Beach House And Hot Pot

The sun did come out after a couple of hours of rain today. We went to the Golden Pebble Beach again. This time with a group of eight guys and some of their families. There are a total of nine buddies in this group - one is Kenton’s best friend, and two others are his classmates. They hang out together, and look out for each others’ best interests. Whatever one has, the others can use or have if they need or want. Someone always foots the bill for the groups’ meal – a bit different from the norm in the States where each pays his/her own. They let each other borrow their cars – usually it is the ones with the SUVs that lend their cars out. For example, one of the guys had family coming over. He borrowed another guys’ SUV and gave him his car. Then the next day, the cars were switched again so that there would be enough room for us to ride in. If one needs money, another gives them without wanting to be repaid. It amazes me at how close these guys are. It is definitely a group society here in China. In the States, we are such an individualistic society – each person looks out for his own interests.

Since it rained most of the morning, we got a large room at a restaurant and just hung out for hours. We had our own private bath, and private access to the balcony overlooking the ocean. There were nine husbands, five wives, and ten kids total. Once again, we had a seafood feast, with the wives and children at one table, and the men at another. I enjoyed spending time with the other wives there. They were all saying that they each wanted to have another child after seeing us with three kids.

In the late afternoon, it was decided that we all go home. Then when we were getting into our respective cars, someone suggested we go to another restaurant for dinner. We went to a ‘hot pot’ Muslim restaurant. It was quite fancy, with all the tables in one huge room. The tables were all a light tan marble, and the seats were all large and elegant - light tan leather with a beautiful wood with a circular marble piece in the headset. Each table had an indented circle in the center where a hot pot was placed. The circular hot pot was made of colorful ceramic with a circular chimney-looking thing sticking out the middle. There was a ring around the chimney-thing where boiling hot water was poured. Plates of fresh vegetables, meats, and seafood were ordered, with the servers taking our orders on a hand-held PDA. The server put spices in the water, and we put the foods we wanted to eat in the pot. After a couple of minutes, our food was ready to eat. Each person got a small bowl of ‘jiang’ (thick sauce) to flavor the food even more. I chose a sesame sauce – I hadn’t had this sauce since I left China twelve years ago. I just ate vegetable after vegetable – my meal was delicious! Then at the end, each person was given an ice-cream bar. A perfect ending to a tasty meal!!

The boys: After spending almost all day in a beach house, the boys almost fell asleep on the way to the restaurant. They didn’t care to try anything with the hot pot meal, so they ate their standard meal – rice with soy sauce. It was the longest day of activity they’ve had so far.