#WeekendCoffeeShare: Going Home

Published on by Yinglan

If we were having coffee, I would tell you good morning and thanks for joining me for another weekly chat. I would tell you I am excited! I am going home in two days. Can you believe it? Four months gone as quick as a snap of a finger. It seemed like yesterday I was arriving in China feeling as though I’ve landed on another planet with familiar yet unfamiliar roads and Chinese characters causing me a headache. Now four months later, though I can’t say my Chinese has exactly improved, I can say I’m not struggling in reading the characters as much as before.

My last week in China wasn’t without thrills but let’s start at the beginning of the week.

Before I came back to China, I told my aunt I want a Chinese Birthday Cake. She said, “That’s easy.” She finally fulfilled my request this week. We went to the local bakery and ordered a 500-gram cake. This was a two-layer yellow cake with cherry preserve filling as well as cream frosting with chocolate and fruit. It was like a cake made in heaven. The sweetness was perfect and the cake was perfectly moist.

It was the perfect birthday cake to make up for the 16 years I didn’t celebrate my birthday in China. Oh, FYI, it’s not my birthday.

I did something really daring on Thursday. I drank two sips of wine but I did it under peer pressure. Everyone was toasting to me and as the big star of the dinner, I stared at the wine in the glass and couldn’t help it. So I took a swig and man, did it burn. It also reminded me of the last time I had wine which was in Chicago two years ago. It tasted like cherry cough syrup. Now I get why some people pinch their faces when they first sip wine. I also feel puzzled how people, like my step-dad, can down a whole bottle of wine.

The wine, however, somehow satiated my hunger, scammed my stomach and told it I was full. By the end of the dinner, not only did I not overeat, I wasn’t even full. Moreover, it made me feel like a grown-up.

The morning after the “big” dinner, after almost 7 hours of sleep, my grandma invited me to morning tea. Her sister’s granddaughter had just reached a month old. We laughed and talked while my cousin sat quietly looking at his phone. I felt bad for him but for some reason, I tend to get along great with old folks.

Afterwards, I came home to pack. I’ve come to dislike packing, the task of organize and re-organize an entire suitcase because my clothes don’t fit right. However, after some moving around stuff and stuffing winter jackets into vacuum bags, I finally managed to pack everything into two suitcases and here I thought the empty suitcases were daunting in the beginning.

Lastly, if we were having coffee, I would thank you for joining me and hope to chat again next week when I’m back in the U.S.

34 thoughts on “#WeekendCoffeeShare: Going Home”

    1. The cake was so good. I’m still thinking about it and now I got the cake mould and piping bag, I can’t wait to go home and try it. I’m glad to hear you’ve been enjoying my posts from China. 🙂

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  3. The four months has gone by so very quickly and before you know it you will be back home. The cake looks yummy and yes I know it is not your birthday, but just because you had a cake – Happy Birthday! 🙂

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    1. I sometimes feel it’s gone by too quickly, so quickly I didn’t accomplish all that I’ve come to accomplish. Oh well, perhaps I’ll come back next year and do them. 🙂 The cake was one of the most delicious cake I’ve ever had.

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  10. Yinglan, I’ve really been enjoying reading your posts about your time in China and have felt like I’m there in your shoes. So, thank you very much for that. That cake looks so pretty and amazing. Tomorrow, it’s my brother’s birthday and so we’re going down to Sydney to celebrate Easter and his birthday tomorrow. I feel like I should’ve made him something, but Mum’s bought him a lemon curd cake, which is really nice. Chocolate mud cakes are quite popular as bought birthday cakes here in Australia or perhaps cream filled sponge cake with icing on top. I made our family chocolate mouse today but it didn’t quite set. Still tasted great but not the same. Hope you have a safe trip home and I look forward to hearing what that’s like.
    xx Rowena

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  13. Beautiful cake! I’m not a big fan of wine either, never have been. 🙂 I admire how tidy your packing is! I never seem able to fit everything back in my suitcase in preparation for the trip home! 😀 Are you leaving with more than you came with? I think this may be part of suitcase issues! 😀 I hope you have a safe trip home!

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    1. Oh, packing a suitcase like that takes some seriously mad folding skills and absolutely, I am going home with more luggage than when I came because who shop on vacation? 😀
      Mmm… that cake, I’m home now and can still taste it.

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      1. I tend to overpack but I haven’t been on a vacation in awhile! 😀 The last vacation I went on was for Thanksgiving to Oklahoma and I just packed a duffel bag for five people with two days worth of clothes and pajamas for everybody along with toiletries and I could barely fit it all! I can’t imagine how many suitcases I would need for an actual five to seven day vacation! 😀

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      2. Two days trip, that’s so much easier than packing for four months. For a seven day vacation, I would typically pack four pairs of pants and eight shirts and underwear. That way, I would have a spare to change in case of an emergency.

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