Maybe it would have helped if I was a girl scout…

November is full of birthdays. Today we have: Hayley turns 21!!! Congrats to the founder of the Shanghai Shorts, member of Team EXTREME, and stories such as "China is good." I only wish I could be a fly on the wall of that party. Now for today's story...

I’ve reached a point where I don’t question things that seem completely outrageous. Kids with slits in the backs of their pants and no diapers, no problem. Cab drivers who will drive on the other side of the road to get you to where you are going but not drive the extra 150 feet because it’s tough to park. And my favorite from Thursday that has slapped me in the face and reminded me not to leave anywhere unprepared.

There is an international conference on printing and publishing that was being held at another USST campus. I knew vague details about it when Hagel said that he had to do some activity associated with the conference. That was fine with me; I planned on working in the evening. We decided to go for supper when he got a phone call from one of the grad students and said that he had to leave for the activity now instead of in two hours. He asked if I wanted to come and I said sure, thinking it was going to be something small.

We met Lissa, Hagel’s Chinese teacher who was helping coordinate the conference. She said that we would be going to an art reception and then had the option of going to a party for the volunteers of the conference afterwards. This was very interesting but I had just left my room thinking that I was going out to eat and then coming back to my room to work. This meant that I was drastically underdressed for where I was going. We were initially uncomfortable at this prospect, but then said that this is China and really par for the course. Strange situations pop up all the time. We arrived at the VIP room for the conference and I got to watch CNN for the first time it was marvelous!

When we were informed that it was time to go, I still was pretty clueless on what we were doing. But as the guest assembled in the lobby, I again felt woefully underdressed. The grad student that was with us also had no idea what we were supposed to be doing. We arrived at the other campus and went into the reception hall. This went well and we milled around with the other guests looking at the art work. This was printing and publishing, so there were many books, CD art, and plans for making t-shirts. If they were for art sake or for commercial purposes still remains unclear to me. The plus side to being one of the few Western people was that the other student volunteers (different ones than I was supposed to meet later) thought I was a guest and treated me as such. I had a glass of Chinese wine (not too bad) and some strange cake that I believe was akin to strawberry but cannot be sure. We listened to the dean of the college give a short speech and then milled around for a bit longer.

My highlight of the reception was a true demonstration that the smile and nod was universal. I was looking at a display and this Chinese man in a suit comes up and talks to me, only in Chinese. I understood the first few sentences, we did a toast, and then I couldn’t understand anything. I told him the students work was beautiful and he thanked me for coming. I couldn’t believe that it worked.

Shortly after that, the student who brought us said we could leave and go to the volunteers’ party. This was a mighty relieve to both of us. The exhibition was nice and the people were fine, but I haven’t been a fish out of water like that in a while. The party was at a Brazilian BBQ place, which Hagel has dubbed “the lazy man’s buffet” as they bring the meat right to your table. The food was good but the company was better. It was a bunch of the volunteers from the foreign language college that had served as translators. They were already in full swing when we arrived. We talked in a mix of Chinese and English and capped of the night with several entertaining acts. Everyone did something from singing a medley of songs, telling jokes, reading poetry, to making letters 1-10 and letters A-Z with our bodies.

It was a fun night and just another chance to say “Such is life in China.” I’m getting close to halfway here, but on the bright side I actually have my glasses and they don’t look half bad.

On another note, I get asked many questions about American at English Corner. The only problem is that I am the one talking for two hours. So I need your help to come up with questions for the Chinese students about them, their lives, all things Chinese. You can either post them to the Blog or email me at shanna_gratton@hotmail.com Thanks for the help, I’m going to return the questions and make them talk for the whole time.