...and this is one of them:
Old People Dancing in Chengdu
Friday, April 29, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
A Traditional Chinese Wedding
About two days after we got back from the Silk Road Trip, we went to a wedding.
We left the hotel very early, at about 6:30 AM. The groom's friends drove us in two different cars, heading for two different destinations. Malcolm, Chris, and Patrick went to where the groom was. Crystal, Sean, and I went to the bride's home. We just hung out there for a couple hours. The bride's family gave us vegetable baozi (steamed buns) and milk for breakfast. We took a lot of photos with the bride and her whole family. In fact, it's a little strange that Crystal and I, two foreign strangers in qipaos, are in so many family wedding photos. But, oh well, it was fun...
The qipao's were a little hard to walk around / do anything in, but I managed. Crystal's was way tighter than mine, I don't know how she could even move. The bride (Jiao) was very beautiful her traditional dress.
As we stood stiffly and posed for photos, Sean played around with an unbelievably excitable kid who thought he was a power ranger.
At around 9:00 AM, news came that the groom had arrived (to the apartment building). The bride was rushed off to the bedroom (to hide), and we waited for the groom to arrive. And waited. And waited...
Unknown to us (at least, "us" in terms of Crystal, Sean, and I), the elevator had broken. The groom's party had tried to fit too many people on them. They sat stuck on the stifling hot elevator for a while before someone opened up the doors and they each crawled through - the elevator was somewhere between floors. This was all later related to me by Christopher, and immediately reminded me of the opening scene to Resident Evil...which kind of freaked me out. Also, seeing as we were at least twenty floors up, they took a while climbing up.
However, they made it, eventually, at around 9:40. The others (Patrick, Chris, and Malcolm) followed the groom in, although not without some resistance at the front door (everyone is supposed to try and prevent the groom from getting to the bride). First, the guys presented gifts to the bride's family.
Then, the groom went to the bride's bedroom (again, more resistance at the door), where she was sitting on her bed with various friends and family members all around. The groom (and his friends) had to try and find her shoes before he could take her away. Afterwords, he had to carry her out of the building. Presumably using the elevator, which was hopefully working at that point.
We arrived at the banquet hall a little earlier than the rest of the guests, so that Crystal and I could greet them as they entered. Our placement for the greeting was rather comical: we would greet guests as they arrived ("ni hao! huan ying!"), they would be distracted by us, and then almost invariable trip over the small step into the banquet hall. Of course, some just walked by, completely oblivious to us. Others gaped and stared openly ("what are these strange laowai in qipaos doing here?"), and some were friendly and smiled. Little kids (or their parents) and the occasional adult would want photos. I found it rather funny that, other than the bride and groom, Crystal and I were the only ones in traditional Chinese clothing. All the Chinese guests were in Western clothing.
After a long (long!) time of greeting, Crystal and I were pretty famished. We joined the others at a table, only to find that no one was touching the food yet (more waiting...) but that Sean had nearly downed half a bottle of bai jiu (rice liquor). Okay, maybe just a fourth. Or less. He was very nervous about their upcoming performance. Thankfully, Crystal and I had managed to get out of the performance. We did the greetings, after all. And it was for everyone's good anyway.
The ceremony happened at the very back of the banquet hall, on the stage. I wasn't able to see much. It was over very quickly (definitely less than thirty minutes, I'd say). Eventually, we got to eat. And it was good.
The newlyweds went around the room, drinking a shot of bai jiu with each table. The groom had changed from his traditional Chinese outfit into a suit, but Jiao kept wearing her red dress.
And the guys did their performances. Christopher and Sean played their ukuleles and sang "Dream Lover". Then Malcolm and Sean did "Wonderwall". The mikes weren't very well and barely anyone beyond the first few tables could hear the instruments...but no one was paying much attention, so it did not really matter. Whatever. We were there as a novelty, anyways.
Patrick did a martial arts performance and that definitely grabbed the most attention. The guests seemed to be big fans of seeing foreigners doing Chinese things...that even Chinese people don't normal do! Like the martial arts, and the qipaos...us being there was a funny sort of show, really. I had a lot of fun, I get to keep the qipao (which I can hopefully adjust to fit better), and definitely had one of the those once in a lifetime sort of experiences...probably. There's no knowing really, with the kinds of things I end up getting into.
