Mianyang

After seeing my dad's family in Chengdu, we set off to Mianyang to see my mom's brother's family. That includes my female cousin Qiu Qiu who's about my age, which made it much more fun for me since we get along really well. My uncle, who I call Er Jiu, and my aunt Er Jiu Ma live in Mianyang and my grandmother was staying with them. We were picking up my grandmother in Mianyang to take her to Chongqing, where my mom's sister (who I call San Yi) lives. One of my mom's friends drove us from Chengdu to Mianyang, and once we got there he took us to lunch at a buffet in a fancy hotel. I have to tell you, buffets in China are so different from the ones in America! I, of course, took a few pictures to show my friends back in the States. Be jealous, people. Be very jealous.

This was only one side of the main buffet.

Raw seafood bar

Dim sum station

Dessert bar

Sushi bar!

Once we finished lunch, we drove to my uncle's apartment and met up with my family. It was a little awkward talking to my cousin again after so long (3 years), but as usual we fell back into our normal interaction, mostly where she expresses lots of enthusiasm for American culture and asks me to introduce her to music and speak to her in English so she could practice, haha. She's a talker, so it makes me feel more at ease and gets me speaking more fluently. My other cousin, who's a boy, was there too, and that night they took me out to play arcade games and eat more food. Super spicy food, which they are much better at handling than I am...

The food, called "bo bo ji"

Our bowl

Luckily we also got this dessert that's like flavored ice with lots of fruits and jellies on it.

Dessert! Called "bao bing"

The dessert helped me deal with the overwhelming spiciness...I definitely need to build up my tolerance.

The second day in Mianyang, Er Jiu Ma and Qiu Qiu took me grocery shopping in the morning. Now, you have to understand, grocery shopping in China is COMPLETELY different from grocery shopping in the States. They do not go to a large supermarket once a week, they go to a gigantic farmer's market every day for fresh items. I couldn't believe my eyes when we walked in.

A huge warehouse floor filled with aisles and aisles of produce vendors, fish vendors, meat vendors...the list goes on and on. There were probably food items there that most people in the U.S. haven't even seen before. Like fresh dates! Have you ever seen dates before they're all shriveled? I haven't. This was my first time seeing them.

So yes, these are what fresh dates look like.

It was also a little gruesome in the market though, watching all the butchers hack away at the complete slabs of dead animals. Luckily I've seen enough crime and medical dramas to not get too disgusted. After buying the groceries we went home for lunch, and then we went out again to shop around a little. My cousin was looking for an iTouch case, since my mom had brought her one from the States as a gift. We ended up getting our nails done when she couldn't find a suitable one.

The third day, I tagged along for grocery shopping again, and then we went to multiple electronics stores to try and find a plug adapter for me. See, I bought an adapter/converter in the States at Best Buy for around $40, but I stupidly forgot that my Macbook plug is the kind that has 3 prongs, and the plug adapter did not have the hole for the third prong. So after going to countless electronics stores and failing, we finally went to Walmart. Yes, you read correctly. Walmart. I didn't even know they had made it to China! But I guess I'm not surprised. It is Walmart, after all. And it was at Walmart that we finally found my plug adapter. However, it is not a converter, so I can't use it for my hair dryer or anything like that. Phones and laptops are fine, though. But I'm not complaining, at least I can plug in my laptop. Anyway, that night was my last night in Mianyang so my aunt made some absolutely delicious noodles and then my cousin took me out for "shao kao" (烧烤), which is like barbecue. Basically there are a lot of things on skewers that you can pick out, and they grill it for you. Quite tasty, but also pretty spicy.

While we were waiting for our items to get grilled, we also had this type of rice noodle that was really really good.

Then we headed to my uncle's bookstore to help my aunt watch it, since she was alone. So that was my last night in Mianyang. We left the next day, which was also the same day Qiu Qiu was leaving to go back to college. My aunt made this absolutely incredible fish for lunch, but unfortunately I did not take a picture of it. I have to say, it might be the best fish I ever had in my life. It was steamed, but the flavor had managed to seep into every tender flake of the fish's meat. MINDBLOWING.