A wedding out our window...

I feel a bit under dressed. I stand here with my unshowered desheveled hair and pajamas only to see that there is quite the celebration right outside our window! I assumed that it was a traditional Chinese wedding with all the red clothing, the hanging box, and dancing dragons in the front. As they played their music and marched around the apartment, I ran back and forth like a little kid thinking they were going to throw me candy. When they were nearing the back of our apartment, I got so caught up in hanging out the window (1st floor by the way) to catch it on video, that I didn't even realize the group of people just staring at me. Once I realized, I thought to myself "Oh there is never a moment we Americans don't get stared at". But then I suddenly rememebered my attire. My hair....is sticking up everywhere.....my face...still has imprints of the bedsheet.....my clothes.....mixmatching with holes! Yikes! That's what they are staring at! Well, I still think it was worth it for the video I was able to capture. Wish it wouldn't take an eternity to upload.

Noodle Dancing

At first glance, it appeared to be an aproned man performing a ribbon dance. Yet amidst the cheering and applaud you discover this stretching/flinging/twirling thing to be one long noodle! An edible one at that, soon to be dropped into a boiling pot in the center of the table. This my friends, was quite the experience...dinner WAS the show!

We were out celebrating at an upscale hotpot restaurant for a friend's birthday. I have never been waited on with such persistency in my life. Personal aprons for the "noodle splash-back" hot rags that were promptly delivered when yours got cold, people stationed in the bathrooms to lotion your hands, and even a free ticket to get your nails done while you were waiting! While we enjoyed being waited on hand and foot, we were entertained by the noodle dancing and laughter with good friends. What a joy it was to all get out together again....it's been way too long.

This guy is getting ready to wind up and trick Amber and Rachael....look at their faces in this picture (this is before he decides to fling the noodle inches from their eyes).

And this is after he flung it right in front of them....and I captured it! We laughed at this picture for quite some time after that moment.

Laughing about something....not sure what....most likely something to do with noodles.

Now that I got out and socialized, its back to the books to prepare for the last and final stretch of the year...the 4th quarter! There will be many adjustments come Monday when my classes will be much larger than before. I have to keep telling myself "If I could do 20 students last year, I can handle it for just one quarter now."