Life plods on out here…. You become accustomed to the same strange things happening day in day out and it becomes a sort of ‘normal weirdness’. Everyday we see things that in the west would make you stop and stare, but here, well, it’s just China! In the park we see a woman exercising in bright pink pyjamas, sunglasses and high-heels as if her I-pod blocks out reality from entering her head. In the market a bunch of guys settle to a meal of soaked peanuts and roasted dogs head and stare at us like were odd and from our 6th floor apartment we see the nightly chaos on the road: Bikes on the road, cars on the pavement and in between it all pedestrians scuttle between them trying not to become another road accident statistic! Nothing moves and everything beeps (Until the traffic police come to untangle the unholy chrome behemoth that the traffic has become and things return to ‘almost-normal’).
Some days it’s as if Eris herself has rolled a golden apple across China and we get to sit back and watch as the Chaos unfolds. It’s an anthropologist’s wet dream I tell you!
And then sometimes things happen that are out of the ordinary (I hesitate to use the word unusual after describing the events in the first paragraph!). It was labour day, which, ironically, we celebrated by not working, and a most gracious offer was made by The Fox to visit her parents home. Just for clarity, the Fox is Sophia (or Liu Guo Juan) one of our Chinese colleagues. Now usually, the offers made by Fox are things like ‘Monkey (that’s me!), let me shave your eyebrows!’ or ‘I don’t want to work, you can teach my class tonight’, but this was different… a welcomed offer if you will! Her mother had never met a foreign person before and we were very excited and honoured to be asked back to her home town for a meal.
We travelled on a ‘bank holiday’ in a bus that was filled like a bad caricature of the Mumbai-express. In the baking heat the bus filled to bursting; people clinging everywhere and any notion of personal space long since dispelled. The only relief from the stifling heat came when the driver opened the door – TO LET MORE PEOPLE ON! We eventually made it to ‘feng nan’, one of Tangshan’s districts and were taken to Sophia’s home, a traditional Chinese courtyard house, and met her friends (called sisters and brothers), her cousins (Sometimes called sisters), her aunts (Sometimes called cousins) and her mother (Thankfully referred to as her mother!). We got to meet lots of her relatives, and various members of the local community popped by to have a look at the strange visitors. But it was a very nice experience, and the welcome and food were out of this world! I even got to stroke a dog larger than a sewer rat and see my first Chinese snake!
Excitement over and back at the ranch, we picked up life and carried on teaching. Then a friend of ours, Helen, rang Valmai to ask if we remembered that she’d asked us to dinner this weekend, we did. Unfortunately her family had a wedding to attend that day, but rather than cancel – they invited us! Can you imagine that happening in the west? Not only do you bring extra guests to a wedding dinner uninvited, but they are strange looking (to most the party) and speak very dubious Chinese!
We were welcomed in by a very excitable Chinese man who seated us as guests right in front of the speaker systems – all good until you know a little about the Chinese notion (or lack thereof) of volume control! The speaker system blasted out the compares voice at a mind buggering volume – jokes I couldn’t hear through the pain in my ears but felt through the vibrations in my bones as it rattled my teeth loose! On the table with us were mostly very old men, their hearing dulled by time and even they kept their ears covered during the speech!
Eventually we were moved to a table further back and nearer our friend’s family. The table was loaded with piles of food! dishes were balanced on top of others! Half empty plates were scraped together so more food could be brought! And of course, there were the ubiquitous ‘Ganbei’s’ (Bottoms up/toasts) as members of the bride and grooms family came about and raised toasts to people. A happy, noisy orgy of food and drink. And then, as soon as it started, it seemed to stop? People got up, quietly said goodbyes, emptied food into bags to take home, and dispersed! We, used to western weddings that are all day affairs, were a little puzzled, but apparently a wedding dinner is a wedding dinner! On the way out we actually got called over to have pictures with the bride and groom too, and that was our first Chinese wedding.
Take care all and I will update you once normality resumes (If it ever does).
|
