Chinese New Year dinner

Tonight was a Chinese New Year dinner for all of the staff and faculty. It was quite elaborate, except for the part when we showed up and they were not ready for us.

We had heard from returning teachers that at the dinner, there were elaborate prizes given out by raffle drawing. As we approached to board the bus to dinner, Lyndal said to me that she never wins anything, has never won anything in her life. I told her that we made a perfect pair because I never win anything either. We joked that we should definitely sit next to each other to cancel that out and maybe one of us would win something.

At the dinner, we got a great table of people together and were having fun already. The "presentation" was a bit tacky, with some singing and emcee's and such. They begin to draw names for prizes. Eventually, people at our table are being called, including Lyndal. We hear lots and lots of familiar names and make lots of noise for them.

It slowly becomes apparent to me that just about everyone I know will go home with *something* no matter how big or small but me. I comment on this and laugh. At this point the emcee, who is a teacher named Mark announced that the next drawing is for 2 round-trip tickets to Qingdao. I look at Isaac and joke, "Oh, that has my name written all over it!" Next thing I know... Mark says, "And the winner is..." Isaac jokes, "Elvina Tong!" And no kidding, about a split second later, Mark calls out, "Elvina Tong!"

Isaac and I look at each other and exclaim, "That's creepy!" I sat frozen for a second and everyone was like, Go!! I got my prize, still not quite believing it. Nice thing to get for a first time win, I must admit. :)