The Day Before

No alarm was set this morning, which started at a leisurely pace. I met my parents, Brody and Alyssa downstairs in the lobby for a "Western Style" buffet breakfast. Well... Western it wasn't. There were some fried eggs and "bacon".. with a bit of bread, steamed pumpkin, wonton soup and that steamed corn thats so popular here. Washed down with a grape juice/ flat coke flovoured syrup it still filled a hole.

We spent a few hours wandering XinZhou, through some shopping malls and streets. We are literally an exotic species here. I've never experienced anything like it anywhere in the world. We stopped for a "Chinese burger" and in turn stopped dozens of passers by in their tracks.. as they would literally stop, stare and grin at us from behind the cafe glass windows, like one would at a zoo... one guy pulled out a cigarette and basically got within 20cm of my dads face. It's not particularly pleasant.

Westerners don't exist here, and have no real reason to ever come to this place. After an afternoon break, we piled into cabs to head tp the wedding venue to rehearse and plan. There was initially some major conflict between the "popular/celebrity" celebrant and the bride and groom to be.. largely stemming from a miscommunication about the bride's white and traditional Chinese red dresses, and procedural incompatibilities between procedure, tradition and process of Chinese and Western culture.

Eventually, after 4.5 hours, enough compromise, practice and agreement had been made to satisfy a wedding plan. With the time drawing late, we settled on KFC for an unglamorous but delicious final family meal before Jareds big day. Tomorrow we look forward to what should be an interesting and memorable experience.Read more