Chinese-American Dinner Party

This weekend, I hosted a dinner party for the Chinese students in my office, with Adam and Alison's awesome help cooking due to the mass numbers of people invited.  It turned out I could have fed everyone myself, but it was good to have some variety in cooking and fun to have them around when preparing.  They made spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread, and I made chili with sour cream and real cheddar cheese that I managed to find :)

Trying the chili

We also had feta cheese for an appetizer, which was new for all the Chinese students.  They made the funniest faces when trying it!  It wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but a couple of them really liked it!

Trying out feta cheese for the first time

Speaking of cups of tea, I made sweet iced tea to honor my Southern roots, and we taught how to drink it with lemon, which was also interesting - whyever would you put lemon in your tea??

Sweet tea with lemon.  Who knew?!

Finally, we had miniature banana splits for dessert, and their eyes got so big when presented with them.  They seemed to like them, but it did spark a conversation about obesity in America and someone said they understood why Americans are so fat with desserts like that!  After dinner, we played Spoons, a fun game that is easily translatable and everyone seemed to really have fun, diving across the floor to get a spoon/pen.

Spoons!

Then, to cap off the night, there came a knock on the door...which never happens...I asked one of the Chinese students to come to the door with me, since my Chinese isn't exactly great...and there was my neighbor, angrily gesticulating about something.  Then one of the students goes Oh! and proceeds to step outside and give the man his house shoes back!  Turns out he had assumed that the house shoes across from my door were mine, as every good Chinese hosts provides shoes or socks to be worn indoors.  They were of course not mine, I barely have house shoes for myself at the moment (taken from the hotel!) let alone for 12 dinner guests.  I hadn't even noticed, I just assumed he was still wearing his own shoes.  Haha!  I hope the neighbor doesn't think I told him he could!

Overall it was a great evening, and fun to show off a bit of home, when so much has been learning about Chinese culture.

Changyan and Liangyu checking out the spread