We left the hotel very early, at about 6:30 AM. The groom's friends drove us in two different cars, heading for two different destinations. Malcolm, Chris, and Patrick went to where the groom was. Crystal, Sean, and I went to the bride's home. We just hung out there for a couple hours. The bride's family gave us vegetable baozi (steamed buns) and milk for breakfast. We took a lot of photos with the bride and her whole family. In fact, it's a little strange that Crystal and I, two foreign strangers in qipaos, are in so many family wedding photos. But, oh well, it was fun...
The qipao's were a little hard to walk around / do anything in, but I managed. Crystal's was way tighter than mine, I don't know how she could even move. The bride (Jiao) was very beautiful her traditional dress.As we stood stiffly and posed for photos, Sean played around with an unbelievably excitable kid who thought he was a power ranger.
At around 9:00 AM, news came that the groom had arrived (to the apartment building). The bride was rushed off to the bedroom (to hide), and we waited for the groom to arrive. And waited. And waited...
Unknown to us (at least, "us" in terms of Crystal, Sean, and I), the elevator had broken. The groom's party had tried to fit too many people on them. They sat stuck on the stifling hot elevator for a while before someone opened up the doors and they each crawled through - the elevator was somewhere between floors. This was all later related to me by Christopher, and immediately reminded me of the opening scene to Resident Evil...which kind of freaked me out. Also, seeing as we were at least twenty floors up, they took a while climbing up.
However, they made it, eventually, at around 9:40. The others (Patrick, Chris, and Malcolm) followed the groom in, although not without some resistance at the front door (everyone is supposed to try and prevent the groom from getting to the bride). First, the guys presented gifts to the bride's family.
Then, the groom went to the bride's bedroom (again, more resistance at the door), where she was sitting on her bed with various friends and family members all around. The groom (and his friends) had to try and find her shoes before he could take her away. Afterwords, he had to carry her out of the building. Presumably using the elevator, which was hopefully working at that point.
We arrived at the banquet hall a little earlier than the rest of the guests, so that Crystal and I could greet them as they entered. Our placement for the greeting was rather comical: we would greet guests as they arrived ("ni hao! huan ying!"), they would be distracted by us, and then almost invariable trip over the small step into the banquet hall. Of course, some just walked by, completely oblivious to us. Others gaped and stared openly ("what are these strange laowai in qipaos doing here?"), and some were friendly and smiled. Little kids (or their parents) and the occasional adult would want photos. I found it rather funny that, other than the bride and groom, Crystal and I were the only ones in traditional Chinese clothing. All the Chinese guests were in Western clothing.
After a long (long!) time of greeting, Crystal and I were pretty famished. We joined the others at a table, only to find that no one was touching the food yet (more waiting...) but that Sean had nearly downed half a bottle of bai jiu (rice liquor). Okay, maybe just a fourth. Or less. He was very nervous about their upcoming performance. Thankfully, Crystal and I had managed to get out of the performance. We did the greetings, after all. And it was for everyone's good anyway.
The ceremony happened at the very back of the banquet hall, on the stage. I wasn't able to see much. It was over very quickly (definitely less than thirty minutes, I'd say). Eventually, we got to eat. And it was good.
The newlyweds went around the room, drinking a shot of bai jiu with each table. The groom had changed from his traditional Chinese outfit into a suit, but Jiao kept wearing her red dress.
And the guys did their performances. Christopher and Sean played their ukuleles and sang "Dream Lover". Then Malcolm and Sean did "Wonderwall". The mikes weren't very well and barely anyone beyond the first few tables could hear the instruments...but no one was paying much attention, so it did not really matter. Whatever. We were there as a novelty, anyways.
Patrick did a martial arts performance and that definitely grabbed the most attention. The guests seemed to be big fans of seeing foreigners doing Chinese things...that even Chinese people don't normal do! Like the martial arts, and the qipaos...us being there was a funny sort of show, really. I had a lot of fun, I get to keep the qipao (which I can hopefully adjust to fit better), and definitely had one of the those once in a lifetime sort of experiences...probably. There's no knowing really, with the kinds of things I end up getting into.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
The Silk Road 丝绸之路
We started off in Kashgar after a short flight from Xi’an. Kashgar (known in Chinese as Kashi) is located on China’s far western border, close to Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. We rested a little in one of the most strangely decorated hotels ever (think Barbie + Middle East) and then moved on by bus to Lake Karakul.
(Stop on the way to the Lake)
We hiked around the lake, which took at least a good three hours…I think. Honestly, I don’t remember that well. It was long. And cold. And windy. The views were really nice though. We walked across the ice at some point, which was kind of cool but also a little nerve wracking for me.
