מחווה של
cut & paste ממשהו שכתבתי בסין. דג'ה-וו נהיה לי מהכתבה הזותי!! (מתנצלת שזה באנגלית, לא היה לי שם עברית)
Hello there I am writing this before I forget and forever not tell you guys this experience!! Last night we were invited to a party hosted by the Chinese side of the joint venture at Alon's place of work. This dinner was to celebrate 2 occasions: we said good bye to 3 Israeli families who finished their 'duties' here, and we were honoring the board of directors who came for their usual quarterly. A mini van came to pick us up at the hotel around 5:30 - my sister and I barely made it, coz we just came back from our day out. We were racing through the small apartment trying to get dressed and not bump into each other... All the Israelis from the hotel piled up into the van, and in high spirits left for the party. We arrived into a place that was built next to the factory about 10 or 15 years ago. It is a strange combination of a restaurant and accommodation place without looking like a hotel or without operating like one. It was built solely for accommodating guests who came to the plant for work, at the time Xian did not have any hotels what so ever. It looks a lot like the kibbutz movement facilities from the 50's. We waited in the lobby making funny comments as we were waiting for the board of directors to arrive, plus the people who came directly from the plant. Upon their arrival, we entered a dining room where 3 out of 15 big round tables were set just for us. The traditional Chinese 'fancy' dinner involves a big Lazy Suzie in the center of the table and dishes all shapes and sizes and tastes coming and going continuously. At our table we had (beside Alon Orly and me): Dgnait, an Israeli who came for 2 weeks to do some computer implementation, two Chinese guys at mid management level, two Israeli consultants, and two people from the board of directors. One from Sweden and the other from Norway (both high ranking in Volvo, and both sounded like the Swedish Chef when they spoke to us... Orly and I could barely contain our giggles). As the meal progressed, we had to drink so much wine (it was either wine or that awful Chinese liquor that smells like rotten oranges and tastes like nail polish remover). Every now and then a person would come up to the table to have a drink and congratulate everyone (including himself I suppose...) and everyone had to get up and have a drink with the person!! The guys from Volvo had a horrible time with the chopsticks!! They couldn't do this to save their butt!! Everything they tried to ‘catch’ off the rotating center fell on the table. They were laughing so much, their coordination got even worse! It was so pathetic, that one of the Chinese guys at the table offered to help, and put some fish on their plate at some point. So the whole meal, we had to pick from a rotating plate in the center with chopsticks, get up, salute, drink, sit down, and pick again... All of us came home very hungry and very drunk!