Bowling and BBQ

We had a relatively “whitie” only day yesterday which is a bit of a treat to have, days like this are very far in between. We met up with the only other westerners we know in this city. They are English teachers working at the beautiful Teacher’s College campus in the city.

First, it was off to a couple of games of bowling at the local alley. I bowled the highest bowling score even = 180 points! It is not much but I am still proud of that. I think it must have been the slope in the alley that helped…

After that, it was off to John and Libby’s place for a great BBQ, interesting conversations and an excellent homemade strawberry pie and custard.

These simple pleasures are great to have and just hanging out with people that speak the same language and are from the same culture sure can make you a little homesick. For a brief time, it was almost like being back home. Expatriates abroad all need that occasionally. Whether it is engaging in non-Chinese activities, eating or cooking “western” food, watching Hollywood flicks or just hanging out with other expatriates and sharing stories, it just makes the daily living in a foreign and strange land that much more interesting.

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Meeting Whities in Tonghua

Last night was a fun night. We had a nice dinner with a few whities! As the white race is certainly a very small minority here in Tonghua, it is always a treat to see a westerner on the street. Much more so actually, become friends with them.

I met Kevin on the internet after contacting him through some pictures he took of Tonghua and uploaded on the Flickr website. After a couple emails, we made plans to meet and have dinner together.

What resulted were three Americans (Kevin, John and his wife), one Canadian (me), a Brit (my wife), a Chinese/Canadian (Arvin), eating Korean food and drinking Spanish wine in Tonghua. A truly international experience…

The conversations were lively and centered mostly on the trials and tribulations of being a foreigner in a small Chinese town such as Tonghua. I think we hit it off as we were told to leave the restaurant at 11pm when they were closing their doors and all the staffs were waiting for us to leave.

We agreed to meet again sometime or maybe even go skiing over the weekend.