Since it has been such a long time since my last post... sorry about that by the way... this one will have to be in two parts bc if I put it all together you would not want to sit here and read it. Part one will be all about the Chinese wedding I was so fortunate to be a part of last weekend! Part two will be about work, Chinese class, and my other random adventures here.
Also, before I start writing this, I want to apologize for any sentences that don't make sense or anything like that. being around chinese all the time makes it a little more difficult to switch back to proper english so don't judge me mother...
First, the background story on how I came to be invited to this wedding. One of the service leaders (ps, on the duty roster these people are called "service ladders"... love China haha) in Shang Palace, who is my trainer and her name is Cherry, was telling me about her wedding a week before it. I was asking a whole bunch of questions because their weddings are much different here as you can imagine. She started telling me about it and then I asked if there was any part of the wedding I could attend so I could experience at least part of their wedding. She told me I could come to the hotel it was at at 6pm that day and have dinner with everyone. Of course when she told me this I assumed I was being invited to the reception so I was excited! Later that day... I was having my english training for the staff and they were all talking amongst themselves but clearly talking about me haha. One of the assistant managers translated a word on her phone and showed it to me, the word was bridesmaid. And I said yes I know this! I asked how many she had and she shook her head and said, "no no, she ask if you want to be mine" like she was asking me to dinner or something not to be a part of one of the most important days of her life! I was in such shock that I said well if you are serious of course! Then she was very surprised that I agreed and that made me a little nervous.. which I was right to be a little scared of. Still later that day at work she mentioned how excited she was to have a maid of honor and then I thought wait.... I thought I was just going to be the token American of the bridesmaids.. but no, I was the one! the only bridesmaid, the maid of honor. And all of this happened in one glorious day of work! The next day we were making plans for the wedding day and she was telling me how friday night she was coming to pick me up so we could go get my dress and then how I needed to be at her house at 7:30 am on saturday to get ready. As the day progressed the plans changed again of course, the final plans were made that she would pick me up right after work on friday, take me to get my dress and jewelry, then stay the night at her house and wake up the next morning at 5:30 am to start getting ready! I had a few more days at work before Friday but neither she nor I could wait we were both so excited!
Friday night after work she picked me up from the hotel around 7pm and we went to a huge mall near her home to get my bridesmaid dress. I found out when we got there that I would not need to pay for it because she got one for free with her wedding dress, which I will explain later.... She had a really ugly one picked out for me but I will attach a picture of the one I wore so you can see it; it wasn't as bad as the first one she had picked out. Then after that we went to her home and her mother made us a traditional Chinese dinner and it was very good! I have pictures of that as well :) After dinner we went to her room and watched a movie and then went to bed because at 5:15 am family was breaking down her door to start getting her ready and decorate the apartment.
Quick side note.... at english training today I brought my laptop and let them pick some music to listen to.... which just happened to be the backstreet boys.. love it haha
All of the decorations are red because the color red means luck and good fortune in Chinese culture. Most of the decorations also have the double happiness character. Once the entrance and inside of her apartment are decorated she gets her hair and make up done and then changes into her wedding gown. The groom then has to come to her house first. She sits on her parents bed behind a closed door with four of her friends standing behind the door waiting for the groom to knock. When he does they ask him a question and then let him in. We all hold hands so he cannot get to her and he has to answer some questions and pay us before we let him through. Then he kneels at the edge of the bed and presents her bouquet, after that he has to find her shoes and put them on her. Her shoes also have to be red, along with her underwear; the groom has to wear red socks, underwear, and sash under his belt. Then her parents come in and pack up two baskets on the bed with her and I think that symbolizes her leaving her family and joining new one. Then the groom picks her up off the bed and sets her down and we sit at the table and eat dumplings. But! you can only eat an even number of them bc odd numbers are bad luck on the wedding day. Then we walk outside and all the guests shoot off streamers and we get in the cars and caravan over to the groom's parents house. Once there, there are more streamers and red decorations and the bride and groom go into the house with his parents and do a few ceremonial things and then the parents have to welcome each guest into their home so they can scope it out and make sure it is acceptable. One bed room is all decorated in red and that is where the bride and groom will spend their wedding night. After everyone looks around the house and all the pictures are taken we go back out to the cars and head to the hotel the ceremony will be in.... finally!!! When we arrive at the hotel ALL of the wedding guests are waiting outside to greet the bride and groom and there is a huge blow up arch in front of the entrance to the hotel. Before anyone can enter the bride and groom have to pop a whole string of balloons under the arch. Then everyone follows them inside and we head up to the changing room which comes in handy.... Cherry changed into ANOTHER wedding gown!! she has a different one for the morning pictures at the houses and then another one for the ceremony... once she changes and gets her hair re-done we go downstairs for the big show!
Her father walks her half way down the aisle (I was holding her train at this time btw!!) and the groom meets them and the exchange happens there and then they walk the rest of the way down the aisle to the stage. I say stage and I totally mean stage... weddings here are like a TV game show; all the lights are off, there are spot lights and strobe lights, crazy music, games, and bubbles?!! Its pretty intense, obviously I cannot really say what all went on bc it was all in Chinese so I have no idea what they were saying but.. they play a little game, then answer questions about each other, say their vows, break an ice sculpture to get their rings, cut the cake, honor their parents, light a joint candle, drink a glass of wine, have people come up and talk about them, and finally kiss. (these are in no particular order by the way! haha) After this we go back upstairs and Cherry changed into yet another dress! this one is red and is for the "reception" we go back down to everyone and the groom has to take a shot of chinese wine with every man, the bride has to feed each woman a piece of candy and light a cigarette for each man. I was the one carrying around the wine and filling the shot glasses! After we got through all the guests they were able to take pictures with the happy couple. when pictures are over Cherry changes dresses.... again!! back into the dress she wore for the ceremony and we go outside the hotel to take more pictures! we went to this gorgeous park and down by the ocean and i will be getting some of these pictures so dont you worry you will see them! Once pictures are done we head back to the hotel and just chill until the dinner with all of their friends. but of course, she has to redo her hair and put on a new dress for the dinner!!
Another side note... it has taken me days to finish this super long post! I just write when I can when I dont have work and that hasnt been too often but I determined to finish it today!!
So the dinner that happens after the wedding is straight crazy!! This dinner is just for all of the bride and grooms friends to hang out and celebrate the wedding, and boy do they know how to celebrate! Keep in mind, I dont know if I have told all of you this yet but, if you are at a dinner party and someone toasts you you have to drink your whole drink or it is very disrespectful. They purposely have smaller glasses because you would be chugging a bottle of beer at a time if you didnt have a little glass! By the end of the night though that was the cool thing, they look at Jason and I and say "bottle me bottle you!!" no thanks.. and these beer bottles are much larger than the ones we have at home so that just was not a good idea haha. At the end of the dinner we even played some games so it was kind of like a bachelor/ bachelorette party and rehearsal dinner all rolled into one because they dont do either of those things. Overall, this was an experience I will never forget my whole life and I was so fortunate to be able to take part in it. If you all have any questions or need clarification from my rambling just comment! Miss you :)
the traveling J
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
You know you need serious help when...
First off, in response to uncle mike, front desk was interesting to learn about but I was pretty familiar with all of those concepts since I worked front desk at VCA (the most amazing hotel ever...) ha! But now I am in my department, food and beverage. I have tried the local beer! And it is pretty good but I am actually partial to the Japanese beer asahi. It is better in my opinion and cheaper! And yes we have started Chinese classes! We had our second one yesterday. And let me tell you.. It makes me appreciate Spanish soooo much more! This is a very difficult language to learn but hopefully we will be able to make some kind of conversation in Chinese after these classes.
So, my first rotation is in Shang Palace, the traditional Chinese restaurant. We all go through rotations in all food and beverage outlets and then the boys go through different areas of front office. I found out once getting here that we all wanted to do front office but my roommate and I were chosen to do food and beverage since we couldn't all do front office. As my parents already know, my topic was changed half way through the time we had to write our outline for the project and I was not a happy camper... But now I am very happy that my topic has changed because it is probably the largest problem within the hotel at this time so I can really impress them! Haha at least I hope so.. Working in Shang Palace though has been quite an adjustment. Since it is a traditional Chinese restaurant you can imagine the customers are mostly Chinese and you know what that means... No speaky English!! Which in turn means that the employees don't need to speak very good English because not many of their customers are or they come with Chinese speakers so they don't have to worry about English. Which of course means the employees cannot communicate with me very well! This is the biggest problem I have had. If I don't know what you are saying, and you don't know what I am saying, how are we supposed to work together? They cant even tell me what to do or how to do it because I don't know what they are saying. I am hoping this will get better because as of now I am not being very helpful and I'm not learning very much. I have also found that these servers don't have that large of a problem conversing with the guests because they are speaking their native language. So this restaurant doesn't need too much of my help.
In terms of extracurricular activities jason and I found a gym! We are both very excited because even though there is a fitness center on the premise we are not allowed to use it.. The gym that we found is very nice too which I was pleasently surprised about! We heard from the other interns in Qingdao that the gym they are going to does not have air conditioning! That would be brutal.. But ours does! We also found a restaurant and bar here called Brooklyn and we love it! They only serve American food :) haha which we need every so often bc I miss it! The owner is Chinese but he was raised in the states so he speaks perfect English and he is a really nice guy, it's like we have a piece of home here with us! We went to the beach the other weekend but the one we went to was all rocks... So we didn't get lucky there but we have heard of some others that are sandy and hopefully we will scope those out tomorrow!
In case you were wondering, here are some things you cannot find in china to wrap up this blog :)
1: cheese... Which is very depressing, and if you can find it it is very expensive
2: milk, and the milk you do find is not refrigerated. It is that pasteurized..
3: lettuce!! Which does not make me happy at all I have been craving a salad since we got here!
4: ice cream, it is in very short supply and really odd flavors
5: corn on the cob! We see it sold on the streets everywhere but it's not in the stores!
6: Mac and cheese!! Which was expected haha
Ok that's all for now! Love and miss you all!
So, my first rotation is in Shang Palace, the traditional Chinese restaurant. We all go through rotations in all food and beverage outlets and then the boys go through different areas of front office. I found out once getting here that we all wanted to do front office but my roommate and I were chosen to do food and beverage since we couldn't all do front office. As my parents already know, my topic was changed half way through the time we had to write our outline for the project and I was not a happy camper... But now I am very happy that my topic has changed because it is probably the largest problem within the hotel at this time so I can really impress them! Haha at least I hope so.. Working in Shang Palace though has been quite an adjustment. Since it is a traditional Chinese restaurant you can imagine the customers are mostly Chinese and you know what that means... No speaky English!! Which in turn means that the employees don't need to speak very good English because not many of their customers are or they come with Chinese speakers so they don't have to worry about English. Which of course means the employees cannot communicate with me very well! This is the biggest problem I have had. If I don't know what you are saying, and you don't know what I am saying, how are we supposed to work together? They cant even tell me what to do or how to do it because I don't know what they are saying. I am hoping this will get better because as of now I am not being very helpful and I'm not learning very much. I have also found that these servers don't have that large of a problem conversing with the guests because they are speaking their native language. So this restaurant doesn't need too much of my help.
In terms of extracurricular activities jason and I found a gym! We are both very excited because even though there is a fitness center on the premise we are not allowed to use it.. The gym that we found is very nice too which I was pleasently surprised about! We heard from the other interns in Qingdao that the gym they are going to does not have air conditioning! That would be brutal.. But ours does! We also found a restaurant and bar here called Brooklyn and we love it! They only serve American food :) haha which we need every so often bc I miss it! The owner is Chinese but he was raised in the states so he speaks perfect English and he is a really nice guy, it's like we have a piece of home here with us! We went to the beach the other weekend but the one we went to was all rocks... So we didn't get lucky there but we have heard of some others that are sandy and hopefully we will scope those out tomorrow!
In case you were wondering, here are some things you cannot find in china to wrap up this blog :)
1: cheese... Which is very depressing, and if you can find it it is very expensive
2: milk, and the milk you do find is not refrigerated. It is that pasteurized..
3: lettuce!! Which does not make me happy at all I have been craving a salad since we got here!
4: ice cream, it is in very short supply and really odd flavors
5: corn on the cob! We see it sold on the streets everywhere but it's not in the stores!
6: Mac and cheese!! Which was expected haha
Ok that's all for now! Love and miss you all!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The topic for today's class is.... FO
Good evening class! Today we are going to learn a little bit about Shangri La's front office operations and how entertaining they are! Ok so this past week I have been doing cross training in the front office even though most of my time here will be spent in food and beverage since that is what my project topic is over.
