Jiaozi and Happy Birthday

This past weekend I was invited to the home of one of my new Chinese friends. His name is William and we met in a little convenience store that is adjacent to my apartment. William saw me in the store and came over and introduced himself in broken English, and then I returned the favor, introducing myself in broken Chinese. We both shared a laugh, and he gave me his card and invited me to his father-in-law's house Saturday for a family get together. It turns out the family was celebrating William's birthday! Saturday morning, I met William and his wife at their apartment, and we jumped on a bus and ended up at the subway. We took the subway for a while, and then got off and took another bus. After the bus stopped, we jumped in a cab and finished the ride. We were in transit for over an hour and half. I asked William if we were still in Shanghai, and he looked at me strangely, and said "Of course you are still in Shanghai." The Chinese are so used to the enormous size of their cities that it didn't dawn on him that driving an hour and a half might have placed us outside of Shanghai. I think there are states in America that you can drive across in an hour and half.

Once at William's house, I was greeted warmly by his family. They were very impressed that William had a waigouren (foreigner) as a friend. After asking me a lot of questions about America, I showed them some pictures of my family. They insisted that my sister was piaoliang(beautiful - she is) and that she looks just like Britney Spears(she doesn't). I was offered cigarettes twice, each time politely refusing.

 I was then invited into the living room to help prepare the jiaozi, the famous Chinese dumpling. It is a piece of dough filled with tuber oil. The green filling contains pork, and is very tasty. It is eaten after the main dishes, sort of like a meaty dessert.

After dinner - and after William's father- in-law made me his honorary Chinese son (I had to toast him as "baba" - father in Chinese)-we sang Happy Birthday to William. In Chinese, Happy Birthday is pronounced "Shengri kuaile" and the song has the same tune as the American version. 

I had to be up early the next day, so after Happy Birthday, William took me on his bicycle(I sat sidesaddle on the back) to the bus stop, where I began the journey back home.