Capítulo 2: First meeting
Ding!
The elevator door opened, revealing a snaky hallway ahead.
I stepped out the elevator and began to march into the hallways, taking several detours before I heard the faint voice of people.
It's coming from here...
I stepped through the door.
The 10th floor of the library was known as the "literary center", unlike the other floors of the library which was decorated with regular wooden table and chairs with concreate floor. The literary center had wooden floors with a dozen fancy round tables carved with ancient Chinese designs, and the chairs around it were those traditional Chinese wooden stools, with traditional white and blue design fabric cushions sitting on top of them. About 6 were seated around 1 table, it appeared 5 out of the 6 tables were occupied...
At the very front wall hanged a projector screen, and it displayed a bright slide that said: 'Welcome newcomers to the tea club!'
Huh...
I picked the closest available seat to me and sat down. A second later a figure at one of the front tables stood up and walked to the front:
"Thank you all for coming to our tea club! I feel really honored to see a lot of you were able to make it today!"
The speaker appeared to be in her early twenties. She gave off this strong sense of 'Big sis', and had an appearance that spelled beautiful in most men's eyes. She had a long free falling hair dyed in warm caramel brown, light chocolate shade eyes, tall mature build, and wore a tradition white Chinese Han-fu.
"I am the president of the Chinese tea club, my name is Ai-qing, and you can all just call me 'president'. As newcomers, don't be so nervous, here at the tea club we are all a big family. We have a senior member seated at each table if you have any questions about tea. Before we start drinking tea I would like to introduce you all to the basics of tea first."
The slide behind her changed.
"There are 6 major categories of tea: White tea, black tea, red tea, dark tea, green tea, yellow tea." The president projected her voice.
All was quiet as we all had our heads peeping forward.
"Why are you all so quiet? Feel free to ask questions!" she scanned the room with a look of small surprise on her face.
"Um...Can you give us some examples of the dark tea?" one of the random newcomers asked.
"Sure! One of the most famous type of dark tea is the oolong tea."
There was a bunch of murmurs among the tables.
"What is she saying?" one of the people right next to me asked in English.
I turned to her and realised she was a foreigner. In fact beside that 1 guy, who was most likely the senior club member, the other two people were both foreigners.
"Oh she's saying: 'One of the most famous type of blue tea is the oolong tea'." I casually translated.
"Oh your English is very good! Where are you from?" she asked.
"I am Chinese, but technically Canadian citizen." I quickly replied. "What's your name and where are you from?"
"I am Maria and I am from the southern part of Italy." She gestured towards herself.
"I see. What about you man?" I turned to the guy next to her.
"I am Leon. I am from Germany." He said with a thick German accent.
"I see. You can both just call me Tao." I said with a small friendly smile, then turned my attention back to the front again.
"Now look to the tea set on your table." The president said as the slide behind her changes. "First we must memorize every tea ware in the tea set. The long board object which every tea cup rests on is the tea tray." She said as she walked towards my table and picked up one of the cups.
"The larger cup where we put the tea leaves in is the gai-wan. You place the tea leaves in them, and pour the hot water from the kettle into it." She held it up so we all could see, then carefully set it down again and picked up a new one:
"The cup here with a pouring mouth here is the gong-dao mug. You pour the tea water from the gai-wan into here, in order to distribute it to everyone." She carefully placed it down and picked up the smallest cup in the set.
"You pour the tea water from the gong-dao mug into these smaller cups called ping-ming cup. And this is the cup you will drink from in the end." The president said as she set down the cup, and returned to the front with a confident straight back.
"What did she just say?" Diana whispered, and Leon leaned in as well.
With a mental sigh, I quickly explained everything to them in hasty English.
There was a loud clap at the front, and all eyes were on the president again, who has both hands clasped together like a steady mountain.
"That will wrap up the basics for today, if you have any questions feel free to ask. I would like to give the rest of the time to our senior members, to show you the process of serving tea."
The room was back to its usual murmurs again, and I turned the senior member of our table, but before he could say a word, a hand appeared on his shoulder:
"You can go to my table Wang, I want to be at this table." The president said.
"Whatever you say president." Wang replied then got up and moved away.
"I heard you speaking some fluent English." The president said, as she sat next to me. "Can you say it again?"
Woah slow down Tao! Remember, eye contact 70% of the time, and keep a small smile...
"Of course!" I replied cheerfully, as I angled myself slightly towards her.
"How is your English so good?" she asked.
"Oh, that's because I am an international student."
"Wait, which country are you from?"
"I am born in China. But I went to Canada when I was 10 years old. And I stayed there 10 years and came back last year."
"Wooooow! Can you teach me English?" Her lips curved into an enthusiastic smile.
I know it all seems too easy to get girls this way, but you have to understand the context here. Here in China, English is a mandatory course for all regular students. And those who fail a course must retake them. So having a person who knows good English as your tutor is just as much of a luxury as it is a need.
"Sure." I replied casually.
"Wait, what major are you in?" she asked again.
"I am currently 1st year. I am in Chinese department, economic path. Basically for the first 2 years we are forced to learn Chinese, and we can't skip any grades."
"But your Chinese is really good already, so all that homework stuff is no problem to you?"
"Ah, there are a lot of Chinese people in Vancouver. The homework is pretty easy to me, but my Chinese do tick off people from time to time." I chuckled.
"Hahaha! It's ok, you only been in China for 1 year?..."
"Just arrived in last September. There are a lot of Chinese memes and internet language I don't quite get..."
"Don't worry," she waved as a gesture. "Stay here long enough and you will know all about them!"
"Yeah." I replied casually.
"Alright let me demonstrate how to serve tea properly..." the president said as she reached her hand forward for the cup.
***
"Our meeting today will come to a close now. Thank you all for coming!" The president bowed, and there was a sea of clapping from the rest of us.
A brief moment later people began to get up and leave. A minute later only about half the original members are left.
"Hey!" The president said with a passionate voice as she made her way towards me. "So have you decided to join the club? We could really use translator with all the foreign students."
"Yeah I noticed." I replied. "Sure, I will join the club."
"Ah you will be the first person in our translator department!" The president clasped her hands together delightfully.
"En." I nodded slightly. "Well my Chinese is still not good enough. And if I am doing something wrong, please don't hesitate to correct me."
"Ok! I will be looking forward to you teaching me English!" She made an ok sign.
"So will there be any events next week?" I asked.
"Most likely. There will be a picnic next week at the south-west grass fields."
"Sounds good."
"Alright, we have to clean up and wash the tea sets now. We are actually over time, the library lady is probably going to get mad again..." the president said with a slight worried expression and she seemed to be looking past me as if she had x-ray vision.
I looked behind and sure enough there was a middle aged lady staring at us with a crossed look.
"Alright." I said as I grabbed the nearest tea tray and began to follow the other senior members out the room, whom each had a tea equipment in hand.
Well, I better get working...
Q: Would you join this tea club? Xp
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