Travel dairy day 3 - 4

Let's continue from the previous travel diary,  click to view the previous one here

DAY 3
So I stayed at my Aunt Jumei's house and it was so exciting to see my beautiful cousin Li again. And in fact, i just found out that I knew very little about my cousin. It's been so long ever since we talked again. We had the girl talk every night we went to bed. We kept talking and talking for hours and hours, but i realized that all we can ever relate was memories from when we lived together, quite possibly 10 years ago. Indeed, beautiful memories. I thought i knew everything about my cousin Li but actually I don't, I don't know much about her at all. She is the most nicest cousin, she cares about me so much and took care of me so well while i was at China. One thing i loved more than anything is that she really knows how to bargain, not just bargain few dollars or maybe 20 bux down. She can bargain about 100 down on the original price. HAHA, i thought i was pretty skillful at bargaining. I guess that because i didn't see my cousin's skill. Anyways, thanks her so much for taking me to Sixi street to bargain. HAHA

According to my travel diary, i described my cousin Li as " she looked so so beautiful. She is funny, sunny and very very friendly. She loves to laugh and has the kindest heart. In the last 2 nights, I've had so much deep convos with her about life, love, money, relationship, social aspects and of course about ourselves too."
 Just see how much excitements i had in writing my travel diary, haha i kept repeating like so so , very very. LMAO

Oh and did I mention that my other cousin Qin just got married and she is pregnant. YAY. My cousin's hubby is the best man i ever seen so far. He treats my cousin Qin like a princess. He is humor, caring, patient as he accompany us to go shopping without complaining a single words.

Then my cousin Li and Cheng decided to take me to shop around and I found that my city had already got h&m so, of course i went in and shop around. It is actually quite international feel, i really have to say. They announce everything in both Chinese and English and store is just feel as western as it can gets. Pretty cool, however i did find a bit experience. HHAA, as you may have guess I did managed to found good stuff with quite reasonable price too. Outside the big shopping center they took me, there'a long street of authentic Chinese, and street foods.

let's start the cat my aunt Jumei's house, haha i accidentally open my flush, look at his little eyes.

hey hey, don't be so hateful. It's your pleasure to be photographed by me, OK?! 

haha apparently, cousin San never take photos with anyone, but i was a exception. HAHA tis tis, teenagers these days.... btw, that lady and that gentleman kinda photobomb my perfect photo ;L 

cousin Li, isn't she beautiful ? 

h&m visit ;) 

two-seven street visit with my cousins. ;) p.s. more photos of this place will be on my other blog here soon

umm, serisouly look ma natural beauty, someone sign me up as one of those Japanese short model please. HAHA. oh that's the rose floured bean curd milk, actually tasted quite decent. ;D 

then,later that night, we went into the shopping center again, just to do more shopping as most shops were about to close for CNY. 

HAHA, look at cousin San's facial expression, the new generation of Gary from RM. haha. should have adjust this photo a bit, but meh, its for myself. ;) 

haha just look my cousin San's facial expression ;'D. 

DAY 4

I only stayed at aunt Jumei's house for 2 days 3 nights. I sincerely wish i could stayed more, but schedule was quite tight ;(. So on the third day i went back to my house and unpack and luggage to set myself ready for Chinese New Year. I think I expected too much when i was in AUS. I was expecting a crowded new year's dinner. Maybe things have changed, people have gone and all i ever got left is just one family that is too tired for anything at the moment. My aunt Liu told me to stay for Chinese New Year when she picked me up at the airport. otherwise I would have gone to my mum's hometown to spend CNY with my grandpa. Firstly , because i want to accompany my grandpa and hope he would feel a bit better for my grandma's loss. As all other CNY, aunt Liu and uncle Wang, got busy as soon as they got off the bed. Aunt Liu is already preparing for CNY dinner in the morning. She cooked her best dishes. For some reason, I didn't find it that great, to be honest, I wasn't sure why. But I just loved being back there and having a small dinner with everyone that I used to be with before i came to AUS. They also gave more affection to me than they did 6 years ago. I guess

as much as i like it to do, lets start with another cat. HAHHA ( S you probs going to love it to visit my aunts.) ;DD

apparently, this fatty got skinner when my cousin Peng brought a dog in. HAHA awww, poor you. btw if you want to know his name, is little five. in Chinese is xiao wu. 

and this naughty gurl is 'Shrimp", yeah i know i know she has a name of another species. HAHA, in Chinese will be Xia Xia. 

