Dinner with the prof.

A couple of weeks ago, my history professor invited myself and a few classmates out to dinner. The restaurant, he told us, was a peasant-owned place that he and his friends like to visit. Although it wasn't in Chengdu proper, it was still worth the drive.

We arrived at the restaurant only to find that our dinner companions had been waiting for us for over two hours. We sat down and dinner was promptly put on our table. We ate like kings; Mr. Zhou wasn't lying when he said this place was good. We ate pancakes, various plates of vegetables, meat, and of course, pig ears (what meal would be complete without it?) My classmate Deborah had assured me they were "crunchy, but good." They were crunchy, but not in a way I would call good. I can only describe it like eating a piece bacon with a sliver of cartilage through the middle. The Chinese are into eating the fatty portions of the meat, and I think cartilage falls into the same category. It was weird, but good.

After dinner we were taken to a majhong parlor/bar where we sat around a table and ate sunflower seeds while trading stories of America. One of my professor's friends, a lawyer, had just returned from a twenty day trip to the States. From what I gathered the entire trip was conducted Chinese style, meaning they transversed nearly a dozen cities in twice as many days. I did gain one cultural insight that is worth repeating. Everywhere we go we are subject to the Chinese picture torture. That is, if you go to a tourist destination, you will be the unwilling object of many pictures. If the photographer is feeling especially polite, they may even ask you before they start taking pictures of you and with you. Sarah, my roommate has a whole collection of these pictures. It's hard to explain without having actually been there, but needless to say it's weird. Anyway, this Chinese lawyer had a collection of "foreigner was here" pictures. With each picture he would voice the caption for us, making his random people pictures just a bit more understandable.

"This picture was of a beautiful woman. I really liked her hair. Here's a picture of some American college students. Notice how they carry such heavy backpacks... Here's a picture of a couple sitting on a park bench. See, they don't even flinch when I stand near them..."

We spent a couple of hours at the mahjong hall/bar before heading back to Chengdu. On the way out, on of my classmates said sarcastically "that's all?" The meaning of this short sentence was: "that was fun. Let's go home, I had a great time." It was interepreted by the Chinese as "We haven't had enough yet. Let's go to another bar."

We thought we were headed back to Chengdu and a restful night. Instead, we were on our way to a seedy bar on the outskirts of the city. The lawyer ordered a cheap bottle of whisky, and we sat in the bar listening to bad Chinese music until the bottle was empty. The food here in China is great, the alcohol is not so much.