Saturday, September 29, 2007

dance off?

I, for one, never imagined being embroiled in a dance off. It brought images of Britney and Justin (albeit when they were a bit more innocent) dancing for respect in some L.A. nightclub.

A few weeks ago, that all changed. After dining (and drinking, of course) I met a man and a woman at the restaurant who wanted to drink with me. He was a banker from Yinchuan, and she was a teacher in Yanchi. We played drinking games, took pictures, then my friends and I left for the KTV bar downtown.

The man and the woman were invited, and we were soon dancing all together. The great thing about dancing with the Chinese is the complete lack of self-consciousness that abounds. They are not dancing to be seen, they are dancing to dance. It's a lot of fun.

Soon everyone had sat down except the banker and me. We were both dancing furiously, and it had begun to take on quite an aggressive feel. By the end, when I sat down to rest, I was hustled outside by friends, and we walked home.

It was told to me then that I had been involved in a dance off. Unbeknownst to me, the woman had taken a liking to me, and to defend his honor, the banker had been, to quote Michael Sambell0, "Dancing like [he] never danced before." Clearly, the rhythm of my Anglo-American body put him quickly to rest, but it was a good contest. I'm just glad my friends got me out before we experienced the results.


ps-This picture is not of the banker and I, but of Zhang Bo, a good friend.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

wow...hiatus. and soda.

I figure at this point no one is reading this blog, and for good reason...not posting in a month in a half (two months?) will wreak havoc on a person's readership. But some things I have come across recently need to be commented on.

One of the first happened when I went out the country for a celebration with the director of my company. I'm often dragged along so the clients can see that this organization has real clout. I mean, what more could you ask for than a big (for China) bearded foreigner? As the festivities began, things were traveling along the same old path. Baijiu and beer were produced, and the jinging (or showing respect by toasting the person and both of you drinking) began. Then the games began.

This is where things took a turn for the weird. We were drinking with a few people from my organization, and probably 8 farmers, half men, half women. The women, instead of drinking baijiu or beer, procured liter bottles of soda (Future Cola, an even nastier version of Coke), and proceeded to drink that.

Now at first, I enjoyed seeing the use of such a vile beverage (second only to baijiu) as a punishment. It seems to me that a drink with that much sugar should only be used for such a teeth rotter of a torture. But as the night went on and these women farmers drank more and more of it, I began being unable to imagine drinking that much soda. At a certain point, they called over their children to help them out. It was bizarre to seeing kids helping their parents out in a drinking game, but they enjoyed it. But only up to a point. After two glasses of sugary goodness?, he decided he'd had enough and refused to drink more. Score one for health.

Things in China have been going well, and I'm sorry that I haven't been writing. But life is good. In less than 2 months I'll be back in the States. I already miss it.