Turns out I'm pretty good at pool!

            On Friday I met with Terrence again, but this time we decided to do something a little different. He has been telling me for weeks how much he loves to play pool, so we decided to meet in the bottom floor of the rec center and play a few games. I haven’t played in years but I surprisingly beat him 2 out of 3 times! I thought it was interesting that when we were tied 1-1, he said that he would rather end with it that way. He didn’t care about winning as long as everyone was happy. We ended up playing one more game—my competitiveness came out a little bit—but at the end he kept telling me how much fun he had despite the fact that he lost. That’s definitely not something I’m used to hearing but it was refreshing not to care so much about winning. Afterwards we talked for about a half hour and I continued to learn more about him.

            We started the conversation talking about parties because Terrence was having a party with his friends this weekend for Halloween. He was telling me how parties in America are so much different than parties in China. He said this was because people in America are crazier and don’t care what people think of them. He likes this better because there is always music and dancing and people can do whatever they want. This is very different than China—their parties consist mostly of standing around talking and eating food with no music or dancing involved.

            Being the day after Halloween, it was appropriate for us to talk about holidays in the United States and China. I asked if he had ever celebrated Halloween before he came here and he said that he hadn’t. However, I found it fascinating that they decorate for Halloween still in China. In public places, like shopping centers, there would be Halloween decorations up to create the ambiance of the holiday without actually celebrating it. He said they do the same at Christmas time even though most people don’t celebrate that holiday either. I think this is very indicative of the impact Western culture has on other parts of the world. We place such an emphasis on these holidays (especially Christmas) that their influence has travelled to countries that don’t even celebrate the holidays.

            When Terrence started to tell me about the spring festival, which is their big holiday they celebrate, I asked him when it was. He told me he didn’t know how to explain it in English because their method of keeping the date is so much different than ours. He told me they have two methods of keeping track of the date—there is a national way that all of China shares and there is also an individual way that is based on when the person was born. I found this very interesting so I did a little bit more research on my own. It turns out that the Chinese calendar is on a 60-year cycle, while ours counts years in an infinite sequence. They don’t number the years, but rather give them a two-part name that tells you which year it is in the cycle. The second part of the name is an animal, which is commonly used to see what characteristics those born in that year are supposed to have—similar to the western horoscope.

            I had another great meeting with Terrence and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for next week!