ok adam

So yesterday ended my first full week as a teacher. I really think it went well. Yes, of course there were some annoyances and issues which i've already addressed in here, but I would say that for the most part, it wasn't bad. And I've been told that it only gets easier...until midterms.

So what better way to round out the week than with a banquet for all the teachers at the school to celebrate Teacher's Day? We had such a great time at the last banquet that we were pretty psyched about having another one so soon. And luckily for us, the seating chart remained mostly the same.

So we left school at 4:30 and got to the hotel-place that it was at in Pudong within the hour. In case you don't know, Pudong is the newer part of Shanghai, located on the other side of the river from where I live. It takes about 40 minutes to get there...and if you look at pictures of Shanghai and see the Pearl Tower and stuff, that's in Pudong. Last night was the only time i've been over there since we arrived at the Pudong Airport.

So I'd say the best thing about these banquets is the free-flowing Tiger beer. Although the food hasn't been bad, the beer definitely keeps everyone happy and entertained. Especially when you aren't sure what the hell it is you're tasting. For example, when we arrived there were already a few dishes on the lazy susan. Most of it was pretty recognizable (and by recognizable I mean in the sense that you could tell what was meat and what was a vegetable. This is important, because it's not always that easy to tell), except for one interesting dish. I mean, look at it. What do YOU think it is? I honestly had no idea. Some people at the table suggested that it was jellyfish, so I immediately picked up a piece with my chopsticks and put it on my plate. I put it in my mouth and started chewing, thinking that I didn't expect jellyfish to have that sort of exceptionally chewy texture. Then Lucien, who was sitting next to me, started talking about how it wasn't jellyfish. He said that one time someone told him it was cabbage, so he put a lot of it on his plate...and then they started pointing to their elbows and knees and saying 'ok, cabbage, oh wait, i mean cartilage." At this point I was still trying to chew whatever it was that was in my mouth...and as soon as I heard the word 'cartilage' it made much more sense. I tried to ignore it but the idea of swallowing this huge piece of flavored cartilage made my stomach turn. So for only the second time since I've been here, I discretely spat it out onto my plate. It just wasn't happening. I also ate some cow stomach, which really wasn't bad at all. I would have preferred not to know it was stomach, but they gave it a sort of spicy flavor and it was fine. One piece of it was more than enough though.

So as they kept bringing out the food, they also kept bringing out the beer. And when the principal of the school comes around to the table, you have to toast to him. So needless to say, everyone was getting pretty ridiculous as the dinner went on. I personally enjoyed it when they brought out a plate of pigeon. And not just the body, either. Look closely. What is that thing near the top of the plate? Oh right, it's THE HEAD OF THE PIGEON. We were a bit taken aback to see that the head was included on the dish. I was sort of intrigued by the fact that they were serving pigeon at all, considering how disguting I find the creatures to be. Maybe they weren't really 'pigeons' but some sort of game hen or something...but they look like pigeons to me. So I mentioned the free-flowing alcohol and now the addition of an entire pigeon, with detachable head. I mean...what did they expect to happen? I know that some of the other teachers at the more cultured tables actually split the head open and ate the brains. I'm sure it was delicious. Actually, I know many of them are regretting it today, as they have become very sick...although it's questionable as to whether or not they're sick from the pigeon brains or the beer. Either way...sucks for them.

Our table, on the other hand, chose to have some fun with it. Maybe this was poor manners. Maybe this was barbaric. Maybe it could even be considered offensive. But man, it was a good time. So, considering the fact that we did this to that adorable little pigeon head, it shouldn't be too surprising that when Mr. Zhu asked for 2 volunteers to play a game on stage in front of the 300+ people at the banquet, I volunteered Shannon and she volunteered me. He told us that we were going to be playing a game of 'telephone' with some of the other teachers...that game where you stand in a line and pass along a message from the previous person, until the last person has to guess what the original message was. That would have been fine. Turns out, we had actually just volunteered each other for a charades-type telephone game. Rather than passing along a message through speech, we had to mime it to the next person. That's right. All I can say is that I was incredibly thankful for the Tiger at that point because there's no way I would have been ok with getting up in front of 300 people I didn't know to play a game I'd never heard of and mime an unknown action. Turns out that I thought the action that the Chinese teacher acted out for me was 'blowing bubbles.' So I mimed out blowing bubbles for Shannon...and then we found out at the end that it was actually 'eating noodles.' We sucked, and everyone laughed at us. It was totally surreal and I still sort of can't believe we got talked into it. Then all of a sudden the banquet was over...but I think everyone was too drunk to even really notice or care. We just continued on our merry way to the bar, full of cartilage, pigeon, and Tiger beer. Can't wait for the next banquet.

***if you want to see more pictures from the banquet, etc...go to kodakgallery.com and use my gmail email address and the password 'snowdome.'