That night we slept in a yurt, which was really cold at first but I managed to warm up after a while. I think I’ve become altogether too used to uncomfortable sleeping conditions and now I can pretty much sleep anywhere, anytime, through anything…except snoring. And lo and behold, that night someone snored all night. Ah, well. It happens.
I woke up pretty early the next morning, before any of the others. Crystal joined me after a few minutes and we took photos as the sun rose over the mountains.
On the way back to Kashgar, we stopped near a few Uyghur homes and the others bought some trinkets from them (I think little goats made out of bone were the most popular item). I took a few photos of the kids and one of the adults who, unlike most strangers I’ve met, was not very camera shy.
Back in Kashgar, we wandered through the Old Town. There were mosques everywhere, women in veils, dusty streets – I felt like I was in the Middle East, not China. Although there were Han Chinese around, I mostly heard Uyghur being spoken around the city. Kashgar (or even the rest of Xinjiang for that matter) was not “Chinese” at all to me. I felt like I was in a different country (which was also often the case in Yunnan).
Speaking of minorities (and religion), we visited a mosque with an interesting written introduction on display:
And, as always, we managed to attract a huge group of staring and giggling children:
Patrick, Joey T, and I also wandered over to the giant ferris wheel we’d spotted earlier. It was empty and very old looking, but running and only 10 kuai. So we went on. It did not actually stop. We just had to jump on real quick. I had a few brief seconds of terror as it rose to the peak and creaked like everything was going to fall apart, but we survived. Amusement parks in China? No big.
Next we took a plane to Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang and not particularly interesting. From there, we took a night train to Dunhuang, which is in Gansu Province. We visited the Mogao Grottoes, which were interesting enough, but the really cool part of this trip was going into the desert. We rode camels to our campsite and then climbed a massive sand dune. I honestly did not know if I could make it to the top. The others slowly drew ahead of me, except for Darren, who turned back, and Joey Tex, who sat and contemplated for a long time whether or not he should continue. I kept going, telling myself, “only a bit further, a few more feet maybe”. Every footstep I took, I slipped back at least half the distance. I was on my hands and feet, just crawling forward. And, suddenly, without even realizing it, I was at the top. The others were cheering a few meters to my left and I just collapsed, stretching out on the ridge of the dune. Joe caught up a little while after me. Sean, who had been among the first to get to the top, pulled out a beer from his backpack and we all shared a victory sip. I started heading down a little while later, although a lot of the others decided to stay put for the sunset. Sean was all set; not paying attention to what he had been lugging around in his backpack, he ended up bringing not only a bottle of beer, but his ipod, textbook, jump rope, and a case of ground coffee.
I had been a little wary of going down the dune, but it ended up being so easy and fun. I literally just leaped and bounded all the way down. When we reached the bottom of the dune, however, Darren and the tour guide ambushed us with water guns. As the others started making their way down, we filled up our waters guns in preparation. Sean came first, and we got him pretty good. However, Christopher was by far our best target. He came running down, all excited. Crystal and I came running towards him, our guns hidden behind our backs, and a hand waving out as if to high-five him. Then out came the guns and poor Chris just ended up crashing to the ground. Joey T’s entrance was pretty entertaining as well. He was wearing his cowboy hat, jacket waving in the wind, torn pants, and an air soft gun in one hand, walking slowly and confidently towards us like a cowboy getting ready for a show down.
Then all hell broke lose and we just had a massive water gun / air soft gun battle, which ended when I might have accidently crossed a line and dumped a giant bucket of water on Christopher. Oops. It was the tour guide’s idea, although he wanted me to go for Sean. I picked an easier target – Chris distracted by someone else – but approached him thinking he would probably catch sight of me and duck out of the way. He didn’t.
Evening came, and we set up a bonfire, which brought me back to weekend nights at Wheaton (I kind of miss it…). Sean had gone overboard and bought us all about four nine-packs of beer and a bottle of bai jiu (rice liquor). Still, I enjoyed a couple bottles and roasted some marshmallows for everyone, mostly trading them in for more chocolate. Slept in the tent, and then got up for the camel ride back to civilization.
We took a night train to Lanzhou, and then a bus ride to Xiahe, which is, for the most part, a Tibetan community. We went to a monastery a little ways outside of Xiahe, where the others played basketball with some monks. Then we went to a small Tibetan town and wandered around a bit. I ended up at a school with Malcolm and let the kids play with my camera, dig through my bag, and flip through my sketchbook.
(I can't take credit for this photo - one of the kids took it)
Back in Xiahe, we also went for hike up one of the hills, passing a sky burial site along the way, and visited a living Buddha at Labrang monastery. The living Buddha blessed each of us (a light tap on the head with what look like a wooden object wrapped in cloth). He was just a boy, about nine years old I think. The others weren’t very fond of this experience, questioning why such a young boy should have so much importance in the Buddhist community. It’s like everyone is getting tricked, they said. None of the other students are religious at all, and I am not either. However, I still feel the need to defend religion to them, because religion is not really (just) about beliefs to me. It’s about people; what religion means to others, how it affects their daily lives, etc. I may not accept religious beliefs on a personal level, but that does not mean I think other people are stupid for having those beliefs. Besides, I think religion has everyday purposes that extend beyond beliefs concerning salvation or the afterlife or whether some nine year old has the authority to affect your spiritual wellbeing. Religion gets intermixed with so many other aspects of life.
One of our last activities was a visit to a small Tibetan community close to Xiahe. Our bus got stuck in a small ditch right by the town, and there were many humorous (and possibly dangerous) efforts to dig it out. We had a dinner of tsampa, noodles, and tea with yak butter and sugar. We also took a short ride on some scraggly Tibetan horses. My horse was possibly the laziest horse ever. That or I’ve completely lost any riding skills I might have previously possessed. I tried everything I could to make that horse just trot a little – I squeezed, kicked, clicked my tongue, cursed, imitated the Tibetan words I overheard, and gave my horse a really long, well thought out pep talk – but, alas, nothing.
Afterwards, we took the bus back to Lanzhou, from which we took a night train back to Xi’an. It’s been good being back here. I have access to laundry, a regularly hot shower, a bed. Life is good. And I missed Xie Miao so much! It’s good to have her back. I played some volleyball today, and got Western food at the Village. Classes start again on Monday, although I have a wedding to go to tomorrow. Oh boy, is that going to be an experience.
Also, I've added a few links to the box on the top right. It's Christoper and Joey T's blog links. Joe's last post is particularly hilarious.
(Stop on the way to the Lake)We hiked around the lake, which took at least a good three hours…I think. Honestly, I don’t remember that well. It was long. And cold. And windy. The views were really nice though. We walked across the ice at some point, which was kind of cool but also a little nerve wracking for me.
That night we slept in a yurt, which was really cold at first but I managed to warm up after a while. I think I’ve become altogether too used to uncomfortable sleeping conditions and now I can pretty much sleep anywhere, anytime, through anything…except snoring. And lo and behold, that night someone snored all night. Ah, well. It happens.
I woke up pretty early the next morning, before any of the others. Crystal joined me after a few minutes and we took photos as the sun rose over the mountains.
On the way back to Kashgar, we stopped near a few Uyghur homes and the others bought some trinkets from them (I think little goats made out of bone were the most popular item). I took a few photos of the kids and one of the adults who, unlike most strangers I’ve met, was not very camera shy.
Back in Kashgar, we wandered through the Old Town. There were mosques everywhere, women in veils, dusty streets – I felt like I was in the Middle East, not China. Although there were Han Chinese around, I mostly heard Uyghur being spoken around the city. Kashgar (or even the rest of Xinjiang for that matter) was not “Chinese” at all to me. I felt like I was in a different country (which was also often the case in Yunnan).
Speaking of minorities (and religion), we visited a mosque with an interesting written introduction on display:
And, as always, we managed to attract a huge group of staring and giggling children:
Patrick, Joey T, and I also wandered over to the giant ferris wheel we’d spotted earlier. It was empty and very old looking, but running and only 10 kuai. So we went on. It did not actually stop. We just had to jump on real quick. I had a few brief seconds of terror as it rose to the peak and creaked like everything was going to fall apart, but we survived. Amusement parks in China? No big.
Next we took a plane to Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang and not particularly interesting. From there, we took a night train to Dunhuang, which is in Gansu Province. We visited the Mogao Grottoes, which were interesting enough, but the really cool part of this trip was going into the desert. We rode camels to our campsite and then climbed a massive sand dune. I honestly did not know if I could make it to the top. The others slowly drew ahead of me, except for Darren, who turned back, and Joey Tex, who sat and contemplated for a long time whether or not he should continue. I kept going, telling myself, “only a bit further, a few more feet maybe”. Every footstep I took, I slipped back at least half the distance. I was on my hands and feet, just crawling forward. And, suddenly, without even realizing it, I was at the top. The others were cheering a few meters to my left and I just collapsed, stretching out on the ridge of the dune. Joe caught up a little while after me. Sean, who had been among the first to get to the top, pulled out a beer from his backpack and we all shared a victory sip. I started heading down a little while later, although a lot of the others decided to stay put for the sunset. Sean was all set; not paying attention to what he had been lugging around in his backpack, he ended up bringing not only a bottle of beer, but his ipod, textbook, jump rope, and a case of ground coffee.
