My 19th Birthday!
Posted by modifierwong at 10:18 PM on June 24, 2007.
One of my most memorable days is almost over… the celebration of my 19th birthday in Wuhan! I honestly never thought it could turn out quite like it did, but it was probably one of the most memorable birthdays that I’ve had.
My day started off meeting up with Chuan Chuan (I’m gonna call her by her English name now, Jane) and her introducing me to three of her friends. To start off, we met one of the guys and his girlfriend and then headed off to an arcade, fully unexpected mind you. I think we spent about 100 yuan worth of tokens, but it was worth every penny.
We first tried this one shooting game in which four people could play at once. It was quite fun, but the only problem is that the gun didn’t really aim right and therefore I couldn’t do so well…
Then we moved on to a game in which there are four steering wheels situated in a circle and the name of the game is to move your little car on the screen and push the other cars off the screen. One cool thing about this is that when you push the steering wheel up, your little car extends its front bumper and effectively pushes other cars off the cliff. Somehow, I ended up winning most of the rounds!
Then, I decided to try out a good ‘ol racing game; Battle Gear 3. Oh man…this arcade game is amzing!! It’s a racing game but what makes it different is that you’ve got a hand brake to work with. The cars in the game also have a tendency to drift around a corner so you certainly have to use some skill. Not only that, but the force feedback steering is extremely good! If you’ve driven a car before, you’ll know that when turning into a corner, the steering gets harder and if you’re mid-corner and you turn out a bit, it’s really easy. The steering on that arcade machine was just like that, unlike many force feedback steering wheels that you normally try. I’m certainly going back…
Of course, after a whole morning of arcading, we all went out to lunch…a beefsteak restaurant. At first, they were asking me how well I want the meat done. Being me, I was going to ask for medium well but on second though, this was China. I decided against it and made sure I asked for well done. Fortunately, the food was good (albeit small) and I couldn’t really complain about anything. However, when they brought in the food on sizzling hot pates, they required us to hold up our serviettes in front of us before they removed the lid. I kind of wondered if it was really that hot enough…Maybe they got sued by some American! So at the end, Jane brought up the point that it was my birthday. We all said cheers and wished me a happy 19th birthday! Next up…bowling.
However, the bowling alley was entirely filled with university students for some event (I know it was an event because almost all of the people left in one group). So, we used the pool table in the opposite room. Luckily, I know enough pool to get some decent shots in what turned into a ‘Canada vs. China’ match. In the end, I won by one shot ☺ My whole morning and a good part of the afternoon was really quite an enjoyable and memorable experience. Not only because it was my birthday, but this was a group of friends that I really hadn’t known for a very long time. Two of them, I just met today. One of them I met only once before, and Jane, well, I only met twice before.
After I parted company with Jane and co. I met up with Jessica. Hm…I guess I haven’t introduced her yet. She’s the receptionist working at my apartment complex who helped me out with a bunch of stuff around the apartment, from getting water working and the electricity. She knows enough English to be able to talk to me and get 90% of her thoughts across. I’m always able to learn a word or two of Chinese from her and she’s always finding ways to improve her English pronunciation. So anyways, today, I met her in the city and since she knew it was my birthday, she took me to a bakery and bought me a cake! An unexpected but very pleasant surprise
So now I had a whole cake and not exactly anywhere to eat it. I wasn’t planning to bring it home and eat it by myself either. No worries though, because my boss had invited me out for dinner.
To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure how things would turn out but hey, there’s a first for everything! The last time I had dinner with my boss was just like any normal dinner. It was with him, the VP of our company, and one of our colleages. I was somewhat expecting a small group like that, but to my astonishment, the only person I knew at the table was my boss and one other colleague. Everyone else had just flown in from different parts of the world.
Two were from Thailand, three from Japan, one from Belgium, two from France, and then there was me and my boss. An extremely multicultural group of people! Our waiter is also another interesting talking point. Her English was quite decent and acted quite differently than usual Chinese waiters (most likely its because we were at a Western Pizza restaurant who’s owner is an American-chinese). She was very structured and made to ask before she did anything. For example, she asked if it was okay to ask one person for their order before another, and if going clockwise around the table was okay rather than counter-clockwise. Then at the end, she went over all the orders and scurried off to put in the order. She was also very cautious about whatever she did. If she took away something from the table she made sure to ask. As the night went on, it was quite interesting because I probably knew the most (second to my boss) Chinese and I can tell you, I don’t know much Chinese. Luckily, the waiter knew more than enough English to order food and all the menus were in English as well. I tried to talk as much Chinese as I could. I’m pretty sure she understood most of what I said, but when I tried to talk Chinese and English to get the size of one of my pizzas changed…well, nothing really materialized. lol. Although, I did manage to complement her, in Chinese, that her English was very good.
The Pizza was sufficiently filling and then it was on to dessert. Since I had a cake with me, I suggested to my boss that I bring out the cake and share it with everyone. At first it was really kind of awkward because every other time I’ve pulled out a cake, it was in the presence of my family and similarly aged friends. But hey, there’s a first in everything! Fortunately, nothing seemed out of the ordinary and I celebrated my birthday for the third and last time today. I pulled off the cover, stuck on the candles (yes, we got ‘19’ candles with the cake…thank you Jessica!) and, if you know the drill…they all sang happy birthday! Imagine that… an extremely multicultural group of people that, most of them, I’ve never met before, singing happy birthday. I didn’t exactly think about the age factor because at that moment, age didn’t really matter My Japanese colleage whipped out his camera, started taking pictures and even recorded some video! It certainly was not a night to forget. I distributed the cake and started eating… then I heard something over the intercom. Guess what it was? The Chinese version of “Happy birthday”.
