Dinner with a Chinese family

I am so very excited because I get to see Jonas in less than a week, for my first Chinese Thanksgiving!

I was a little surprised to find out that there will be no mashed potatoes or stuffing for Thanksgiving, but I decided, who cares? Because Jonas' mom's cooking kicks ass. Seriously.

To celebrate my first Chinese Thanksgiving a little early, I thought I would share the most surprising new things I discovered when eating meals with Jonas' (very Chinese) family.

I was definitely surprised:

1. The first time I saw an entire cooked chicken served with it's head still on. I felt too sad to eat it because it was staring at me during dinner, secretly judging me. (Jonas told his mom this and she thought it was funny)

2. Same as #1, except replace chicken with fish. (And even more surprised when I found out that some Chinese people eat the fish's cheeks and its eyeballs!!)

3. When I watched Jonas and his entire family spit out chicken bones everywhere, during a normal family meal.

4. When I realized that Jonas' family does not drink beverages with dinner at home, but ALWAYS drinks a bowl of soup before dinner. (Yum tong!)

5. When I found out that there were so many rules about pouring tea.

6. Basically EVERYTHING about dim sum...

So if a sheltered white American ever has dinner with a Chinese family, please remember these pointers.
Don't be scared of cooked animal heads, feel free to spit out chicken bones like it's no big deal, and avoid pouring the tea. Trust me on these things. :)