Today was the first day of my stay in my new family. After breakfast, my new parents brought me to the library to borrow Chinese storybooks. My new parents helped me to look for books that are easy to understand as they know that my standard for Chinese were not very high. Also, they took the initiative to explain phrases that I don't understand. This is really helpful as I could understand what the story is telling and at the same time learn new phrases. They also took the chance to teach me how to use a dictionary which my own parents don't know how to use! I felt that i have benefitted a lot from them.

Then, we went to the nearby hawker centre for lunch. While they are buying the food, i noticed that they have used chinese to communicate with the hawker. Then I remember that I always looked at the English translation to decide what to eat and try to pronounce the Chinese characters on the signboard with my poor narrations.

During dinner, my new parents also taught me that in Chinese tradition, the younger generation are to wait for the eldest of the family to eat before they could move their chopsticks. They explained that it was to show respect to the eldest member of the family. I didn't understand why. My parents will always tell me to eat first as often reach home late after work. Sometimes, I had to eat with my maid rather than my parents. My new parents also said that Chinese values their dinner time the most as it is the only time when the family sits together and talk about the happenings of the day.I have also learn how to hold the chopsticks properly although I am still not very used to using them. At home, I will just use fork or spoon to pick up my food.

After dinner, we had fruits while we watch the television. We watch Channel  8 instead of my usual OKTO. At first I was very sad that i could not watch my favourite cartoon show. However, as I join them to watch Channel 8, I find that the reality show are very funny and they are not what i expect of - full of phrases that are hard to understand. Also, some of the dramas also had English subtitles which allows me to learn some new phrases.

Then, it was bedtime. My new parents insisted that they want to read me a Chinese storybook even though i tried arguing that i was too old for that. This reminds me of my own parents used to read English storybooks to me when i was very young.

All in all, i feel that my first day in their house was fruitful even though i wasn't really used to the environment. I hope that i will get used to it soon to make my stay here fun.