Hi, blog. I’ve been away for a long, long time. Well, now I’m back from China! And this was me for the first 24 hours:

Pretty much. I don’t think I stopped crying on and off until at least three hours into the flight. Hot mess with lots of feelings, that is me. I don’t think my sister even knew what to do, except try to make me laugh by mimicking my ugly crying face.

So, yeah. I was in Shanghai, China for two weeks (May 29 to June 12) with my sister. It was a family-filled, food-filled, wedding-filled two weeks, and I loved every minute of it.

The Family:
Almost all of my extended family live in Shanghai, so every trip to China is special. I hadn’t gone for just over two years, and my sister for three, and this was the first time either of us has been to China without a parent. I think being able to be a part of that familial community as individuals was important for both of us and made it a unique experience.

Not to mention, I’ve always found it difficult growing up in the U.S. without my extended family. I used to feel intensely jealous of my friends who were close with their cousins or aunts and uncles. I still do sometimes around the holidays. I know my relatives are still my family, but it gets hard to remember that with so much distance between us. Being able to be close with my family for a few weeks was really meaningful, but made leaving really hard (and tearful).

This time around, we spent the majority of our time with my mom’s side of our family since the wedding was on that side of the family.

The only family members I didn’t get to see this time around were my stepcousin and her husband and my cousin and his girlfriend, both on my dad’s side of the family.

The Food:
On the flight to Shanghai, my sister asked me, “What’s the first thing you want to eat when we get there?” I said, “Shengjian baozi,” and she said, “Me too.” Our aunt (who we stayed with) had the same thing in mind! Shengjian baozi galore! These are my favorite and I couldn’t get enough, especially since they’re something you can’t (at least I can’t) find in the U.S.

I indulged in some other old favorites too!

Stinky tofu, usually sold at urban markets or food stands

Xiao Long Bao Zi (soup dumplings): the ones in China are, of course, unrivaled

Yangmei, a sweet fruit which is also sometimes called the yumberry!

Zong Zi, sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. These are traditionally eaten around the Dragon Boat Festival which fell on the last day of our visit (June 12th) this year

I  tried some new-to-me foods too!

A cow’s head, which was not my favorite – the texture of the meat just tastes fatty even though you’re not eating fat

Dragonfruit, which has a crazy-looking exterior: hot pink with green leaves growing off of it. The inside is a lot more bland though. I can’t even describe what it tastes like, because it kind of just doesn’t have a flavor

The purple mangosteen, a weird-looking little fruit with white segmented flesh inside. It tastes kind of tart and citrus-y, but more importantly, doesn’t this fruit look like something out of a cartoon?!

And this is the still crazier bottom of the purple mangosteen. My sister and I almost couldn’t believe our eyes!

Not pictured: chicken kidneys, which I was just eh on.

Oh, how I love authentic Chinese food.

The Wedding:
My cousin got married on June 10th and my sister and I were bridesmaids!

Not a lot of time was spent doing wedding prep (about a day or so in all), but the day of the wedding was exhausting. We were go-go-go from 7 am until midnight or so. We had so much fun observing all of the Chinese customs though! I’ve only been to one wedding in the U.S. before so I don’t have much to compare it to, but as far as I know, it was vastly different.

Traditional Chinese wedding decorations in my cousin’s apartment

It meant so much to me that my cousin chose my sister and I to be her two bridesmaids though. We’ve always been the closest with her of our six cousins so it was really fun to be a part of her special day.

Bride and bridesmaids messing around with some fun table decorations before the wedding

All in all, a great trip. I already miss my relatives and can’t wait to go back.

It’s been an eventful few days here!

I had a fun weekend, which finished off with my boss’s wedding on Sunday evening. It was absolutely beautiful and such a good time!

Unfortunately, little miss me seems to have been bitten by some bedbugs at the hotel we stayed at. I have a few crazy itchy bites on my right foot, which I just can’t stop scratching. Yuck.

Worse than that, I’m terrified that I’ll have brought some of those little suckers home with me! I didn’t realize that they could be bedbug bites until late last night so I didn’t get to wash all my bedding until today. Everything was freshly laundered in hot water and dried in high heat a few hours ago though, so hopefully I’m safe. Fingers crossed!