During this cross training I have been learning about the front desk, guest relation officer, concierge, business center and other areas that are included in front office. Some of the areas are on the fritz bc they are doing a lobby renovation right now which relocated the front desk, some managers offices and the lobby lounge. I was very interested to learn all about these areas but all of the employees have been so busy that we haven't gotten to learn too much. A lot of our training time has been spent shut up in the little offices of the different departments so we don't get in the way... Needless to say chelsie and I are excited to start in food and beverage so we can be legitimately trained haha
We have been working a lot recently so we haven't had too much time to get out and see the city but this past weekend we did go to Dalians walking festival which was so much fun! They have the perfect walking road here that is right on the coast and along the mountain side! We walked 10 km that day... We are going to try and walk it one a week. But! There were soo many people on this walk! Over 80,000... We also found a great bar here called the Brooklyn bar and it has new York style pizza, BLTs, and even pulled pork sandwiches! We have also found out that the local bars here have no idea how to make the mixed drinks on their menu.. But this new bar does, probably because it is owned by a New Yorker! We now have a place to go if we ever get really homesick and need some amazing food from home :)
I hope all is well with all of my followers back at home and I'm glad my posts are entertaining! Miss everyone! J
During this cross training I have been learning about the front desk, guest relation officer, concierge, business center and other areas that are included in front office. Some of the areas are on the fritz bc they are doing a lobby renovation right now which relocated the front desk, some managers offices and the lobby lounge. I was very interested to learn all about these areas but all of the employees have been so busy that we haven't gotten to learn too much. A lot of our training time has been spent shut up in the little offices of the different departments so we don't get in the way... Needless to say chelsie and I are excited to start in food and beverage so we can be legitimately trained haha
We have been working a lot recently so we haven't had too much time to get out and see the city but this past weekend we did go to Dalians walking festival which was so much fun! They have the perfect walking road here that is right on the coast and along the mountain side! We walked 10 km that day... We are going to try and walk it one a week. But! There were soo many people on this walk! Over 80,000... We also found a great bar here called the Brooklyn bar and it has new York style pizza, BLTs, and even pulled pork sandwiches! We have also found out that the local bars here have no idea how to make the mixed drinks on their menu.. But this new bar does, probably because it is owned by a New Yorker! We now have a place to go if we ever get really homesick and need some amazing food from home :)
I hope all is well with all of my followers back at home and I'm glad my posts are entertaining! Miss everyone! J
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Bloody gloves
First, to my lil sis, you are the greatest :) I'm glad you like your bear so much! And I will always be there for you even if I am not there in person. To my parents, thank you so much for all of your support and for reading! Aunt Liz and uncle mike! You are reading my blog yay! I hope you like all of my random news haha. Aunt Tricia you are online, this is crazy! I'm so glad you will be able to keep up with my travels online :)
So my story for today is about the hospitals here.... If you come to china make sure you get all of your shots and check ups done before hand because these hospitals are nothing like ours... We have to get a "body check", this is what the chinese call a check up, for the hospitality industry because they don't want people working with food who have crazy diseases. Which I totally understand but we went to this clinic and the outside of it literally looked like an abandoned building.. A lot of lights were burnt out, nurses were wearing gloves thank goodness but instead of regular gloves they were the yellow ones mom uses to wash dishes, and to top it off one nurse was walking around with them covered in blood.. It was the creepiest thing I have ever seen outside of the movies. We were all freaking out because we found out that we had to do a blood test and people that were giving blood samples didn't even get band aids to put on their arms they just had to hold it to keep it from bleeding.. Not cool. Thank goodness we didn't have to go through the tests though bc we didn't have enough money, these tests were 509 rmb and that is almost $100... I was about to tell the girl from HR who took us to just send me home bc I was not about to let anyone take my blood there. After we were done freaking out about what we almost had to go through though, we all felt really bad that the Chinese people only have these kind of places to go when they are sick.
On a lighter note! We have one last day of training tomorrow and our tour of the hotel and then on Friday we start work! We are all very excited about starting in our departments and tonight we got to have dinner with the General Manager in the Shang Palace which is one of the restaurants in the hotel. I am also very excited about my project and being able to assist the hotel in improving communication between the restaurNt staff and the guests.
This is all for now! Thanks for reading!
So my story for today is about the hospitals here.... If you come to china make sure you get all of your shots and check ups done before hand because these hospitals are nothing like ours... We have to get a "body check", this is what the chinese call a check up, for the hospitality industry because they don't want people working with food who have crazy diseases. Which I totally understand but we went to this clinic and the outside of it literally looked like an abandoned building.. A lot of lights were burnt out, nurses were wearing gloves thank goodness but instead of regular gloves they were the yellow ones mom uses to wash dishes, and to top it off one nurse was walking around with them covered in blood.. It was the creepiest thing I have ever seen outside of the movies. We were all freaking out because we found out that we had to do a blood test and people that were giving blood samples didn't even get band aids to put on their arms they just had to hold it to keep it from bleeding.. Not cool. Thank goodness we didn't have to go through the tests though bc we didn't have enough money, these tests were 509 rmb and that is almost $100... I was about to tell the girl from HR who took us to just send me home bc I was not about to let anyone take my blood there. After we were done freaking out about what we almost had to go through though, we all felt really bad that the Chinese people only have these kind of places to go when they are sick.
