Eye-opening Welcome Dinner

There are 3 dinners in a row of 3 weeks that I tio. First one is the welcome for the new staff of the 3 campus, the second one is the level dinner and the third one is for the entire school staff.

Cos we are locals and dont really know the full extent of which ones are the ones to miss or which one is the most formal. AND also for Chinese culture, the first few go to "show face" hence for 2 dinner buffet, I paid $50+$70, another is at a restaurant so depends on the food ordered then. But internet research showed me that its a pricey restaurant. OUCH, still waiting for first salary to come in at the end of the month.

So for the first dinner buffet. On the actual day, then the locals were told that the new staff have to put up an item... and they chosen "fashion walk with a pose". Omfg, we the locals were complaining that why we were'nt told of this earlier. IF we had known, think might not attend. Guess that's why we were not told. And cos its at the Jap association, so it seems rather formal. I went back earlier to change and even put on make-up. Had to share cab with collegues to go there. All the male staff were in shirt, tie and blazer/jacket. The women more flexible but... if I had known that, wouldnt have to rush to change specially.

And guess what, there were cross-dressing guys doing para-para dance. My eyes bled and my brain short-circuited. Didnt want to look too closely, otherwise my food might come out. Paid $50 but dont think I even come close to $15 in terms of value. The show of arm-pit hair, hairy legs = very bad taste. Also a near-40s man in a Panda top with a panda hood. My eyes. We had a collegue cross-dress but I think his is in better taste, but the other was really a whole bunch of 6-7 guys wearing an assortment of wigs, bra, short skirts. A cultural shock for me cos though I am aware of such stuff in their parties, I didnt expect to witness one in person. Also these are Educators?

So cos everyone quite on (except for the locals), when its my turn, only 1 pose comes to mind. Typical for me but after that I had several collegues ask me if I work out or I am strong. Guess what, we won the inter-school competition. A silver horse about 20cm tall. I can only describe the rest of the staff (surprisingly again, ALL but a few collegues came for the event) I had thought its just for new people but of course need audience and stuff that meant most of the other staff. So supportive. I can only use one word to describe them when we won. "Euphoria" - Mass double hand high five, group pics, whole staff pics.

Well glad it came to a safe ending around 9pm. We left and a local collegue dropped me off. She won a bag of jap rice in the final "Jun Ten Pon" game and won that. That bag of jap rice cost $20. Well really eye-opener for us locals. Hope the remaining dinners are more un-happening and more like our local dinners.