(Sorry this first post took so long--I've been really tired from the time change and just really busy in general...ill try to be more faithful)

I’m finally here in China! It has truly been a whirlwind of an experience right from the get go. The moment I stepped on the Air China flight, I was no longer part of the majority, but rather a 外国人(waiguo ren)，that is, a foreigner. Upon arriving, I had difficulty filling out the arrival card for the immigration checkpoint, having lost both my plane ticket and the address of where I would be staying. I sought out an employee and asked in Chinese: “请您可以帮我一下吗?”(qing nin keyi bang wo yi xia ma?), essentially asking for help. Apparently my simple question had given her the impression that I could in fact speak Chinese, and I was immediately met with a barrage of lightning fast Chinese. Shaking off the deer-in-headlights look from my face, I managed to figure things out in extremely broken Mandarin. Finally meeting up with my host mother, Helen, I took my first steps out into big bad Beijing. After a quick meal at a vegetarian restaurant we returned to their beautiful apartment and I fell fast asleep.

 

Anyway, today was quite an experience. I woke up around 4:45 because I couldn’t sleep from the time difference. Helen had told me that at some point today we would be attending a Chinese wedding, and I was really excited. I threw on some clothes and flip flops, and then the four of us (Helen, her husband Leo, her son Louis, and I) went out to Cantonese-style breakfast. It was by far the most elaborate breakfast I have ever eaten—mango and papaya porridge, shrimp dumplings, vegetable dumplings(教子),  cream puffs, custards, tropical fruits that I had never seen, among various other dishes I couldn’t describe—the table was covered. Walking out the door of the restaurant, I was informed that we would be going directly to the wedding from breakfast—I guess something must have gotten lost in translation, otherwise I probably would have thought to wear more than cargo shorts, a polo, and flip flops…(thankfully, as it turns out, Chinese weddings typically require much less formal attire, and my choice of clothing didn’t draw too much attention. However, the fact that I was the only non-Chinese person present did attract an intrigued stare from just about every person at the wedding)

 

Now, the last time I was at a wedding, I was young enough that I can hardly recall any specific details. Nonetheless, I can assure you, today’s wedding was COMPLETELY different than any I, and perhaps you may have been to. When I say different, I mean: fog machines, people dressed as angels walking around with candles, bubble machines, and an aisle lined with contraptions that started shooting sparks in the air when the bride and groom began walking towards the front. (I really wish I hadn’t forgotten my camera at home, it was quite a spectacle). Incessant jokes made by the MC, coupled with several impromptu singing performances from toddlers who stole his microphone filled the event with laughter and light-heartedness. After the bride and groom exchanged rings, and then kissed for as long as the audience continued clapping, they started to make their way around the room, stopping at each table of people.  As per tradition, they took a shot of rice wine with every guest present (that is, hundreds). A little confused as to how they were able to walk in a straight line after all the wine, I later found out that usually they simply take shots of water and pretend that it’s actually wine!  Though certainly not the type of wedding I’m accustomed to, I found it to be an exciting way to celebrate the union of two people.

 

Following the wedding, Helen brought us to her parents’ house because she had forgotten her set of keys for the apartment and had to wait for Leo to bring them. We started to walk through the gates into the neighborhood where her parents live, but I was suddenly stopped and told that I wasn’t allowed in under any circumstances. The neighborhood is guarded by military personnel, and for some reason foreigners are strictly forbidden to enter. Helen did what she could to reason with the guard, but eventually she went inside with Louis to drop him off with her parents, and then she and I went and sat in a teahouse while we waited. I found the whole situation far more intriguing than offensive. I had never been the subject of any kind of inhibiting racial discrimination in my life, and this gave me a real perspective about how people within even our own country face this in varying degrees on a daily basis.

 

Later on, we went with another family to go walk through the botanical gardens and throw around a Frisbee. It was incredibly beautiful, but I still didn’t have my camera with me, so I’ll talk about it later on when I have pictures to go with it.

 

Tomorrow is my fist day at my internship, and I will be working at a Chinese film production company that is called the “China Film Group Corporation”, so I will have more to talk about after that. Thanks for reading all of that if you did! I promise my posts won’t be all this long., and they will also feature more pictures. Goodnight!

 (P.S. if the formatting of my posts is kinda screwed up i'm sorry, for some reason I can only edit my blog and not actually see it, so i have no idea what it actually looks like)