The Chinese Banquet

One of the highlights of the past week, was when we were guests of honor at a traditional Chinese Banquet, with all its protocols and rituals. Although we tried to follow the proper etiquettes, we may have made a faux pas or two! Mr.Jiang, the Director of the Foreign Affairs Office, was our host, and we were joined by the FAO staff -- Xiao Yu, Han Lei, Holly, and Elsie.

A lovely, festive table awaited us in a private room at a fine local restaurant. The rituals and traditions were followed to a " T " (click here to read more about Chinese Banquets, if you wish). Among the delicacies on the table were some unusual (to Westerners) offerings. What do you think of eating butterfly cocoons, or fried silk worms, or the combs of roosters? After one or two rounds of a toast, or Gahm-bay, we actually gave these "delicacies" a try! (Thumbs up to the cocoons; not so for the silk worms. And the cock's combs were a bit chewier than we're used to!)

We are "getting into the swing" of classes, and adjusting to being here. There is much to do and see, and we are busy outside of class.

Some of the other events we participated in this week included:

~ We were invited to a session of an "English Corner," an out-of-class time when foreign language students meet and practice their speaking skills with foreigners. Many curiosities surfaced, as you can imagine, on the students' parts during this wonderful, informal setting.

~ We were special guests at a meeting of a "Management Club" one evening. The members were celebrating an achievement they were very proud of attaining. (It's still a mystery to us what that achievement actually was, but they sure were happy about it!) Entertainment activities included an apple-peeling contest, and another that required Jim and me to pick up pieces of apple from one container and place them into another container using our chopstick dexterity skills. (We did OK.)
Our reflection on this - 'Tis a gift to be simple!"

~ We received our official "Foreign Expert" identification passport. And opened our very own Chinese bank account, ATM and all. It was interesting to watch the teller use an abacus to validate the electronic figures the computer was displaying. No kidding!

~ We celebrated St. Patrick's Day (no green beer, but green bottles with regular beer in them) with other foreign teachers at the local Pizza Parlor. The pizza is really quite good, and not that far off from the traditional versions we are used to. I have worked out an arrangement with the owner, Sunny, who imports her products from the U.S. to include some extra olives and olive oil for us in her next delivery. Can't wait!

For further information......

For those of you with an appetite for more information on the exotic art of insect eating, here are a couple of interesting websites. I stumbled on them while searching for some recipes to try at home.

WARNING: These pages are not for those with delicate stomachs!!!

~ Edible Insects or, More Than You Ever Wanted to Know about Eating Bugs.
http://www.eatbug.com/

~ The Food Insects Newsletter
http://www.hollowtop.com/finl_html/finl.html

~ Insects as Human Food
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2160.html

~ Iowa State University's Tasty Insect Recipes
http://www.ent.iastate.edu/misc/insectsasfood.html

That's all for this week. Check back next week for more stories from China.

Thanks for visiting.

Anita and Jim

To be continued......

The Banquet Table

A Platter of Cocoons

Zibo City

The Dishwasher

Signs of Spring

Our Office away from Home

Note:
To enlarge and/or clarify these photos using Microsoft Photo Editor, right-click on the photo and save it to
a file, then open it as a jpeg with MS Photo Editor.