Dress Me Up and Make Me Dance! - by Chris Schave, CE Adviser in China

WOW, I’m really not sure how to describe my day. It has been pretty amazing. I woke up with a few new mosquito bites and wasn’t sure what was going to happen throughout the day. At breakfast we were informed that a few people from the local government wanted to come and meet us. Basically, it turned into a full-fledged party. The “local government” turned out to be some very high-ranking officials in the national government that wanted to hang out with us. One of the photographers turned out to be one of the highest-ranking people in the media sector of the government and I talked with him about possibly getting me a job after I graduate. He said, “no problem, you come here and marry the most beautiful Chinese girl.”

The whole thing was kind of a dog and pony show. We were the stallions. They even dressed us and made us dance around, but it was a blast.

Last year I wouldn’t have been able to tell you that I was going to Europe for the summer, and up until a couple months ago I had no idea that this was going to happen. I’m so glad that I stumbled upon Cultural Embrace and they set this up for me.

Back to today… I’m sure that the videos and pictures will tell more, but I had an interesting lunch and went rice wine (bie jui) shot for shot with the government officials. It was very interesting. For lunch we had a hot pot of organ meat. It sounds gross, but it was actually fantastic. I also had cured pigs lung, which was probably the best things that I have tried here. I’m still buzzing from the rice wine, so I will stop here, but today has been incredible.

Now it is later in the day and I have come down from my buzz. We had a Chinese lesson and a culture lesson. Thinking back to today, it was really crazy. The place we are staying in has a bar and a couple of the men that came brought some instruments. They played while we drank some beers and talked. I got to ride on a scooter that one of the girls that did the dance for us drove. I was joking, but she took me seriously and had me hop on the back. It was pretty sketchy, but I made it to the house safely. The lion dance is basically what you would think of when you see the dragon with people under it at a parade (see pictures). It was awesome. I got video of it too.

These people just get such a kick out of us being here. I really enjoy the old people in the village look at us with apprehensive eyes, then when we wave and say hi, they perk right up and wave back. The children always yell hello no matter how far they are from us. And, I’m apparently a giant here.

Oh, and I heard a mouse in the kitchen cupboard this, so I told the people here. An older lady that lives here tried to kill it with me. It was an unsuccessful attempt. It almost ran across my foot. Not cool!

I am going to start editing these pictures so I can get them posted.

Until next time…

For more pictures visit www.flickr.com/photos/cschave



Chris, Adviser Abroad in China

Cultural Embrace