My First Chinese Wedding!

Among other things this weekend, I had the privilege to attend my first Chinese wedding! It was fascinating to observe and be a part of the celebration, and a great time to spend with my friend who invited me.

My friend and her father picked me up at 8:00 a.m., and we drove over to the bride's parents' home. The bride was sitting on her bed in the closed room in an off-white wedding dress and no shoes, with lots of close friends and family surrounding her. A few minutes later, the groom came up; he waited while his friends pounded on her door, shouting for his bride to open the door.

They made him slip a hong bao (a red envelope filled with some money) under the door before he could enter, following tradition. When he entered the room, he found her shoes and put them on her feet. The groom officially asked the parents for their daughter's hand in marriage, and they consented and made some vows to their almost-son-in-law. After taking family pictures, we caravaned over to the couple's new home and spent a few minutes there, taking more pictures. At each stage of the trip, whether we were leaving or entering a new place, a whole string of firecrackers were lit, apparently to get others' attention, but mostly because of Chinese tradition.

(The groom putting the bride's shoes on her feet)

the firecracker remnants

the couple's new home...picture taking time in the master bedroom! I thought that was different, but apparently nobody else did!

the wedding procession - notice the camera man in the left lane

After this, the 300 or so of us went to a fancy hotel restaurant for the reception, where the gifts were exchanged (the bride received a ring, and gave a watch to her new husband), the vows made, and the kiss allowed while the onlookers counted down from 10 seconds. A meal was served with around 20 different dishes, including a black chicken, fish scales, and boiled pumpkin. Apparently weddings are a time for lots of alcohol consumption, so people were drinking and toasting quite a bit with their friends, which may explain some of the next part... :)

The emcee took quite a liking to me as the token foreigner, and really wanted me to dance on the stage while people were eating their dinner. The meal's entertainment turned out to be a sort of talent show, so people sang or danced on stage throughout the meal. I informed my extremely persistent new friend that I couldn't dance to Chinese music (or at all, for that matter!), and he assured me that it was okay. A few minutes later, however, he told me and my friend to go back to the DJ and see if there was any American music. I could see that I would at least have to go look, knowing that most likely they wouldn't have any, and hoping with all my heart that they didn't. I was relieved to find that they didn't, and informed him of my findings the next time he approached me. He again told me that it was okay, no problem. Later, in the middle of his own performance, he approached me again and asked if I would dance on stage to his singing. No, I'm sorry, I told him, for about the 47th time, I can't and won't dance today. He left and I thought to myself, he finally understands that I don't want to dance to Chinese music in front of an audience of 300 people. I continued eating my meal, listening to the afternoon's entertainment, each person announced by this relentless man.

I listened as much as I could to his speaking, trying to understand and expand my language. I couldn't understand everything, but I picked up enough to get the gist of what he was saying. As I listening at one point, he said something to the effect of, "Our next performance is going to be a dance from our guest from AMEERRICAA!" Everybody turned towards me, the only blond haired girl in the audience, and cheered; there was now no escape. They kept applauding, and I was dragged up to the stage. I reluctantly took the microphone because I preferred singing over dancing (along with most of the other performers). I sang a verse to the first song that came to my mind, a Switchfoot song, which, by the way, was completely different than anything they sang. My Chinese friend that brought me came up close to the stage to watch. Afterwards, the MC clapped along with the rest of the audience, and proceeded to tell them I was now going to dance!

MC and me before the reception began...little did I know what he was planning!

I looked at him, shocked that he was still trying to get me to dance! I knew my friend didn't want to dance either, so I told her English that I would dance if she did, thinking that she would be able to convince this man that neither of us wished to dance. Instead, she told me she would perform after me. That wasn't enough for me, though. The MC stood between us, trying to understand, asking her what I was saying. The audience stood watching us, silent, waiting for a decision. Back and forth we went for a minute or two, the MC asking my friend what I was saying. Finally, I realized, again, that there was no escape, so I turned to him and told him in Chinese that we were going to dance together! A huge grin broke out on his face, and thrilled, turned to the wedding participants, announced the plan. They cheered loudly as I dragged my friend up on stage, and we danced together to his beat in the background. Afterwards, we quickly returned to our seats to cheering in the background and enjoyed the rest of our meal.

