Beijing

We just got back today from our four-day trip to Beijing, and it was so fun! Even though it was FREEZING, Beijing had so many cool things to see, and the famous Beijing accent was as strong as we had anticipated. 我儿非常儿喜欢儿北京儿! :)

Our train left Nanjing around midnight on Friday, and we arrived in Beijing at 10:30 the next morning. I was peacefully sleeping when our program director woke me up at 9 a.m. saying, “Wake up sleepy head.” I opened my eyes and asked, “Oh, are we there yet?” He looked confused and responded, “No. We still have two hours.” Confused? Me too.

After checking into our hotel and eating lunch, we first went to Tiananmen (天安门) Square, which translated means “heaven peace door.” It was kind of an eerie feeling being at a place where there have been so many riots concerning communism and where the government headquarters now stands.


We then went and toured the Forbidden City, the palace where eighteen emperors previously lived. It was huge! In ancient Chinese culture, the number “1000” was reserved only for the gods. Not wanting to offend the gods, the Forbidden City palace was built with only 999 ½ rooms. It is amazing to think that hundreds of years ago, that very place was a bustling (who uses that word?!) city that was the center of one of the world’s most powerful empires. While I was standing there soaking in the beauty of the moment, my thoughts were turned to those things that are most important in life…college basketball starts in a couple of weeks! Come on Tom! Go Hoosiers! :)


Saturday night, our tour bus dropped us off at this massive mall, and we were given the evening to eat dinner and to just look around. Before we got off the bus, our tour guide told us to be careful of any women who might come up to us wanting to learn English. After we finished eating dinner at Yoshinoya (one of my favorite restaurants in Hong Kong!), we walked around the mall looking for t-shirts because Jimmy packed only one! Considering we were roommates and were going to be in Beijing for four days, I fully supported him in buying a couple more shirts. :) I was standing outside of a store eating popcorn (a delicious strawberry, apple, and caramel assortment, from Dairy Queen of all places!) when this well-dressed girl approached me. She asked me if I lived in Beijing, and she told me that she wanted to learn English. I looked at her and told her that 1) I didn’t live in Beijing and 2) there was absolutely no need for her to ever learn any more English! I learned that our tour guide was a wise man. :)

We woke up early Sunday morning and attended church with the Beijing 1st branch. The meeting place was on the fourth floor of this huge hotel, and when we stepped off the elevator you would have thought that we were walking into a church building back home.

It is such a special privilege to be able to freely attend church in China, and the fast and testimony meeting was wonderful. As we were sitting in the chapel, I noticed that it was starting to snow outside. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into! Beijing received its first snow of the season on Sunday, and it snowed all day!

We were all very much unprepared for the weather, and I think it is safe to say that “COLD” became the theme for the day. After church, we continued our touring by riding around “the famous alleys of Beijing” in rickshaws. It doesn’t really sound like a lot of fun, but for some reason it was a blast! We were all wet and freezing, but really—who gets to ride around on a rickshaw during a snowstorm in Beijing?! We couldn’t complain.



Later that afternoon, we went and saw the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven before heading back to the hotel for the evening. I haven’t enjoyed a hot shower that much for a long time!


Monday morning, we got up, ate breakfast, and took a bus two hours to the Great Wall. Of course I had been looking forward to hiking the Great Wall, but the adventures awaiting us were even more than I could have imagined. When we got up to the entrance of the Great Wall, we noticed that there was a huge line of people waiting to start hiking. Because it had snowed so much the previous day, the wall was so icy that people were having trouble getting up the steep parts that didn’t have steps. We weren’t about to let some snow and ice stop us from climbing the Great Wall, so we pushed past everyone and started hiking. When we got to the first hill, I quickly realized why everyone was moving so slowly. It was so steep and covered in ice that everyone was in a line holding on to the wall’s rails slowly pulling themselves up. It reminded me of hiking Half Dome, just without the sweat. :)


