Rosie and Tony's wedding!

Friends with Rosie on her wedding day!

Rosie and Tony got married this past Saturday, May 2. It was a beautiful, wonderful day, and we all had a great time.

I met Lily, another resident friend, at the main entrance to the hospital. She and I walked to the nearest Metro stop and then caught up with two other friends. We took the Metro as far out as we were able, to the outskirts of Chengdu. Then we took a taxi to the hotel where the wedding was being held. I use a lot of mass transit here in the city!

On the Metro with Lily and Jenny (and a friend of Jenny's).

Jenny and Lily with cards from friends. It is customary to purchase a red envelope and put cash inside for the couple (as a gift). Of course, you have to give an even number of bills--giving an odd number of bills is taboo.

Rosie and Tony were there to greet us. Rosie looked phenomenal! And they both appeared incredibly happy. They were happy to see us :)  I noticed that the Best Man was standing off to the side with a beautiful platter of...cigarettes. Yet another difference from the U.S. (where smoking indoors is banned in most locations. I was very spoiled in Iowa!). It seems that everyone here in China smokes... I digress.

Rosie and Tony with their Best Man, who was in charge of providing guests with cigarettes.

We then headed up to the fourth floor to mingle with other guests and drink hot tea. We found a dinner table near the stage on which they were to be married. The wedding ceremony was to take place during dinner, almost like a dinner theater (at least that is my analogy). The ceremony started at noon, and it was pretty short and sweet. I, of course, couldn't understand it, but during the exchange of rings, both Rosie and Tony both had tears in their eyes.

Rosie with her father. Tony had to get down on one knee and present her with her bouquet.

Exchanging vows. The lady in the fancy blue dress serves as a "hostess" (hired by them) and she talks them through the ceremony. She also sang a few songs at the end!

At the end of the ceremony, the couple had their parents come up on the stage and take a seat. The couple then presented each parent with a cup of tea, which they drank.

Maid of honor holding the platter of tea cups, while Tony presents a tea cup to his new father-in-law (drinking the tea on the left).

The lunch feast!
 

Immediately after the ceremony, the bride throws her bouquet (as in the U.S.). The groom throws these small red envelopes...

And inside is money! (This is 1 yuan, or about $ 0.15). Some envelopes were filled with much greater amounts :)

Afterwards, Rosie switched into a cute red dress and we all had fun and enjoyed our lunch. I was planning to leave after lunch with my other friends, but Rosie came over and told me she wanted me to stay "very late". I wasn't sure what this meant...



Liz and Rosie

We all sat down and had tea and talked. We watched others play poker and Mahjong, which is a very common post-wedding practice. The other guests just sat around and talked and drank tea. This all went on for several hours. The friends that I accompanied the wedding decided to leave, but Rosie wanted met to stay...



Guests playing Mahjong after the wedding.

Tony (far left) playing poker with his buddies.

Finally at about 6pm, they served us a delicious dinner. I have never seen so much food!  After dinner, Rosie asked me to go to the karaoke bar with the other wedding guests and her high school and college friends.

The dinner spread. It was delicious!



Hitching a ride to the karaoke bar.
 

Post-wedding karaoke fun!

The Chinese sure love their karaoke!

I ended up staying out until about 10:30, until some of her other friends were going to catch the Metro back into the center of Chengdu. I went with them (but the karaoke was still going on in full force). I was back to the hotel by 11:30 pm and was so tired! It was quite a day.

 

Policy on children in China

I ask many of my friends here about certain aspects of their culture. They know I am just intrigued and interested and not passing judgment. They actually really enjoy talking about certain aspects of their culture.

One such item is China's "one child" policy.

It used to be, that parents were only allowed to have one child (due to the huge population of 1.3 billion people). However, nowadays if both the mother and father are only children, then that particular couple may have two children. If you have over the number of allotted children, you are fined by the government and it is a sliding scale based on your income.

I think most of this is correct. I have verified amongst several friends, and they have all told me the same thing.

