deep stuff: China Trip: Saturday, 22 July 2006

8:00am
Today a few of us went to the Evergreen Lake – a tourist attraction in Heyuan. The water was very clean and super-green in colour. The unusual thing was that there was no fishy smell. Natural spring water, it was. We went on a cruise on the lake, a Flying Fox (¥25 = ~$4.46), and to a water park.

There were some performances on a stage too, showcasing various traditional Chinese songs and dances. The final performance was a wedding ceremony. Somehow my friends (team-mates – Iris, Megan, Tiong Kam; students – Effi, Agent, Jing, Nix, Richer; and teaching assistant Felix) volunteered me to go to the stage to be the bridegroom. I was asked to do some weird Chinese dancing and poses. Then the ceremony: bowing to the audience, to the back and to each other. Then the unveiling: the bride looked pretty cute, but I think she was probably around 30-ish. After all Chinese people do look younger than they are! To finish off we drank some Chinese rice-wine “intertwined-arms” style. I was given a “Kissing Pigs” toy for my part in the performance. Okay, so I was married…for 5 minutes.

Married…happily?

12:00pm
We went to some expensive looking restaurant and ate very fresh fish and seafood for lunch (¥500 = ~$89.29). Felix was adamant that he wanted to pay for it!! We found out later the students all split the costs – and they wanted to bless us teachers.

4:00pm
We planned a “High Tea” celebration, which I found out when it happened, that it was an advanced birthday celebration for me! What a surprise! The cake we had was a 2-tiered sponge – with lots of “cream” (it didn’t melt nor was it fatty – some sort of vege oil, I think). It looked fantastic – definitely a birthday to remember.

Double-tiered sponge cake

(standing) Fong Peng, Annie, Ivy, Jenny, Agent, Tiong Kam, Felix, Liny, Richer, Elin, Iris, Pastor Huang’s wife;
(sitting) Kat, Effi, me, Megan, Canaan

5:00pm
We went shopping (again) and I had finally bought some stuff: 2 sweatbands (¥36 = ~$6.43), a Giordano T-Shirt (¥50 = $8.93) and another 2 T-shirts (¥30 = ~$5.36).

8:00pm
Yum-Cha was usually served at night, from 8:00pm onwards. There were about 24 of us, including the TAs.

Lots of food, things most people in Australian won’t eat…

Canaan, Melissa and Ivy

I did the usual thing of attention seeking: throwing pieces of fruit and catching it with my mouth. I didn’t realise, but on the last one, half the restaurant was looking this way… ~_~! A highlight I managed to capture on camera: Sam-Sam wanting one of Elin’s bracelets.