The line going up the wall on the right side was so slow that my classmates and I started pulling ourselves up the left side where people were coming down. Grateful for the rest, the people coming down offered their hands and arms to us (except the European lady who yelled at me, “Don’t touch me!”) to help pull us up. About halfway up, I started to slip backwards, and I felt someone behind put their hand on my butt to help push me forward. I chose to be grateful for the man’s “generous offering” rather than to feel awkward. The man was faithful in his “support” (I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it.) until we finally made it to the top of the hill. I thanked him for his help and asked if we could take a picture together (I mean, I didn’t want to forget the man who so willing lent a “helping hand.” Alright, I’m done now.). I’ll just let the pictures explain the rest… :)



We were on the wall for about two hours. It was so windy, but it was so gorgeous! Once we reached the peak we were hiking towards, we decided to turn back so we wouldn’t be late in meeting the group. I took the lead and started walking fast back towards the way we had come up. I started to jog down some of the less steep parts of the wall to save time. We reached one of the steeper peaks, and we saw that there was a long line of people slowly going down the mountain holding on to the side. I didn’t want to waste the time waiting in line, so I began to jog down the peak. About halfway down I realized that the peak was much steeper than I had thought, and I saw that there were two more big drop-offs before the wall leveled out again. I was past the point of no return. I hit a patch of ice about halfway down, and I had no choice but to run faster and faster to keep my legs up with my body’s momentum. The throngs of people began to move out of the way, and people started yelling, “Ohhh. Oooohhhhhh. OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!” I felt like I was running in an icy marathon. With one more drop to go, a woman stepped out in the middle of my path with her arms outstretched. I realized that she was sacrificing her body to stop me. “That is so nice of her.” I didn’t really have time to think, but I did notice that she looked Japanese, so I yelled in English, “No. No. No. I’m okay. I’m okay.” She dodged out of my way at the last minute and I kept sprinting until the wall eventually leveled off enough so that I was able to grab the side and slow my momentum. Everyone turned and stared at me when I finally came to a stop. I didn’t know if I should feel really cool or if I should be completely embarrassed, so I smiled and chose to feel really good about myself. My classmates said that I was a “wild man.”

“Who’s the wild man now?!” Name that movie. Two hints. The film is set in Indiana, and the line is spoken by a law student.





After lunch, we went to the Olympic sites for the afternoon. We even saw the booth where Bob did all of his commentary! I still love that Bob and Bella became such good friends. :)



The bus dropped us off at the silk market that night, so we spent the evening bargaining on everything from fake Nikes, to fake Ralph Lauren Polos, to fake iPods, etc. The salespeople were pretty “physical” at this place (please don’t start singing Olivia Newton John) and more than once did they grab my clothes and attempt to drag me back into their stores. I admit—it was fun. :)


We had a completely free day on Tuesday, so some of my classmates and I decided to treat ourselves to the Hard Rock Café Beijing. I can honestly say that it was the best meal I’ve had since being in China! The BBQ bacon cheeseburger finished off with an apple cobbler was heaven, and the 80s music brought joy to my heart. I even took the liberty to help some of my classmates better appreciate the decade. I mean, shouldn’t everyone know who Debbie Gibson is?! (Only in My Dreams, Shake Your Love, Foolish Beat… No?! Come on people!)



We couldn’t leave before letting our inner-Huey Lewis and the News shine through. :)


We went to another market in the afternoon and then we went to see a Beijing acrobatic group in the early evening. After the acrobat performance, we headed back to the hotel, and by 10 a.m. Wednesday morning our train arrived back in Nanjing.
I had such a great time in Beijing! I feel so lucky that I’ve been able to tour so many neat places with this study abroad. Beijing was the last of our program’s trips, but I am looking forward to spending the next month or so in Nanjing just being able to hang out with the people we’ve met here and focus on improving my language abilities.

I Survived a Chinese Game Show!

Two Sundays ago, two of our classmates announced that they were selected to be participants in a popular Nanjing game show. They said the game show was being filmed the following day and that we were all invited as their “special guests.” I figured that Monday’s FHE would be an activity night. :)

My two roommates, one of our native friends, and I took a taxi across Nanjing and arrived at the filming studio around 6:30 p.m.. The show was supposed to start filming at 7:00 (it didn’t start until 7:45), and we wanted to make sure that we got good seats.

*One of the benefits of being a foreigner in China is that people don’t really question what you do because 1) they just assume that you are confused and 2) they don’t expect that you can speak Chinese.

We didn’t have tickets for the show, but we just walked in the studio and looked for our classmates. We didn’t see them anywhere, but in front of us were about a hundred native college students sitting in the seats for the studio audience. When we walked over to the bleachers, all one hundred pairs of eyes turned and stared at us. There were a couple of seats left, and I ended up sitting front row center. One of the producers came up to me and asked me what I was doing. I told him that our classmates were participants and that they had invited us to watch. We ended up talking for about 15 minutes, exchanged phone numbers, and made plans to do something after we get back from Beijing. See “The Man Date.” :) All the students sitting around me were so fun! They asked me a lot about the NBA and they were particularly interested if I had ever seen a live game. My thoughts flashed back to Uncle Reggie’s last playoff game. Luckily, I was able to wipe away the tears before the cameras came on.


They taught us what we were supposed to chant when one of the contestants lost (“Man Zou Bu Song, Xia Ci Zai Lai!”), passed out whistles and pompoms, and then the filming began.

The host of the show was hilarious! He was short, his hair was spiked straight up, his glasses can only be described as extremely Asian, he was wearing black pants with a white belt, a pink shirt, and a white sports jacket that was glittering with jewels. I concluded that he must be pretty popular when everyone screamed and yelled his name when he came on the stage.


After the host said his opening comments, the curtains opened and a group of girls came out doing something that I assume they considered a dance. I am not really sure because for two reasons my head was down when they were on stage.

1. They were not dressed as modestly as I had expected. I guess Chinese television is more similar to American television than the Chinese government claims.

2. They were completely NOT synchronized in their dance routine. I was embarrassed for them. Dad’s “good thought” came to my mind. :)

After the six contestants introduced themselves, the games began. There were three different games.


For the first game, the two contestants put on fat suits, jumped into a pool of water, and then had to get to the end of an obstacle course and rinse out their suits. Whoever was able to rinse out the most water won.

The second game had both contestants run on a huge treadmill that gradually got faster. They both had buckets, and the goal of the game was to catch the most fruit and vegetables falling from the buckets above the treadmill. An onion flew all the way over to my seat. For some reason, I felt cool.

The last game consisted of the two contestants carrying huge heads of lettuce through a slippery obstacle course and then throwing them into a basket. The games reminded me of “American Gladiators,” just without the cool guns and without women with massive triceps and traps.

One of our classmates made it to the final round, but he lost in a wrestling match where the goal was take off the other person’s sock. It was weird, but the Chinese crowd loved it!

Filming the whole show took about five hours, and everyone in the crowd was getting pretty restless as the time was nearing midnight. The show was even stopped at one point, and the producer walked over to my roommate and me and told us to stop talking. I felt like I should go sit in the corner. Luckily for me, the students sitting around me were so fun that it was essentially five hours of language practice.


We got back to our apartment around 1 a.m., completely exhausted but happy. After all, we had just been part of the live studio audience of one of Jiangsu province’s most popular television shows! Also, a couple of days ago I received an email from the show’s producer that included an invitation for me to be a participant on the show in two weeks. This blog just might have a part two. :)

Yellow Mountain

Several of my classmates and I took the opportunity this past weekend to go hiking on Mt. Huang Shan (黄山), which translated means “yellow mountain.” Mt. Huang Shan is considered one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in China, and it is only five hours from Nanjing so we felt like we should take the opportunity to go. It was completely worth it! It was an adventure just getting there, but it is easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited.

We didn’t actually get to Mt. Huang Shan until Friday, but our adventures began on Thursday. We went to a local travel agency in Nanjing to book the bus tickets and hotel (let it be known that I am using the term “hotel” very loosely). We were able to pull the travel agency worker away from playing solitaire on his computer just long enough to find out that we could purchase our bus ticket to travel to Huang Shan, but we would have to wait until we arrived in Huang Shan to purchase our return ticket. We asked what the bus schedule was for buses coming back to Nanjing from Huang Shan. We are so westernized! The way he looked at us made it very clear to me that the thought of access to such information was as foreign to him as Chinese is to me. :) However, we were sure that there would be a lot of buses running from Huang Shan to Nanjing on Saturday, so we didn’t worry about it too much. Next, we were able to go ahead and book our “hotel,” but the travel agency told us that they didn’t know the name of the hotel. What?! They gave us a phone number of a travel agent in Huang Shan, and they told us that he would give us our hotel information when we got there. A couple of things were running through my head.

1) “You’re joking, right?! There is absolutely no order in China!”

2) “Are we really going to pay money to take a bus six hours away only to sleep in a hotel that apparently lacks a name?”

3) “Is he wearing the same pink shirt he wore yesterday?”

We all concluded that 1) yes, there were a lot of question marks concerning this trip, but 2) such is life in China!

We got on the bus at 8 a.m. Friday morning, and the bus trip was actually pretty painless. Yes, the roads were so bumpy as to make you feel like you are riding on a banana behind a boat (I love those things!), and yes, the bus drivers drove in such a way as to treat the median as merely a suggestion and oncoming cars as harmless objects, and yes, I did wake up with a Chinese student sleeping on my shoulder. But really, all things considering—the trip could have been much worse.

The bus dropped us off at some random place in Huang Shan, and we were able to both buy return bus tickets for the next day and get the required information for our hotel. We ate lunch, took taxis up the mountain, and took the cable car from the foot of the mountain to the side of the mountain with our hotel.

Now before anyone judges me for choosing the picturesque 20-minute cable car as opposed to the grueling eight-hour hike up the mountain, let me make this disclaimer. The beauty of Mt. Huang Shan is not the hike from the base of the mountain, but the beautiful trails and hikes near the top of the mountain. We chose to spend our time hiking the beautiful scenery on top of the mountain rather than spending eight hours walking up thousands of granite steps. Alright, I feel like I can continue now. :)

We spent the afternoon and early evening hiking to our hotel. The scenery was gorgeous! Not only were the mountains spectacular, but the leaves had just begun to turn so the valley was full of autumn reds, greens, and oranges.





The Chinese hikers were also in rare form. As we were at one place taking pictures, one man blatantly pointed at my plaid shorts and began laughing. I know they were only $15, but that’s kind of rude, isn’t it? I ended up taking a picture with his family. :)


When we were getting closer to our hotel, I heard a large group of people speaking Cantonese behind me. My roommate, Nate, and I stopped and started talking to them. We spent the next little while chatting with the big group, and we enjoyed every second of speaking Cantonese! It is such a fun language!

We made it to our hotel just before dark. We ate an expensive dinner that consisted of very average food, and then we checked in to our sleeping quarters. Honestly, they weren’t that bad. Compared to sleeping on those train beds, it almost felt like the Four Seasons. Ok, not really. The lights were off at 9 p.m., and we fell asleep to the sound of rhythmic snoring, compliments of the old Chinese man in the other “room” (other side of the curtain).

The lights came on at 4 a.m., and we looked around and saw that all the Chinese people were gone! We didn’t want to get beat to the best spots to see the sunrise, so we quickly got up and headed to the spot we picked out the night before. A couple of comments.

1) I don’t think I’ve ever felt so rested getting up at 4 in the morning! Maybe there is something to that “early to bed, early to rise” thing. :)

2) It was freezing! While my shorts and sweatshirt might work for an afternoon in Nanjing (one of the four hottest cities in China), they didn’t quite do the trick at 4 a.m. on the top of a mountain.