Ah yes, it was a great day, and probably one that won’t be repeated again. Thank you all who made it such an enjoyable day for me. I am now officially 19!
My day started off meeting up with Chuan Chuan (I’m gonna call her by her English name now, Jane) and her introducing me to three of her friends. To start off, we met one of the guys and his girlfriend and then headed off to an arcade, fully unexpected mind you. I think we spent about 100 yuan worth of tokens, but it was worth every penny.
We first tried this one shooting game in which four people could play at once. It was quite fun, but the only problem is that the gun didn’t really aim right and therefore I couldn’t do so well…
Then we moved on to a game in which there are four steering wheels situated in a circle and the name of the game is to move your little car on the screen and push the other cars off the screen. One cool thing about this is that when you push the steering wheel up, your little car extends its front bumper and effectively pushes other cars off the cliff. Somehow, I ended up winning most of the rounds!
Then, I decided to try out a good ‘ol racing game; Battle Gear 3. Oh man…this arcade game is amzing!! It’s a racing game but what makes it different is that you’ve got a hand brake to work with. The cars in the game also have a tendency to drift around a corner so you certainly have to use some skill. Not only that, but the force feedback steering is extremely good! If you’ve driven a car before, you’ll know that when turning into a corner, the steering gets harder and if you’re mid-corner and you turn out a bit, it’s really easy. The steering on that arcade machine was just like that, unlike many force feedback steering wheels that you normally try. I’m certainly going back…
Of course, after a whole morning of arcading, we all went out to lunch…a beefsteak restaurant. At first, they were asking me how well I want the meat done. Being me, I was going to ask for medium well but on second though, this was China. I decided against it and made sure I asked for well done. Fortunately, the food was good (albeit small) and I couldn’t really complain about anything. However, when they brought in the food on sizzling hot pates, they required us to hold up our serviettes in front of us before they removed the lid. I kind of wondered if it was really that hot enough…Maybe they got sued by some American! So at the end, Jane brought up the point that it was my birthday. We all said cheers and wished me a happy 19th birthday! Next up…bowling.
However, the bowling alley was entirely filled with university students for some event (I know it was an event because almost all of the people left in one group). So, we used the pool table in the opposite room. Luckily, I know enough pool to get some decent shots in what turned into a ‘Canada vs. China’ match. In the end, I won by one shot ☺ My whole morning and a good part of the afternoon was really quite an enjoyable and memorable experience. Not only because it was my birthday, but this was a group of friends that I really hadn’t known for a very long time. Two of them, I just met today. One of them I met only once before, and Jane, well, I only met twice before.
After I parted company with Jane and co. I met up with Jessica. Hm…I guess I haven’t introduced her yet. She’s the receptionist working at my apartment complex who helped me out with a bunch of stuff around the apartment, from getting water working and the electricity. She knows enough English to be able to talk to me and get 90% of her thoughts across. I’m always able to learn a word or two of Chinese from her and she’s always finding ways to improve her English pronunciation. So anyways, today, I met her in the city and since she knew it was my birthday, she took me to a bakery and bought me a cake! An unexpected but very pleasant surprise
So now I had a whole cake and not exactly anywhere to eat it. I wasn’t planning to bring it home and eat it by myself either. No worries though, because my boss had invited me out for dinner. To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure how things would turn out but hey, there’s a first for everything! The last time I had dinner with my boss was just like any normal dinner. It was with him, the VP of our company, and one of our colleages. I was somewhat expecting a small group like that, but to my astonishment, the only person I knew at the table was my boss and one other colleague. Everyone else had just flown in from different parts of the world.
Two were from Thailand, three from Japan, one from Belgium, two from France, and then there was me and my boss. An extremely multicultural group of people! Our waiter is also another interesting talking point. Her English was quite decent and acted quite differently than usual Chinese waiters (most likely its because we were at a Western Pizza restaurant who’s owner is an American-chinese). She was very structured and made to ask before she did anything. For example, she asked if it was okay to ask one person for their order before another, and if going clockwise around the table was okay rather than counter-clockwise. Then at the end, she went over all the orders and scurried off to put in the order. She was also very cautious about whatever she did. If she took away something from the table she made sure to ask. As the night went on, it was quite interesting because I probably knew the most (second to my boss) Chinese and I can tell you, I don’t know much Chinese. Luckily, the waiter knew more than enough English to order food and all the menus were in English as well. I tried to talk as much Chinese as I could. I’m pretty sure she understood most of what I said, but when I tried to talk Chinese and English to get the size of one of my pizzas changed…well, nothing really materialized. lol. Although, I did manage to complement her, in Chinese, that her English was very good.
The Pizza was sufficiently filling and then it was on to dessert. Since I had a cake with me, I suggested to my boss that I bring out the cake and share it with everyone. At first it was really kind of awkward because every other time I’ve pulled out a cake, it was in the presence of my family and similarly aged friends. But hey, there’s a first in everything! Fortunately, nothing seemed out of the ordinary and I celebrated my birthday for the third and last time today. I pulled off the cover, stuck on the candles (yes, we got ‘19’ candles with the cake…thank you Jessica!) and, if you know the drill…they all sang happy birthday! Imagine that… an extremely multicultural group of people that, most of them, I’ve never met before, singing happy birthday. I didn’t exactly think about the age factor because at that moment, age didn’t really matter
My Japanese colleage whipped out his camera, started taking pictures and even recorded some video! It certainly was not a night to forget. I distributed the cake and started eating… then I heard something over the intercom. Guess what it was? The Chinese version of “Happy birthday”. Ah yes, it was a great day, and probably one that won’t be repeated again. Thank you all who made it such an enjoyable day for me. I am now officially 19!
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