I wonder then, When Chinese people are dating, is it common to ask early on in the relationship, "So...how many siblings do you have?", with the entire purpose of the question being, "If we were to end up married, how many children could we have together?"

Many of my friends here (Cookie and Leo, for example) are only children married to only children. But interestingly, many of these friends still say that although they are eligible to have two children, they think one is enough!

Rainy Thursday evening in Chengdu

Tomorrow is a Chinese holiday: "International Labour Day", according to our Chinese-English dictionaries. At any rate...I don't have to go to work!

This evening I decided to chill in my hotel room. We had the most amazing rain storm roll through at about 6pm. It has been fun to sit here and do work while listening to it rain and watching the amazing lightening show!

Rainy evening

And this is just a super cute cat that lives in a nearby convenience store :) Although, he does have pretty dirty paws from the Chengdu pollution!

Surgery with Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu is my boss, and she is a phenomenal surgeon! I am actually learning a lot of cool new techniques/tricks from her. So fun!

I really enjoy her company. She has a great laugh and a good sense of humor :-)

Wedding gift FAIL

My friend Rosie and her fiancée Tony (the couple that took me out for Tex Mex last week) have invited me to their wedding this Saturday, May 2. I am excited to go!

Traditionally, you give the couple money (this was the same in Japan). In Japan, you were not to give an "even" number of bills (money is given in cash only) because they can be equally divided, and that is bad luck for the couple as it signifies that they can be "slit up or divided (divorced)". Apparently in China, it is the opposite--you don't want to give an "odd" number of bills, because that is bad luck. It is difficult to keep up with/learn all these cultural rules!

Well, I certainly planned on following Chinese custom and giving Rosie and Tony cash as a gift. But Mandy (chief resident) told met that Rosie might be embarrassed and wouldn't want me to give them cash. She said, "maybe just some small gift". I had the perfect gift in mind!

I ran back to my hotel room this afternoon and wrote out a beautiful card (handmade from Africa) for the lovely couple. I then went to my closet and pulled out a bamboo cutting board in the shape of Oklahoma. They both love to cook. It couldn't be more perfect for them, right? I purchased two off of Amazon prior to leaving the States.

I immediately looked at the tag to make sure there wasn't a price on it...and what should I see but... "Made in China".  So sad. Wedding gift fail. (I, of course, will still gift it to them just as soon as I tear off the "Made in China" part of the tag...).

A perfect gift for the couple who likes to cook...

 

Upon further inspection...

Duck blood

Cookie and Leo took me to dinner on Tuesday night. I had been feeling pretty sad since I learned that my grandfather had died. (Even though I knew it was coming, and sooner rather than later, it still took me by "surprise").

Me, Cookie, and Leo.

Cookie is so sweet and always thinking of others. We hopped on a cross town bus and then had delicious hot pot. They ordered mostly things I liked to eat (I told them I didn't care what they ordered, I would try it all, and pick around the things I didn't care for). Well, we got some free intestines (yay! It was some promotional gimmick), and Leo apparently LOVES duck blood, "It's his favorite!", said Cookie.

So, I present to you: congealed/coagulated duck blood.

Before cooking

After about ten minutes in the hot pot.

Recall, that Cookie and Leo are the couple that introduced me to the rabbit heads! And Leo, interestingly, is from Guanzhou (the third largest city in China, after Beijing and Shanghai--Chengdu is the fourth largest city in China). He likes to remind me (often) that in Guanzhou they eat: cat, dog, rat, snake, etc. I guess it ain't so bad here in Chengdu :)

Afterwards, they walked me back to the hotel ,and  we got some good exercise. It was a nice evening. Cookie and Leo accompanied me to the front desk of my hotel and helped do some translating regarding specific questions I had. (I am essentially completely unable to communicate with hotel staff).

