A wonderful gathering of about 15 members at a great hot pot restaurant called Little Sheep was followed by some ass-shakin' hippidy-hoppidy, hand-swaying, head-sliding, hip-checking, and hollering to the flashback 80s night at Alfa. Let the good times roll!
Wednesday, January 23rd: Doling out the Dumplings.
Like the many social events I've hosted in the past, this one was just as entertaining. Aaron, the man of the night, brought his culinary skills to life by showing the rest of us how to make our own jiaozi, preparing the meat, shrimp, and vegitable mixture in the kitchen, taking a small spoonful in the palm of our hands, and wrapping them up in skin for the boil. Everyone had a go at it, creating little dumplings of joy, some bursting at the seams.
Ghetto Dumplings!
Saturday, January 26th: Alles Gut zum Geburtstag, Lee!
Lee gets a little bit older, but is he wiser? The jury is still out on this. In celebration, a group of us CouchSurfers joined him at Vivian's Bar in Chaoyangmen for Beijing Improv.
Monday, January 28th: Beijing Acrobats.
Su Fang had organised a wonderful event exclusively for CouchSurfers to see the famed Beijing Acrobats do their thing at the Chaoyang Theatre. While others not in the loop had to shell out hundreds of RMB for a ticket, CSers only had to shell out 30 RMB, making our visit even more pleasurable. With plates and bowls being tossed up into the air and precariously balanced on the head of another acrobat standing on yet another acrobat's shoulder while spinning two plates on sticks in both hands, well, that was a sight to behold. From jumping though hoops in miraculous ways to watching over a dozen female acrobats riding a single bike around the stage, it was a breathtaking experience not to be missed!
Beijing Acrobats.
Wednesday, January 30th: Ice Skating on Houhai Lake.
Leo and I got together over the frozen Houhai Lake to take part in some ice skating in the Jing. Though it had been a few years since I had taken part in any form of skating (my last time must have been with the VSC back in 2006), I did pretty well on the rough ice and was speed skating like a true Canadian in no time. Leo from Argentina, on the other hand, had a little more difficulty, and had to use ice picks (which were simply screw drivers with a long piece of metal welded to it) to stabilise himself.
Leo got progressively better with each tumble to the point where he actually made plans to fall on his ass after wobbling on skates for a few minutes. "I have to fall now." he would say.
Marion joined us in the evening at the Starbucks overlooking Houhai, where she took her story-telling skills to new highs using candy animals on a stick as props and giving voices for each. We just stared in awe, as did the other customers at the café.
haha! you guys are having so much fun! Marion's ivory gets the highest score!!!
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