This post is a little old actually the banquet I will describe here is actually from before the most recent two banquets. For the first several weeks here I was pretty much the only westerner. There were Roy and Olga around somewhere but they seem mostly concerned with there own things and are a lot older than me, though they seem like nice people. It was much harder than I thought it would be though to go so long without talking to other foreigners. There comes a point where you see something crazy, or amazing, or even just really unique to China and I very much want to turn to someone and say "you saw that too right?" Ma Ming had told me a long time ago that there was going to be another foreign teacher around my age in Alaer but there were some issues with his visa so even a week or so before he came it looked like he might not be able to come. But finally in the middle of September Ma Ming announced he would be arriving really soon. I was never exactly sure how to pronounce his name, I'm still not 100% on it but he just asked people to call him Slav.
Just as I thought when I looked his name up it is Polish in origin, though he's British. He's actually taught in China for a couple of years going back to Britain in between to get a masters in Ancient Chinese History. I asked him why he came all the way out here and he said that it had a lot to do with studying a version of Manchu, the language spoken in the last Empire, that was still used in some remote parts of Xinjiang. He seems like a nice guy overall and it's just nice to have someone else around who I can talk to. He actually hasn't started classes yet since most of his students are freshmen who have been doing military training. As soon as he arrived there was a banquet for him, which he was a little tired for having just flow from England via Russia. It was around noon and even though it was the middle of the day Ma Ming insisted on us drinking Baijou. It's not that I had a ton of stuff to do that day, or even that compared to later we drank that much Baijou, it's just as soon as you start drinking Baijou the rest of the day is ruined. I had to go take a nap after, even though I don't like naps I just couldn't stay awake and by the time I got up it was almost time to go to bed again.
2 comments:
I'm judging from the photo that you look slightly drunk. Nice pic though!
I think all of our friends back here have also learned this lesson about not drinking baijou from the bottles you brought back. Good times.
Post a Comment