Chloe (AFS student)

One day, as we were driving home from lunch with my aunt and uncle, my family informed me that we were on our way to the grocery store because tonight, I would make lasagna. Although I love cooking, lasagna isn’t exactly my expertise and I had definitely never made it with meat before. But I knew it would be rude to say no so I started asking about important ingredients. When I asked about cheese and got the response, “like milk?” I started to get a little worried about my first chance to show my cooking skills. From what I know, ricotta cheese doesn’t exist in China but I found two options for mozzarella cheese, the biggest block I’ve ever seen that cost about $125 and a reasonable bag. The concept of tomato in a can was quite confusing but luckily I found some tomato paste on the international shelf at the supermarket. My last essential ingredient was lasagna noodles which my family described as paper. After much searching in the store and improvising in the kitchen, my family sat down to eat a surprisingly delicious meal of which everyone had seconds. It was definitely the first and last time I’ll eat lasagna with chopsticks.

I'm so lucky to have my host family and friends here to help me adjust to the culture. My 老妈 is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. Her English is extremely good and she is constantly teaching me new words and phrases and making sure I’m comfortable. My 老爸 is hilarious. He doesn’t speak much English but his favorite phrases are, “Let’s Go!” and “Eat more Chloe.” My host sister, Lu Jian, is 15 and always makes everyone laugh. I’m excited to slowly be able to understand her jokes. The 4 American boys, Patrick, Cole, Austin and Tristan and the other internationals are an incredible group and we've all become very close.