The Winter Ball 2011

 We entered the extravagant hotel, stepped into a little rich America where everyone spoke English, someone took our coats, and Chinese waiters were willing to give us anything we needed.  We felt lost among the businessmen and luxury, until we found some recognizable faces.  From that point on, it was prom for adults.  We complimented each other’s dresses and hair, took pictures by the ice-sculpture, and huddled in groups with whom that we felt comfortable.  A while later, a Chinese man began ringing a bell while holding a sign that said, “Dinner time.”  At that point, we were escorted into a massive and beautiful dining hall at the Shangri-La Hotel.

Every year, there is a Winter Ball that foreigners attend to raise money for local orphanages and charities.  This year's theme was 1930's Hollywood.  The marketing department in our school pays for a certain amount of staff members to attend this event each year.  We were one of the lucky ones!  A ticket costs 400 RMB per person, which is over $60 US dollars. That’s a lot of RMB for us, so we are glad the tickets were free!

My co-worker Bean, and his wife Jane.

Ben and I sat with my co-worker in the Student Services department and his wife, along with our head principal and his wife, and another couple from a different school in Qingdao.  The diner was served in 5 small-portioned courses.  Afterwards, we chatted with others from our school, met a few teachers and businessmen that also live in our city… and danced!  The hired band was fun and talented, but we wished they played a wider variety of music.

Ben and our co-worker Warren,
and our friend from fellowship, Joel.

The evening at the Shangri-La ended at 11:30, however we felt like being adventurous. Ben and I, along with our friends, ended up at New York Restaurant, where a Filipino band plays every night.  Three members of this band also play in one of the worship sets at our fellowship.  They played for a few hours, singing a couple of their songs, and many covers of requested songs by the audience. The crowd was mostly foreigners, and all of the music was American from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s.  It was crazy, it was fun, it was loud, and it was late!  But we had a great time!

Steak!  First time in 6 months!

This was a sweet treat. Everything was edible,
the outer circular covering is sugar, then ice cream inside,
one top of ice with a light inside of it.   Creative, huh?

More dessert.  Fun and beautiful!

Most of the ISQ group that came to the Winter Ball.

This is the couple we hung out with that night making funny faces.
Kevin is in the IT Department at our school and Marcella is in the Marketing Department.
They have two kids in elementary school.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from the WESTBY'S!