Well... I'm Engaged Now...

Okay, so, I'm not actually engaged.  However, I did attend a single's event this past weekend...  It was quite an experience to say the least.  The girl who was hosting the event invited me to it (not as someone she was interested in dating... I hope...).  I met her at English corner and she invited me to the event.  I didn't even know that it was a singles event until I actually got there.  She told me that it was just going to be barbecue, of course I said yes.  Chinese bbq is pretty damn good.

I brought the other foreign teachers with me because there was no way in hell I was rolling solo to this event.  Upon our arrival we were finally told that it was a single's event.  A single's event is basically an event where a lot of the Chinese students can meet their special someone.  When we were told what the event actually was we were a little freaked out.  We really were not there for that reason, we just wanted some delicious bbq.

The event first started off with some mingling games, which we participated in.  But because we could not speak Chinese very well we were soon out of the game (thank god).

In this game we basically had to get 5 people to stand on a sheet of paper.  Everyone was standing really close to each other as you can see, which was good for mingling.  We were obviously the first people out of this game, so we immediately made our way towards the beer.  

Finding the beer made the bbq immensely better.  I was extremely hungover that day, so the beer was really nice.  As you can tell, I really need a haircut....

All of the students were still playing the game so we just kind of hung out and helped set up some of the barbecues, and drank beer of course.  I was getting really excited to eat.  They had soooo much food there.  

They had all sorts of different vegetables and various other meats.  The thing that I was excited for was the lamb that they were cooking over a giant fire.  It was really cool to watch them cook the lamb this way.  They also threw a bunch of sweet potatoes in the fire when they first started cooking the lamb.  I honestly had no idea what they were putting into the fire, but I knew it was some sort of vegetable.  The sweet potatoes sat in the fire for like 3 hours.  I had no idea how a sweet potato could even sit in a fire for so long, but I guess that's the Chinese way.

Here is a picture of the sweet potato when it was finished:

It actually tasted really good.  And as I said, it sat in the fire for like three hours....

We talked to a lot of the students for a while.  Some of the students there spoke English very well.  It honestly seemed like a really long English corner.  All of the students asked the same questions that we hear at English corner: Where are you from? Why are you in China? Do you like China? How is it different than America? Do you have a girlfriend? Do you want a girlfriend? Etc...

We were also in a beautiful area to have a bbq.  It was right next to the river.  We had a huge area set up where we could all hang out.  Here are some pictures of the scenery:

It was a beautiful day for a barbecue.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  It's usually very overcast in Pengshan.  It never gets too cold.  The last picture shows our chefs for the night.  Chinese BBQ is very different than the American style BBQ.  Usually in Chinese BBQ there aren't even chefs cooking up a large portion of meat.  At Chinese barbecues they set up a few smaller barbecues and everyone cooks their own food.  Typically they have a ton of food that has been cut into smaller portions.  It takes a very long time for the BBQ to actually be over.  Because everything that you are cooking is so small it takes a very long time.  But that gave us more time to drink beer, and also eat amazing food.  

So those are the tiny little barbecues that they use.  You can only cook a few things at a time with them.  It didn't really seem to bother anyone though.  It actually worked out very well, other than it was the most poorly organized way to bbq.... People would have to wait until they could find room around a bbq to actually cook their food.  We finally got some room around a bbq and joined a few girls who could barely speak English.  They couldn't help but to just giggle and stare at us.  They helped us cook our food.  And by help I mean they picked up everything I was cooking and basically threw it away....  Then they cooked some food for us...  It was pretty hilarious.  I basically just burned everything that I was cooking.  It was kind of difficult....

After four hours or so, the lamb was finally ready.  I was stoked.

Of course there was absolutely no light by the time that the lamb was finished.  The chefs relied only on cell phone light in order to cut the meat into tiny pieces, really safe....  The meat was unreal though.  It was probably some of the best lamb that I have ever had in my entire life.  Because we were foreigners we got the first serving of lamb... Couldn't complain about that.  

After the meal was over, the fire that was used for cooking the lamb was turned into a giant bonfire.  All of the students gathered around the bonfire and we were not sure what was about to happen.  I was finished with my food, finished with my beer, I thought it would be a good opportunity to go and pee before anything happened.  Of course as soon as I start walking I get called out and the host of the event asks me to sing a song...

The Chinese sing all the god damn time.  Any opportunity they get to sing songs with each other, they do it.  So I was called out to sing a song in front of about 50 Chinese students.  I was really excited....

Obviously you can see that I still have a "Damn it.  Really? I have to sing a song right now" kind of look on my face.  But I sang anyways.  As you can see all of the students took the opportunity to take a picture of the waiguoren teacher sing a song.  I sang Good Riddance by Green Day, the students loved it.  Thanks to Devin for taking the picture.  

The students also played some sort of song/train game.  We of course participated in the game.

As expected, all of the foreign teachers had to sing a song.  The last picture is of Devin singing a song for the students.  Hate to say it, but mine was totally better.... Devin would probably disagree, but whatever.

The single's bbq was a great time.  We had a lot of fun at the event.  The food was spectacular, people were friendly, and we got free beer.  No complaints from me.  And just to reassure my parents... I AM NOT ACTUALLY ENGAGED.  

Thanks for reading,

Jono