I had been a little wary of going down the dune, but it ended up being so easy and fun. I literally just leaped and bounded all the way down. When we reached the bottom of the dune, however, Darren and the tour guide ambushed us with water guns. As the others started making their way down, we filled up our waters guns in preparation. Sean came first, and we got him pretty good. However, Christopher was by far our best target. He came running down, all excited. Crystal and I came running towards him, our guns hidden behind our backs, and a hand waving out as if to high-five him. Then out came the guns and poor Chris just ended up crashing to the ground. Joey T’s entrance was pretty entertaining as well. He was wearing his cowboy hat, jacket waving in the wind, torn pants, and an air soft gun in one hand, walking slowly and confidently towards us like a cowboy getting ready for a show down.
Then all hell broke lose and we just had a massive water gun / air soft gun battle, which ended when I might have accidently crossed a line and dumped a giant bucket of water on Christopher. Oops. It was the tour guide’s idea, although he wanted me to go for Sean. I picked an easier target – Chris distracted by someone else – but approached him thinking he would probably catch sight of me and duck out of the way. He didn’t.
Evening came, and we set up a bonfire, which brought me back to weekend nights at Wheaton (I kind of miss it…). Sean had gone overboard and bought us all about four nine-packs of beer and a bottle of bai jiu (rice liquor). Still, I enjoyed a couple bottles and roasted some marshmallows for everyone, mostly trading them in for more chocolate. Slept in the tent, and then got up for the camel ride back to civilization.
We took a night train to Lanzhou, and then a bus ride to Xiahe, which is, for the most part, a Tibetan community. We went to a monastery a little ways outside of Xiahe, where the others played basketball with some monks. Then we went to a small Tibetan town and wandered around a bit. I ended up at a school with Malcolm and let the kids play with my camera, dig through my bag, and flip through my sketchbook.
(I can't take credit for this photo - one of the kids took it)Back in Xiahe, we also went for hike up one of the hills, passing a sky burial site along the way, and visited a living Buddha at Labrang monastery. The living Buddha blessed each of us (a light tap on the head with what look like a wooden object wrapped in cloth). He was just a boy, about nine years old I think. The others weren’t very fond of this experience, questioning why such a young boy should have so much importance in the Buddhist community. It’s like everyone is getting tricked, they said. None of the other students are religious at all, and I am not either. However, I still feel the need to defend religion to them, because religion is not really (just) about beliefs to me. It’s about people; what religion means to others, how it affects their daily lives, etc. I may not accept religious beliefs on a personal level, but that does not mean I think other people are stupid for having those beliefs. Besides, I think religion has everyday purposes that extend beyond beliefs concerning salvation or the afterlife or whether some nine year old has the authority to affect your spiritual wellbeing. Religion gets intermixed with so many other aspects of life.
One of our last activities was a visit to a small Tibetan community close to Xiahe. Our bus got stuck in a small ditch right by the town, and there were many humorous (and possibly dangerous) efforts to dig it out. We had a dinner of tsampa, noodles, and tea with yak butter and sugar. We also took a short ride on some scraggly Tibetan horses. My horse was possibly the laziest horse ever. That or I’ve completely lost any riding skills I might have previously possessed. I tried everything I could to make that horse just trot a little – I squeezed, kicked, clicked my tongue, cursed, imitated the Tibetan words I overheard, and gave my horse a really long, well thought out pep talk – but, alas, nothing.
Afterwards, we took the bus back to Lanzhou, from which we took a night train back to Xi’an. It’s been good being back here. I have access to laundry, a regularly hot shower, a bed. Life is good. And I missed Xie Miao so much! It’s good to have her back. I played some volleyball today, and got Western food at the Village. Classes start again on Monday, although I have a wedding to go to tomorrow. Oh boy, is that going to be an experience.
Also, I've added a few links to the box on the top right. It's Christoper and Joey T's blog links. Joe's last post is particularly hilarious.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Catching Up on the Last Few Weeks
So, I’ve been unable to update for a while. My proxy stopped working a couple of weeks ago and now it’s back and running, but very, very slow. I can rarely actually get to blogspot, let alone post an update. So postings might be a little less frequent from now on.
