Fire in the Sky

Has anyone ever seen that movie? well, if you haven't, don't...it's horribly disturbing, especially if you are 7 years old. anyway, China is s a very random place. the other day, well night actually, fireworks were going off outside, so Abby and i decided to watch. every time there is a wedding, or death, there are fireworks. (and we wonder why the opening and closing ceremonies were the best thing the Olympics have ever seen...) So, we're checking out these fireworks and then out of nowhere, we see what looks to be a fire in an apartment. We live on the 7th floor, with no stairs, so we have a pretty good view of the area around us. we continue to watch, and sure enough there is an apartment fire right across the way from us. it was on a higher story that ours, so I'm guessing maybe the 12th floor or so. We see this crazy fire blazing, while everything else around it has taken peace in the dark air. we quickly snap out of our mesmerised state when the thought crosses our minds that maybe we should do something about this obscure scenario. So, we call our waiban (the lady sorts taking care of us here). She makes a call to the fire dept and then calls us back saying that yes, it is a fire and that they have already received a call for it. Thank goodness!! Needless to say, there was nothing about it in the paper the next morning.

So the real reason i wanted to blog today was to explain a little bit about Chinese weddings. So far, our Chinese friends are trying to set Abby up with a very "handsome" PE teacher at the school, and even gave her a wedding brochure just in case she was interested. i think it's safe to say that Chinese girls are crazy, for no particular reason, they just are. Haha! Fiona, one of our English teacher friends (who is Chinese) says that her goal for the year is to get married so that we can be her maids of honor. I hope she succeeds :) We are on the lookout!

We crashed a wedding yesterday. It was great! Abby, Helen (another Chinese English teacher friend), and i had just come back from an event for celebrating teachers at a theater, and then it was off to the wedding. A teacher at out school was getting married, so i guess that means anyone associated with the school can come :) it was in a hotel, but I'm not exactly sure if it was the whole ceremony. i think it was, but the bride was wearing a normal white wedding dress. i was expecting a red one. I was told that you were red gowns for your wedding, so you can understand my confusion. there was a tiny stage and a ridiculous MC. It was almost like a bad tv show. the host was alright, but the acoustics were awful! they both walked down the aisle as the host said something, and then there were speeches given by both of the parties' bosses. The head master of our school gave a rather lengthy speech, and the groom's boss gave an even longer one. Then the parents of both bride and groom came up and received gifts. these gifts are silly and meant as a joke (apparently), but i didn't really understand them considering everything they said was in Chinese. During and after the ceremony, food was brought out to each table. the contents ranged from boiled frog to fried ducks feet...neither very good. The bride and groom, followed by their parents, came around to each table and took a toast with the members of the table. we just drank orange juice, but the bride and groom had to take a shot of this very clear, very strong alcohol. And there were probably around 15-20 tables...so by the time they got to our table, i don't think they minded us being there.

i guess my first Chinese wedding was pretty good. let's hope im actually invited to the next one i show up to.