On a lighter note! We have one last day of training tomorrow and our tour of the hotel and then on Friday we start work! We are all very excited about starting in our departments and tonight we got to have dinner with the General Manager in the Shang Palace which is one of the restaurants in the hotel. I am also very excited about my project and being able to assist the hotel in improving communication between the restaurNt staff and the guests.
This is all for now! Thanks for reading!
Monday, May 16, 2011
What up blog readers! I made it alive :)
Ni hao peeps!
Well here we are, you reading a blog and me writing one (which I never in my life thought would happen), thanks for taking an interest in my Chinese escapades! I am coming to you live from Dalian China, for all of you who don't know where that is its on the most northern part of the coast of China. Dalian is, surprisingly, one of the smaller major cities in China with a measly 5.8 million inhabitants.... so tiny right?? The city is gorgeous and so is mountainous country side and ocean that surrounds it. My fellow students and I have been her for.... 4 whole days now! Four down only 179 left to go! haha Since we have been here we have gone to multiple shopping centers which are like nothing any of us have seen before.. except for the one that reminds us of Sams Club haha. We also went on a bus tour of the city and visited a temple outside of the city, that is where the picture is from. You would not believe some of the crazy things we have encountered thus far, including but not limited to: the way everyone drives, how many people live here, some of the foods they eat, and how much they loveeee foreigners!
I am going to try and blog as often as I can to share some crazy stories, tell you about my job here, and maybe even teach you a little bit about China! I am working in a 5 star luxury hotel called the Shangri-La Dalian. This company has 72 hotels all over the world and has plans for many more to be opened in the next couple years. This hotel has 563 rooms, 3 restaurants, 2 bars, and a huge amount of convention and meeting space. I started my orientation today and will start work on Friday! We learned a lot about the hotel and its mission today and I can't wait to get started.
But, since it is 10:25 PM here, I should probably call it a night before more training tomorrow! yippeeee.... Thanks for reading, I will post more soon, and I love you all!
Hugs, J
P.S.- a special thanks to my family for being so amazingly supportive of my choice to be a part of this program, I am so proud to call you my family and I miss you tons! To all of my friends and groupies out there (I know I have some! haha) you all keep me going and thanks for the support and encouragement! Miss you all!
Well here we are, you reading a blog and me writing one (which I never in my life thought would happen), thanks for taking an interest in my Chinese escapades! I am coming to you live from Dalian China, for all of you who don't know where that is its on the most northern part of the coast of China. Dalian is, surprisingly, one of the smaller major cities in China with a measly 5.8 million inhabitants.... so tiny right?? The city is gorgeous and so is mountainous country side and ocean that surrounds it. My fellow students and I have been her for.... 4 whole days now! Four down only 179 left to go! haha Since we have been here we have gone to multiple shopping centers which are like nothing any of us have seen before.. except for the one that reminds us of Sams Club haha. We also went on a bus tour of the city and visited a temple outside of the city, that is where the picture is from. You would not believe some of the crazy things we have encountered thus far, including but not limited to: the way everyone drives, how many people live here, some of the foods they eat, and how much they loveeee foreigners!
I am going to try and blog as often as I can to share some crazy stories, tell you about my job here, and maybe even teach you a little bit about China! I am working in a 5 star luxury hotel called the Shangri-La Dalian. This company has 72 hotels all over the world and has plans for many more to be opened in the next couple years. This hotel has 563 rooms, 3 restaurants, 2 bars, and a huge amount of convention and meeting space. I started my orientation today and will start work on Friday! We learned a lot about the hotel and its mission today and I can't wait to get started.
But, since it is 10:25 PM here, I should probably call it a night before more training tomorrow! yippeeee.... Thanks for reading, I will post more soon, and I love you all!
Hugs, J
P.S.- a special thanks to my family for being so amazingly supportive of my choice to be a part of this program, I am so proud to call you my family and I miss you tons! To all of my friends and groupies out there (I know I have some! haha) you all keep me going and thanks for the support and encouragement! Miss you all!
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