How to show your wares...

The sun's shining and I'm waiting for a couple of my cohort to arrive for a Saturday morning run. My foot's tapping away to the hip-hop in my IPod (a good Saturday morning starts with coffee, breakfast, and Kanye) and as I look up, a troop of about 15 Porsche Cayenne SUVs, along with a handful of Range Rovers, two video-camera filled vans and a stretch SUV roll by slowly as all the people on the street stop and stare, mouths agape. Red ribbons decorate each of the cars and people are hanging out of windows in a bunch of the vehicles, waving and trying to see the people in cars ahead of them. It's a common sight around here on weekends but always makes me laugh. I get a lot of stares and strange looks as I participate in the stare-fest, but the procession is much more interesting than some foreigner decked out in running gear. For most people, anyway.

The caravan of pricey autos is the result of a local Chinese wedding. Although big, elaborate weddings are super common here, the Chinese people use them as an opportunity to flex their wallet-filled muscles for the whole town to see. Typically these weddings proceed through a bunch of really visible areas of town (shopping districts, beach resort areas, etc.) to show off and celebrate. Maybe it's to develop more guanxi (connections and respect) or just to indulge in some material showboating once in a lifetime. Regardless, it's pretty fun to watch. It's even funnier when you see the two roosters about ten feet from me who are penned up in a "coop" on the sidewalk in front of a local restaurant. Strangely, the roosters were gone once KK and I returned from our run. Something delicious being sorted out in the restaurant kitchen, perhaps? Ummm... ya. Quite likely. It's also funny because I saw a guy with a mule-pulled cart go up the road about 5 minutes prior to this little procession. I love how China is all about the contrast. 

Like yesterday... some friends and I caught a cab from the Qinggui to our apartments with a local driver who I've caught rides with before. He generally goes on semi-intelligible rants about how Chinese men have dirty minds and there's too many people in China. He always assumes me and the rest of the fares know what he's saying in his broken Chinglish, but often there's just a lot of ignorant smiling and nodding. After being dropped off, I was greeted by the confusing and collective smell of rotting garbage, delicious street food, and a bucketload of Chinese cologne wafting from the blinged-out group of tight-jean-wearing guys hanging out by a local shop. The roosters are on the street still, as they hadn't yet met their maker. Or chef, as the case may have been. One of the shop owners cats is looking hungry.

For now I'm off for lunch and a power-session of grading student papers. My night is dedicated to geeking out with CG and some other friends playing Settlers of Catan and relaxing out in Jinshi, then possibly spending some time back out there tomorrow for some Sunday Fun-day Gun-day action with the FNS teachers if  I can swing it. Should be a riot. Much China love, all. Let me know that you're all still out there in Canada, America, and wherever else your adventures take you.

T