From Grits to Chopsticks

In our last post, we talked about the wedding we attended in a nearby town.  Here are a few photos of the festivities.  The “receiving line” at a typical Chinese wedding happens at the beginning when the bride and groom welcome guests at the door of the hotel or restaurant:

As guests arrive, they are given candy (our friends did not hand out the usual gift of cigarettes).  They also bring a wedding gift of “hongbao” – a red envelope containing money.  Susan helped with the giving and receiving process:

The guests don’t spend a lot of time deciding what to wear to the event.  Especially in the countryside, it’s just a “come as you are” affair:

Even the mother of the groom doesn’t spend a lot of time shopping for a new dress.  Here is a photo of her (on the right) with her two sisters:

While waiting for the wedding to begin, people gathered in the hotel lobby to smoke and eat sunflower seeds.  The floor was quite covered with shells by the time that we went into the ceremony:

Unlike a typical Chinese wedding, this one began with a message.  I had the privilege of officiating:

After the ceremony, the feasting began.  How would you like some fish with your peppers?

These guests were ready to eat when the food arrived:

Plenty to eat for everyone, a simple reminder of a bigger wedding feast to come (see Revelation 19):

Last weekend, we traveled about five hours north of our city to attend the wedding of two good friends.  Even though we were just riding in the back seat, we were pretty exhausted upon arrival due to the stress of constantly passing large vehicles on  blind mountain curves:

Instead of watching out the front window, it was much better just to look at the beautiful scenery through the side windows:

Along the way, we stopped at a rest area.  We hope that no one was in a hurry to get to the hospital:

The groom is from a small village surrounded by rice fields and apple orchards:

The people are very friendly.  We first encountered these (little) ladies on their “main street”:

Later, we met this old man near the market:

Getting to the groom’s parents’ house is not easy.  The local residents all wear rubber boots due to the mud (we only had flip flops):

We passed a few guard dogs:

Straddled more mud:

Saw a kid playing a cell phone game and wearing an “angry birds” T-shirt:

And passed a toddler that was probably surprised to see foreign faces:

The groom’s house is white and green with thick brick/stucco walls.  It was expanded from one room to three rooms over the years to accomodate a growing family of five children:

Inside, family members were working hard to prepare a pre-wedding feast:

“Home cooking” is usually delicious: the dishes are simple and the veggies are fresh.  Here’s the aftermath at our table:

We also were able to hang out with some of the older family members.  The family has lived in this village for ten generations:

We ended our visit by walking through the chicken yard to the garden (this mud caused Susan’s flip flop to have a blow out):

Their garden is mostly fruit trees, including this peach tree with apple branches grafted in, growing both kinds of fruit:

Everything was interesting, but for those of you who are curious – no, we did not use the rest room there (the slot leads to an open pit behind the house):

Yesterday, we attended the graduation ceremony at our university.  As we walked onto the front plaza, we found it interesting that they were playing this song: GraduationIntroMusic

This was the first time that the school chose to hold a single graduation ceremony for all departments.  There were chairs for several thousand students in front of the school, but none for visitors.  A graduation ceremony in China is different from one in the west – very few parents or friends will come to watch.

With such a large group of students, they chose not to have individuals cross the stage and receive diplomas.  Instead, one representative received a diploma for each department.  They also chose another dramatic piece of background music to play during a presentation of awards to students: Graduation

If you are old enough, you will recognize the theme from “Bonanza,” an old TV western.  And when you look across the sea of several thousand graduates, it might remind you of the Nevada fields spreading out from the Ponderosa ranch (with a bit of imagination!).

Graduation provides a final opportunity to talk with many of our friends who are moving on:

Our “smile muscles” were pretty tired after taking hundreds of photos with our students:

Since there are only a few foreign teachers at our school, we also got pulled into random group shots with kids we’ve never met:

Since it only takes a few hours by air to get from our city to Thailand, many friends travel there for medical care or for a time of R&R.  Susan and I enjoyed the latter last weekend.  When you first arrive in Thailand, you are greeted by the king (at least, by his picture):

The king is highly respected in Thailand, so we were careful to stand up with others in the airport when his picture was broadcast on the TV sets.  Along with local customs, the Thai language can be pretty confusing to an untrained foreigner:

Fortunately, some warning signs are easier to figure out than others:

The summer months are off-season at the beach in Thailand, typically rainy and cool with low prices and small crowds.  Here’s a photo from our hotel porch – as you can see, we were blessed with nice weather and peaceful surroundings:

It was just a short walk from our hotel to the beach in Ao Nang:

From there, you can ride a long-tail boat to a number of destinations for just a few dollars:

We rode over to Tonsai beach and hiked up the mountain, passing some “resorts” that were a bit more rustic than the place where we were staying:

While climbing up another mountain, we encountered this monkey who didn’t want to share the handrail on a steep set of stairs:

After hiking through the jungle behind Tonsai beach, we stopped for lunch at Railay East.  It was high tide, and based on the proximity of these shops to the water, it’s easy to understand why the tsunami in 2004 was so devastating:

Since our home in China is pretty far away from decent seafood, we took this opportunity to get some fresh fish, like this fried snapper:

We also took a guided kayak tour through a mangrove forest at Thalane National Park.  Shortly after this photo was taken, my sunglasses fell into the water while ducking under a branch:

The rocky islands, the clear water, the friendly people all combine to make Thailand one of the most beautiful places that we have ever visited.  Meet us there sometime?

