthday” when we lit it. A few minutes later, the driver arrived to pick us up for our return trip to Nanchang Train Station. (Normally, country folk like the people in Nanfeng can’t get the comfortable 4-bed compartments with a window and small gray table, but we could get in, probably because we were Americans.) In the waiting room with an hour to spare, we insisted that da bo and his colleague go and have dinner, as it was past 8:00, but they also insisted that they stay with us until our train left, which would be at 9:00. Da bo and his colleague actually came with us onto the train for a while. After saying good-bye, we settled down in our compartment. Bye bye, Jiangxi! Hello, Shanghai!
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