Dong Ming - Day 6 (11.29): Video Killed the Sleep

I’m writing this entry a day late, but when I finish it you’ll understand why.

I had gone to bed rather late on Tuesday night, talking to varoius people online and working out certain logistics. I ended up sleeping around 2:30 a.m. or so. I had thought that I would not be needed the next morning until almost noon so I didn’t worry about what time I had to wake up. Well, color me silly because just before 8:00 a.m. I got a call from Wang Wei. He wanted to know what the possibility was for me to put together a quick video and put it on VCD for their banquet for the bride’s family at noon.

While 4 hours to edit a decent wedding video seems like a bit of a tall order (considering the amount of video I had was probably equal to almost 4 hours in length as it was), I realized that up to now I hadn’t really had to put forth much effort during this whole wedding and this was a good way for me to help pay them back for all they’ve provided to me as my hosts. So I said yes, but asked that no one would come and bug me until the last minute they needed the disk and that I didn’t necessarily have to go to the banquet myself (because I wouldn’t have any time to shower and would be way too tired to socialize).

So I started my quick 4 hour marathon of video editing. I had one batch of lost time where 30 minutes of my work didn’t save, but for the most part it went okay. I managed to pull together two good video mantages of the wedding preparations and the trip to pick up the bride, but for the ceremony itself I just gave them some slightly edited raw footage. And based on what I had seen of previous wedding videos here, that was actually the norm.

It was down to the wire and I burned 3 copies of the disk while Jenn, Wang Wei and Wang Fei were in my room ready to go to the banquet. I was told later by Jennifer that the reaction was good and there were lots of happy tears when people saw the videos.

Since I wasn’t able to spend time at the banquet or with the family in the morning, I managed to get Wang Wei and Jennifer’s photos and posted them up in my gallery. Here is a basic idea of what happened while I was in my hotel room:

First, they walked to the Grandmother’s home in the morning. She was going to stay in Zhengzhou with 2nd aunt until Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) so they went to say goodbye. They also did the “bowing to the older female relatives” ceremony with the bride.

Walking to Grandmother’s House

Sister in Laws with 2nd Aunt

Grandmother and her new shoes

Lots and lots of bowing

Second, at the banquet it was a family-only thing. They all met up and watched the wedding videos I had made and ate/drank their fill. By the looks of the photos, they had a pretty good time. I kinda wish I could have gone now …

Watching the video

Watching the video

Grandmother and her first born son

The aunts and uncles - sans 2nd uncle

Cousin Couples

But, I didn’t, and after they left for the banquet I prepared myself to take a nap and get some much-needed rest, but then I started talking to someone online about an important issue. Then after that another person. Before I knew it I had been going until 5:00 p.m. already and had yet to get any sleep nor take a rest. It wasn’t a total loss though … the afternoon was quite productive and I may or may not have some big news soon.

After a while Jennifer and Wang Wei came over to see how I was doing. They were going to dinner so dropped by to pick me up. It turned out the meal was in the hotel’s restaurant so we went on down and met our food-eating compatriots. This particular group of men were all old buddies of Wang Wei’s (5 ge’s and 1 di) whom he had known for a long time. The food was quite good here but I wasn’t terribly hungry so I managed to fill up pretty quick.

After a while Jennifer and I left to come upstairs to my room while Wang Wei hung out to continue the festival of eating and toasting (and getting toasted — in more ways than one).

With Wang Wei’s friends

In my room I started work on a CD of the photos from the wedding preparations, ceremonies and celebrations. I used Picasa’s albums feature with it’s “gift CD” feature and it worked like a charm. The main issue was going through all the photos since there were so many from so many different cameras (which I had yet to have a chance to completely organize) but I managed to finish everything up just as Wang Wei came up from dinner and him and Jennifer were about to leave. (Jennifer had been sleeping most of the time on the bed.)

They left around 11:30, but I realized that since we were going to Beijing early I had to pack before I went to bed. It was hard going at first, but I managed to get everything packed and organized and put myself to bed by 1:00.

Tomorrow it’s off to Beijing where there is a small possibility I might be sleeping in a very nice place. Wu Di has also been helping me with setting up some training. I won’t be at Shi Cha Hai, but I think he’s going to get me in to some wushu class at Ren Min Da Xue where Li Yan is a student. To be honest, I’m sort of glad I’m not at Shi Cha Hai … but that is an entry for another day …