Turkey Substitute

Several weeks have passed since my last entry. In that time I have become much closer to my student friends and experienced quite a few Chinese traditions that I had not yet encountered.

One such occassion occured just before the Thanksgiving holiday. Our foreign affairs liaison had invited us to a dinner with several of the university department heads to celebrate our American holiday. We understood that it was unlikely that they would find a turkey so our expectations remained moderately low in terms of finding anything "American" looking on the menu. But as our experience had proven on many occassions, Chinese menu's can always find a surprising substitute.

The morning we left our caravan of roughly four freshly shined cars set off from the finely paved city center streets to the outskirts of the city, where dirt roads weaved and winded around vast farm fields. The crops were low, mostly consisting of chives, rice, barley, tea and sesame, and for miles our eyes could graze the countless fields. The passage of our cars did not stir many of the scattered farmers whose broad cone shaped straw hats still protected them from the intense south China sun. I couldn't quite make out their faces but I was sure it was heavy with responsibility and experience. The lives of farmers out here away from the city was in many ways still the same as it had always been. Why they hadn't looked up at our noisy passage was soon revealed to me as I sat back, turned my head and glanced out the other side- Yibin's new airport stretched for miles in the other direction. Local villagers were probably not surprised by much anymore.

We arrived at our destination a few minutes later. The restaurant was the largest in a small village. Though technically we were still in Yibin the villages surrounding it were far removed from the business of the city. The restaurant was one large building and a small courtyard for large gatherings. To come upon this place with your American eyes you might not immediately consider it a restaurant. In fact upon first glance I was convinced we had come upon a lumber yard, as several of the "walls" were in actuallity high piles of long wood logs. My intuition told me that the owner had mixed winter practicality with new private dining areas.

The aroma of cooked meat pervaded the area. In one corner a fire had been made and several spits had been laid across with an unidentified meat. Later I would discover that this was goat, the main course. By nightfall nearly thirty faculty members from all departments had gathered along three rows of benches, each with a nice big goat on a spit in the middle. The food was surprisingly tasty as it had been glazed over several time with herbs and spices.

Meanwhile, as is customary in China(and especially in Yibin), we drank Chinese wine and beer which flowed endlessly from a back room. There was a great deal of toasting and laughing, and many of the other faculty members were anxious to wish us a happy Thanksgiving. Though it was difficult to discern why so many had turned out for such an American holiday we were grateful for all of their warm wishes.

It was not always easy keeping the conversation interesting, especially when many of the teachers only spoke Chinese, so we played simple drinking games and laughed at eachothers mistakes. I attempted to tell a few irish jokes, "have you heard the one about the Irishman who thinks the hardware store is a bar?" I asked them in Chinese, and when I had finished they seemed thoroughly pleased, though they most likely knew little about the Irish, or a bar.

We left that night with our bellies full and more than a little tipsy. The faculty members wished us a happy Thanksgiving one more time and bid us farewell. It hadn't been turkey but the food had surpassed our expecations and more, with plenty of the holiday cheer to go with it. And though I would be enjoying real turkey with friends the following day, I couldn't help feeling like I had had a real pilgrim experience in Yibin.