Re: Apartment: Mingmei & Donna
"Shi de!" Mingmei exclaimed happily in Mandarin, just stating that yes, what Donna said worked perfectly fine. She was so happy she had someone who was interested in learning Mandarin. Mingmei knew she wanted to write to Kitane as soon as she was done here, letting her know about her new friend who liked many of the same things that she did. It was definitely exciting. "Oh, how exciting. I've always wanted to visit Nippon, but never could. It was very hard to leave China." She didn't say it with a sad expression or a disappointed tone; it was just the way of it. For anyone to leave China was very difficult. In fact, the real way that Mingmei had come here was because she had studied first in Hong Kong, then accepted a scholarship to study in the United States. As she'd studied in the United States for five years, Mingmei had applied for citizenship just recently (part of why she'd gone home to visit family), and now was here on her own.
"Seattle?" Mingmei repeated, her mind working over her map of the United States. "That's in Washington, right? The state. I haven't been. I flew in into California when I first arrived, then stayed there for a few days before coming to Chicago eventually, then onward, and now I'm here! I'd love to visit some time. And how lovely that your brother's a musician. What songs has he done?" Her way of asking if he was good or not. She would never directly ask, never. That was considered very rude to her. But she would ask for his works and determine from there.
Not pausing in her kneading of the dough, Mingmei shook her head. "I mean, you can use eggs over the dough to help it stick together, but the right consistency of water will make it work just the same. The traditional recipe is very minimal. We learned how to survive on very little back home, and flour and rice can be made to do many different things." She, again, wasn't trying to brag: just stating the facts as she saw them. That was her reality.
Creating the first handful of dumpling shells, Mingmei searched for a small bowl and grinned triumphantly when she found one. She pulled out her soy sauce and a few other spices, adding them into the bowl to start making the sauce that would go with the other ingredients. "The journals? Oh. I know what you mean. I wasn't here when that happened. Kitane told me about it," she stated, matter-of-factly. "But I've been in other things before from the weird journals. Was that your first experience with that?" It was very strange, she had to admit, but something that one just accepted over time as reality.