Beginning to fit in more as a local with my Chinese developing slowly, while, helping a friend from the bar with some short term teaching. Life was fantastic. Spending time at the beach when possible and socializing more, I found myself at the big event for Qingdao and had many international guests supplying beer for the ‘International Beer Festival- Qingdao’ which ran for two weeks. As many Chinese know, foreigners love to drink and party, so I and a few friends attended the festival with great excitement. Traveling a way out of the city and surrounded by middle sized mountains we arrived at the grand festival that had a flood of people.

Upon entering the festival, I could see many attractions ranging from the sound of bands playing to people riding fun park rides, but on a small scale. It was late afternoon about 5pm and all the main entertainment was about to kick in for the evening and at the time I didn’t know that I was about to be part of it. Drinking a range of local and international beers, savoring the sounds and planting images into my mind, I thought I had come a long way since the beginning of the arrival in Beijing. The festival was full of culture by both eastern and western and many people selling items for you to buy. By the time the full moon was visible, I could sense the depth of being slightly drunk kicking in.

The music seemed to be getting louder and every tent we went and visited, I was overwhelmed by the attractions that had been going on. Eventually, I took myself onto the tables and began dancing to the music that was having everyone enjoy. It was amazing to see how quickly the entertainment was drawn onto the foreigner dancing and not the stage of drinking competitions.

As this was my first beer festival in China, it was really like the beer festivals back home in Oz, held every October with huge excitement. Beer was flowing from tent to tent with many Chinese claiming the foreigner as his friend with free beer, and a toast of ganbei every time.

Even though I was feeling drunk, the biggest entertainment surprise was when visiting the Budweiser tent and having an array of hands grabbing my arm and leading me to the stage for everyone to gain a glimpse of the dancer, who was enthralling the locals. My emotions and feelings while dancing in front of some what two thousand people who were full of beer and cheering, was above any of my dreams that I had ever experienced.

I knew and felt that I was giving them a ray of light that shone through their eyes and made also their worries disappear.
After some time of dancing and then leaving the stage area, I was a little high as well as tired, but could hear the clapping of hands with the muffling of Chinese, either saying ‘What a silly foreigner or he’s so cool’.

I proceeded to walk and not look back knowing that my presence had been noted and scored, and I thinking that ‘I may not remember much the night’s activity tomorrow’.

* * * * *

Waking up to the sound of the traffic beeping away and of people walking the streets, I began to open my eyes with slow and steady motion, knowing what was waiting for me. Not moving quickly, I could feel the effects of a hangover as my stomach was feeling unease and my head slightly sore. I did the usual morning things and then proceeded to the best way of eating McDonalds, in order to fix a bad hangover before attending classes in the afternoon.

My hangover that contained a mixture of various beers was worse than the night I gambeid the entire glass of Chinese white wine.

Relaxing on the beach in the full array of sunshine and drinking plenty of water, I started to become good and started reflecting on the past nights events with very small recollections. I knew that I needed some informing from people to help place the event s in order.

Later while sitting at the restaurant that I had so become accustomed too and eating my favorite meal. I noticed on the corner wall the image of a foreigner on the screen. Yes, with a small surprise. It was me dancing on the stage and tables of the beer festival. The local news reported the images with some Chinese that was still unfamiliar to me. Glancing around the restaurant, the eyes and smiles of the customers was very noticeable, as to the hot flush I was feeling on my cheeks, which I thought was hotter than the chili in the meal.

Resting at the apartment later that night, my mobile was running hot with messages declaring what was shown on TV, but no messages or calls offering a contract to be the face of the beer festival next year. With my small appearance on the news and feeling quite tired I took my body and fading red face and turned in for the night, wondering what adventure was installed for tomorrow.