Mid Autumn Festival

Last night we celebrated the Mid Autumn Festival with Qing Qing and her family. We told Qing Qing that we wanted to take her and her family out for dinner before we move to campus. Later that day, she called and said that her dad wanted to take us out. We tried to insist that it be our treat, but they wouldn't hear of it. This is another Chinese custom that is very unique. Everyone argues over who is going to pay for dinner. Chris has seen Chinese men argue for several minutes over who will pick up the tab, and then end up stuffing the money into their friends pocket and run away so their friend has to accept the money. We had a lovely evening with them and it was so nice to be included in their family dinner.

Mid Autumn Festival is a time that families come together. Qing Qing equated it to the circle of the full moon and how a family forms a complete cirlce. She said that since we were so far from our family, they wanted to welcome us to celebrate with their family. It was comforting to feel so welcomed and among friends. They took us to a hotel to eat and we had a private room. The restaurant had fresh seafood, as in a room full of tanks, where you can pick out exactly what you want to eat. Qing Qing took the boys in there to look around and they came back telling me all about how they got to touch the eels and frogs. They could hardly sit still during dinner because they wanted to go back to see the animals again.


Here we all are together. This is before most of the food had arrived. They ordered so much food!!

( Here are some more pics )