Wedding Shots

Here's the link for an album of pictures from the wedding. You know the deal. Enjoy!

A Traditional Chinese Wedding!

A Traditional Wedding

A few years ago I watched a show on HGTV about a western couple who paired up with an Indian-American couple to plan a traditional Indian wedding. The Indian-American couple had recently got married themselves, so they were able to walk the American couple through the wedding process. They helped them pick out saris, get the bride’s hands hennaed, and plan the procession. At the time I thought the idea was kind of cool, but something that I would never do.

This past weekend I attended a traditional Chinese wedding in Zhuzhou. A friend of a friend’s cousin was getting married and some how the invitation got passed down the line to me. I had close to no idea what I was getting myself into when I went to Shen Long Park on Saturday morning at 8:00 am to meet Katie, our Chinese friend.

In typical Chinese fashion, we all waited along side the road for the wedding procession to appear. The group was made up of a band of traditional Chinese instruments, the groom on a horse, and a group of men carrying a sedan chair. Everyone was dressed in red and yellow clothing. After taking a number of pictures, we joined the procession and walked to the bride’s house to pick her up. No Chinese event is complete without fireworks, so a number were set off. At this point the groom entered the bride’s house to meet her for the “first time”. (Although this was a traditional wedding ceremony, courtship and engagement, were not. Apparently the couple had been dating for several years.) The groom led the bride out of the house with a red rope and she got into her sedan chair. We then processed with the bride and groom to the groom’s family’s house.

Once we got to the second home, the bride and groom went into the house, while the guests waited in front. There was a drum show and then a dragon dancing show for the guests to enjoy while the couple and a few close family members changed their clothes and took a rest in the house.

At some point after this, Katie told us that the wedding was over. It was incredibly interesting to watching this ancient ceremony take place. There was no exchanging of rings or wedding vows. The act of picking up the bride at her house and transporting her to her new home served the same purpose that the ring and I dos do in western weddings.

Years ago, when I watched that show on HGTV, I thought that I would never want to have a traditional wedding from another culture that my husband and I don’t belong to. I thought about all the western couple was giving up; the white dress, the church ceremony, the white cake. After going to this Chinese wedding, the idea seems a lot more interesting. I guess I’ve just started to think about all the cool things you gain; in site into another culture, an amazing story, the ability to open your guest’s eyes to something new. It could be something I want to look into when it’s my turn to get married. I just need to find a husband first.

The Whore of the Orient and The Most Beautiful City in the World

For those of you who are visual people, here are a few pictures of my recent trip to Shanghai and Suzhou. Enjoy!

Shanghai!
Suzhou!

On My Own

Before coming to China I wouldn’t have called myself independent. I know, you might be thinking, “You went to China alone, that’s pretty independent”. But truth be told, I preferred doing things with friends to doing them alone. If someone was going to the supermarket, I might have just gone along to spend time with another person.

Living in China on my own hasn’t done much to support this habit. Although I do have a site mate who lives four floors below me, I live alone. I do my grocery shopping alone, I take the bus alone, and I cook by myself for myself. And beginning last weekend, I also travel alone. Though I knew that I would inevitably become more independent during my time in China, I would never have guessed that I would take such a step.

I had hoped to be able to travel to Shanghai this year; a year which is quickly coming to a close. Due to the odd scheduling of midterms this semester, Kelly and I had different days off and so could not travel together. After taking a quick glance at my calendar, I realized that I could either go to Shanghai while my students were taking the midterms by myself or not go at all. I thought about it for a few hours and decided that “The Paris of the East” was a good city for my first solo trip, so I went.

Thanks to the miracle of Facebook, I sent a message to my Chinese teacher, Beibei, who recently moved to Shanghai. I told her that I would be coming and that I hoped she would have time to meet with me. I hoped that she would be interested in grabbing lunch one day, but she had something entirely different in mind. Beibei and her boyfriend, Steve, were so kind as to put their entire weekend on hold to show me their new city. They took me to the Bund, the French Concession, Old Town, and the Shanghai Museum. Before leaving for the trip I was a little worried that I would get bored of myself after spending four days alone. Thanks to Beibei and her friends, I didn’t have time to find out if my fears were valid. We spent 4 great days together.

