What Makes a Good Party?

What makes a good party?  This was the fluency writing topic in Kirk Hughes' class last Monday. At that moment I thought of a party more than a year ago.  The day before yesterday I had another great party.

After class in the afternoon, we headed for Dwight Street where my friends are living.  We would do a Chinese party in Yale, far away from home.  It meant a lot for all of us. Carrie and Siggy, our ELI teachers at Yale University were invited.  When we arrived, Marina, Cherry and Joyce were busy cooking.  Actually, I heard that they began preparing two days before. It was a three-bedroom apartment,very clean and cozy. The small kitchen seemed crowded with so many people.  Wherever I set my sight on, the table, cupboard, windowsills, refrigerator... I saw bowls, plates, containers full of food, some were prepared, some half-prepared.  And they were still washing, cutting, sorting, frying.

We gathered around the table in the sitting room. Linda was amazing. She kneaded dough.  Marina, Joyce and Marina already prepared dumpling stuff so that we could do jiaozi.  They didn't have rolling pin to make the dumpling wrapper.  But they were genius to find a long thin beer bottle to do instead.  I found it so amusing and volunteered to make the wrapper.  It was not as efficient as a real rolling pin. However, it did work!  Cecelia, Anna, Leoking, Junia and Linda couldn't wait to wrap the dumplings.   Four or five people did the wrapping, I kind of lagged behind their pace.  


Lorry, Jennifer and Lily came, bringing their cooking.  They lived in the same neighborhood.  Jason came back and he bought more food material.  More people joined in Jiaozi wrapping.  They made fun of boasting their own work and laughing at others' Jiaozi.  Carrie and Siggy arrived, bring a beautiful gift.  They walked around, showing great interest in the Chinese dishes.  Carrie and Siggy even tried to wrap dumplings.  They were so smart and did perfect Jiaozi with little instruction from us.
  

Finally, the party began.  Arnold bought beers.  We ate, drank, talked, and laughed.  The apartment was filled with happiness.  My friends were chefs in five-star hotel and each dish was praised.  It was so nice to have those familiar dishes 10,000 miles away from home.  Potato and beef, pepper and pidan (Chinese preserved eggs), pork and pepper, mushroom and chicken soup... Carrie had special feelings toward one Chinese home cooking: cold dressed cucumber.  "I haven't had it for almost 30 years!" She was thrilled.  Carrie talked about her experience in China many years ago.  Siggy moved here and there taking pictures of everybody.  We had so much fun.



After dinner, my friends danced in the lobby.  So great were their Chinese dance that Siggy and Carrie could hardly move their eyes off it.  It was not our home.  The cooking devices are western.  The music can only be played in mobiles.  So what?  We were still having a great time.  After all, what makes a great party is always the right people.