Wedding #2

Teenager's chinese teacher from last semester was married today. She invited Princess to be her flower girl.
It was quite a different affair than the ayi's son's wedding. This was at a fancy dancy reception hall. It was modern and elegant. The food was really expensive. Her dresses were very fancy and high quality.
It was not as loud. It was quick. It was like a fancy business lunch with a wedding on the side. Very different.

We were late because "the bug" has forbidden taxis from enter the campus, so we had to walk a mile to find one and then even when they were zooming by it was a while before someone gave us a ride.
Princess provided her own dress and shoes. She actually wore the dress-up bride dress that I sewed for Teenager when she was 5. Her little cohort was a Japanese fellow and he had the cutest silver/white tux with a giant tie. I didn't get a picture of it. It was a big deal to have the foriegners in the wedding. The teacher had lots of her students give speaches.

All the chinese men wanted a photo with Teenager

Princess was put to work throwing petals and we were escorted to a table where there were not enough chairs and dishes and we couldn't see anything. We actually were with some of my former classsmates from when I studied chinese. Little Guy freaked out immediately and crawled under a table.

under the table

He stayed there almost the whole time. We tried to get him out by offering a bathroom break but the second he was in range of the table he dove under. We showed him the food and he wanted nothing to do with it. Oysters-definately not his style. Rather than drag him out, we endured the strange looks from our table. Had we been seated with Chinese guests I think the on the floor stuff would have been a big deal. But the international crowd didn't make it into a scene.

Location of wedding

I think the old folks are so cute

The bride didn't toast the tables but the whole room at once. She came by and brought Princess a gift-a doll lamp.

The dramatic stairway

The highlight was a remote control helicopter delivered the rings.

That was pretty cool.
We were kind of sad (in addition to the embarressment) he was under the table.

Happy couple

We had gone because we thought it was a chance for him to connect with his culture. At this time he seems to have no interest.

under the table, not getting out

I think the ayi's wedding was more fun. Everybody seemed to have a good time and they went out of their way to make us comfortable.

Harbin, China