The Chinese Wedding.

So, there have been a few things happening in the past weeks that I've unfortunately neglected to mention in my little electronic journal (not diary) here. I'll try to catch myself up here.

Oh, and something of note. My general lack of pictures on my blog right now were due to a malfunctioning camera. I haven't been able to properly take any pictures lately, and thus the problem. However, I think I've fixed it - so prepare for a new load of Christmas shots in the coming entries! Huzzah!

But I digress. Reaching back a few weeks - we (Myself, Katie, Mike and Neha) were lucky enough to be invited by Cindy, a teacher in the North Campus high school where I work, to attend her wedding ceremony! We were all extremely excited for the chance to experience a wedding here in China, and jumped at the opportunity. However, weddings over here are WAY different than anything you might find back home. I'll do my best to explain the whole ordeal. Oh, and the best part is that she asked us to sing at her wedding - a reprisal of 'My Love' by the ever-popular (at least in China) Irish boy band 'Westlife'.

To begin.. the Chinese have a kind of siesta-like period of the day in which they get time to return to their home, have something to eat, and usually take a nap. For us at school, it lasts from 11:30 until 2:30. Everyone gets these three hours off to do whatever they like. I usually take the time to grab some lunch and go to the gym, as I hate napping. But for most over here, the nap is essential. Especially for the Chinese students who have class from 6am-10pm every day. God bless 'em.

That said, entire wedding was held during this lunch-siesta time of the day on a Friday, so that any co-workers of Cindy or her husband wanted to attend - they would certainly have the time. To preface a lot of this.. it was what may be considered a 'typical Chinese wedding'.. so most of the things I write about are common to all of the weddings that happen over here. So.. we leave at lunch, and end up at a nearby Hotel (a very nice one, might I add) where we, and the rest of the faculty body attending the wedding got off of the bus that shuttled us from the school to the wedding. The whole thing was held in a large function room of the hotel. Inside, we were greeted by Cindy and her Husband, both dressed up in wonderfully beautiful wedding dress. Cindy in a white gown, and her husband (who works for the military) in an all white military officers suit. They stood at the entrance of the hotel and greeted everyone individually. We then made our way into the hotel proper, and into the function room. It was extravagantly decorated with every wedding decoration and garnish you could possibly think of. But the coup de grace, in my opinion, were the lavishly photoshopped photos of the bride and the groom in a MYRIAD of different costumes, poses and scenes depicting how much they love each other and how important the marriage is! My favorite picture: The groom exploding out of the Statue of Liberty's torch while looking tough, arms folded. Priceless.

Another side note: There is a HUGE industry in China for wedding pictures. The Chinese 'Steps to Marriage' go as follows:
1. Decide to get married. Fill out the proper government paperwork.
2. Get a ton of immaculately cheesy / but completely endearing wedding photos taken.
3. Have the ACTUAL wedding ceremony, usually months later.
4. Enjoy life together!
The wedding pictures are a huge part of the marriage process, and actually look like they're a lot of fun. The wedding couple will take a whole day usually, and go to a photo place where they will go through a host of costume changes and scenery changes, taking pictures with each other and alone. It's kind of magical, in a way, I suppose!

Anyhow. We sat down at a big, typical dinner table (the kind with the lazy susan in the middle), because, naturally, at the wedding itself, they serve lunch... and a ton of booze. Yup. Right in the middle of the day, a work day nevertheless, everyone is basically required to take shots in honor of the bride and groom. It was hilarious. China does things right. There is also a host, who MC's the entire wedding, that the Bride and Groom will purchase for the occasion. They fellow MC'ing Cindy's wedding was great. He was enthusiastic, spoke well (I think) and wore a wonderful, sequin-suit that had 'asian game show host' written all over it. He was great. He announced many things we didn't understand, then introduced Cindy, who strode down the center of the room in her wedding gown. (It is also customary to change dresses a few times during the wedding ceremony. The more dresses, the more wealthy you are, I think.) She had a little Q&A in front of everyone with the host - apparently it was funny, due to the crowd's laughter. Then suddenly, the groom was announced! He appeared from nowhere with a microphone and a bouquet of beautiful roses, dropped down to a knee, and sang his wife a very heartfelt song right there in front of everyone. It was really heartwarming! Afterwards, there were a bunch of little games and ceremonies that the Bride and the Groom took part in. A few of them were, for example.. Having each spouse's mother and father come on stage, and having them take shots of Bai-jiu together... pouring wine into the top of a series of little wine glasses and having it cascade down into a final glass of wine for drinking... and then, the singing. About 4-5 people (close friends of the happy couple) got up on stage individually, and sang songs to them! Unfortunately, we were slated to do this first. We had no idea what was going on.. and basically we got on stage, the HUGE wedding crowd clapped, and the music started. So we sang! Our pep talk before starting: "The song is in English... They're Chinese. They can't understand what we sing even if we screw up. GO!" All in all, even if we were horrible... Cindy was so grateful to have us sing her a song at her wedding. Plus, I thought it was pretty fun, haha.

During most of the song-singing, lunch was served in between shots of Bai-jiu and something that tasted like grape coolaid with booze in it, that the couple's parents were bringing around from table to table. After lunch.. the whole thing was essentially over - and everyone left the wedding! It ended so abruptly, that we weren't quite sure what to do. Most wedding parties at home in America last for the entire night.. so we were a little perplexed as to what our next move would be, cordially... since we were half in the bag at noon. The girls went shopping. I took a nap.

Just another standard day in China.