What's Making Me Happy!

I pack my bag last night preflight
Zero hour 9 AM (actually, I've got until 9:30 to get out the door and head to the train station - must run!)

 
Bon chance et Bon voyage 

I got back in time for lunch.  XiangTan (yes, I finally got the name of the place) is only about 3 hours away by HSR.

The first evening, we were seeing a few sponsored students in one of the teachers office areas in a high school.  As we were leaving, I saw a few faces poking out a classroom door.  I stepped a little closer and waved.  The teacher didn't seem to object (and some helpful colleagues already had phones out to take pics and were shoving me forward), so I went in.

One girl had a full scale fan girl meltdown (in English!).  "Ican'tbelieveit'saforeigner!  I'veneverseenoneandhavealwayswantedtotalktoone!  Whatsyourname? CanIshakeyourhand?" and on and on.  I talked to her quite a bit, answered some questions, shook everyone's hand. (Except the teacher disappeared.  She probably decided this was a good time to grab a snack.)  Finally I escaped after giving about half a dozen autographs.

(Remind me to tell you about my "magic chop" next week. I just epent a few hours catching up on work and have a bunch of other things I need to do.)

About the magic chop.  My first full scale kid swarm had second graders shoving notebooks and pens at me wanting autographs.  Of course, the pens were point first, so not only did I get jabbed, but I also had ink marks all over my arms.

So, I arranged to get a self-inking chop made with my name (in English and Chinese) and a short line in Chinese telling them to study hard.

Every time I remembered to have it with me, NO ONE wanted an autograph.  But, when I didn't have it with me, I'd get at least one swarm coming in for autographs.

In Xiangtan, I forgot it on day 1, so had to sign by hand the first evening.  I put it in my pocket the next day.  Several autograph-free swarms happened and finally on the last day, I got to use the chop with some high school students.

So, for good or bad, the magic chop that prevents children from wanting autographs has lost its ability (or was just overrun by so many students).

I'm doing a separate post for this.

While I was in Xiangtan, one of my favorite sponsored students FINALLY picked her wedding date.  The wedding party in her village was held on Sunday, November 26th.  My darling wife and I jumped on a train on Saturday to attend our dear niece's wedding.  By odd coincidence, it turned out that the groom is from Xiangtan.

The groom was Han, but he couldn't escape the challenges to pass the Miao red ribbon.  (Yes, there's a red ribbon between the bride and her family and the grooms family.)  He was allowed to ask his relatives to do some of the challenges, but had to do the pushups, some drinking, handing out bribes hong bao to the bridesmaids himself.  I think he borrowed one of the bride's relatives for one of the singing challenges, since she ended a song in a way I've only ever heard Miao do.  His first cousin impressed everyone by opening a beer bottle with her teeth and chugging the whole thing for one of the other challenges. 

The bulk of the women on both sides wore traditional Miao clothing (one of my niece's family had a pile of spare outfits that were made available).  Even Mrs. Lunatic dressed up.

The wedding meals (a late breakfast around 10 and a mid-afternoon meal) both featured beer and baijiu.  Those were held in another relative's courtyard.

There was another party at the groom's house on Monday, but sadly I was on a train getting back to DG.  I needed to get back to work today.  Also, His Imperial Majesty wasn't feeling well when we left and my daughter checked him into the vet's office on Saturday morning.  Happily, the vet was ready to give him back on Monday, so we grabbed him on the way back home.

I glanced at my watch this morning.  Something about the date caught my attention.  Could it really have been 17 whole years ago.

On December 6, 2006, I was on a one way flight to Hong Kong, followed by a bus ride to Dongguan China.  That was the first of 3 expeditions to China before I moved here permanently.

How time flies, my friend. Glad you're here.