basketball team dinner

Rach, Cam, and I accidentally invited ourselves to the basketball team dinner. There was a basketball tournament in Bengbu that week and many teachers from Mayflora had formed a team. They had won 3 out of 5 games and were going to celebrate! We tagged a long. We heard Chad and Nathan run by our rooms and opened up our doors to ask them where they were going. They made eating gestures so we asked where. They pointed down so we thought; oh they’re going to the Book Bar. We said can we come with you! They said sure. We grabbed our stuff and ran down the stairs. Cami was still dressed in her cat costume from dressing up for her ELE class. I was in sweats and my nice tan coat but it didn’t matter. No one judges you here. And if they do you don’t have a clue so it’s just fine. When we got down the stairs the head master and a whole bunch of guys were standing there. That is when we realized that they were not going to the Book Bar to eat dinner this was something special, something big. We were gestured to hop in the head masters black car and we were taken down to the small village and dropped off at a restaurant. Well it was more like just a big room with one large table. The whole basketball team was there and then it was Rachel, Cami, and I. I just wanted to laugh. At first we felt a little uncomfortable and felt bad we had invited ourselves but they were so happy to have us there. They brought out wine and beer and asked if we’d like some. We told them no and they brought us out some pepsi. I swear the pepsi is just as strong as any beer would be. It’s crazy, but I was glad to have it so it could kill whatever I was about to eat. While we waited for the food most of the guys went and played poker in the corner and Rach, Cam, and I sat with Nathan and Major and talked. We had just met Major and it was a good thing he was there. He was the only one that knew English. He gave himself an English name. His surname in Chinese is Ma and his favorite basketball player is Michael Jordan. So he named himself Major. My last experience eating real Chinese food wasn’t too great. The ladies started bringing out lots and lots of food. All the guys gathered back over to the table and the toasting began. The coach stood up as well as everyone else and made a toast, I’m guessing he said something about how great they played. Then everyone sat down. The rest of the night all throughout dinner many toasts were given. The food was good. Most dishes were quite spicy and there were some real interesting things that I let pass by. I’ve gotten a lot better at using chopsticks since I’ve been here in China but I still have a hard time picking up certain things. Us three girls were in the middle of Nathan and Chad. They’d dish us up things as they spun around that they thought we’d enjoy. They’d tell us what things were too spicy and what things were good. They were very kind. After we were mostly done eating we were telling them all the Chinese things we knew. In our Chinese lesson the night before we had learned how to say I like to eat… So we were telling them all of the things we liked to eat. I like to eat noodles. I like to eat apples. I like to eat bananas. The next thing we know the lady brings out a huge pot of steaming noodles. They had brought out noodles for us since we had said we like to eat noodles. They were actually some of the best noodles I’ve had the whole time I’ve been here. After lots of beer, smoking, and food the power suddenly shut off.