Dashu

Now, upon my shoulders falls the task of writing another blog of my travels. Unlike my Xiamen post, I can't go day by day, as some blended together. The considerably greater length of this trip sort of disoriented my temporal awareness.

This time, I went to a tiny Chinese village called Dashu (meaning "Big Bouquet"), tucked away in the Shandong province. It was very close to a couple more significant Chinese cities, Qufu (The birthplace of Confucius ) and Zoucheng (The birthplace of Mencius).

Originally, my plans for the Chinese New Year were to visit the scene hot-spots Guilin and Yangshuo and to stay with a Couchsurfing host. The plans changed when I was invited by my Chinese friend Daniel to stay with his family for the holidays.

Let me back up and introduce Daniel to you all. I met him one night in the subway station. I had gotten a message from my friends telling me to meet up with them on a certain street. Of course, their Chinese being very rudimentary, they gave me a nonexistent street name and had me scratching my head at the map in the subway station. Daniel was also standing at it, so I mustered up my Chinese skills and asked him for help. Which turned out to be a very good decision.

Daniel ended up spending a good 20 minutes walking me around the area and eventually helped me find the road that my friends meant to say. I was very thankful for his sacrificial help, and so I got his number and a friendship was struck. At the time all this happened, he didn't have an English name. His real name is Tengfei (pronounced Tungfay). Our first time hanging out, I gave him the name Daniel, as Daniel is my favorite historical figure from the Bible. He likes the name.

So anyways, I stayed in his family house in the rural countryside. Dashu is small. Very small. As in, a significant number of houses in Dashu have a hole in the ground as the bathroom. Thankfully, Daniel's family had squatty potty. I am proud to announce to you all that I have mastered pooping in the squatty potty.

Speaking of which, in the bathroom was a little trough with two fish swimming around in it. Daniel explained that a friend sent them because his father was ill. I named them Pat and Schlohk. (I made a weird running joke in my head that because they looked the same and arrived at the same time, that everybody assumed they were best friend, when in reality Pat was from Kentucky and Scholhk was from Eastern Europe, and they had nothing in common. And Pat really resented be paired with Scholhk all the time) Anyways, this stupid joke I made every time I went to the bathroom was suddenly halted when Pat went missing, and I made the connection from the meal we had just had.

Wow, long paragraph on the fish.

The house was on the ground of middle school that had let out for the holidays. Beyond the school, just fields and fields of what I believed to be wheat.


Daniel's family was adorable and sweet. His dad (I'll just call him Baba) used to be an English teacher, although he had to stop once he became ill. But he was unbelievable kind and excited to dust off his English. He always put his cap on when we took a picture.














Daniel's mom (Mama) was incredibly sweet. Unlike the rest of her family, she had absolutely no English, but that didn't stop her from talking my ear off. I could understand some of it, but her Shandong dialect was strong. Of course she was usually just telling me to eat more or put warmer clothes on. She was always worrying about me and fussing and laughing about stuff.












Daniel's brother (Tengchao) is about my age. He came home from his University in Xinjiang (Western China) the day after I arrived. I feel like most of my time there was working away at his shyness, but we became thick as thieves by the time I left. He is such a kind, gentle soul, such a wonderful guy. His English name is Rick, from some show I called "Working Dad." Eventually I realized he meant "Walking Dead." Ha, he got his name from Sheriff Rick. Which is just terrific.





The actual Chinese New Years were unexpected and interesting. They turned out to be far more spiritual than I imagined. The family set out food in every room, lit firecrackers in front of the house, wafted smoke from sticks through every room, with prayers. I stood by and watched this. It was little perturbing from my standpoint, but I felt lucky to glean such insight into the rural Chinese household.

Leading up to that, we spent the night watching a big Chinese New Year television event (Like the Oscars without awards) and making dumplings. Surprise, I'm not good at making dumplings. I just don't know how to fold them right. It was hugely entertaining for the family though. Got a lot of good laughs out of Mama. Whatever, that's not my skill set. Made the whole ordeal pretty drudging work: make a dumpling, elicit laughter, make a dumpling, elicit laughter... I did end up getting the penny dumpling though. They hide a penny in one dumpling, and who gets it has good luck. Although how lucky can a choking hazard be?

