We went to Jim and Jen's home out in the Beijing suburbs for their Christmas party tonight. Jim and Jen hosted all of the language students and teachers from the school where Michael is studying Chinese, so the mix of participants made for some interesting experiences:
- We saw one Chinese teacher sample a chocolate cake that someone else had brought. It was a lovely cake, but here's the odd thing: rather than cut a slice of the cake (she was the first to try it), she used a spoon to scoop out a bit from the outside edge, as if it were a cheeseball or similar item. It never occurred to us to try a cake in this way, and just goes to show you that food remains one of the great cultural divides.
- The big surprise of the evening came at the end of the caroling portion of the night (all non-Christian guests (about half of the attendees) were offered lyric sheets to help out), when the acting director of the language program sang Edelweiss, and rendered a remarkable performance, with another teacher providing a simultaneous countermelody in Chinese. It was a unique and wonderful experience.
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food... mmmm... food. similar to homer's donuts.. mmm... donuts...
we just had a martini party @ wendi and ron's. after a bunch of pot stickers combined with a few tamales for diner ( + mucho tekillya and wadka)... ron, wendi, ray, tina, brent, & angela say hello. wish you two the best in the far east during the holidays.
blog-on, mark & cathy
p.s. bob schrimpf got karen g. a rock for christmas. he's gonna make an honest women out of her.
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