Adventures in Guangzhou!

Yale-China happened to be having their annual conference this weekend, meaning that all 12 teaching fellows congregated here in GZ along with some trustee members, their director, and a few of the Yale-China law fellows. From what I understand, the conference included a lot of meetings, even more food, and a complete and utter lack of sleep. Good times. I am somewhat jealous that they have an opportunity to all hang out again. I guess that's the luxury of being part of such a small program. One of the things that made leaving PiA orientation so sad was that we all knew we'd never be in the same place again. Ever. With around 75 fellows spread all over Asia (East Timor to Kazakhstan to Japan to...) it's impossible to rally everyone. I'm hoping that at some point we can at least get all 15 or so of the China fellows together, even though we're quite spread out as well. China's huge. Seriously.

Anyhow, so we met up with the Yalies and proceeded to hop into a cab to go to some place for KTV. I don't know who voted for Karaoke but we were at their mercy so there ya go. It was both funny and a bit awkward to join a group of kids who knew each other so well and had been spending 24/7 together for the last few days. Besides being a fun night out, it was also a celebration for my birthday and for Kelly's birthday, one of the Yale girls here in Guangzhou who is not only a good friend of mine, but also happens to share the same birthday! Well, almost the same. She's a baby and only turned 23. Boy, twenty three seems like ages ago...

So we sang our share of karaoke, ate some food, and eventually migrated out to another bar for some late night celebrations. I think I hit my wall at around 2am and decided to throw in the towel. They were all fading anyway and I had no interest in another shot of tequila (eeew--whose idea was that anyway?). I woke up Sunday morning and was pleased to find several birthday emails in my inbox and two birthday cards in my actual mailbox. I was quite impressed--both momma Wolfe and my friend Lauren both managed to time their cards perfectly, sending them out around 10/31. Congrats! You guys rule. Yes, especially you, Mom.

I had a rather lazy morning and went out for a tasty lunch at one of my usual spots with Steven. After doing some grocery shopping, I headed back to my apartment to lesson plan for a bit. Yup, even though it was my birthday, I still decided to go out and tutor the Korean boys since I was away last week. Really, I just needed the money but it's fine--they're great kids. We had an "easy" lesson and spent a solid half hour playing "20 Questions" as I corrected their sentence structures. Most impressive moment-- Robin, the older one, got Yankee Stadium (the thing I was thinking of) after only about 11 questions. Wow.

I hopped on the bus after tutoring and came straight back to the school where I had to meet one of my students. Earlier this week Carol, one of my best students, invited me to a bbq at her house Sunday night. Hmm. I like bbq. I like free food. I like not cooking on my birthday. Of course! I told her I would love to attend, as long as she promised to sing happy birthday. She responded that she couldn't promise she'd sing, but that she would definitely yell happy birthday. Good enough!

So Carol and her father picked me up by the front gate in their rather luxurious Nissan. I don't know what model it was, but it certainly had a pretty big screen in the dash that had detailed GPS (looking for the closest KFC? No problem!) and also a camera in the rear of the car showing you where you're backing up. Pretty cool. I started chatting with the father and found out he is a professor of architecture at one of the universities here and also a member of the City Planning Bureau. Basically a V.I.P.

After climbing 9 floors to get to their penthouse apartment, I was impressed to see a huge two level home, complete with an extensive roof garden including tons of veggies and herbs. Very cool! I also met their other guests, two of which just came back from 5 years in Phoenix. Not surprisingly, they spoke very good English and we talked about the states for a while. They laughed about the American version of Chinese food and how their friends got freaked out when they served chicken complete with the head and feet. Mmmm!

Speaking of food though, from the moment I arrived until the second I left, it was a big ol' gastronomic feast. We started off with a soup with pork, apples, and pears, served piping hot. This was followed up by some sort of heavy bread with green onions (reminded me of naan bread) and an unidentifiable sauce for dipping. I couldn't really tell if this was the appetizer section or the main course so I was eating as much of everything as I could (while still being polite, of course).

I never quite figured out where the main course started and ended but that's just fine. Carol's dad grilled up some really good spare ribs, chinese sausages, and whole fish and I sampled everything. There were also some fishcakes and meatballs that were quite tasty. The woman who lived in Phoenix apparently also just got back from France and she brought a whole case of wine from some vineyard there. I heard them speaking in Chinese and apparently it was about 300 kuai a bottle (around $38) which isn't out of hand in America but it's a TON of money here. I don't have a real sensitive palate for wine, but it tasted pretty good to me! And, obviously, when there's alcohol involved, there is toasting. There were only three guys at the dinner including myself (and the women weren't really drinking) but Carol's dad did not let that stop him from cheers-ing everyone. He seemed happy to learn "l'chaim" as well.

After the bbq was finished, we went right on to some sushi that they brought in from a local restaurant. Again, what a luxury! Sushi is pretty expensive in the states and it's not cheap here either. They were amazed at how much wasabi I used and initially told me it would be too spicy to eat. Right. Chinese people so far seem to consistently underestimate both my tolerance for spice and alcohol. Have a little faith, ya know?

As we polished off yet another bottle of wine, Carol's dad decided to make it his mission to introduce various forms of Chinese spirits to me. He disappeared downstairs and came back up with about 6 different bottles of various shapes and colors. Oh boy. He went through each one and explained what region it was from, how strong it was, and when Chinese people usually drink it. Some of it was rice wine, some of it was whisky, and some of it was baijiu. I had heard quite a bit about baijiu before but this was my taste of the stuff. The rumors are true--it's vile. Not only is it extremely strong with a harsh aftertaste, but it also has an overpowering smell that kind of made me want to vomit. I drank it politely though and opted to return to the red wine. A word of advice though--if you can at all avoid the stuff, I highly recommend staying far, far away.

I didn't want to show up empty-handed to this party so I brought a handful of postcards I brought from home of CT scenery. They were super impressed with the pictures and at least acted honored to receive them. I almost felt silly giving them, but it was all I had. Carol did keep her promise though and yelled happy birthday to me, before giving me a gift on behalf of her family--a traditional Chinese fan with a picture of a famous painting on it. Very cool!

I was sorry to have to rush off, but excited because I was going to meet up with Steven, Kelly, Diana, and Meggie for a little birthday dessert. We were going to go out, but Meggie surprised Kelly and I with a pretty amazing chocolate cake. Despite being half asleep from their conference, they trekked all the way to my apartment for cake and presents which was awesome. All in all, it was a really fun day and I appreciate everyone making an effort both here and abroad. I will certainly remember 25 for a long, long time.

Attached is a link to a couple pictures from the weekend. There aren't too many and they're all annoyingly stamped with the incorrect date but whatever. Without further ado, pics from Ari & Kelly's birthday, 2005!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/1409556/