I have ANOTHER flatmate story to tell and it's the best one yet! So a few days ago I heard a knock at my door and it was my flatmate Joanna (shout out to the Joannas who read my blog! :) ). She and another one of my roommates had made a pumpkin dish and wanted to know if I wanted to try it. I had tried the last successful pumpkin dish they made, which was really good. This time, Joanna made a sweet mashed pumpkin dish. Now if you recall the previous pumpkin post (click here to read it) pumpkins as we know them are gross to eat just mashed but, Chinese pumpkins are slightly different and can be eaten in this way. Joanna told me she realized that the orange pumpkins are gross and the more yellow ones are better and more similar to the ones in China. I agreed that orange pumpkins are gross (because they are have you ever tried to eat one? Nasty.) and that one of the few foods Americans eat from pumpkins is pumpkin pie.
Then my flatmates asked me what pumpkin pie was. This was my reaction as portrayed by Lauren Conrad:
Shock. Pumpkin pie is my favorite fall food, which I won't be able to eat this year because there's no Thanksgiving over here since this is where the Pilgrims were running from. But that's a topic for another post. I explained what pumpkin pie was and they agreed that it sounded delicious!
My flatmates asked me why people carved "faces into pumpkins." and I said oh you mean jack-o-lanterns?They were excited that I knew exactly what they meant and then I explained how they're related to the Halloween/fall theme in October. Then, they asked me a strange question. They asked me if I ever interacted with Chinese people who were learning English before.
I actually had to think about it for a moment because I wasn't really sure. I guess I have encountered people who use English as a second language many times before just because of the area where I live. There are many people from many nationalities so I suppose I'm just used to it. I told this to my flatmates and they told me probably the best thing anyone's ever said to me. They said "We like talking to you because you always understand us. You always know what we are trying to say even when we can't express ourselves properly*." I was really surprised by this statement because I figured that the understanding I extend to them was extended by other people as well but they've said that their British classmates have a much more difficult time understanding them when they participate in class. It was really cool to know that they like talking to me just as much as I like talking to them! We really learn a lot about each other's cultures which many people don't get to do.
*My flatmates English is fantastic by the way. They have had excellent teachers in China (who they've told me were all American) and they get daily exposure to the language here so understanding them is very easy.
Then, they asked me another question. They asked me why I don't wear shoes in the apartment. Now before I go into this conversation, let me say that I DO wear shoes in the shower (I went to La Salle so I'm damaged for life on that one) and I DO usually wear socks. But if I'm going to the kitchen quickly to put a dish away or get some quick food, sometimes I don't because I just don't think of it immediately. Anyway back to the story. I basically explained those things I just mentioned to them and they were so surprised. They said that they never go barefoot in China because they are taught that it's bad for a woman's health to be barefoot. I mean I'm sure being barefoot in many situations is bad for health but I guess I never really put too much thought into it. So I learned another cultural difference between American and Chinese women. Needless to say, I now wear shoes around all the time because I now know they judge me for it.
As I was leaving the kitchen, they showed me a secret that I didn't know our apartment had. There's a closet next to our kitchen that says "CLEANER" on it. I've never opened it because I assumed that the cleaning service that comes to clean our common areas in the flat stores their cleaning supplies in there. Well I was wrong. Take a guess as to what's behind the door. Here's the door:
Click the link below to see what's behind the door. Guarantee you'll never guess hahaha :)
Did anyone actually guess fridge? Doubt it hahaha. Yeah imagine my surprise and confusion when I see my flatmate going into this closet with food. I was blown away that they had a fridge in this creepy closet but I chalked it up to cultural differences.
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