Xifeng in winter

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It’s official, winter has now arrived. And blimey it’s parkey! Along with the winter came the snow which made the town look, well, very white! And even stranger than that is the simple fact that life just continued as normal. No schools were closed, all the buses ran, even though the roads weren’t gritted. Traffic just went slower. People just took more care on the snowy paths. If somebody fell over, it was no big deal. Nobody here would even think about suing the council! It was quite refreshing in more ways than one.
The snow has put a stop to the running as it is both too cold and rather difficult to run in snow and slush which has then been frozen. We have however, been playing badminton. Bad thing about this is that we really ache for days after playing. Doesn’t seem to be getting any less painful.
A colleague of mine got married this week and we were invited to the wedding. Dead on 12 o’clock we got on the hired bus to take us to the groom’s parents’ house in the neighbouring countryside. On arrival we were ushered into a small room at the parents’ house and given the customary bowl of noodles to eat. Having eaten one each, we were then given another. We ate them thinking that this was it. How foolish. Once we had finished the noodles we were then ushered into another room on the other side of the dirt track. This was where we ate the main course and dessert which consisted of several meat, vegetable and sweet dishes being brought and then taken away at rather a quick speed. I’m not quite sure the reason for this. It could be that as we were eating outside under a canopy, the dishes got cold rather quickly. Or it could be that we had to be back on the bus in 30 minutes. Or even that this is just the way wedding food is served. The baijiu was also in full flow and a few toasts later, we got back on the bus and headed back to the school for the afternoon. Got to say, that we have never been to a wedding in our lunchtime before. Unfortunately, we never got to see the bride as she was celebrating with her family and friends in another part of town. As per tradition, later in the afternoon the bride and groom meet at the groom’s parents’ house for a joint ceremony and celebration. A wedding and a funeral within two weeks, it’s life and death, but not as we know it.

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