(Terry)Even on the weekend, our days are full!
You already know that Team China and host siblings headed off on our glorious Saturday at West Lake – then one teacher and I separated from the younger folks after lunch. Michelle (Shen Liang) and I continued sauntering down the road that bordered West Lake, eventually stopping for a cup of tea; ultimately, we walked back up the road to attend a wedding banquet! William (Hu Kunling) will be coming to DS with this year's group of Hangzhou students, and he'd completely outdone all notions of good hosting by inviting me to join his wedding festivities. I changed out of jeans to a dress, and then Michelle and I watched part of the photo session for William and his new bride (Jiang Yijiao). Little did we know that they'd already spent days posing for a video which looped through most of the dinner, featuring bride-and-groom; this is apparently a feature of modern weddings (rather than the bride being carted about in a tiny sedan chair to her in-laws' home). The couple posed most romantically in a variety of (mostly outdoor) settings, and many heartfelt sayings in English were interspersed among the pictures, since William is an English teacher. The marriage was official once they had obtained their marriage license, but the "host" who acted as emcee for the banquet guided them through an exchange of wedding rings, and invited people to make several speeches offering good wishes to this glowing couple. We ate expansively (when does that ever not happen in China?), chatted much in English, and watched as the couple made their way from table to table: toasting their guests, and lighting a cigarette for the senior male guest at each table, who in return smoked with great gusto (even the non-smokers, it seems!) The bride changed her dress as the evening progressed, from her long white wedding gown with a lovely train, to a fitted long red gown, and finally to a short traditional silk dress (the one every single American female has ordered while in Hangzhou!) Talk about being made one of the family while I'm here!
On Sunday, Rose (Xu Hui, last year's teacher for the exchange) met me at 9:30, and we took a cab to the Hangzhou Botanical Garden. If anything, the weather was even more spring-like than the day before, and we chatted the day away while I sighed over the glorious garden setting. Many plants were labeled with Latin names, much to my delight, and I was able to learn the names of several trees that I'd seen on our travels. Of course, there were plum trees galore to enjoy, along with a koi-and-carp pool, numerous fountains, venerable pavilion structures, and uncountable vistas. Even though we shared the garden with thousands of families young and old, if felt like it belonged to us, too!
No comments:
Post a Comment