Sean and I met Ben during the first few weeks of school at the hospital when we were doing a physical that was required to get our resident visa. He was waiting in line ready to have blood drawn and we started chatting. Ben teaches at another college in Changzhou where he is the only American. He is from New York City and studied Spanish at Vassar College in New York. He plans to get his masters in Spanish translation in a college in Madrid next year. He also happens to be tall, blond and bear a striking resemblance to the vampire Edward in Twilight. For this last reason, the female Chinese students are particularly fond of Ben.

We have seen Ben a few times at the Euro Bar or at Ken's for poker night. This week he called us up and asked if we wanted to join him for his 22nd birthday party on Thursday night. The celebration ended up being really fun. First we ate at an Italian-type restaurant in one of the malls downtown, played pool at a local pool hall and then went to a bar/club called SoHo.

Ben brought with him several Finnish exchange students who are studying at his college. Because we were foreigners, we got star treatment as usual and they gave us a table in the middle of the bar with plenty of free drinks and elaborate bowls of cut-up and sliced fruit. The bar was smoky and loud like normal, but seemed a little classier than some of the others we went to. There was live music, dancing and unusual mixes of music by the deejay.

They put on quite a show for Ben's birthday including the happy birthday song in both Chinese and English, lavish applause and a parade of waiters with a flaming champagne bottle. Throughout the night any other foreigner that walked in was simply directed to our table so we ended up meeting quite a few other teachers in the area. The party was fun and I am sure that it will be a birthday that Ben will remember for a long time.

An interesting fact about Ben is that he is an avid whistler. Really. He was in the elite whistling group at Vassar called the "Aircapellas" and they performed at the National Whistling Conference every year. You can check out some of their performances on YouTube here - they are pretty impressive and hilarious. Incidentally, the National Whistling Conference will be held in China this year in the city of Qindao in May and Ben plans to attend and compete as a solo whistler. Who knew there was a National Whistling Convention? The things you learn when you teach abroad . . .

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