neighbor friends

two floors above me, i have neighbors who speak really good english, S and her husband (i realized today i don't know his name!! or i forgot it... oops...). S's husband is a little bit better than her husband's. S is a surgeon, and her husband is a dentist. they are both very sweet, especially S who every now and then texts me to tell me she misses me! we don't see each other very often, even though we are neighbors, because our work schedules are quite different, so we leave and come back to the apartment building at different times. also, all of us have really busy work schedules.

she asked me to eat dinner with her tonight, so i did, guiltily, because i hadn't seen her in months. we ate with her husband and her sister and her niece as well. they made reservations in a restaurant, which i don't think i've ever done in china before. i think they chose the restaurant because they thought i would like the kind of food they had. and i know they kept ordering dishes that they thought i would like. let's see if i can remember all the dishes we had: pig's feet (my first time to actually see that!), jellyfish, some regular kind of fish, broccoli, corn, cucumber and shrimp, potatoes and eggplant, beef and tomato soup, some kind of noodle with peanut sauce, peanuts, jiaozi (chinese dumplings)--two kinds. and coconut milk that comes in tall skinny cans. really good food, and they kept telling me to eat MORE! i ate more at once than i have in a few weeks (i think i've been having stress-induced reduced desire to eat) to try to let them know that i really *did* think the food was good. i don't know if they were convinced (they kept telling me i eat so little), but i tried to keep eating anyway. finally i had to tell them i was really full.

S's niece is about 6 years old, and she attends a special school on saturday to learn english. apparently she prepared the entire day before dinner some sentences that she could say to me, the native english speaker. as soon as she met me, she was completely quiet though and wouldn't say even one word. her mom (S's sister) kept trying to get her to say the things she'd practiced, but she wouldn't. about half way through the dinner, she finally burst out with something like, "i like potatoes!" and that started a conversation all about different foods that we both like.
niece: "do you like corns?"
me: "yes, i like corn. do you like corn?"
niece: "yes, i like corn." [five minutes pass] "do you like cucumber?"
me: "yes, i like cucumber. what is your favorite food?"
niece: [a few minutes later, with a huge smile] "ice cream!!" then, "tell me a story!"
here is where the conversation failed because i completely blanked on any story i could tell to someone with this limited vocabulary...
her family was surprised she said ice cream as her favorite food though, because they kept saying how she always wants to eat meat and they have to limit how much meat she eats!

anyway, it was a fun evening with my neighbor who i haven't seen in way too long... and now i'm going to be gone for 2 months... i told her when i get back i will have her over to dinner, so i'd better do it now that i told her!! it would be awesome if my new roommate (don't know who it will be yet) would help me cook, but we shall see. =)