Anyways, a lot has happened in the last few weeks. I volunteered a while ago at an orphanage, called the Starfish Foster Home. Unfortunately, the orphanage is not very close to Shaanxi Normal University, so I have not returned since, although I really hope to go back. I was really amazed by the perseverance and patience of the woman running the orphanage. She’s had to face so many difficulties and challenges running the orphanage and yet she’s kept it up for several years now. In fact, when we visited, we found out a baby had died that morning, which she was obviously very upset about and yet had managed to get through the day, taking care of all the other babies (most of whom had to go the hospital that day because of an outbreak of measles). If anyone wants to know more about the orphanage or make donations, the website is www.thestarfishfosterhome.org and they have a blog at chinesestarfish.blogspot.com.
On a much lighter note, I was invited to go to a traditional Chinese wedding. One of the other students, Patrick, has a friend here who’s getting married. He invited us all to attend his wedding. However, this invitation extends to not actually just going to the wedding…we each have to perform something. I’m signed down for singing and dancing. Not sure how that’s going to happen. Hope it involves just doing some background singing for our little ‘band’ of sorts which tends to be Malcolm on guitar, Joe on drums, Sean singing away…and the rest of us just kind of tapping our feet or messing around (very badly) on the various instruments we have accumulated (ukuleles, harmonica). I also have to help greet guests, which the intended couple told me was one of the most difficult tasks at the wedding. Ahhh, okay. But you know what? I get to wear a qipao! AKA cheongsam. It’s a traditional Chinese dress, and I’ve always wanted to wear one. We’re only renting, so I won’t be able to keep it, but I’m still very excited.
Also, last week, we had a track meet of sorts. A lot of the international students (us + a guy from Colombia, the Australians, the Canadians, and an few others) and some of the Chinese students competed together. I did not do any running, but I did the three-legged race with Xie Miao. We sucked, but still managed not to fall over, which is more than I can say for some of the others. And I did the weird train thing with the others. I’m not really sure how to describe it, but I won a toothbrush. Yayyy.
Lastly, my friend DT has been working on his website and I wanted to share it, in case anyone wants a look. The website is www.tibetanytour.com. Check it out, if you’re interested in Tibet.
Anyways, a lot has happened in the last few weeks. I volunteered a while ago at an orphanage, called the Starfish Foster Home. Unfortunately, the orphanage is not very close to Shaanxi Normal University, so I have not returned since, although I really hope to go back. I was really amazed by the perseverance and patience of the woman running the orphanage. She’s had to face so many difficulties and challenges running the orphanage and yet she’s kept it up for several years now. In fact, when we visited, we found out a baby had died that morning, which she was obviously very upset about and yet had managed to get through the day, taking care of all the other babies (most of whom had to go the hospital that day because of an outbreak of measles). If anyone wants to know more about the orphanage or make donations, the website is www.thestarfishfosterhome.org and they have a blog at chinesestarfish.blogspot.com.
On a much lighter note, I was invited to go to a traditional Chinese wedding. One of the other students, Patrick, has a friend here who’s getting married. He invited us all to attend his wedding. However, this invitation extends to not actually just going to the wedding…we each have to perform something. I’m signed down for singing and dancing. Not sure how that’s going to happen. Hope it involves just doing some background singing for our little ‘band’ of sorts which tends to be Malcolm on guitar, Joe on drums, Sean singing away…and the rest of us just kind of tapping our feet or messing around (very badly) on the various instruments we have accumulated (ukuleles, harmonica). I also have to help greet guests, which the intended couple told me was one of the most difficult tasks at the wedding. Ahhh, okay. But you know what? I get to wear a qipao! AKA cheongsam. It’s a traditional Chinese dress, and I’ve always wanted to wear one. We’re only renting, so I won’t be able to keep it, but I’m still very excited.
Also, last week, we had a track meet of sorts. A lot of the international students (us + a guy from Colombia, the Australians, the Canadians, and an few others) and some of the Chinese students competed together. I did not do any running, but I did the three-legged race with Xie Miao. We sucked, but still managed not to fall over, which is more than I can say for some of the others. And I did the weird train thing with the others. I’m not really sure how to describe it, but I won a toothbrush. Yayyy.
Lastly, my friend DT has been working on his website and I wanted to share it, in case anyone wants a look. The website is www.tibetanytour.com. Check it out, if you’re interested in Tibet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)