More holiday activities

Recently, I’ve had two get-togethers with the school. The president took the English teachers out today for some hot-pot. The restaurant was a great place: the rooms swank, the food delicious. Besides the hot-pot foods, they also served some raw beef on ice, which though disgusting, was tasty dipped in wassabi.

Yesterday, I ate Chinese dumplings with the dormitory building employees and all of the poor expatriate souls that didn’t return to their home countries for the holiday. There were three Russians, one of which could speak English. There were three Japanese, two of which could speak Chinese but not English. And there was my wife and me. Once a Russian that couldn’t speak English asked a question to the Japanese that couldn’t speak Chinese, so the question was translated from Russian to English to Chinese to Japanese, much to the humor of all. I had never had the opportunity to talk to the Russians before, so this was good time to be able to get to know them.

A couple days ago we went to my wife’s parents house. We had a good time there. I was not embarrassed by my poor Chinese this time. The family and I were able to talk this time more than last time, and Mamma didn’t criticize me for not being able to understand them (whew!). Often when we go there to visit, the family will all sit on the bed in the master bedroom and watch TV and talk.

This time we were watching a soap opera that was named rather inappropriately, “Women Don’t Cry.” It was a show about women . . . crying. They had plenty of reason to cry; the show was one disaster after another. I made a prediction as a joke, that the main character would be let out of prison (don’t ask) just as her friend was going into surgery and that her friend would die before she could get there. I was absolutely right. It seems that many of the TV shows here are pretty melodramatic, but this one really went above and beyond the competition.