Today was an interesting day, and in true Chinese style, I never knew what was going on until I got 'there'. 'There' ,was the Shangyue Community Building (or at least that's what I think it was!). After my strange meeting with Wan Yi the other day, see previous blog post, where I sat with the vice-president sign of the new Outdoor Mountaineering Association, I am not sure exactly what my role is in this club! However, yesterday, I got an invitation to a meal and a meeting at 10.30 at the above building. Again I asked a friend where it was, and as I was in the general area, I checked it out so I could be sure where to find it the next day.
The night before I went to bed early and this morning, the day of the event, I got up late, taking time to enjoy my new mattress! When I woke up there was a message from Betty. Betty is a woman who lives in my apartment block, her husband, who I don't think I have ever met, is a teacher at my school. The message asked me if I was running. Strange message, but I guessed that she was talking about the Outdoor Mountaineering club, though how she knew that I knew about it I don't know. Anyway. I said I was not running and asked her if she was talking about the club. She said she was. I asked her if she was going to the ceremony later, and she said she was. I asked her if she was walking there and, if she was walking there, did she wish to walk with me. She did. We arranged a time, 10a.m., and I set about hanging out my washing. Twenty minutes later she texted me and said that she was going in her husband's car and asked if I still wished to go. I told her I did, and carried on with my washing. At a quarter to ten she told me to come downstairs as she was ready. I was not and told her I would be five minutes. I rushed around trying to get my gear together and eventually made it down stairs, expecting to see her and her husband in a car. There was no Betty and no car. i asked her where she was. She said she was taking out the trash. Excellent, I needed to do that to, so I ran back upstairs, to get my rubbish, which I hadn't taken out as I thought she was going to be in the car ans the rubbish collection place was a about a hundred meters from the house. I got up two floors and my phone rang. "Where are you. I am at the rubbish place?" I got my rubbish, ran down the stairs and dumped my bags. She was not there. I asked her where she was. She had started walking. A fair answer but there are two ways she could go. Long story, short, she sent a picture of where she was and I headed off to meet here and we set about going to the meeting. No sooner had we gone ten minutes than WanYi rang. He was ready to meet us, where were we. I explained. Betty explained. Then five minutes later Wan Yi rang again. We both explained. Eventually we met him and he videod our arrival.
When we arrived Wan Yi introduced me to a guy who was standing next to him. I greeted him and started to ask him a few questions. He looked puzzled. It turned out hat he was just a random guy that wan Yi had been talking to as we waited...and there was me thinking that he was part of 'the show'!
We hurried upstairs and got to the meeting room. Like most of the meeting rooms in I have been to in China it had rows of wooden desks facing the front, and a long wooden table at the front complete with name tags. All the tables had bottles of water and a supply of small oranges. Thirst and good luck catered for. Wan Yi dragged me to the end of the front table and there was my name big and bold " Mr. Mike". I was sitting on the front table! I took off my coat and began to mingle. There were maybe about fifty people there and a few children. I blew up a few balloons, that I'd brought with me and gave them to the kids. I returned to my seat and sat there as numerous people took copious amounts of photographs of everything and amongst the hustle and bustle, a little boy who I had given a balloon to, walked past and gave me a sweet!
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| Mr.Mike's place |
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| The meeting hall |
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| Me and the person next to me. Posed. |
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| The final Photo. Everyone who was anyone. The little boy who gave me the sweet is just behind me. |
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| The meeting. 1st speaker and me composing my speech with the aid of Google translate |
Betty came to talk to me. She said I needed to make a speech and she would interpret. Yikes! I really hadn't planned on that! Wan Yi opened the meeting and Betty sent me a text. I was to be third on. I then took my time pretending to pay attention and at the same time writing a breif speech and getting Google to translate it into Chinese. Speaker one, speaker two.. now it was Mr. Mike. Betty got up and stood beside me. The first part I spoke in Chinese... people seemed to understand. Then I spoke in English and for each phrase, showed Betty my phone translation. After a few minutes it was all over. A few more people spoke and there was a final photo shoot and a few rousing shouts. Dinner time. I was looking forward to this because Wan Yi's message said they had killed a sheep. I was kind of hoping that they would give me the honour of doing that, something I had not done before, however, it was already dead when I arrived, butchered and in the cooking pot! I was not at the building I had been taken to a few nights ago.
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| Me and Betty on the way to the meal |
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| Me and Wan Yi on the way to the meal |
We quickly went upstairs and had a look around. The were pictures on the of members and of Wan Yi winning races, and a whole wall devoted to his medals.
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| The running club flag. |
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| Wan Yi's medals |
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| A chart about something... |
Going out onto the balcony I took a look around the area. As it says below, at the moment there is a problem uploading videos to the blog so I cant post videos here. Below is a link that
should open a video view of teh surrounding area. If the link fails I've included a few stills as an alternative.
There is a problem loading videos to Blogger at the moment. Please click this link. It will open in a new window.
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| Looking down and to the right from the balcony to the yard below. |
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| Looking down and to the right from the balcony to the yard below. |
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| The chairs arrive! |
After that came the call for lunch and we went downstairs. it was
raining very lightly, but this stopped no one. There were maybe about
fifty people there. Most sitting but a few standing. A pick up
arrived and unloaded some more chairs. I sat between a young boy and
Betty. The food arrived. Lamb. The little burner in the table was
lit. The paper bowls and chopsticks distributed and the food dished
out. Surprisingly good! They even put a small plate of local bacon and
beans near me. The local bacon is the best food here...it tasted just
like German smoked bacon, but, like most meat here, it only comes in
very small pieces! It was not one of the biggest meals I have been too
but there was plenty to eat. I occasionally got up and took a picture
or a video and in between that and eating, managed to show the boy
besides me a bit of table magic! It was fun because some of the
simplest little tricks seem to be unknown here! Even some of the ones
my dad taught me are unknown! Thanks Tom.
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| Anyone for rice? |
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| My table shortly after the arrival of the lamb. Betty is on right. The guy in blue I call "Cheers". It is the only word he knows in English, and he is very proud of it too....it means he can have more drink! |
All good things come to an
end, and so did this meal. It still catches me out how suddenly a meal
ends here, but I am getting better at picking up the sings. Usually the
first person to eat at teh table eats the most and the most quickly.
Shortly after they have finished, the person opposite them finishes and
that is the meal over. When two or three people have finished eating,
the meal is over and you go, just like that. No coffee and cigars.
Just up and go. So I got up and went with Betty. We got a lift back to
our apartments. On the way Betty invited me to the library, but it
turned out she could not go, which is good, because after a short period
of blogging, I went for my afternoon nap!
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