ok, to continue....
So the caravan arrived at the house, more fireworks, confetti canons when I climbed out of the car. They brought my parents into the house with me. My helper (our friend who owns the school) wanted to take the stairs, but the wedding coordinator at the house, pushed us to the elevator, good thing, nine floors is long way in a tux.
Arrived at the door, no games until we were in the house. My parents were ushered to the couch, my sister in the chair next to them. Lots of pictures being taken, people oggling my sisters hair and the material of her dress. Down the hall to mama's room. I guess Yuan's (our) room isn't large enough for the party, or the number of people in the house. Two games at the bedroom door, first "Who is going to do the laundry?" They loved my answer, "We both will do the laundry, b/c some days, Yuan will be tired and I will do it for her and other days, I will be busy at work." Happy chatter, giggles at the concept of a man doing laundry. Next game, sing a song with the word "love" and I drew a total blank.... .... "tell Yuan you love her" So I shouted out "Yuan, wo ai ni!" more giggles, the door opened and there she was. magnificent, beautiful and just jaw dropping in appearance. Last game, find the shoes. Found the shoes, it wasn't hard to find them.
So we proceeded to the living room, lots of pictures, none on my camera, so I can't share those just yet. I was saved the joy of the Handan face painting, b/c Yuan and her mama take claim to be dongbeiren, not Handanren. Mama and her family are from Shandong (Rizhao) and her father's family is from Liaoning.
More pictures yet again. We finally proceed downstairs to the car, more confetti canons and fireworks. Pictures of us getting into the car, waving from the car and another slow caravan to the restaurant.
The simple part I could handle easiest and her friends joking the whole time, "Hello, thank you for coming." The big shock to us, her father did actually come to the wedding, he was smiling, shook my hand happily with a grin...
and here he was totally against our wedding in the first place. The bad news, her nainai is apparently ill and could not make the wedding, we are going to see her this week. So we finally went up the dinner hall. People smiling saying "Hi!/Hello!" pictures with the bride and groom. We had about 250 people at a lose count. We were reimbursed for the wedding (red envelops) We actually came out ahead, made mama happy, made me happier, because mama sank enough money into the wedding to make me cry and grow a couple white hairs. Our dinner alone was roughly $2500 US. which considering what feeding 250 people in America costs, we did good there. The final bill for the wedding came out to about $12K US. So we might as well have had a wedding in America... but I'm not gonna complain, because the day went off without a hitch. We were introduced, exchanged rings, drank wine (grape not baijiu). Cut the cake, poured champagne and then went to change, cue the entertainment, (Willy, I know you would have loved those girls) there were three singing acts. I saw the tail end of the third act. Heard part of the second act. Never saw the girls, except in pics and on video from my dad... He said they were great and when he said so, mom scowled at him.
We did the tea service for the parents, there is a great pic that I have to upload from my sister, her dad has this look of total dismay on his face as the tea was coming out.
She opted for "special bridal tea" I still got to do a few shots at some of the tables.
Everyone seemed happy and Yuan grinned like a cat all day long.
People started to go, I helped her change again. We left for the hotel, some of the family greeted us there. Went upstairs at the hotel, representative of my house of course. relaxed for a bit, went to dinner with my parents and her mama. sent the bulk of our stuff with mama to the house and went back to the room.
Yeah, we all know what happened after that, so no details, sorry guys.
We spent a couple days shuffling my family around Handan, seeing the sites. The day before they left, it got cold. I mean, it was snowing cold. Sis has pictures to prove it. We all got a laugh about that. My parents wanted to buy kites for my nephews, I married the right girl, she beat my dad to the punch. He is notorious for grabbing the check at dinner, buying things unexpectedly and such. The Kite vendor handed my dad the kites and dad asked how much... Yuan just started laughing and I couldn't help but join as dad got this look of shock on his face that she had already paid for the kites.
We also took my parents and sis to a real Chinese tea shop. After seeing one, they agree, the mall I've chosen for our shop is perfect and we should do very well with a shop there. Especially on Friday and Saturday nights in the summer and fall. Dad played tourist, snapping pics, but told me he would check with a few people we know about the shelving. We also got dad to drink and say he liked Tea...
... he hates tea...
Long Jing, he's hooked, damn that's an expensive habit, but if he'll drink it, that's all the better. Mom found two trays that match her living room tables (Italian black marble from a green vein in the rock. She didn't buy them, but I know she wants one. It's an idea for a Christmas gift this year.
We still have 4 cases of baijiu and a case of smokes following the wedding.
don't know what we're going to do with those. I told her I would take a couple bottles with me. I know some people I haven't killed with it yet
Thus, our fun filled wedding week. my parents and sis took the train to Beijing, dad was thrilled that the hotel had a western restaurant. sis got a little peek at Wangfujing and the next day they all went to the airport and headed out home.
So now the part we all just despise and loathe, we return to the wait for her visa. My parents said after meeting her, they definitely want to co-sponsor her visa. Which is awesome, because dad's name carries the weight of political friends. However, we all know that in the end, that doesn't mean squat. It's all up to whoever does the interview in Guangzhou. Right now we are hoping she can have her interview before the end of summer. With my plans to come and teach this summer, we are also planning a weekend in Korea, b/c I have two friends there, one is in Seoul and the other is in Pyongtaek. Flights from Beijing to Inchon are on the cheap, which is good. My friend in Seoul would be a short visit, while we see a couple of the sights. The friend in Pyongtaek is an Army buddy, I trained him years ago and now the little bastard done went and become an officer, just got his second promotion in the officer ranks, so I have to give him hell about that one. Just wait until my lovely bride finds out what soju is
For now, that's all, I'll try and get a link to the video when I post it, probably on that Tube site. For now, I have her hooked on Facebook. Which she's a QQ addict anyway. She loves the games, all the silly little games. She even more likes the fact that I did the family plan for the VPN, so both computers and both iPhones can now access any website that doesn't bring all the global authorities attention.
I've even taught her how to clean out her caches and gave her a couple cleaning programs to scrub out the spyware and of course China's markers for her using VPN.
She hasn't told her mama she has access to the full internet yet. I'm guessing b/c she thinks mama will want to shop somewhere beside taobao.
Later for now
Lloyd
