Chinese Wedding (婚姻)

On Saturday, I had the privilege of accompanying my friend, Jenny, to a colleague's wedding. It was a pretty dreary morning, rainy and cold, but I was excited to see a Chinese wedding. The wedding started at 11:18Am; I am assuming ending in '8' because this is considered a lucky number, as in Chinese, 八 (eight), sounds like 发（fa), which means prosperity.



Jenny and I strolled up to the front of a restaurant, with our umbrellas in hand, waiting for the arrival of the lucky couple. There was a stand with firecrackers dangling from the top bar and a crowd of anxious wedding attendees armed with tubes filled of confetti.

The doorman lit off the firecrackers and we were all cheering for the couple as they stepped out of the car. The shiny confetti shot all over the happy couple and drifted on the wind towards us, covering us. Then all of a sudden, Jenny exclaimed, "ai! those are not my friends!". We were waiting for the wrong wedding party!

We quickly exited to the restaurant half a block down, finding 'our' lucky bride and groom. It was a good thing that we went to the wrong wedding because we had missed the grand, noisy entrance of our couple.

This wedding, like many other Chinese weddings according to Jenny, seemed pretty low key to me. There was an MC who ran the show and introduced the bride and groom, said some nice things about them, like how pretty the bride was and how lucky the groom was. There was a quick ceremony, officiated by some woman, and then some speeches by the parents and their bosses. Then, instead of a wedding procession, there was a dizzingly fast marching of food to our tables.



The wedding banquet was great and while did not consist of many options for the ovo-lacto-pesco-tarian, I was quite stuffed upon exiting the wedding which ended in a record short time, at 12:30. I think its the shortest wedding I've ever been to in my life.

Red Leaves Valley

On Saturday, Jenny, Matt, Kevin and I trekked to Jiaohe, which is about 1 1/2 northeast of here to check out the Red Leaves Valley. Unfortunately, we arrived a little bit too late, umm, like by 2 weeks. All of the leaves had hit the ground. On top of that it was SO cold! Nevertheless, we made the best of it and had a great walk. We managed to avoid the 50 kuai entrance fee, which was absurd since there were no red leaves to speak of and that barely anyone was visiting the valley. I'm a wimp when it comes to being an icicle, so I kind of complained alot, but in a good way. The pictures are courtesy of Matt's camera, as my hands were frozen and couldn't be bothered to push a button.


I have to admit that I didn't believe people when they told me that winters here would be bitterly cold. Now, I have seen the light: IT'S COLD! (and we're only in October!) I heard from Jenny that the heat would be turned on the 25th, so I'm excited, but I can't complain. The sun warms up my room (when it's not being obscured by clouds), and is decently warmer than Kevin's room across the hall.

Anyhoo, I start my legal English course tomorrow and am kind of nervous about it. I think it'll be an interesting class and I'm glad to be teaching another course, especially since its with undergrads. Hopefully, my seniors won't be to ill with senioritis.

Chopstick Faux Pas

Oh my! I've had a penchant for leaving my chopsticks upright in my dish, which is a no-no here. By leaving them sticking up in my food, I am imitating the scene of incense burning at a funeral, which does not bode well for my meal-mates. Kevin always points out whenever I do this, stating, "James has a death wish for all of us". I can't help myself; it's more convenient to rest them in my food, but then again, I enjoy my friends' company. For more big travel no-no's, check out this article.

Speaking of chopsticks, the other night, the four Jilin guys and my friend, Jenny, were out at a dumpling (jiao zi) restaurant, which by the way, is our most favorite food. As the steaming dumplings were being placed on our table, amidst the pre-packaged dinnerware (showing that everything has been sterilized), beer, and condiments consisting of garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, and hot sauce, each of us were prepping our little area for the onslaught of dumplings. We've all gotten into the habit of mixing Chinese and English, Chinglish (analogous to Spanglish). Thus, I wanted to say, "Where are my chopsticks?" so I said, "wo de kuzi zai nar?". Everyone gave me a funny look, and I realized that I said, "Where are my pants?". I figured if I didn't know where those were, I shouldn't be in public.