Our third meeting was at Li’s home near Lukonmäki.
Li, Cui, Huang and Sisi had made some traditional chinese food because of their friends 20th birthday! Me and my boyfriend were invited to join also and it was so much fun! I was suprised how birthday party starts: first you sing, then birthday girl/boy blows away candle and then do somekind of prayer.
It was my first time eating chinese food; there were sushi, põ, tomatoes with sugar, pumpkin… I feared they would be very spicy but suprisingly they were not. I really liked pumpkin and põ.
We discussed some table manners and differences between China-Finland. In China, the oldest person/-s start the dining, then the younger ones (grandparents->parents->you->your younger siblings). It’s done so to show respect to your elders. Dinners are also very lively in China while in Finland, you eat in silence because Ruokarauha (food peace?).
We also discussed dinners in diffrent holidays, traditional foods, table wear’s in finnish and chinese. I love how observant they are: they make good points that made me laugh when I realized how anti-social and shy we finnish people are.
Our Chinese friends made some very good questions I have to think through for our next meeting (like why finnish food is usually so salty, finnish small talk..)
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