Last week, I rode the bus to visit a university in a nearby mountain town.  All of the seats on the bus were full this time, shortening the trip to about 2 hours.  The trip will take longer when there are empty seats, since the driver will divert through small towns to pick up extra riders and increase his personal revenue.  Of course, there was a Jackie Chan movie playing on the TV screen in the front of the bus:

Once you get out of our city and into the mountains, the countryside is quite beautiful, with lots of villages and rice fields:

The small town that I visited reminded me a little (well, just a little) of a town in America.  Although there is a pagoda on the hill, you can see the typical Ford dealership sign on the left side of main street (click the photo to expand):

While visiting the university in this town, I was a bit surprised to meet a student wearing a familiar tee-shirt:

Yes, our big world is a small world after all!

As we’ve mentioned before, Sunday is usually our day of rest.  We spend the morning at an international fellowship in our city, eat lunch with a group of friends, and then go to a park for a walk together.  A while back, we found a park which must have a specific purpose in the event of an emergency:

Until there’s an actual disaster, these kids will put the emergency water supply to good use:

This guy is doing his part to fatten up the emergency food supply:

“If you build it, they will come.”  This definitely applies to every park in China: wherever there is a shady place to sit, you’ll find musicians.  Click here to listen:  Small Park Music

And finally, wherever you go in the world on a sunny day, you will probably see kids and bubbles: 

One of our students manages the pool hall at his school and loves to play the English game of “snooker.”  Although he has tried to teach me, he is way out of my league and always wins.  After we played last week, I took a video of him making a curve shot (click this link to view: Curve Shot)

Of course, there is a danger in taking a shot from this angle.  He had a bit too much distance on this jump shot: Ouch!

Afterwards, we went out to dinner and enjoyed some fish (in case you hadn’t noticed, China is an “eating culture”).  Interestingly, the favorite fish in China is rarely eaten in America: carp.

Carp is very bony and really hard to eat (at least, for me).  But Chinese people are amazing with their chopsticks and are able to quickly separate meat from bones, a skill that I’ve yet to acquire.

I recently took this fish photo at our local grocery store:

Although sportsmen eat this fish in the States, it is rarely for sale in your local grocery.  Largemouth Bass are classified as gamefish and therefore not legally sold over the counter in most states.  A final fish photo (from the internet) is appropriate for this post:

Yes, you may have guessed that this is fish is a snook, and those who seek to catch them are called “snookers.”

In the west, we often have a special day for taking a child to work.  The son or daughter may get a tour of the factory or office, participate in a meal, and hear a special speaker.

For many people in China, everyday is “take your child to work day.”  Tiny children wander through the market while their parents sell vegetables; they sit in the back of large trikes while their mother sorts through trash; and they climb on piles of recyclables while their father bargains for a decent price:

Here is a photo of the most extreme case I’ve seen – a woman busting rocks with a sledge hammer (to scavange rebar) with a baby on her back:

Remember this image the next time you’re tempted to complain!

Wherever you go in our city, you will find buildings being razed and buildings being raised.  Before starting a construction project, the workers always build a wall along the roadside.  This process often seems to happen almost overnight, starting with site preparation:

Two things to note in photo above: the small building in the foreground was erected to house the workers, allowing them to live on-site during the project; and the high-tension power tower was not removed, but the road construction crew started anyway.

Next, the wall builders moved into action.  Most often, the laborers are women – strong women:

I find it interesting that they usually mix their mortar directly on the ground (why use a mixer?).  Like the project workers, the wall builders live directly on the job-site, but their make-shift building isn’t quite as nice:

The walls are always topped with a small roof structure:

This wall was built with low-quality, grey bricks.  But even when they use nice, red bricks, they always stucco and paint it:

This is an important part of the process, enabling the finishing touch – painting a slogan:

The characters advertise the new building, but usually, the walls display slogans created and replicated by the propaganda department (yes, that’s what they call it):

While these walls aren’t famous like the Great Wall in the north, it wouldn’t surprise me if they cover more distance on a cummulative basis!

We took the following photos on our recent trip to the States, illustrating a pretty significant difference in air quality between the airports in Beijing and Chicago:

It’s probably wise to have an instrument rating if you ever plan to land a plane in China.  When we arrived in the States, we had to take a deep breath and inflate Elijah’s latest installment in “Pleasant Goat” toys:

As you can tell, we’re doing our part to fulfill the expectation that grandparents are required to bring strange gifts for their grandkids.