Saturday, March 05, 2005
Randoms, Part ?
A dinner was held the other night in my honor. A fancy place outside of town with many co-teachers. Fun time. They ordered very well and got almost no meat (so that we could eat). These folks have at least begun to accept our way of thinking that yes, chicken is meat. And no, only 'a little meat' is not the same as meatless.
I sat next to an old boss, and the guy cracked me up. Nice guy, good english and I had a good time talking to him despite my knowledge of his slight stalkerish past. He kicked off the toasts and insisted that I need to drink a lot because I am "a big strong American". I laughed at him until he insisted on Baijiu (liquid lobotomy). A quick wrasslin' match convinced him that none was needed.
Toasts are ways of showing respect and all that jazz, and at dinners like this (or any dinner, really) toasts are an almost constant distraction from the food. Thank god, they got red wine instead of Baijiu. Every man at the table not only toasted me (5 of them), but insisted on 'bottom's up'. Which means you drink the entire glass. A very high compliment and insulting if you don't finish your drink. A couple women also toasted, but none of that BU crap. Don't worry, I got them all back later. Sis and I started stopping the ever-present waitress from completely refilling our glasses, and when I saw that all but the 2 of us had full glasses, I made another toast. And yes, bottom's up. Good fun
Then of course the karaoke got fired up, and no one could fathom how I could not want to sing! And not dance either. I had to explain that I almost never dance, which is a source of great consternation with my girlfriend. No one believed me, and they literally grabbed my arms and tried to drag me. Didn't work of course because even in my emaciated state I still outweight the lot of them.
The Chinese version of dance is a riot. For once the music was good-a lot of Russian tunes (they have the best music!), and everyone (but me) was out on the dance floor. The thing is, their upper bodies flail all over (especially their heads) but their feet don't move, at all! Prevents collisions and fights, I suppose. I watched the proceedings enjoying myself except the 437 times one of the guys grabbed my arm to pull me out to dance. Even invited me to dance, and was saddened that I said no. Apparently my sis didn't fill them in on how amazingly stubborn I am.
Fun night.
Had green pea ice cream yesterday; the fave flavor in these parts. Was pretty good, actually.
I sat next to an old boss, and the guy cracked me up. Nice guy, good english and I had a good time talking to him despite my knowledge of his slight stalkerish past. He kicked off the toasts and insisted that I need to drink a lot because I am "a big strong American". I laughed at him until he insisted on Baijiu (liquid lobotomy). A quick wrasslin' match convinced him that none was needed.
Toasts are ways of showing respect and all that jazz, and at dinners like this (or any dinner, really) toasts are an almost constant distraction from the food. Thank god, they got red wine instead of Baijiu. Every man at the table not only toasted me (5 of them), but insisted on 'bottom's up'. Which means you drink the entire glass. A very high compliment and insulting if you don't finish your drink. A couple women also toasted, but none of that BU crap. Don't worry, I got them all back later. Sis and I started stopping the ever-present waitress from completely refilling our glasses, and when I saw that all but the 2 of us had full glasses, I made another toast. And yes, bottom's up. Good fun
Then of course the karaoke got fired up, and no one could fathom how I could not want to sing! And not dance either. I had to explain that I almost never dance, which is a source of great consternation with my girlfriend. No one believed me, and they literally grabbed my arms and tried to drag me. Didn't work of course because even in my emaciated state I still outweight the lot of them.
The Chinese version of dance is a riot. For once the music was good-a lot of Russian tunes (they have the best music!), and everyone (but me) was out on the dance floor. The thing is, their upper bodies flail all over (especially their heads) but their feet don't move, at all! Prevents collisions and fights, I suppose. I watched the proceedings enjoying myself except the 437 times one of the guys grabbed my arm to pull me out to dance. Even invited me to dance, and was saddened that I said no. Apparently my sis didn't fill them in on how amazingly stubborn I am.
Fun night.
Had green pea ice cream yesterday; the fave flavor in these parts. Was pretty good, actually.
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