3) I have never seen a more bright and vibrant sky in my entire life. All the constellations that I would’ve learned, if, of course, my astronomy class was not in a dark planetarium with leather recliners during my senior year, were visible. There were also shooting stars all over the sky. While I certainly don’t consider myself to be one who would choose star-gazing over the opening weekend of March Madness, I must admit that it was nothing short of spectacular.

We reached our appointed cliff around 5:30 a.m.. We were all sitting there, enjoying the peace and serenity of the morning, when we heard a mass of footsteps behind us. Before we knew it, the quiet tranquility of the morning was replaced by the shouts and (unfortunately) spitting of masses of Chinese people. No matter where you go, Chinese people are everywhere!


They were so friendly and fun to talk to as we waited for the sunrise, and they all screamed when they thought the sun had come up. It hadn’t yet. Ten minutes later, the sun really came up. They screamed again. :)



After going back to our hotel and eating breakfast, we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon hiking.






Around 1 p.m., we took the cable car back down the mountain, ate lunch, and by 2:30 we were on a bus heading back to Nanjing. We got home around 8:30 on Saturday night. I am so glad we took the weekend and went hiking on Mt. Huang Shan! If I get the opportunity to come back to China, I would love to spend a couple of days hiking Mt. Huang Shan.

The Man Date

When our group arrived in Nanjing, I quickly realized that we had little interaction with the natives here. We lived in separate apartments, and our classes were only with other BYU students. We were all having fun together, but I felt like I wasn’t getting the full cultural experience of studying in China.

Naturally, I first turned to sports in search of a solution. I went to play ping pong every afternoon with a group of retired Nanjing residents. They quickly took “Little Myers” (小莫) under their wing and began teaching me how to play.

“You are too tall! Bend down!”

“Don’t be lazy! Move your feet!”

“Stop using your arms! Use your wrist!”

“Kill the ball! Kill it! KILL IT!!!” (compliments of an 80 year-old woman who still
scares me)

I felt like I was at high school basketball practice, just without as much sweat. I had a great time playing ping pong with this group, and I still go play a couple of times every week. Aside from ping pong, I also tried playing basketball and running as a way to interact with natives, but I still felt like there were more opportunities to be had.

After discussing the situation with my roommate Jimmy, we decided to try something “new.” We decided to go finding for Chinese friends. Ok, actually this was not a “new” idea at all. We had spent two years of our lives “finding” Chinese people, and while I do understand we are supposed to move on from our mission experiences (the word “menace” comes to mind), we are still supposed to apply what we learned, right?!

And so our adventures began on a Monday after class. I decided to go “finding” on campus near the athletic fields. I was walking near the track, and I saw a student who looked like he needed a friend studying by himself. Unfortunately, he didn’t need a friend. After a couple of minutes, his girlfriend came over, and we ended up enjoying some Chinese fruit over pleasant conversation. I departed after thanking them for the fruit, and I showed my gratitude by giving them both English names.

My next target was a student sitting in the bleachers next to the basketball court. We ended up talking for almost an hour on topics ranging from why Steve Nash is better than Kobe Bryant (he didn’t buy it) to the Backstreet Boys (his favorite band). When I got up to leave, we made plans to do something that week. He told me that he had just moved to Nanjing and that he was feeling really lonely so he was happy to make new friends. We went out to dinner later than night and we spent the whole time laughing as he told us about his favorite American media. The Backstreet Boys and Titanic topped the list. I told him he had much to learn. :)

Reeves -


That was the beginning of what our apartment has affectionately coined the “man date.” It is pretty much the classic American date, just exchanging American girls for Chinese men. (If that sentence made you feel uncomfortable, I was uncomfortable writing it.) This is normally how it goes. We meet, chat, laugh, and exchange phone numbers. A simple text message including a dinner invitation is then sent or received later that day. We meet at the specified area and the necessary introductions are made. A delicious dinner ensues. After dinner, (if things are going well) ice cream follows. After the consuming of food has concluded for the evening, a peaceful walk amidst the screaming of car horns is enjoyed. Lastly, the evening ends with the exchange of the classic “dead fish” Chinese handshake or the ever popular awkward Chinese hug. We have continued to go “finding” on campus every day and many “man dates” have followed. Don’t judge :)

Our Chinese-speaking Korean friends -


Jia Qi, Leo, and friends -


Our Cantonese friend 谭显胜 -


陈浩 and Michael Ghost -


Even a double date with our friends Jack and Rose. Their favorite movie is Titanic…we couldn’t resist! :) -


We have found this method to be a great solution to interact more with the natives. It is so fun to meet new people every day, and it has also been a great way to improve our language abilities.

