Miles and Ying's Wedding!

alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599550664425747810" />


I attended a wedding I'll never forget yesterday.

All of us teachers living in the Beiyuan area met up at the subway at 6:30 to take the subway to get to the bus that would take us to Tanshan to celebrate Miles and Ying's wedding. We were all happy to reconnect after a few weeks of being apart due to people on holidays and us all at different schools. We were signing "It's a Nice Day for a White Wedding" as we crammed into the subway train. Seriously, Beijing, why is everyone up so early on a Sunday?

We made it to the bus on time were we met up with a group of Ying's work friends who we shared the bus with to Tanshan. It was only suppose to be about a two hour or so ride to Ying's hometown, but we hit some traffic and it took us closer to three hours to get there. We had been scheduled to get there much earlier than the wedding party. However, as we rounded to the corner to the hotel where the wedding was taking place, we ended up following the wedding party's car that was covered in beautiful flowers. Our bus followed their car through the smoke of all the fireworks and and under the big flower wreath! Luckily, the wedding party thought it was pretty funny and Miles seemed happy we had gotten there on time, even though we enjoyed some of their deserved fanfare!

We got off the bus and were told to cheer loudly as the hotel staff unraveled a red carpet for the wedding party and the close family to walk down. We cheered as we were ushered into the hotel's big conference hall. We were at the table right behind the table of Miles's family hailing from Australia and New York. Ying's colleagues took up four tables adjacent to us. We just had enough time to make a bathroom run and take some pictures before the ceremony started at 11:28, the luckiest time of the day for yesterday.

We calculated that there were about 600 people at the wedding! Ying's family had seriously almost invited their whole community! Everyone was happy and in high spirits. The MC for the event pumped us up and the wedding began! There was tons of cheering through the whole wedding, but our table exploded the most when Miles successfully said his vows in Chinese wonderfully! Miles's sister and brother-in-law sat with Ying's parents on the stage. They looked happy and just were going with it! Cindy and Joyce helped translate most of the ceremony for me.

There was also a bubble making machine on the stage!

The ceremony last about 30 minutes. Ying's father, Miles's sister and Ying's head boss gave beautiful toasts. Then, it was time for the huge dinner! A crazy amount of food was served and it was all delicious. Our two big EF bosses showed up and started making trouble, which led to some of the boys getting drunk off of the Chinese wine, which made for a fun ride home!

Then, about 20 minutes into the meal, people just started to leave in this gigantic flood. It was just a sea of people getting out of the hotel as fast as they could! It was kind of crazy. We just stayed eating and drinking Tanshan beer. The only tables left 30 minutes into the meal were Ying's closest friends and family, her work friends, Miles's family and us! The bride changed into her traditional Chinese dress and the couple went around collecting their red envelopes. Poor Ying had to work the room. She had to either feed her guests a piece of candy or light their cigarette. Miles just had to have a drink with every table. He did get to share his nephew's first alcoholic drink with him!

Then, the bus driver made it quite clear that it was time for us to go! It took awhile, but we gathered everyone up and onto the bus. Ying's family shook our hands as we got on the bus, and Miles jumped on to say good-bye before he and Ying and their families waved us good-bye. It was a merry, and long ride back to Beijing! We got on the bus at 2 and didn't hit downtown Beijing until 6.

Then, most of us Beijing 3 teachers all went to a coffee bar and had some coffee and snacks and decompressed a bit. Eventually we all parted to different parts of the city. Cindy and I were off to a housewarming party for one of our new Beijing 2 friend, Vivian. We went to a Seven-Eleven! I hadn't been into one in Beijing yet, and they sell Chinese food kind of like how they do at the Safeway deli counter, which cracked me up! We bought snacks and dinner and went to Vivian's. Her and her boyfriend recently moved into an apartment building that is right behind where Jackie Chan's infamous son from his baby mama lives. It's quite a big deal in Beijing! The housewarming party was fun and Vivian's friends are pretty fantastic. It was a great way to end a magical Beijing/Tanshan day!

I was also just happy I didn't say anything truly horrible and offensive like I did during my first Chinese wedding experience.

Congratulations Miles and Ying!