Within a week's time, we had arranged to meet him and go out to eat. Based on our previous experience in being invited to dinner with a random Chinese family, we knew that we should be ready for anything. We walked with him to the restaurant, and he explained that this restaurant was new in Cangzhou and was really special because it was all about representing Chinese history. The restaurant was very beautiful and each table was in a private dining room. Pretty fancy. They sat us at the head of the table, and as per usual, we had to explain that we didn't drink tea or alcohol. We found out that they don't drink alcohol or smoke either, and that is very unusual for a Chinese man. After everyone else arrived, we had a total of 8 people around a large circular table that included his wife and son, his "brother", his brother's wife, and his niece. It turns out they are not actually brothers but they have been friends for 20 years and are very close.
Everyone at the table was so excited to be eating a meal with 2 foreigners. They were very polite and very interested in us. The food was extravagant, unlike any we've seen in China yet, and I'm sure it was not cheap. Almost everyone at the table spoke a little English, which made our experience a lot more relaxing and comfortable. His niece, Joy, is about 11 years old, and was almost the most fluent English speaker at the table. She goes to a private school and is studying to be a translator. She's so so smart. We almost couldn't believe it. Our new friends have a great sense of humor too. We would politely correct thier pronunciation and they were always grateful to take it and often made something funny out of it.
His brother was very interested in American films, and we spent a good amount of time talking about American actors, as well as politics, and even touched on religion for a moment. More than once, the freedoms of America were referenced and praised. It was so interesting to meet an above average group of intellectual people in China that seemed to be so envious of our freedoms.
Since that night, we've been to dinner again at an equally fancy restaurant. This restaurant specialized in hot pot, except this time, everyone has thier own heater and pot right next to your spot on the table. You put in whatever ingredients you want, and when they are done cooking, you dip them in some sauce and eat it up. The main attractions were mutton, mushrooms, and some green leaf vegatables. We also tried some chocolate noodles, fish, oyster, some other seafood, and squid. The squid shrunk after being cooked to about a tenth of the size.
We really like Kyle and his friends, and they have been incredibly generous to us. Unfortunately, it's hard to accept all that they are giving us because we don't have anything to give in return. It makes for a somewhat awkward situation, especially when we know that they are trying to win our friendship so we will teach them English once a week... or more. So we have to be careful about what we accept from them and other Chinese friends because then we feel very obligated to spend time with them and help them learn English. Overall, we're really happy that we have them as friends, because it's basically like having a free personal tour guide for our city, and because they are good company.
It's funny because I think they know more about American politics than we do. The 11 year old girl asked us if we'd watched Obama's victory speech, which we hadn't, and she had. We spent a good 20 minutes talking about democracy with her and Kyle at a KFC yesterday. So interesting. I think that the main reason they like to spend time with us is to help them practice English, but secretly, they want to know all about how much we love America and how we are allowed to believe in God outside of government control. They have mentioned God a number of times, and by total coincidence found out that we were mormon, asking if we were the same religion as Obama's opponent, Romney. We wish so bad that we could talk to them about the restored gospel, but we are under a very strict agreement to not proselyte at all, actively OR passively. They are such interesting people. I think they plan on being our best friends for the next 8 months, so I'm sure there will be more details to come about Kyle and friends.
Fancy hot pot restaurant... you can see the head chair where I was sitting.
From right to left: Kyle, Kyle's religious friend, Kyle's son Ron, Kyle's brother's wife, Kyle's brother (Steven), Kyle's wife (Lily), Alicia, Me, and Joy (Kyle's niece)
That whole not proselyting thing is so hard sometimes. I had some people in my apartment last week and she saw the picture of Jesus on the wall and didn't know who he was. I told her who he is, but I was bummed that I couldn't tell her more. The people are almost crying for it. I guess we just have to wait or maybe we will see them again, outside of China, and can share. By then they will trust us and be our friends, so that might help.
ReplyDeleteTell me about it! It really wasn't that tough until we met these new friends, and now it's quite frustrating at times. All well, all things in their due time I guess. It's a good lesson in patience.
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