60th Anniversary of the Establishment of the People's Republic of China

To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the normally three-day Chinese National Day holiday was extended to an eight-day vacation (October 1-8). Hey, if it means five more days without class, I am happy to celebrate communism! Not really, but kind of. :)

It was such a fun break! I enjoyed touring the historical spots of Nanjing, playing basketball, studying, and eating with sometimes random Chinese people. Here are the highlights.

On Chinese National Day Eve (I just made that up. Work with me.), my roommate Jimmy and I went out to dinner with a student I met on campus (陈浩) and his girlfriend. It is safe to say that the conversation was much more enjoyable than the food. We ate duck head, and I thought it was one of the most disgusting things that I had ever eaten…that is until I made it to the duck’s brain. Squishy. It became official—it is the MOST disgusting thing I have even eaten! In spite of the “cuisine,” we laughed the whole time and we had a great night.


I slept in on Thursday morning, and then I went and played basketball with some of our friends at the university. I tried to take it easy on them, but how could I resist utilizing the pull-up jumper over the 5’3” Chinese guy guarding me? I couldn’t. We won. :)


Thursday night, Jimmy and I went out to dinner with a nice Chinese man he had met on campus (谭显胜). He is so humble that it is refreshing just to be around him. He also speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese, so I particularly enjoyed eating with him. Oh yeah, the curry was a big improvement from our dinner the night before.
Friday night, my other roommate Nate and I went to the Confucius temple with our friend from the night before 谭显胜. The Confucius temple is basically a touristy night market, and it was packed! Nate and I had our pictures taken so many times! The highlight coming when Nate caught a high school girl trying to sneak a picture of us, causing her to scream and run away. I told Nate it was not his fault he is so handsome. :)


Saturday morning, we went with our program director to tour an ancient city built within the current Nanjing borders during the Warring States Period. My favorite part was the appropriately named “Ghost-faced City.”


For Saturday night, please refer to my previous blog. It was such a fun Mid-Autumn Festival!


Our branch did not show General Conference on Sunday, but the normal fast Sunday meetings were great, and I spent the rest of the day in the apartment enjoying the Sabbath. Monday morning, we went and toured a Buddhist temple built during the Ming Dynasty called the Jiming Temple. I never knew Buddhist temples were such good places to practice my free throws!



On Monday afternoon, I went to go play ping pong but all the tables were taken. I decided to go talk to the owners of my favorite popcorn stand (some things never change). They were watching a movie inside their shop, and I started watching it with them. Dinner time arrived, and I got up to leave. The husband was cooking peppers, tomatoes, and chicken just outside of their little shop, and I couldn’t help but entertain the thought of possibly getting lucky enough to merit an invitation to join them for dinner. I never made it out the door. They insisted that I stay for dinner, and I spent the next hour laughing and eating delicious chicken and spicy peppers. I counted it as Family Home Evening.


Wednesday morning, we went and toured the Confucius temple, and then we played basketball with a group of Chinese students in the afternoon. Once again, I tried to take it easy on them. :) Wednesday night, Jimmy, Nate, and I all had dinner with our friend Leo. He was hilarious, and the curry was so good!
And then came Thursday, the last day of the break. You would think that all of us would have set aside time to do a little bit of homework each day, rather than saving the whole week’s worth for Thursday. You would think. Let’s just say I spent the entire day in our apartment learning a lot of Chinese. :)
Ok, Ok. I very much do not support communism, but is it really so bad to celebrate it once a year?!