Now, the air was not very good, even in Dashu. And with every single household letting off firecrackers, the air just got truly terrible. After all this happened, the young men of the house followed through with the neighborly blessing tradition. Daniel, Tenghua, and I went door to door through with neighborhood with all the neighborhood men and wished everybody a happy new years. We would walk into a house, and get offered a cigarette on the slight chance that we hadn't already developed a lifestyle inhibiting lung disease. I got a lot of stares, but it was nice.

I got to meet a lot of the extended family. They were all very excited to meet me. People got out cameras, a toddler got placed on my lap, lots of fun. Every house I entered into, they would immediately say in Chinese, "Sit! Sit! Sit!" Which was, according to their culture, a very polite thing to do for a guest of honor. Except they'd all remain standing, and I felt weird just sitting underneath them all. But anyways...

During these visits with family, I had some traumatizing food, the worst of which were the cicadas. I denied them at first, but then a voice in the back of my head reminded me, "Remember Christian what this is all about, travel cred." I knew in the name of my travel adventurer aspirations that I couldn't pass this up. So I ate one. It wasn't bad, but the feeling of a large bug in my mouth, legs, pincers, and all, was pretty traumatizing.

This trip also marks my first time ever drinking an alcoholic beverage. Now, I don't drink. Not because I think drinking is a sin, because I don't. If you ever want to hear my reasons and my convictions behind my decision not to drink, you can ask me, but I'm not going to take the time to write it in this blog. But my decision is not a "never ever" decision. And I always knew a good reason to drink would be in a cultural situation, and when Daniel's uncle was insisting, I took a small cup.

Now Daniel was under the impression that the Chinese word "jiu" and the English word "wine" were the same. So when I asked him what I was about to drink, he told me wine. But jiu is a blanket word for an alcoholic beverage. What I actually took a sip of was "Baijiu." You can look it up; there's a Wikipedia article. It was probably Sorghum Liquor, which apparently has 40 to 60% alcohol per volume. It tasted like a subtle blend of jet fuel and nail polish, with just a dash of face-melting acid. It was truly awful. It burned going down, and I could feel it sitting in my stomach for a while.

Daniel and I took a few trips out to Zoucheng, a nearby city, although still very small. I got a lot of attention walking through downtown Zoucheng. A lot of people shouting hello to me. If I understood the situation correctly, I think I literally stopped traffic. A car full of girls stopped in a 4 way intersection upon seeing me.

Although this was huge ego booster, it was also a cool chance to brighten people's days. People give you an apprehensive stare, a stare that makes them seem very excited and frightened at the same time, as though I was a sexy leper. But just me giving them a smile would put the biggest smile on their face. I was on the bus, and a boy kept turning around a looking at me. I gave him a wave, which absolutely made his day.

A bunch of other stuff occurred, although not worthy of extended note. I got to visit the temple of Mencius, which was awesome. A family came up to me a got a photo with me real quick there. It was beautiful and ancient, with ancient trees. Maybe the oldest place I've ever visited.

I played a bunch of pool with Daniel and his friends, and I learned that I've definitely improved over the years. Went to KTV, and sang some Billy Joel.

I got to climb Dragon Mountain. Beauty.

I got to visit Daniel's uncle's vineyard. 

Oh, and they have puppy named Pipi (which means naughty). Best friends.

It snowed on the last day. Quiet beauty.

The time spent with Tengfei/Daniel and Tengchao/Rick was very meaningful and great. I got to know both of them very well through the experience. We played Counter Strike together (I'm actually pretty good), soccer (way better than I thought I'd be), and had some good bro talks, one on the back of Daniel's electric bike.

I really bonded with the family, and they have invited me and Mary Ann a bazillion times for next Chinese New Year, and I really want to go. Maybe not for another 9 days, but I would love to get more time with them. In the meantime, I've got Daniel in Shanghai. Daniel's mom told me several times I am now like a son to her, which warmed my heart. I didn't get as many opportunities, or maybe didn't seize as many opportunities as I'd hope for sharing the Good News, but I think I got to show His love in the meaningful relationships I got to develop with the family. I don't think my work of love there is over.

And with that, I leave you with a rousing game of badminton.