Cookie also offered to let me use her washing machine! That is a huge blessing because there is not a Laundromat nearby. There is small place down the street that will do my laundry for me, but they speak no English. And I would just prefer to do it myself. Cookie and Leo live about a five minute walk from my hotel, so I will lug my clothes over to their place every once in awhile (I packed pretty lightly and I have been washing some things in the sink, so I am actually doing pretty well, considering I have almost been here a month!)

Cookie and Leo are so great! I am lucky to have them!

Biking in China

We really have been very busy in the eye clinics, doing lots of great work. Lots of surgeries, lots of clinic, and a lot of teaching. In regards to teaching, I try to do some hands-on teaching in the clinics (will post some photos next week after I get some better clinic photos). But I also have dedicated time every Wednesday afternoon in which I can teach about ophthalmology, and we can practice English. I think the residents really enjoy this time!

At any rate, I find myself wanting to blog more about "culture" and "interesting things" in China, rather than "eye stuff". Perhaps that is because, at this point, I have the eye stuff down pretty well (I guess three years of ophtho residency and a year of your own clinics do that! Of course there is always more to learn and experience to be had...)

So...more fun and culture stuff.

Yesterday (Sunday 4/26), Dr. Wu, Dr. Susan, and Cassie (one of the residents) took me to the outskirts of Chengdu to go biking! It was a beautiful day--just perfect. It took us about an hour to get to our destination (despite it not being that far distance-wise), but the traffic is incredible in this city, especially on a nice weekend day! I would be so nervous to drive here, but Dr. Wu did a great job. (I misspoke in an earlier post...Chengdu is about 14 million people, not 10 million.)

I must digress here and talk about the traffic for a moment. I am very amazed by the skill of the drivers here in Chengdu. They all know exactly where they are in regards to other cars, pedestrians, people on motorbikes, busses, etc. They know exactly how wide and how long their cars are. Thus, the traffic FLOWS and flows well, despite the sheer number of people using the roadway. It has best been described to me by the Chris (my Canadian friend from church) who said, "It works for them. It is like a school of fish that dart in and out of the group, but they all know where they are and they move as a unit...". Indeed, that was a great analogy. They just flow in and out, merge and exit, with very few accidents. (I have only seen one accident in my 3 weeks here, and I have been out and about quite a bit). They are incredibly good drivers.

Okay, back to biking. We went to a park and Dr. Wu rented bicycles for us. Of course there were no helmets...(which, in my family, is a major "no-no"). But, I knew we wouldn't be going fast, and we were biking in a park. We had a lot of fun, but my father, who was a "serious" bicyclist would have been horrified. The bikes were in disrepair, there were pedestrians and bikes fighting for the right of way, people stopping in the middle of the path for who knows what reason (mostly photos, I presume), children riding helmet-less standing up on the rear of the bike (small children). It was an accident waiting to happen! But, we did have a lot of fun, despite spending a massive amount of concentration trying to dodge all the road hazards! For how well the motorists "know their position" in relation to everyone else, the bicyclists had no clue!



Cassie, Dr. Wu, me. It was nice to see lots of green! (Yes, here we are stopped in the middle of the path for a photo...)

"Surprise!" This photo was inspired by my friend in Ohio, Julia. Dr. Wu thought this was hilarious and this was definitely her favorite photo of the day!



Cassie and Dr. Wu getting ready to roll!

Me and Cassie. She is so fun and kind. And as a bonus she speaks English really well :)

Afterwards, we went to a nearby restaurant and ate...what else?! Chinese hot pot. It was spicy and delicious, as always. There were a large number of ophthalmologists already there, and we joined their group.

Chinese Hot Pot, Sichuan style. Everyone dig in! (The chopsticks are especially long for these occasions so that you don't burn your hands when trying to grab your food.)

 

We finished out the afternoon by going to Dr. Fan's house. He was the former Chair of the ophthalmology position (a position now held by Dr. Wu). He has a very nice house on the outskirts of Chengdu. This was the first free-standing house I had seen! Almost everyone lives in apartments!

All in all it was a great day :)



Beautiful view in Dr. Fan's backyard.

Setting the table for tea in Dr. Fan's backyard.