Mid-Autumn Festival

Yesterday was the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is one of my favorite Chinese holidays. I learned about the Chinese legend behind the Mid-Autumn Festival when I was in Hong Kong. During the 14th century, China was ruled by the Mongols. The Chinese leaders wanted to organize a rebellion, but the Mongol rulers prohibited organized meetings among the Chinese. In solution, the Chinese leaders received permission to distribute moon cakes to all Chinese citizens to “bless the longevity” of the Mongol emperor. Inside each of the moon cakes, however, was a message that read, “Kill the Mongols on the 15th day of the 8th month.” On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Chinese rebels successfully overthrew the Mongol empire and the Ming Dynasty was established. Cool story, right?

Anyway, yesterday afternoon I went to a track near our apartment to go running. After I finished running, I stopped to buy some popcorn (some things never change). I was standing there talking to the owner when I heard someone yell in my direction, “My English not very good!” It was hard to disagree. :) I looked over and saw a group of people laughing. Two comments.

1. It is not uncommon for people to say random things in English to foreigners as we walk down the street. The normals are a “Hallo!” or a “Cheers!” or on special occasions (my personal favorite) “You are handsome boy!”
2. Chinese people love to hear their friends speak bad English! They laugh in a way that reminds me of the way our family laughed when Dad said “Hey Jon, good one.” :)

Moving on. I waved toward the person who had spoken in my direction and said, “No, your English is very good.” He didn’t understand. I didn’t think anything of it, and I rode my bike past them up the hill to play go ping pong. I started playing ping pong with this guy probably in his 20s and after about ten minutes that same group of people showed up. I found out they were all co-workers, and the guy I was playing with was their boss. I played for about 45 minutes with all of them watching and asking me questions. After we finished playing, they asked me to come with them to a restaurant downtown to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. I thought quickly. I could tell I didn’t feel threatened in any way to go with them, but I also realized I would much rather bring a friend with me. I told them I would go home and shower first and then meet up with them at the restaurant. They wrote down the address, and we exchanged phone numbers.

I came home, showered, grabbed my roommate, and we called a taxi. When we got to the restaurant downtown, they were waiting outside for us. We followed them upstairs to this nice hotpot restaurant. The only word I can think to describe the next two hours is “hilarious!” We sat down and they quickly offered a toast to their “foreign friends.” It was just the first of many toasts for the night. :) I learned that there is often no rhyme or reason to a Chinese toast, but as long as I clinked cups and drank my Sprite with a smile, I was alright.


The rest of the evening we talked about everything from why we lived in China but didn’t have Chinese girlfriends (go figure, right?), the romance in Paris, why American cars are so much more affordable than Chinese cars, and how much they all loved Titanic. I had even given one of them the English name Jack earlier in the day. He was pleased. :) After we finished eating, they all took turns sitting in-between Nate and me and took pictures. After each picture, I would make the same joke saying, “Who is that really handsome person in the middle of the picture?” They died every time! It reminded me of the way we all died laughing when Dad was in rare form and said, “I think I have something in my eye. Oh, it is my finger.” :) After chatting some more, we left the restaurant, Nate and I thanked them for the fun evening, and we took a taxi home.


The evening was so fun! They were so friendly, and they were all so patient with our language abilities. Now, according to western standards, you might think what happened last night was kind of weird.
I walk down a busy street in China. A group of people yell some random English at me. We chat. I leave. I play ping pong. I see the same group again. We chat. They invite me to eat dinner that night. I agree. I go home. I grab my roommate. We take a taxi downtown. They wait for us. We eat dinner. We toast (probably around 8 times). We take pictures. We exchange phone numbers. We go home.


Okay, okay…maybe it is weird. But it is fun, and it is the Chinese way! They love meeting foreigners! They love asking questions about America, and they love to help us experience the Chinese culture. It was certainly an unexpected way to celebrate the Chinese holiday, but I am learning that the unexpected should be expected in China. 中秋节快乐！Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!