When I was growing up, my mom always told us, "If you're going to laugh later, you might as well laugh now." There was a lot of laughing going on last Saturday!

The Top Five

Instead of writing about something completely different that happened to me this week, this post has my Top Five's. These choices are current, not overall, choices. So for example, the things that are my favorite things this week might be replaced by new favorite things next week. (They aren't in any particular order, either.)

China Favorites
-adventure
-hanging out with Chinese friends
-riding my bike around the city

-local food

- still being a student

(Here's my Panda! Fully equipped: the basket, the bell, the blue)

Language Favorites
- no verb tenses
-no difference between singular and plural nouns
-pronouns are the same whether before or after the verb (there’s no difference between the word for “I” and the word for “me”)
-sometimes you don’t need the verb “to be”…you can just say the sentence without it, and it’s perfect grammar
-feeling successful in speaking Mandarin

Things I miss most
-Family and friends
-The smell of the fall season
-CoffeeHouse in Lincoln
-Barbecue and Mexican food
-Warm feet

Things I’m thankful for
-Good friends here
-Skype
-Books
-Adventure
-Patient people in communication

Least Favorites
-honking
-very sensitive car/motorcycle alarms
-riding the bus when it's packed
-being illiterate
-trying to find ingredients for western food

Thinking about literacy motivated me to learn more about it here in China. According to good old wikipedia, literacy is defined as recognizing 2,000 characters for workers (1,500 for farmers), but an educated person can read, on average, 6-7,000 characters. Chinese speakers use the left and right side of the brain, according to some U.K. research by Wellcome Trust, while English speakers only use the left side of their brain. The World Factbook states that in 2000, the literacy rate was 90.9% overall, which I think is fairly impressive, after my limited experience studying them! While I'm definitely still illiterate here, it is exciting when I recognize a couple characters here and there when I'm out and about.

some characters etched in stone

brr

When the bell rang at the end of the school day yesterday, I walked out of the classroom and down the hall to the lobby area, where I park my bike with the others. After putting on my bike poncho (it covers not only my body, but the handle bars of my bike as well, so that my arms don’t even get wet in the chilly rain on the way home), I wheeled my bike out of the building and headed home. In my mind, I was picturing a snug, warm afternoon while listening to the cool rain outside. Oh, that sounded so good, to just curl up with a book and read and take a nice long afternoon nap in the cozy warmth of my little apartment. Arriving at home shattered that mental image, though, as I walked into my home and could see my breath! Two days before, when the same thing happened, I quickly discovered that my air conditioning unit has a heat button, and took advantage of that luxury. I’m not really sure how Chinese people can handle this chill until November 15th, when the heat apparently is turned on all over the country (except below this invisible line, where the heat is never turned on), or if they handle the chill, but I am thankful that I have access to heat!
When I don't have my heat on, I often sit at the end of my bed and fold my comforter over me, just to add another layer to the many I have on already! Although I stay warmer to study, this also happens to be a great napping place, and often the latter option happens as much as the former!

Tianjin

Last week, China celebrated October 1st holiday, which means that we didn't have classes all week. A friend and I took the overnight train to visit some friends in Tianjin for a few days. The train left here on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m, and arrived at 9:00 Sunday morning - 19 hours! I didn't sleep much during the night because it was rather uncomfortable and loud, but during the day, my friend and I started playing UNO. Soon curiosity overcame several people, who asked how to play, and pretty soon half the train car was playing UNO, it seemed, with the other half watching!While there, we had the chance to see the Ancient Culture Street, the Tianhou Palace, Eric Liddel's home, and spend time with friends, which was great! It was fun to see another city, but it made me appreciate this city more. Tianjin had more of a big city feel...bigger streets, more crowds, louder. It was a fun trip, though, and a good break from the routine! I didn't take many pictures, but here are a couple: