Saturday, February 18, 2006
A CHINESE WEDDING
It has rained twice in the last 2 days. For a town where it is pretty dry year-round this is a nice change. Winter lasted 2 months and was mildly cold (but nothing compared to back home.) Now, it seems winter is over. It has been getting warmer and more pleasant, though it still gets cold at night. I really like the rain. It's one of the things I've missed the most from home. Now it's back. Hopefully for a while.
Friday afternoon, I recieved a call from my homestay family. I couldn't understand them, but i knew I heard "wedding" and "5 o'clock" so I put on my nicest clothes here and waited. At the entrance, the bride and groom (cousins of my homestay family) were standing outside greeting guests. They each held a tray of cigarettes, candy and peanuts to offer the guests. We went upstairs to a banquet hall with about 700 people. After sitting down near the front, the bride and groom entered in a shower of confetti. They stood on the stage and spoke for about 10 minutes. I didn't understand any of it, and it didn't look like there was a priest or government official leading the ceremony but after talking for 10 minutes, it was done and I guess they were officially married. To start the banquet the groom poured a bottle of Champagne over a pyramid of glasses symbolizing (I am making up what this means) overflowing prosperity for their marriage (it would mean something like that though.) We then ate.
The first course that came out was a turtle. It was whole and about the size of my head. I don't know what kind of turtle it was. I also had no idea how to eat it. It was whole, shell and all and I just had chopsticks. After being thoroughly amused, some of the young children at the table showed me what part to eat and how to eat it. It was tasty, but like all Yunnan food it was a bit too spicy. Other courses were fish, shrimp, duck, pork and some vegetable dishes. The food was really good and there were a lot of people, but aside for a girl in a wedding dress, I don't know I would've guessed it was a wedding.
It has rained twice in the last 2 days. For a town where it is pretty dry year-round this is a nice change. Winter lasted 2 months and was mildly cold (but nothing compared to back home.) Now, it seems winter is over. It has been getting warmer and more pleasant, though it still gets cold at night. I really like the rain. It's one of the things I've missed the most from home. Now it's back. Hopefully for a while.
Friday afternoon, I recieved a call from my homestay family. I couldn't understand them, but i knew I heard "wedding" and "5 o'clock" so I put on my nicest clothes here and waited. At the entrance, the bride and groom (cousins of my homestay family) were standing outside greeting guests. They each held a tray of cigarettes, candy and peanuts to offer the guests. We went upstairs to a banquet hall with about 700 people. After sitting down near the front, the bride and groom entered in a shower of confetti. They stood on the stage and spoke for about 10 minutes. I didn't understand any of it, and it didn't look like there was a priest or government official leading the ceremony but after talking for 10 minutes, it was done and I guess they were officially married. To start the banquet the groom poured a bottle of Champagne over a pyramid of glasses symbolizing (I am making up what this means) overflowing prosperity for their marriage (it would mean something like that though.) We then ate.
The first course that came out was a turtle. It was whole and about the size of my head. I don't know what kind of turtle it was. I also had no idea how to eat it. It was whole, shell and all and I just had chopsticks. After being thoroughly amused, some of the young children at the table showed me what part to eat and how to eat it. It was tasty, but like all Yunnan food it was a bit too spicy. Other courses were fish, shrimp, duck, pork and some vegetable dishes. The food was really good and there were a lot of people, but aside for a girl in a wedding dress, I don't know I would've guessed it was a wedding.
