Farewell Dinner

We had a farewell dinner in a Chinese restaurant for a collegue at work last night. She's leaving in a few weeks time to work in the states. The dinner was ok but it was quite an experience eating Chinese food with Aussies. We had around 15 people, most of them I knew. There was a couple of unfamiliar faces and one of them was a lady who left Monash before I started. She's a clinical doctor but did a few years of work in research. Maybe because of her vast experience, she was never short of interesting stories. While there were unfamiliar faces, there were also people that I see everyday yet never really got a chance to engage in a conversation with. Last night, I was sitting next to a guy who we walked pass each other so many times at work yet we had no interaction whatsoever but the dinner provided a great opportunity for us to sit down and actually talk to each other. Ok, back to the Chinese food with Aussies. Well, most of you know, when Chinese go out and eat Chinese food, we usually order on the table's behalf and have the food shared. It was an awkward moment last night when deciding what to eat. Because there were so many of us, the boss said we should order a dish each then share with everyone if we want to. Of course, sharing food can be a new adventure for some people. Luckily, I was also sitting with a couple who were very familiar with Chinese culture (Singaporean + Aussie boyfriend, but the boyfriend is more Chinese than me!). Throughout the night, we discussed the Aussie way of eating Chinese food - in summary, English and Chinese menu were very different; Chinese finish the dinner with a clean bowl while Aussies can make a huge mess on their corner of the table; and last and not least, I had a chance to taste Aussie's Chinese food - it was my first experience of eating Lemon Chicken!