A game of English-Cantonese-Mandarin telephone

Let me start off by saying this: massages in China are amazing. They cost about 10 US dollars for an hour...and that is the pricey place!
Anyway, we have been to this spa a couple times by now, and my friend Serena and I have sort of befriended this one guy named Xiao Yang (which means "little sheep"). Last night we decided to go hang out with him and his friends and try to see some of Zhuhai that we might not be able to find otherwise.
The adventure started when Serena, another foreigner named Lori, and I took a cab to a part of town that has a bunch of shopping and some bars. As soon as I got out of the cab, Xiao Yang pops out of nowhere and says "Hello!" (which, by the way, is about as much English as he knows). I jumped out of my skin, which he found hilarious, and he proceeded to lead us down the street telling us that he's taking us to a Mah Jong place where there are some people who speak English. Now, before you start to think that we are just following this random Chinese dude around that we can't communicate with, let me explain: he speaks Cantonese and Mandarin and Serena speaks Cantonese pretty well. So while Lori and I can't really talk to him, Serena can.
We turn off of the main street and all of a sudden we are in old China. The street is dark and wet and very narrow with small shops and street vendors lining both sides. A little bit down the street we get to the place and are immediately greeted by "Hello! Hi! Hello! How are you!?" from about 6 Chinese people (which is the way we are usually greeted...by everyone...). We walk in and sit down with these 3 Chinese women who speak a little English and start to chat. They told us about their boyfriends and asked us where we are from, and we told them about how we are moving to Shenzhen soon, but we all really love Zhuhai. After a bit Xiao Yang shows up with some cans of stuff to drink; we tried orange soda, herbal tea, and crunchy water chesnut juice (which I actually kind of like...Lori and Serena, not so much). A little bit later we headed off down the street with Xiao Yang and his buddy - after exchanging email addresses and taking a few pictures with the women, of course. Now, as I said in my last post, we are gawked at everywhere we go...but we were a real spectacle in this part of town. Serena looks Chinese, so she blends in, but Lori and I are white and about 5'10...which fascinates them.

The street...and some random person who walked in front of my camera...

Two of our Mah Jong buddies

At the end of the street we came across a restaurant and decided to eat there. I use the term "restaurant" somewhat loosely here; it had three walls, tables and chairs, and clean table settings...but after that it was a bit crazy. On one wall there were fish tanks...not for decoration, but rather to house the food. On the other wall was the "kitchen"...which looked more like a couple of hot plates and a bunch of pots. The buddy (we never did catch his name) ordered some food that he said was "hao che" (good eating). We sat around and chatted and sipped our pijiu (beer...very useful vocabulary around here) until the food came. The first dish to arrive was shrimp...and these were not American shrimp. These suckers had eyes and legs and everything! I had no idea how I was supposed to do this, and then when I cracked it open, this brown stuff came pouring out (the guts). I was obviously turned off by this process, especially since I don't like shrimp all that much anyway, but I ate a few and was very happy when the next dish arrived. The next thing was some sort of rib meat. I picked up a piece and bit down...on a piece of rib. This was when the eating and spitting bones out commenced. It was kind of awkward at first, but the Chinese guys were doing it, so I figured I might as well do it too. The other dishes included some intestines of some sort, some vegetable stew stuff, a fish (again, eyes and tail intact) and rice. It was all really good...even if it was a bit crazy.
After dinner we headed back to the Mah Jong place where Xiao Yang ditched us to play Mah Jong while we chatted with one of the Chinese women and the buddy some more. We had talked earlier about poker, so we had the cards out and were telling each other how to say the suits in our language. After a bit this got old, so we decided to play a game.
This was when the English-Cantonese-Mandarin telephone game began. I was teaching the game (it's that version of A**hole that Kevin Price loves) in English, Serena was using Cantonese to tell the girl, who was relaying the rules to the buddy in Mandarin. It was a bit crazy and slow at first, but we eventually got the game going and it was really fun! We only had time to play a couple of rounds before we had to go, but the whole things definitely a really interesting/crazy/random/fun experience!

Xiao Yang and "the buddy"