Party in the PRC

So... Friday was my 21st birthday. Yep, the big 2-1. And ironically, I celebrated shedding the restraints of many American laws in China, where said laws don't matter at all. But my friends were not about to let that little detail stop them from giving me a night to remember in Beijing :)

First, of course, all the teachers somehow knew it was my birthday (I had told a couple, but I guess word spreads fast), so they kept wishing me happy birthday throughout the morning. Although, I have to say, waking up to a 考试 kaoshi (test) was not the greatest way to start my 21st birthday. But it definitely got better. At our bi-weekly 中文桌子 zhongwen zhuozi (Chinese table), everyone sang me "Happy Birthday" (in Chinese of course), and proceeded to hoist their glasses and 干杯! ganbei! which is the Chinese equivalent to "Cheers!" Given the number of birthdays that have occurred over 中文桌子 during HBA (mine was either the fourth or fifth), Friday lunch has almost become the unofficial birthday lunch.


After class, a few friends and I ventured to the 动物园市场 dongwuyuan shichang, or the Zoo Market, located across the street from the Beijing Zoo. It's a wholesale market the likes of which you've never seen. We spent hours on ONE FLOOR and still didn't see all the stalls. Apparently, not very many foreigners make the trip, which made us a bit of an oddity in a market very obviously catered to Chinese tastes, whatever they are. I still haven't been able to make rhyme or reason of their sense of fashion. Another time. I was worried about finding a dress that fit, given Chinese girls' tendency towards being very, very skinny, but I found a cute green dress for 30 kuai. I probably could have gone lower, but alas, I paid the price for being a foreigner once again. It's a tough life.

One thing I thought was hilarious was the frequency of misspelled, or flat-out wrong, English words. On our trip, we saw "Gret Briain," "No Paint, No Gains," "I am happy because I am in a cheerful monkey," and the kicker, "If every thot I have of you is a flower, I am welking foleler in a garden - Gucci." But at least everything was cheap. I think I know where I'll be getting my wardrobe come fall :)

Now a few friends went to some pretty crazy lengths to make my birthday special, and they really delivered. I mean, how can you forget an official birthday hat wishing me "a wonderful time on this special day," an (unfortunately defunct) party popper, and a cake WITH MY NAME ON IT? It was fantastic. Added to that the life-saving package I got from my family a couple days before, and it was shaping up to be a special day for me in the PRC.

Cali + Midwest represent :)

Hat + Cake with name

NAME ON CAKE (贝瑞姗）

Godsend from family

MALFUNCTIONED PARTY POPPER!

After our little celebration, we headed to The Saddle Cantina at Sanlitun to celebrate with some "authentic" Tex-Mex! I have to say, all things considered, it was a delicious meal. I even taught Binh the science of eating fajitas... all while wearing my hat. 

The food, the hat

To wrap up the night, we headed off to Vics, the most popular club for ex-pats in Beijing. While we were there, one of my friends had the DJ play some crazy, actual song version of "Happy Birthday," and the whole dance floor (or those who noticed people's attention turning towards me) sang me "Happy Birthday," including a bunch of Chinese clubbers who looked happier than me. As far as making someone feel special goes, that's a pretty excellent 办法 banfa (method/way). I'll admit it, I had a couple drinks: one whole gin & tonic, one whole whiskey & coke, and a few sips of beer that did not make me happy, so I passed it back to the friend who bought it for me. If there's one thing about Vics that stood out, it was the sheer number of distinctly non-Asian people in attendance (no surprise). What did surprise me was meeting a guy from Kansas. I really thought studying Chinese was very unpopular with students from the Midwest, but Kansas guy is one of the many I've met during my stay in Beijing to come here and study Chinese. Am I trying to draw attention away from partying at Vics? Yes. But it's still a salient point.

Anyway, the HBAers left early, leaving me to hang out with Binh and her awesome PiB friends. They are SERIOUS about their language pledge. While HBAers usually drop to English when going out on the weekends, PiBers kept their Chinese up the whole night. And, funnily enough, not-quite-sober me is a lot more linguistically adept than I would have anticipated. Should we all actually become tipsy before taking our tests from now on? No? OK. But at least I know the skill is buried in my head somewhere!

Around 2 AM, Binh and her PiB friend gallantly escorted me back to my university in a taxi, because Binh said she just couldn't let me go alone without knowing what would happen to me. And then... I finally took off my hat.

And thus I turned a whole 21 years old. In Beijing. In a very memorable way. Mission accomplished.

As a last note, thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes!