What other ways to experience the local culture than to stay with the local and do what the locals do....
I was lucky to have a friend whose family members are really a great host.... my five meals a day in Jiamusi are all taken care off....
Garfield in one of my fav episode said this...
"Its so cold in the morning, why morning has to come so early, how I wish morning can come later" . In Jiamusi, a city which experienced the first ray of sunlight, morning comes EXTRA early.
We had a really good chat after I arrived on 18th night around 11.45 pm... and we slept around 2 am... and the next thing I knew the sunlight was shinning on my face.... for just one second I was shocked. I slept till noon... can't be coz I felt like I have just fallen asleep.
Took a peep at my Timberland watch, it shows on 5.30 am...and exactly at this moment, I uttered Garfield's fav quote in the morning....pull up my blanket and continue to zzzzzzzz ...
Unique Qualities: Breakfast time - 8.00 plus am
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Knock !! Knock!! Na!!.... Na!! Chi Lai.. zi chau fan... and that's the familiar voice I hear without fail every morning... its the voice my friend's granny calling me for home cooked B'fast which consist of my FAV yogurt milk :), bread, salted fish, salted vege, fried fish, bean congee, friend potato ( du tou )
Lunch time - 11.30 plus am
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Without fail, my friend's uncle , we called him lau shu, will arrange what I called a feast for us together with his buddies. And during lunch time, Chang Shu will be waiting for us...fetching me , my friend and Lau Shu to the designated restauant.... I bet you guys will be drooling just by looking at the variety of dishes we ordered on each occasion....
So, what is so special about this lunches, besides catching with friends, the main purposes of getting together is to drink. You might notice that beers are everywhere on the table. Its only RMB 4 per bottle, and how can u resist that. Must be insane not to drink unless you wanted to pay RMB 25 bucks for a pack of fruit juice. Geez fruit juice there is more expensive that fruit juices in Singapore.
Eating culture of Northeastern people which I observed while busy munching and stuffing my mouth with all the goodies, firstly the organizer needs to say something related to the occasion... so in this case, they always welcome me and they say that they are very proud of my friend whom they have high regards for. And then... toast...what else??
... while you're eating someone will then arrow another person and ask him /her to say something... and there goes..."blah blah....blah" and toast again... and the routine goes on and on.... the beer bottles kept increasing while the dishes are disappering very slowly and its is mostly my effort in helping to clean up the dishes.. burpp!! Opps...
Dinner start around 6.00 plus pm
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to be continued.....
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on May 10, 2005
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