Tennis & An Evening Out with Jeff: 2013

Hello! 

Here are a few photos of some things we were able to do here. 

Asian Tennis

You may be able to recognize these two rackets. These are two of the four we gave each other for Christmas for each other. We picked out which two and found a tennis court not too far from our apartment. We ended up finding on in the back of a University. We accidently saw it looking out of a window back in October while interviewing for a school we were interested in teaching at. The only problem was we didn't know how to get to it. After riding around through apartments and trying to use charades to ask locals where the tennis courts were, one day we finally found it. 

We've got to play there a handful of times, only got yelled at once, only had to pay once, got asked to play two old local ladies in doubles once (of course lost to them!), and I have only beat Phil once. 

However, we've had a blast so far. Here are some pictures of our court. 

Our New Rackets.  

It was cold that day. We were all dressed up in layers. 

There I am across the court! 

"Stop taking pictures and serve the ball!"

My Hot Tennis Partner ;)

The stands. We usually have some audience watching and cheering someone one.  

One time there was a construction crew working on the right side of the court on a building. While we played they stopped, ate lunch, smoked, and watched and cheered us on. It was fun giving them a show. 

An Evening out with Jeffery 

 Jeff is a local guy that we worked for. Lets just say he was an interesting guy. Phil really had a kick while working with him. One night, he wanted to take us to a nice dinner. The culture here is they go all out for you if your a dinner guest. The point is to make a really good impression. Phil and I certainly were not prepared in any way for this experience. He took us to a really fancy restaurant that only opens for dinner once a week on top of this expensive mall. Even for American standards, it was fancy. When we got there we were too early, so we spent an hour or so walking around the mall. His 6 year old son, Cody, and his wife do not speak english so he was the only one we could converse with through out the evening. When the restaurant opened we had to stand in a long line to wait to be seated. He ended up paying the host off to let just Phil and I sit early 

which was really kind but kinda awkward. 

 Our view from the table. 

 Here is Phil. This is the table we got seated at. Notice how we were the only ones sitting in the entire restaurant. Everyone else (nearly 20ppl) were standing in line outside. 

 Since we had to wait for 30 minutes for Jeff and his family to sit with us, I decided to take some pictures of the restaurant.

 These are maps of the restaurant. It tells you were in the buffet and everything else is 

and how to get there. 

Cool huh?

 Some English

 Also notice the silverware on the side as well as the chop sticks. It is really rare to get 

to use them at a local restaurant. 

 Something else that now has became an inside joke is the wine. We learned that it is custom to finish the bottle of wine by the end of the meal. It is offensive if you do not partake in finishing it. So after the 5 hour (no exaggeration) dinner, Phil was forced to take not only his first glass of wine but also his second glass, and third glass of wine in his in entire life. By the end we thought we were going to die. haha. 

 There is Jeff across the table. And on the table is probably our 3rd serving of food from the buffet. It was seriously crazy. There was so much food it blew our minds. We also were not allowed to go to the buffet without be escorted by either Jeff or his wife. (Phil always escorted by Jeff and I escorted by his wife.) They both would pile food onto our plates and direct us where to go next. It was funny to witness but hard to get the foods you might actually recognize and want to eat. 

However, it was the experience we were there for. 

Seafood anyone!?

We ended up having a good long experience. The whole evening took over 7 hours and super super full bellies. Those people just ate and ate and ate all night long. They were surprised and commented about how much bigger we were than they and how much less food we took in. 

They really did spoil us by treating us to such a wonderful dinner and a special evening. 

We are thankful and glad it was once in a life time event. haha. 

Well I hope you guys enjoyed out experiences and photos. 

Hope to update ya'll again soon!