The Chinese Wedding.
Woke up early again today and left Yumi sleeping. I got to Ben's at 830AM. I figured by now, the chinese family would be all over this place. I showed up and Ben was all dressed and surprised I was the first. He was like...I was reading a book. ...must be nervous. About 9AM the chinese family came over and proceeded to decorating his apartment. It was interesting because they would come to him and say something wasn't right and he would call XiaoHong and talk to her and then give them an answer. The most important room was the bedroom. The family puts down new sheets and decorates it to the 9s. They started freaking out because the pillows weren't new so one of the ladies went off to buy new pillows. I got some really good shots. There was a little boy, that according to Ben, was not supposed to be there. He was just like one of my kindergarten kids only more crazy. Ben calls him "Monster". There were a bunch of XIao Hongs family. A cousin, close friend...called Karaoke Guy, his wife, and the monster boy, Her mom, dad, and her dad's 3 sisters. One of the 3 sisters who looked as though she was wearing pajamas, whenever I was in the room with her an my camera, she was just staring at me with this huge smile. I think she makes it on film doing the same thing as well. Its kinda funny.
Oh, this was the first time I got a chance to try out my chinese Zhongshan Suit. It fit pretty good. However, it was muggy today and for some reason, chinese don't like to close sliding doors when they go out onto the porch and then back into the apartment. I don't know how many times I had to go back and close doors others had opened up. Normally I prolly wouldn't, but we had about 20+ people in this apartment and it was getting to be a steam bath. Keeping doors closed and the AC on is a good thing.
Around 11AM we headed out to go pick up Xiao Hong. We got downstairs and as we walked to the car, all of Ben's studnets were outside watching him and clapping. All the girls were screaming and fawning like during Beatlemania. As we got close to the car, I was like, "Ben, which one is the mob boss?" He said the guy in the black shirt. He was a quiet guy. He stood off behind the other drivers and had was holding his hands just under his stomach. All the other drivers were running around n shouting. Kinda an interseting site. He seemed like he may have command of these folks.
So we got to the hotel to pick up XiaoHong. We went to the 15th floor where we were walking down the hall while the cleaners were vaccuuming and everything. They saw us coming down the hall so they shut things off. We got to the last room and the room where the guys were bribing the bridesmaids to let him in to see Xiaohong. I told them to offer 1RMB and if they say "no", start walking away. It seems to work whereever I go. :D They actually tried it. Awesome. Ben proceeded to sing a song. And after some time they let him in. The room was pretty small for about 12 people standing in the same place. Xiaohong sat in between the two beds looking absolutely beautiful in her dress. Ben had to search for her shoe. He found it behind the telephone next to the bed. We then took her back to the apartment.
Back at the apartment, more people had shown up. Ben's folks, Yumi, and a few others. There, we took some fotos, and had sweet soup. Then the family did the Tea Pouring Ceremony. The kids getting married would pour tea to the parents asking for the blessing. They also did it with the rest of Xiao Hongs family: the three aunts and the close friend's family. Then we had some dumplings for lunch. After some time of just hanging out, the bridal party left to go back to the hotel to prepare the reception n stuff. We got to chill in this nice big private room.
Then came the time. They greeted the guests and received little red packets. Then as dinner started, this was sort of a hellish time for me videotaping because no one told us what was going on. THere is a reason why people in the US do wedding rehearsals. They came down the aisle and stood up and started giving a speech. I was like NOOOO!! I was running out of tape. So I made a quick change that surprisingly went pretty well. Watching it while I was downloading it made me surprised. I kept the camera pretty darn steady and focused on the right thing.
After their speeches they cut a cake,that nobody ate. Then dinner started. Then the bride and groom went to each table and they did shots of Beiju and Vodka. Then they just went aroudn chatting with people. Some people gave speeches and I got people to wish goodluck and things.
It was getting late and people had started to leave. Yumi looked bored and my job was prety much done with for the nite so we left and Ben paid me. Pretty kool.
I told Ben that I needed to go somewhere tmorrow at 12 to meet some friends and he was like, "Sure, just leave your stuff at my place and we wil check you out."
Well, Goodnite all.