The school was asked by the wenzhou city government if their 'foreign experts' as we claim to be, would like to go to a Christmas meal in wenzhou with a load of other foreign 'experts'.
We accepted but heard no more information than the day and that the school would send a car to pick us up.
On the day chris and I dressed it a shirt but still jeans and trainers went out in the afternoon and met the driver who came with us to wenzhou last time, and we know fairly well.
We arrived at the wenzhou Shangri la hotel, definitely one of the nicest and most expensive wenzhou hotels and as soon as a man held the car door open for me I knew I should have worn a tie. As soon as we were led into the spacious and art covered reception and registration area along with 300 or so other guests I then knew I should have worn a suit. But then I dont have a suit so I guess who cares! At least we were comfortable!
Elaine came along as our minder and friend and after some general milling around and meeting some people from other tables, surprisingly also all English teachers, we took our seats. On our seats was of course our complimentary gift of a glassware set for the kitchen, of which we of course have two... A random choice but a free Christmas present nonetheless!
At our table were us three from our school, 3 from dd dragon, one of which we knew already, and three from a school in rui an, another city near to ours! Along with the wenzhou education bureau head for our area.
The rui an guy and I got chatting (in Chinese) and he invitied us to go with him to climb a mountain and see rui an sometime. A very nice man, his English teacher was from the phillipines and her English was a little...limited, and she was very quiet.
Before the show got started the major of wenzhou went to each table to thank us for coming along with various other important people, so we got to cheers with them, also friendly people, before they shot off.
The meal itself was served with the usual eclectic mix of random music and dance shunted back to back with street dance following an orchestra, followed by a flute solo followed by a kindergarden performance followed by a pianist, games, a raffle and other craziness.
The food was ok, a little fish heavy and not the best but the roast duck was especially meaty and tasty.
After the meal and a few glasses of wine, in the traditional Chinese custom, everyone left, no straggling dance going on for hours just a start, a middle, and an end. The driver took us home ready to teach the first class again tomorrow!
Not bad for a free dinner though, and nice to see a really posh hotel!
We accepted but heard no more information than the day and that the school would send a car to pick us up.
On the day chris and I dressed it a shirt but still jeans and trainers went out in the afternoon and met the driver who came with us to wenzhou last time, and we know fairly well.
We arrived at the wenzhou Shangri la hotel, definitely one of the nicest and most expensive wenzhou hotels and as soon as a man held the car door open for me I knew I should have worn a tie. As soon as we were led into the spacious and art covered reception and registration area along with 300 or so other guests I then knew I should have worn a suit. But then I dont have a suit so I guess who cares! At least we were comfortable!
Elaine came along as our minder and friend and after some general milling around and meeting some people from other tables, surprisingly also all English teachers, we took our seats. On our seats was of course our complimentary gift of a glassware set for the kitchen, of which we of course have two... A random choice but a free Christmas present nonetheless!
At our table were us three from our school, 3 from dd dragon, one of which we knew already, and three from a school in rui an, another city near to ours! Along with the wenzhou education bureau head for our area.
The rui an guy and I got chatting (in Chinese) and he invitied us to go with him to climb a mountain and see rui an sometime. A very nice man, his English teacher was from the phillipines and her English was a little...limited, and she was very quiet.
Before the show got started the major of wenzhou went to each table to thank us for coming along with various other important people, so we got to cheers with them, also friendly people, before they shot off.
The meal itself was served with the usual eclectic mix of random music and dance shunted back to back with street dance following an orchestra, followed by a flute solo followed by a kindergarden performance followed by a pianist, games, a raffle and other craziness.
The food was ok, a little fish heavy and not the best but the roast duck was especially meaty and tasty.
After the meal and a few glasses of wine, in the traditional Chinese custom, everyone left, no straggling dance going on for hours just a start, a middle, and an end. The driver took us home ready to teach the first class again tomorrow!
Not bad for a free dinner though, and nice to see a really posh hotel!
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