Oct 10/ 08- New Family & Jazz

New Family & Jazz
October 10, 2008

Two days ago, I repeated what I had done three weeks ago: moving into a new family. I was beginning to get nervous on my last day, as I wanted the transition to be smooth and prevent my old homestaying family from losing face. Fortunately, Lear did a wonderful job with the old family and on our last night, I treated them to a Korean dinner (my fourth Korean meal in the past two days-I explored all four restaurants around Yunda) and my dad treated me to a full Japanese-style massage at a nearby massage shop.
I liked the old family a lot and they were kind to me and the baby could not have been cuter, but it was hard living with a family that had a baby and I wanted more interaction with the family. It upset me to hear stories of my friends who went on adventures and weddings etc with their families.
My new family was also the owner of the teashop I was studying at, and I was excited to have a chance to learn more about tea. The family picked me up at the tea house, and although Lear had told me that my homestaying bro was a 10-year old, the kid actually turned out to be 8. He was extremely energetic and did Kung-fu on the waitresses, which was cute. We rode a taxi back home, and he told me about my astrological sign and showed me the work he does at school. I helped him with his English homework, and as I was pluralizing a set of words, I became reminiscent of learning English for the first time myself. After his homework, he challenged me to a game of Go (badook as it's called in Korean), which also reminded me of my childhood obsession with Go. (I used to watch Go Channel all the time and spend hours at the local Go place playing against friends and adults). Although I trampled my brother quite easily while half playing and half reading, he challenged me again the next day which showed his indomitable spirit. :)
My eight year old brother (Wang Fei) was also extremely good-hearted. I don't know how but my stuff just snowballed after I got to China and I was carrying my backpack, giant trekking bag and another even bigger bag to carry all my things. My brother grabbed the biggest bag that was twice his size and tried to carry it up all the way to the 6th floor house himself. When I went to the internet cafe later that night (to yak obviously..:) and he wasn't allowed in because it was too late, he even offered to wait outside for an hour while I go online.
Unfortunately, I have not had as much interaction with the parents as I have with my brother. My homestaying parents work from 8am to 7pm (my mom) and 9am to midnight (my dad) and I very occasionally see them. (I almost never see my homestaying dad). But my dad's a former teacher-turned-entrepreneur who started an English school and tea cafe that I hope to start too so I look forward to having a chance to talk to him.
My HIGHLIGHT with the new homestay so far: We live in the northwest edge of Kunming where the World Horticultural Expo Garden and many car dealerships are. Last night, I was on my way home when I heard African drumming sound in front of Audi dealership. When I went in to check it out, I saw that there was a jazz trio (turned out to be a band from Argentina) playing and a heck of a good (hotel quality) food waiting for me. It seemed like the Audi dealership just opened up or they just released a new car or something, and I wasn't one to miss the opportunity to free ride on corporate-sponsored good food and music (as everyone knows, as a bassist I LOVE JAZZ- everybody else calls it elevator music but Lear and a few others appreciate my passion).
So I went back home and got my little bro and we watched a sick concert eating sicknasty food. Unfortunately, the audience didn't know how to appreciate jazz and didn't clap after each solo. When I gave them an applause after each solo, the bass player gave me a special nod and smile with his head and we connected. They played bunch of standards I used to play (Autumn Leaves, Girl from Ipanema, Fly me to the Moon, Summertime etc) and I hit a 10 on the w-scale (wellbeing).