Surreal Applause

Very odd thing happened last night.

The two bosses had invited the GF and I to have dinner with them.

They had met the GF two times previously. Once, over dinner. And the other time while she waited for me to finish a class. Many of the other teachers saw her briefly at that time.

The bosses said they wanted a chance to get to know her better. Okay. Fair enough. So, last night was the night for us to go eat.

Due to a convoluted reason, all of the teachers were in one room. And, I went into the room to tell the bosses to "get a move on". So, I asked the GF if she wanted to meet everyone.

(I figured it was only fair to ask her first. Probably a little disconcerting to walk into a room and have 10 pairs of eyes look at you. And not just "look", but look and judge/rate/size up.)

She said, "Sure". So, we walked in. I said, "GF this is everyone. Everyone, this is everyone."

And, then, all of the sudden, all of the teachers started to applaud.

WTF? What in the hell were they applauding?

The GF is cute and everything, but its not like she just finished reciting Shakespeare or something.

It was very surreal. Hence the title of this post.

In Beijing: Shoplifters will be hog-tied to the fullest extent of the law.

About a month or so ago, I walked into my closest Carrefour Shopping Mall. (The French version of Walmart. Fairly commonplace in Beijing.)

This is what I saw when I walked in.

I grabbed my phone as quick as I could and took this picture.

Guy was hog-tied with this plastic string stuff that people use here. I was going to take more pictures, but the security guys yelled at me. So, I beat a hasty retreat.