When in Rome, do as the Romans. When in Singapore, play mahjong!
Mahjong is a Chinese domino-type game. I remember when I was in Hong Kong all those years ago visiting Yasmin, I could hear the sound of mahjong tiles being shuffled all over the city. Folks sat out on their balconies playing every evening. People play it all over the world in places like New York's Washington Square Park. Tom's family plays and I've always wanted to learn. I finally got my chance today.
The AWA (American Women's Association) has an ongoing game every Monday afternoon. Today, they had a teaching session so while Cheryl watched the kids, I took a lesson complete with lunch.
As an aside, I really couldn't do much of anything just for me without Cheryl. Heck, she cleans the house like a madwoman while I work on my blog and research schools, real estate and stuff to do - or better yet - play with my children. While I went to my little lesson, she took the kids to Royce's, the indoor playground filled with toys. Life is easier with a helper, that's true. i can have much more of a social life here than I ever could in Westchester.
Turns out, mahjong isn't something you learn in a day. Yes, I got the basics down today, but it reminds of something a guy once told me about Rock, Paper, Scissors. "To the beginner, the moves are few. To the master, the moves are many." The guy was a total nutcase I met covering the RPS World Championship in Canada. I loved him! Master Rochambeau was his name. Ha! What he said about RPS makes no sense, but it's exactly right when you talk about mahjong.
Mahjong is kind of a combination of dominoes, Yahtzee and every card game you've ever played. There are three suits: Bamboo, Characters and Circles. Additionally, there are 4 dragons, 4 winds. Each suit has nine numbered tiles, 4 of each number. After that, it's pretty much impossible to explain in writing. Just learning how to deal was a total blast. Seriously, this is one complicated game. There are HUNDREDS of different hands you can play. Heck, there are whole BOOKS about the various hands you can try to assemble.
I won the first round and I was hooked! I could really get into playing once a week. It's social and a real brain game as opposed to Bunco which is a social, but mindless game good for drinking! I like it all the more because it's something to do from here. I like spending my time learning something more "native" that I might not be able to learn easily at home.