To quote my friend Ben, goodness! I just arrived home from an amazing dinner out at the home of his Chinese aunt and uncle. Regular readers may recall the night I went out for hot pot with my host family and neighbors, one family of which was my friend Ben's parents. I sat with them that night and we discovered that Ben, Ben's grandmother and uncle and I all had birthdays within a few weeks of each other. Tonight was our collective birthday dinner.

I just arrived back at my host family's apartment yesterday afternoon, after spending the week at Sichuan Normal University doing a teacher training (more on that soon). Ben got back from Gansu province this afternoon and called to invite me out to dinner, per his family's request. We were unaware that this was the birthday party until the double-decker, Chinese style birthday cake arrived. His host father drove us over to the aunt and uncle's lovely apartment, where a huge spread was awaiting us. We ate and ate, just heaps of food: vegetables, shrimp, some stir fry, dried beef, a kind of onion crepe that I'd never had before, edamame (!), peanuts....the food was endless. Then it was time for a round of photos, then birthday cake. As we were eating the cake--it seems traditional for Chinese birthday cakes to have just obscene amounts of frosting on them, which is clearly derived from the Western tradition, but anyhow--suddenly, my "shushu," or uncle, was smearing frosting on his face. I looked left, and Ben and neinei (grandmother) were doing the same. What ensued next was a frosting fight, with everyone reaching around to their nearest neighbors and wiping dabs of fluffy pink and peach frosting on their cheeks, noses, foreheads. It was absolutely hysterical. I have several pictures, courtesy of my aunt, who commandeered my camera for the spectacle.

As if that wasn't enough excitement, we next had a dance party. I don't really have the words to describe how funny/strange/wonderful this was, but I'll give it my best shot: imagine a multi-generational group of people, ranging from age 8 to age 70, dancing around a small living room to Avril Lavigne's "Skater Boy." Ben's neinei is such an energetic little woman--and I do mean little. She probably measures about 4 feet, 3 inches. She was kicking up her heels like she was my age. We danced a mean box-step together, then Ben and I wowed the audience with a little dance that ended with me being dramatically dipped. Next Ben taught everyone (including me) how to do the Electric Slide, again accompanied by Avril. He even would go, "now, slide! slide! ugh!" They LOVED it, and so did we.

To top off the evening, we had some lovely Chinese tea. I forget the pinyin name for it, but after some explanation and gestures, we determined that the translated name was God Tea. We at first worried that the family gesturing the sign of the cross was going to lead us in the direction of a Jesus Discussion (pretty strongly discouraged in ultra-secular China), but it was luckily unfounded worry. The tea was certainly tasty. Worthy of the name, I suppose.

Its back-to-school tomorrow, back to the regular routine after our weeks in our respective summer project sites. I'm really pumped to see my fellow Orange Crush mates (we're in the Orange training group, and a pretty tight-knit bunch). I'm now halfway done with my language and technical training. So far, so good.

Photos, news of last week, and potential blog changes will be addressed in the next post. Hope all is well with you. Til next time.