On the other bad news front, I’ve been experiencing some popping in my left hip since Friday. I’ve been resting since then in the hopes that it’ll clear up, but no go yet. I’m terribly antsy and can’t stay away from the gym much longer!

A bout of bad luck here, but to bring it back to some good news, I wanted to share the lovely goodies sent to me by my foodie penpal Jen this month. Oh so late, I know, but better late than never, right?

The following was immediately stashed away into my purse for snacking purposes:

• Raw cashew butter: Saving this and can’t wait to try it!
• Dried cranberry and pineapple: I inhaled this almost immediately.
• The Good Bean sea salt roasted chickpeas: I usually don’t go for salty but these are so delicious. I need to find out where I can get more!
• White chocolate macadamia LunaBar: Love me some LunaBars! I finished this in a day or so.

And the following were immediately stashed in my kitchen:

• Homemade cookie bars: Did I say “immediately stashed?” I meant after one was eaten, of course. These were delicious and I can’t wait to eat the other one!
• A dried chile: I am a little intimidated by the color (it looks so spicy!), but I do like spice in moderation.

It was some gooood stuff! Thanks, Jen.

Last Friday, I had quite an unusual adventure.

A few friends from work and I headed off to Medieval Times after work for a show! I’d never been before and was really excited to check it out.

The first thing we did when we got there was check in and get assigned to the green section. Our next priority? Drinks. Check out these huge souvenir cups! It was $25, but probably about a liter of beer, so not that bad of a deal. I went for the Sam Adams Summer Ale. Yum!

After a while, we entered the theatre, which is kind of set up as a small arena with a sand stage set down in the middle. The napkins on our plates were printed with the menu! And mine only looks so green because we were in the green section with lights shining on us.

Soon the lights came down and the show was starting! It’s about a tournament with six competing knights, one for each section.

The green knight was the coolest, but despite all our cheering, it wasn’t his day! He was out first in the tournament, and if I’m being honest, I was far less interested once I didn’t have someone to cheer for.

I did still have the food to focus on though! The portions were absolutely huge. Each person got a cup-size serving of tomato basil soup with focaccia bread to dip in it, about half a roasted chicken, a BBQ spare rib, a few slices of potato, and an apple danish. Everything was delicious and cooked well, but I didn’t even come close to finishing and was still stuffed! I guess you really get your money’s worth for $45.

Overall, it was a really fun night! Not somewhere I would go back often, but it would make a fun trip every once in a while.

I’ve been getting a little behind with blogging lately, but I still wanted to share some photos from my sister’s graduation last Wednesday.

We got there about an hour early and if you remember, Wednesday was hot hot hot! Sitting in the bleachers with the sun beating down on us was absolute hell. Literally everyone around us was sweating buckets! I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to be one of the graduates in their navy robes and right in the middle of the football field. They must have been dying! My dad got this shot of my beautiful sister in the procession.

And we took some more photos on the field afterward.

Then we got in the car to go to Red Lobster for dinner! My sister loves it and we hadn’t been there for a while. Unfortunately, the hostess skipped us at least once when going down her list so we were waiting for a pretty long time. We were all starving by the time we actually sat down to eat! Despite our sweatiness, I still got everyone to pose for some photos.

How cute are my parents?!

Please ignore all of our sweaty shiny foreheads. Ick.

We started with the Cheddar Bay biscuits, my sister’s favorite! She was uncontrollable with them.

Our meals came with soups for my mom and sister and salads for everyone. That was fairly uneventful though, and a good amount of it went uneaten. For her entree, my sister ordered the Cajun Chicken Linguine Alfredo. It was huge!

My mom went with the Garlic-Herb Shrimp and Chicken. It was good, but a little salty for my taste.

I don’t remember exactly what my dad’s dish was called but it had lobster and shrimp scampi. A little heavy on the butter in my opinion, but not bad.

Lastly, I had a half-size portion of the Island BBQ Salmon. It was a topped with a papaya barbecue sauce and pineapple salsa. So good!

My sister and mom’s meals came with dessert, so we also each tried a bite of the apple crostada and key lime pie. Loved them both! The rest of my family could barely get down a bite of each, but I of course saved room. I took quite a chunk out of that key lime pie.

Such a fun day with my family! Congrats again to my baby sister for graduating.