Hotpot

 Sorry there's been a delay in my blog posting--Blogspot is blocked in China, as is Facebook. Luckily, Grace is a lifesaver and told me that I could post to my blog via email. I gave her my username and password and she set up the email post setting for me. Although I can't view my blog, I can send emails to an address that will automatically post here. There are ways to get around the website blockers, but unfortunately you have to set all that up before you arrive in China.  

Let me just say that I am very happy right now, am pleasantly surprised by how much I can communicate and am enjoying making a ton of new friends. Today our Chinese roommates took us to get cellphones and open bank accounts. Afterwards, a group of about 20 (10 American and 10 Chinese students) went out to dinner at a restaurant.  As I discovered yesterday, if you come into a restaurant with a big group, they give you your own private room and today we had 2 joint private rooms.  Also people are usually rude (in comparison to treatment in the US) to the restaurant servers (fuwuyuan) and will yell "fuwuyuan!" over and over again until the server comes to your table.

 

Anyway, at the restaurant they served the food in Hotpots, which were two huge bowls that are set over an open fire in the middle of the table. The fuwuyuan serves broth in the huge bowls and then you order raw food. You put the raw food, both meat and vegetables, into the boiling broth as you wish, thus making your own soup. Earlier in the day, our program director told us that a girl got very badly burned by the open flames at a Hotpot and so I was scared since the flames come up very close to your hand as you are ladling out the soup. Sparks were even flying out at me occasionally! After dinner we taught each other various games that we play, which was very boistorous and loud since we were clapping and yelling. We had a great time and stayed there laughing and talking for over 3 hours. Food is an extremely central part of the Chinese culture and talking loudly over dinner is also common.

 

The American students at our table had a miscommunication with the Chinese students and it was quite embarrassing. After we had taught our Chinese roommates how to play Thumper, they started sharing our beers with the other table in our joint room. We were trying to tell them to stop and telling them that we weren't finished drinking them yet. After a couple minutes, we discovered that at the end of every meal all people in the party give a toast and say "Cheers!" (except in Chinese, of course). The other table didn't have any alcohol at all so the students at out table were trying to give them just enough beer so they could each have a sip in their cups. Luckily we figured it out pretty quickly and all was forgiven.

p.s. The pictures are of the shampoo and face wash that I bought here and also of a group of CIEE students waiting for our luggage at the airport.