After the ball game, there was no time to rest on the laurels, because there was a party to get to. And what a party! Honestly, the hostess in question does the best spread anywhere I've ever seen outside a professional catering service, and is a step above many of them. And I got to drink out of a jar, a fact which felt very special to me for reasons I can't entirely explain. And the host taught us all to play mahjong, and, I gotta say, I'm hooked. For most of us, we didn't really a good grasp of the rules until the end of the game, so you gotta play again some time after that.
In my case, I had a minor advantage in that I--entirely unknowingly--had played mahjong before. Apparently, that was the mini-game included with the video game, Suikoden IV. Only they didn't call it mahjong. Or use the same number of tiles. Or the same name of tiles. And they changed some of the rules. So, yeah, not a great advantage. But there's still something interesting about learning a new game, something that's different from other forms of learning. Makes you think that maybe those ludologists are on to something.
And on a totally mushy note, a day like this makes me realise how lucky I am to have made the friends I have since coming here.
Fun mahjong fact: (source: wikipedia) If all four West tiles are discarded in a row, Chinese legend has it that all players will die shortly after. Which would have put a damper on the party.
Later Days.
No comments:
Post a Comment