Recently, I've found my Chinese to be getting much much better. I'm beginning to be able to explain a story or an experience to my host family only having to use my dictionary for a few choice words. I've also found that there are several very simple subject areas where I can hold a pretty good conversation. These subject areas mostly have to do with introducing myself and meeting someone else. I can now explain where I am from, what I like to do, and explain why I am in China. I can then understand the person I am talking to when I ask them the same questions. There are other areas where I am becoming quite comfortable speaking Chinese, but I've found that I can hold a pretty smooth conversation within these areas.
This week I had the opportunity to meet my Chinese brother and sister's co- workers. They have different jobs so I met their co- workers on separate occasions. My sister works at an army hospital. So she is a part of the army. Meeting her co- workers was very interesting for me especially when I found out that all of her co- workers and her boss who was present are party members. It was cool to just hang out with them and eat and drink. They want to take me out to KTV sometime. I think that would be a ton of fun, however the one worry I would have would be the amount of alcohol I may be forced to consume. In China, if someone toasts then you must drink with them (it's considered a bit rude not to), and if they say ganbei, that means you have to finish what is in your glass. haha My Chinese sister's boss particularly enjoyed ganbei's and we were at lunch... So naturally I would guess he would drink even more in a KTV type of situation. So while I would be wary of this situation, I think I would fair fine because I've got the foreigner card for not understanding customs if I stopped doing the ganbei's, and then I could always make up an excuse and say I'm sick. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to say I've drank enough and I don't want to get drunk. That card doesn't seem to trump Chinese people's insistence on you drinking. I'm really excited to hopefully get to talk to my Chinese sister and her co- workers about how the party works once my Chinese is pretty good. To foreigners, the party is very much a mystery. The only in we really have understanding the process in which decisions are made come from the documents of government meetings leading up to the Tiananmen Square Massacre. We just read a few of those in Government and Politics class.
Meeting my brother's co- workers was quite similar to meeting my sister's co- workers. We met them at dinner and ate, and through the process of many toasts put a bit of a dent in the boxes upon boxes of alcohol that my family has left over from the wedding. Fortunately I didn't have to make up any excuses to not drink as none of my brother's friends like to drink too much and therefore didn't envoke any ganbei's. The dinner with my brother's co- workers was more or less an introduction of his new wife to them. So it was cool to once again, just as at the wedding, see my brother run between three tables toasting and visiting with everyone present.
Thursday night, despite having class the next day, two friends and I went out salsa dancing. Originally the plan was for the group to be much larger. One of our friends continues to lose weight here in China and has had a lot of trouble putting any back on, and she's dipped into a weight that doctors here consider to be dangerous. So she has decided upon her parent's and a few doctor's prompting to go back home. Originally we were going out to spend time with her, but she ended up deciding to go back to the IES dorms after dinner, taking several of our other friends with her. This depleted our numbers to three. Despite the small numbers it was a great time and my salsa improved quite a bit with the help of an instructor at the club. So much fun!
That brings me to this weekend. I tried to plan a surprise going away party for Hanna, but her friends that are closer to her than I am told me that she probably wouldn't appreciate it as she doesn't really want to call attention to herself. I wasn't told not to have it until after I'd already sent out an e-mail to all of IES. This situation presented two really cool opportunities. One was seeing how tight knit our study abroad program is. I sent out the e- mail and immediately had people to help and was told by many people that it was a really cool idea, and they were really looking forward to it. The other cool opportunity came in canceling the party. Having received complement's on the idea there was a selfish part of me that didn't want to cancel the party. So having to cancel it gave "Dad" an opportunity to humble me to his will. All take all of those opportunities. I love seeing "dad" increase in my life, and me decrease.
Well, I love all of you and hope you're doing well!
Yours,
Colton
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