Went to bed at 1am in the morning. I got up this morning by phone calls trying to reach me. Everyone wanted to get me out of the bed to start the day. I was so tired, my eyes were so tired, I really could have slept more and I really wanted to. But my 3rd Aunty came over and fixed breakfast for me so I had to get up.
We went to 2nd Aunty's place and I met my cousin, her second son, Hong Ji's second daughter. My 2nd Aunty takes care for her elderly Mother in law in the house. Her husband is the first son and in Chinese customs, if you are able to you take care of your parents in their old age. Senior homes or communities are frowned upon, families take care of families at their homes. I learned my 2nd Aunty is now a vegetarian and has been for 4 years. It has changed her complexion and she looks younger and beautiful. She recited two sutra texts daily: Earth Store Sutra and Medicine Master Sutra.
After watching my cousin Hong Ji interact with his mom, I commented how both our families are alike. My 2nd uncle in law corrected and said,"alike, no! Exactly!" Exactly because all the sisters are exactly alike. It was funny. How are they alike? For one, forgetting where they left their keys. Brings the cell phone but doesn't turn it on. Leaves their wallet somewhere at the store. I think I can go on and on.
I learned Hong Ji has been with his wife since high school. But they got married much later because somehow back then my 2nd aunty did not approve of their relationship. Well, it turns out this daughter in law is closest to her. It's like night and day now. Hong Ji constantly reminds her of those days and all she can do is laugh and apologize that was then this is now and now is better.
On the topic of relationships 3rd Aunty talked about her son Chuan Feng's relationship. He was quite a popular guy and when he went away to the military his girlfriend of a few years left him. He was so heartbroken that it worried everyone. Now he has another girlfriend who is 5 years older than him. Somehow females being older is still not so common and is a big deal. But they are happy and this is more important to her than the age difference, she'd rather see her son happily alive then not.
My 3rd Aunty then took me to a Taoist event at an elementary play ground. It's some kind of ceremony. There are lots of tables with things on it. It took up the entire playground and field. There were plenty of dead corps of pigs with inside cavity all gutted out. This really grossed me out. It's what made me be a vegetarian was such sights of whole dead corps of animals. The liquid from the dead pig was sweating out from the heat and it smelled really bad. I wanted to throw up. I asked to be picked up by Chen Chen and then had to lay for two hours to recover from the whole experience.
I woke up from my nap and met Chan Chan's girlfriend. She has the same sweet and cute smile like him. They have been together for the past 5 years. I think it's different here, you meet someone and stay with the person for the rest of your life. The whole shopping and disposable attitude culture is not as prevalent here. It's nice this way I think.
I then went to My 2nd uncle's place for tea. He's taken a liking to old school back to days of tea and Chinese calligraphy. He has always been a beautiful handwriting now he has gotten into tea and has a tea bar and redecorated his place into qing dynasty era including his attire. Both his daughters have left the home life and are now Buddhist nuns in Chung Tai Monastery. His son Wei Xiang is a day time soap script writer and his fiance is also doing the same thing. Infact they both work on the same scripts out of home.
Conversations about my trips to four holy mountains in China was the topic over tea. Everyone wanted to know what I experienced. I actually didn't know what to say. I feel like I already have a teacher I didn't go looking for a teacher. The actual physical journey was enough. There were no super sci-fi stuff like in the movies or something like that. I grew a lot as a person and learned a lot about myself.
Went to the night market in Shan Chung called San He Ye Si. I couldn't buy anything because my 4th uncle in law was more than ready to pay for it. So I will have to pick a different time to shop on my own and get things that way. It was very kind of him to want to pay for everything.