While writing this entry I’ve begun wonder if this trip should even counts as my premier solo travel experience. I spent so much time with my friends in Shanghai that I was barely “solo” the entire time. I’m going it to leave you to make up your own mind, but I think I’m going to count it. People who have traveled with me know that the worst part of traveling together happens before we even leave. I get nervous about everything and anything. I went through that whole process alone, thinking I would be traveling alone. I bore all the fears I had about being by myself, which for me is the most awful part.

So, no, I don’t think that I would like to travel around Europe for two months alone like other people I know, but I can travel to an unfamiliar, Chinese city by myself with far less fears than I have imagined having. Take that independence!

My favorite hero is...

The student seem to really enjoy handing in their work on the smallest paper they can find. While I only received one assignment on legal sized paper, I received plenty more on pieces of paper just as small as this blue one.

The list of favorite heroes continues with these gems:

My favorite hero is Bill Gates. He is from USA. He has a golden hair. He is smart. He is my favorite hero, because is the Microsoft CEO.

My favorite hero is Hu Jintao. He is kindly. He is friendly. He is my favorite because he love Chinese people.

My favorite hero is Zhou Enlai. He is from China. He is tall. He is kind. He is my favorite hero, because he is like country very much.

My favorite hero is Aishily. She is very lovely. She has golden long hair. She is a good teacher. She is my favorite hero, because she is kind. I love her!

And the kicker and my personal favorite…

My favorite is Martin.Luther.King because he is very great! He always help others. He is the first president of U.S.A. whose, skin is in black.

Happy National Karaoke Week!

Celebrated during the last week of April, National Karaoke Week is a time to let lose and belt out your favorite songs.

Every week is National Karaoke Week in China. Karaoke, or KTV as it's called, is a rather popular past time, but unlike karaoke in the US, KTV is done at businesses set up specifically for this purpose. There must be hundreds of KTV places in Zhuzhou alone. Upon arrival at a KTV club each party is ushered into their own private KTV room, which is outfitted with two mics, a plasma screen TV, several couches and a computer from which you select the songs. Luckily for us, there are many establishments that have a significant number of English language songs from which my friends and I can choose.

As my Facebook “say something” box can attest to, I love KTV, no matter which friends I go with. The experience, however, is very different depending on who is in the group. The Chinese place the focus of the KTV on the quality of their singing. They like to lean back on the couches and simply sing the songs as beautifully as possible. On the other hand, in my experience, Westerns tend to believe that their performance is most important. Vocal quality, therefore, often suffers. We stand in the center of the room and put on quite a show. In our opinion, the couches should only used for holding our bags and coats and maybe resting between songs. This makes for a very interesting time when a KTV room contains “mixed company.” The Chinese think the Westerners are crazy and the Westerners think the Chinese are too placid. No matter though, a fun time is always had by all.

When I leave China, KTV is definitely something I’m going to miss. I may just have to invest in a karaoke machine and host KTV parties in my own home. How else am I going to be able to celebrate National Karaoke Week?

When was the last time you wore 9 shirts at once?

In the last post I mentioned that the weather has really warmed up over the past few weeks, which has been a humongous blessing. It’s really hard to describe the effect the temperature had on my life here. It was all pervasive and every present. I was cold a majority of the winter and therefore wore an obscene amount of clothing. (Disclaimer: I think it’s safe to bet that I wore more articles of clothing at one time than my western friends living in Hunan. I think they would say that I took layering to an extreme. While it is mildly embarrassing, I’m not going to apologize for trying to be as warm as possible.)

In order for you to get a better idea of the volume of clothes I’m talking about, I created the following visual image for you.

The pile on the left contains items that I wore to bed on one night during the deepest of winter. The pile includes: 2 sweatshirts, 3 long-underwear shirts, 2 long-sleeved shirts, 1 cami, 1 tee-shirt, 2 pairs of long-underwear pants, 2 pairs of pajama pants (though one only served as a way to keep the other from sticking to the sheets and was not meant for warmth), and 3 pairs of socks. The other item in the pile is my hot water bag. This cloth and rubber bag contains some sort of gel that remains hot after it is warmed by plugging it into an electrical outlet for ten minutes or so. I would warm it up and throw it under the covers before I got into bed to pre-heat the bed.

The pile on the right contains items I wear to bed now and is much easier to explain. It includes a tee-shirt and a pair of pajama pants.

Needless to say I’m happy to say that the weather has warmed up and I no longer feel the need to look like a marshmallow. Thank God for the spring!