No longer a bench warmer!

Hello again!  I realize it's been a while, but it's been a crazy month since my last post!

Without going into detail, let's just say I am no longer warming the bench for the CDC here.  I've actually got a project, and someone was gracious enough to volunteer his time and be my research mentor on the side. 

There's also a little more stability in my life since I've finally got a hold of that elusive temporary residence permit two days ago!  It was very anticlimactic and cost me 400 RMB but now I don't have to leave every month!

hmm what else has happened since I last posted?  Well Dr. Francis Collins (Director of the NIH) came to visit Peking Medical University.  He was very well spoken and it was certainly exciting to have been able to meet him--particularly since I had just finished reading one of his books :) 

 

What else is new?  The dollar is also plummeting, so I wish I was being paid in RMB now.  It was 6.8 RMB to $1 when I first arrived at the end of July and it's already 6.6!  *sigh* Maybe it's a good thing.  I will be less inclined to accumulate cheap/now not so cheap clothes/shoes/purses/etc.  :)

Oh!  My friend Marie from the good 'ol days of study abroad at CET just got married in Shanghai!  This was my first experience participating in a Chinese style wedding.  They did it all including setting off firecrackers as the men approached the apartment that drew the customary crowd of neighbors to look on and cheer for the groom as he made his way to retrieve his bride.  This was followed by the women not letting the guys and Joey (the groom) into the apartment to get his bride. It's customary for the women to hide the bride behind two sets of closed doors and pose challenges to the men to prove their worth.  Joey lied to us to get to through the first door--he told us the photographer had to get in.  What a liar!   So after that, we brought on the heat.  We made Joey do push-ups (which he ended up getting his best man to do because of a 'bum wrist', serenade her through two closed doors (so really just Aerosmith style), recite the alphabet backwards (he's not a native English speaker), give us money (about $30 for each girl there--I'm not complaining!), what else...tell us why he wanted to marry her, describe her to us, say why he felt he was worthy to marry her, show us his dance moves, oh and how could I forget--we ran out of ideas so we made him kiss all the guys who were with him--on the cheek of course!  

Joey 'kissing' his best man Jalal

 

Joey with Marie after he successfully got past the challenges.

All that was followed by the tea ceremony, the glutinous rice ball ceremony (sounds more appetizing in Chinese), and the traveling to the other side of town to do it all over again at his parents' house, and finally the ceremony at the hotel with hired emcee and all.  Marie looked gorgeous in all 4 dresses!  

Marie in Dress #1 with her mom and sister Seraim

Glutinous rice ball ceremony with Marie's mom and stepdad

  

The boys at Joey's parents' house.

The women at Joey's parents' house.

 

Me and Mrs. Fan (dress #4)

Oh and of course the finale: It is customary for friends and family to tour and decorate the honeymoon suite the night of the wedding.  Not only that, but we were told, it was our duty to embarrass them in their room.  Well, you didn't have to ask us twice!  Kitty, a native Chinese girl from Hunan started off the evening by making Joey kneel on teacups in front of Marie and wait while she thought of 10 things he was to never do/do during their lifetime of marriage.  I don't remember all of them, but the ones I remember were:  don't get fat, be a good father, always love me, and never leave me, but if you leave me, it better not be for another man.  I mean, that just about covers it don't you think? We ended the night by making the newlyweds get into bed and throw out all their clothes.  We were told that back in the day (perhaps when there were arranged marriages?) granny might hide under the bed to make sure she was going to get herself some grandchildren.  That was definitely too Chinese for us, so we sent our blessings and scurried out before it got too awkward.  

 

Poor Joey on teacups--ouch!

 The last bits of clothing were off--our job was done!  

(I really hope I don't have to make another couple strip off their clothes ever again!)

Anyway, that concludes the wedding.  It was a whole day affair, but well worth it!  I think the wedding ended by 10 PM but considering we started around 11 AM, we were all pretty ready to take the dress shoes off and change into some PJs!  What a day!