Our traditional Chinese music class afforded us the
opportunity to hear 5 different instruments.
Some of the music was pleasant, some was upbeat, and some was
piercing. I am coming to believe more
and more that culture influences our likes and dislikes including taste in
music.
Beijing 2008 Olympic Guitars
Three girls had asked me to join them for dinner downtown
after English Corner. Emilie and I
climbed in the mini van to ride town with them for about 15 cents. First we went to dinner at a restaurant
serving fresh dumplings. As we waited
for our order the girls were happy to talk about America, China, and their hometown. The dumplings were delicious and cheap too,
but the girls thought the chili was not spicy enough.
After dinner the girls wanted to take pictures, so we walked
a few blocks to a store that contained about 5 photo booths. The girls placed books in front of Emilie and
me and asked us to pick 12 backgrounds from the thousands of available
options. The five of us crammed into the
small space to pose for the camera. Then
we took various pictures with various poses.
They told Emilie and me to make a heart with our arms which apparently
is very popular in China. Emilie and I laughed as they positioned us
and came up with strange poses. The
pictures were printed out. I got all 12
pictures on one sheet of paper, but the girls had theirs cut into tiny squares
to go into their photo books filled with other pictures.