little five got shocked when i trying to photograph him, so he was trying to get out and ran away from me. too bad already got ya captured. ;) 

i was so bored because i can't be any help to them so i just did this ;L. it's a tradition to kill a chicken or any poultry at the CNY time as this represents that all year of hard-working can be reward with the fresh meat. Also being able to eat meat during CNY time was truly something awesome back in the days when everyone was in poverty. So, everyone please don't be picky and waste foods. 

i found this cute money saver that i had before i left China, now is covered in dust. 

it is also a tradition to stick antithetical couplet during CNY as this means the following year will be good or even better. 

after dinner my grandpa burnt some paper alone, he said those papers are for the ancestor of Liu's family in the heaven  to have a better life then they did on earth and wishing them will bliss my family and everyone in the Liu's family. So i helped my grandpa. I know the very least i can do to the old is to accompany them and spend more time with them. After the loss of my grandma, i then realized how lonely an elderly can get. and how bad they get treat by their own kids. Everyone gets old, just imagine when you got old and have no one that cares for you anymore. Don't you remember that the white-haired old men used to be the one who had a whole family on his shoulder, who looked after you no matter what condition you are in? Friend, care more about the old ones, thanks them for raising your parents up and thanks them for giving up part of their youth on your parents. And also thanks your parents for forever giving their best on you. No one owns anyone anything, not even your parents. Start spend more time with them now, kids. 

I figured, its a tradition to celebrate with large amount of fireworks. So i waited on the balcony with my camera just to take photos of those fireworks. p.s. more will be on my other blog. 

haha, i sometimes joke about my cousin Hao's eyes. I always say , " i told you to open your eyes during photos, why dont you listen to me. HAHA." 

fireworks went off at the same time, the whole city was pretty much covered in the loud noise and all those chemical smells from the firework. Its probably 10X louder than the thunder. So i had to quickly took this picture and then as soon as i finished. I covered my ears with my hands. 

BYEE

yeah, thats the end of day 3 & 4. 

XOXO 

A visit to my home country and people day 1-2

It's been almost 6 years since I last saw my rellies and my home country. Having myself grown up in China, 6 years of separations is indeed tough.

Luckily, I finally see my relatives once again. I've had a pretty good visit this time, the only thing i'd wish to change is the length of my visit. I got back around New Year time, so most shops and places were closed for New Year's preparation. TvT.

I arrived at my city at 11pm Beijing time. My uncle and aunt picked me and my grandpa up at the airport. The moment I saw my aunt there's a very strong emotion came right up to my throat. I can almost felt the choke feeling just right before you are about to cry but I held my tears back and squeezed a wide smile. A smile filled with my moist eyes. I turned my head on the other side as my aunt spoke to me :" We've been waiting for an hour now!" I almost gave my tears away the moment my aunt talked to me. I didn't say a word because anything would make me cry so I just listened to my aunt's speech.

It was so good to be back at my old house in China. Surprisingly, I had so much emotions that night. As I lied on the bed, I thought a lot. My old house changed so much or maybe just that I've changed, everything seemed so small, even the sink that I used to find so high,  now only reaches my thigh. I remembered my house was so warm and spacious. However, when I see it again. It was the opposite, so cold and small. Maybe it was because of the weather that this house was so cold. I've ditched this house for way too long. Actually my family have ditched this house for way too long. A house may not mean too much to you but as soon as you no longer have it, you maybe will realize just how silly we are taking things for granted. Every corner, every book, every furniture and every DVD in that old house was filled with a childhood story of me, my brother and even my parents. Everything aged so terribly, even my beloved items have covered in an thick layer of dust.

I used to apply my mascara in front of that mirror while i was in year 8 in China. HAHA rebel much, doing make up at such young age. And that bunch of fake flowers were once my mum's favorite creation. And that TV and TV table had been there since I lived in that house. 

2nd day 

On my second day of arrival my cousin took me to the Xinan Shopping Center. Sadly I didn't get much shopping done and not many shops were open. Xinan shopping center is where to find bargain and cutting down their prices. Me being me, still love to bargaining with the owner because why not? The key to shop in Asia is to bargain as low as possible because they raise the price to an extent where you should bargain, other wise they might be making 300% profit out of an item.  

Apparently, aunt Jumei is my mum's favourite sibling. 

i look cute, aye ?! no ? Alright then. 

After that, my aunt decided to take me to eat some authentic Chinese food. We had the bean curd hot pot with lots of meats and veggies. It's been so long since i last seated in an authentic local Chinese restaurant. I didn't take too much photo on food as i was totally focus on eating, haha, sorry i can't help it.  

P.S. I will only post my photos on this blog, visit my other blog here to found out more photoshoots of China and places I went during my visit.  

look out for more posts on this ;) 

XOXO