// China got a little too crazy for me today//

So… insanity happened to me today. I some how found myself in a very nice room with the president of the art academy here in Dalian while 6 other Chinese men sat around the table. Not only was I the only American but I was the only girl. There was a translator there to translate what was going on. How did I get here? I have no idea. The president of the academy saw my partner Sun and I working and said that he wanted to have dinner with me. While we were eating he was telling me that he loved my eyes and my teeth. He made me smoke chinese cigarettes with him and he lit each one for me. My hands were shaking the whole time. He made me pick out the alcohol all of us were going to drink during dinner. I picked this tall glass bottle that was in the shape of a Chinese missile. Later on I found out that they don’t make this type of alcohol anymore and that it was originally made for the Chinese army. While we are eating my partner Sun has to serve everyone tea and bring them napkins as a sign of respect. I couldn’t start eating until the president ate, also as a sign of respect. The president kept making me cheers him and take shots with him. I was starting to get drunk and all the while I had no idea what was going on because no one spoke English except for the translators very broken English. He asked me what I thought about China and made me say any word I knew in Chinese. I had to do what he said as a sign of respect. If he wanted me to try something at the dinner table I had to do it. Each time the waitress came into the room she would have to knock on the closed door before entering. When she came in she served the president at the head of the table and then me. The president said that if I came to Dalian for graduate school he would take 50% of my tuition and he wouldn’t make me take the Chinese test. He also said that if I stayed in Dalian a little longer he would give me expensive tea, alcohol, and cigarettes. Two and half to three hours later I was finally out of the dinner. I have never been so flattered or creeped out at the same time. China got a little too crazy for me today.