Fake weekend

Why am I working on Saturday and Sunday?  Because next Wednesday is the Dragon Boat Festival, a national holiday for which all businesses are closed.

Since this year the holiday falls on a Wednesday, most businesses have decided to close Monday and Tuesday, instead shifting these workdays to the weekend before.  This has resulted in a massive 7-day workweek for us, followed by three days off, a two-day workweek, and another regular weekend.

I'm just annoyed by it and would really appreciate a bit of a break from teaching.  I even have to work on Monday because the classes I teach on Saturdays at Joe's have been rescheduled.  Essentially I have gone from Friday, to Monday and Tuesday, then to Saturday.  Then I guess Saturday again?

Dragon Boat Festival Traditions

As the name indicates, there are boats that look like dragons that are raced on bodies of water.  I have no idea if this is actually happening in Qingdao, but I do know that my friend Max is going to be racing a boat with his office in Shanghai.

Chinese people also eat 粽子 (zong2 zi) basically boiled rice with fillings wrapped in a bamboo leaf.  It smells really good and there are many flavors of zongzi available, including peanut and red bean.  

They are also made into pyramid shapes and wrapped with string or a rubber band.  These little guys are being sold on pretty much every block and shopping establishment this week.  They have a very strong and delicious aroma, so it's kind of nice to be smelling them instead of sewage, body odor, or sausages.

This is the reason why I am working on a weekend and am unable to go see the England v. US match tonight... don't even get me started about how irritated I am about this whole thing.  This is my fake weekend and I will continue to complain about it until I have my massive break that will be next week.

It's exam season, kiddos.  Just when you thought I was getting soft on you, I'm going to pull the sudden death final exam.  Only the strong will survive!

Current addictions

- NPR podcasts: The Diane Rehm Show, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, Fresh Air, This America Life, etc.

- White Rabbit Candy: It might be dangerous and possibly poisonous but, damn, is it good. 

 - 红烧茄子 (hong shao qie zi): braised brown sauce eggplant, an addiction I have fueled since Summer 2007
- My VPN

- Studying Chinese with 田老师

  (borrowed from Liuzhou Laowai)

- Pretending I am in America

- Starbucks in China, pretending I am in America while studying Chinese
- Rob's copy of The Economist that is sent to him from Singapore and passed on to me

- Pretending to DJ for my students during break:  I am determined to make them like more than just sappy love ballads and pop groups from the 90's. 

- Yogurt: The yogurt I get here is so freaking good.  Probably because it's made with whole milk, but I also like to think that since I buy the Mongolian milk brand, it's a little tastier. 

to be continued...

New Years Party, round two.

During the new year, Chinese make dumplings together and eat them as a family.  Many classes have hosted 饺子 making parties recently to celebrate with their classmates and enjoy a yummy meal.  I was invited to my Class 14's dumpling making party today and it was a lot of fun!

There is a certain way to roll the dough out into squares and I was taught by my students.  It's a little different than what we know as rolling out dough, and you have to rotate the little circle as you roll towards the center.  You don't roll out, you roll in.

Then we filled the dumplings with various fillings and pinched them shut.  This is also the part I always find the hardest, but some of my students can make some really pretty ones!

Feasting on the dumplings was kind of a zoo and involved a lot of running and squealing.  We had plenty to eat though, and I was pretty stuffed afterward.

Later in the evening, they held a party in their classroom which was more of a talent show.  It was really well organized (this is my second highest level class) and every student got to perform something either by themselves or in a group.

There were students doing a fan dance, kungfu, and nunchuks.  Singing karaoke songs was a very popular option, as was making up a funny skit.  There were also several groups that created their own choreographed dances to songs like "Billie Jean" and many popular Chinese songs.  I even saw a student break dance, complete with the worm!

 

 

These New Years parties are really wearing me thin and I am really behind on grading the final exams (read almost all are ungraded).  Besides the fact that I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in sunflower seeds this evening, the healthy snacks are pretty awesome.  It is also fun to hang out with my students in a more fun and laid-back environment.  So here you go, my class 14!

I'm off to Shanghai tomorrow afternoon to celebrate New Years with Max.  I've never been to Shanghai before and am really excited!  See you in the new decade --

新年快乐！

Eating Diaries, Part II

Korean Food

Whenever I get talked into eating Korean food, I always order Bibimbap.  Basically it is a sizzling hot stone pot with rice, veggies, and a raw egg (and meat, for the carnivores out there) that you mix with a chili paste so that it sizzles and cooks in front of you.  The result is a steaming pile of mixed fried rice, that when mixed correctly has a really amazing texture and can be really crunchy.  I found this in the Korean alley in Nanjing and it was one of the better ones I'd had since being here.

This dish was also accompanied with a very entertaining Korean singing-dancing show that I couldn't stop watching.  The girls were just covered in all sorts of cutesey things (one group was wearing bear paws and ears) and doing some sort of 'sexy' dance.

And this is where I declare my war on Korean flat metal chopsticks.  Dear Korean people, a spoon does not justify your stupid chopsticks.  Use the Japanese or Chinese style.  Get over it.

Cheese! And Bread!

When I checked out of the hostel on Sunday, I had a couple hours to burn before I went to the airport so I went to a nearby cafe with wifi for lunch.  I had also heard from Ryan that there was an amazing bakery down the street so figured this was it.

That is a tuna sandwich with cheese on a ciabatta roll.  I was pumped to eat this and it was worth all 25RMB (~$4).  The cafe was actually supposed to be a German bakery complete with New Zealand butter, German cheese, and freshly baked bread.  And yes, I paid the extra 15RMB for a cappuchino too and it made my day infinitely better.

If the Chinese are lining up, it must be good

Let me set this straight -- the Chinese NEVER line up for anything.  A bus "queue" is actually a frenzied mob pushing towards the door of the bus like the apocalypse is coming, complete with squealing girls and a yelling bus driver.   So if they're lining up for anything, I take notice.

 

They were lining up for some sort of cake that I ended up not purchasing because you had to buy it by the jin (about a kilo) or at least a half jin.  They smelled really good and I watched the workers make the fried cakes covered in sesame seeds.

These people were actually waiting 10+ minutes for a fresh batch of these little cakes!  They must have been that amazing for the Chinese to actually wait patiently without freaking out at the workers. 

Airplane Snackies

Remember what it was like to get real service and actual food on flights in America?  I remember flying American Airlines and getting offered a choice between a cheese pizza or a southwest chicken salad on every single flight.  I was so sick of the two choices because it was like every time I was on a flight, they were trying to force feed me.

And now we get charged to check our bags and for food.  Thanks, Land of the Free.

Well at least in China they still give food and snacks on planes.  I've taken the 1-hour long flights to Qingdao from Nanjing and back from Beijing -- I always got some sort of snack.  On the way to Nanjing, I got a package of peanuts and a juice box (a throwback, woah!).  Returning to Qingdao, the flight attendants not only served us water like crazy when our take off was delayed, I also got crackers.  And not just a small package of crackers, I got this:

That is a full package of crackers.  Take that, America!

So there it is, my food post about my Nanjing trip.  Today I booked a ticket to Shanghai for New Years Eve and I am very excited about that little excursion, especially since I've never been to Shanghai before!

Next post: What the Chinese think about Christmas

Eating Diaries, Part 1

I take photos of food.  Is this weird?  I've only come to realize recently that no one else outside my family takes photos of food.  Well, here goes my food tour of the weekend in Beijing.

Lush Cafe

I've dreamed about their fresh foccacia bread for two years now and finally got to enjoy a grilled vegetable sandwich with mozarella, tomato, and basil.  It tasted even better since I hadn't had Western food since being in China!  Lush is one of my favorite cafes of all time.

Wangfujing Snack Street

I had two 串 (chuan-r: kebabs), one was freshly made fishballs, I think.  I'm a big fan of eating anything from the sea and this fishball was really delicious.  They poured the mixture on a giant waffle-iron thing with 1" indentations and the person swiveled the balls every few seconds while they cooked in order to make the sphere of the fish ball.

Then I ate a octopus tentacle chuanr.  Roasted tentacles ranks pretty high on my list of favorite seafoods and while this one could have been cooked just a little longer, it wasn't too bad.

Then there are the things I did not eat at Wangfujing snack street:  starfish

seahorses and scorpions (still moving!)

Ganges Indian Food

This place has some of the best Indian food I've ever had.  This is a statement considering that I grew up in Dallas which has a huge Indian population.  Anywho, I made a mistake ordering my own curry but I did get a really yummy Vegetable Pakora for an appetizer.

TianChu MiaoXiang Vegan Restaurant

This may have been the best vegan restaurant I've ever been to!  It was so yummy and here are my favorite dishes from the dinner:

This was fried mushrooms in a salt/pepper chili batter.  It was really good and was a vegan version of a dish that is often  made with octopus tentacles (shocking that I like it either way, ha!).  Definitely the winner of the meal!

Sizzling beef was definitely my second favorite dish and was a textured veggie protein cut like beef (really weirded us out) and served on a sizzling iron platter.  An impressive display since vegetarian dishes usually lack this flair!

Airline Snack

I flew back to Qingdao and got a little surprise snack on my 1 hour 10 minute flight.  Dried dates!  Definitely one of my least favorite chinese "snacks" but only outranked by those dried plum things that my dad eats.

And that was my food tour of the weekend.  I should actually blog about what my apartment and campus looks like soon.  Oh, and the kids.  Right.  They're singing "As long as you love me" by the Backstreet Boys this week in my classes because they LOVE them.  Chinese kids also love Westlife.  It's really odd.  I had them singing "Umbrella" by Rihanna this week and it didn't go over so well with some of them, because it's not the type of music they listen to, but it was really amusing to  me to see them get into the 'ella ella eh eh eh' part of the song.  Until the next post...

Why is there always a line?!

Saturday evening I tutored Helen, a 14-year old girl who is the daughter of my program director's friend.  I'm still not sure if private tutoring is allowed, but I'll take it since they pay me and it came from the director herself.  More about this story later, it's actually quite funny.

Wan Sheng Jie (万圣节）

Halloween in China is when the Americans all get dressed up and go to expat bars to pay for overpriced alcohol and/or cover charges.  This being said, it is a lot of fun.  When I was in Beijing, we forked over 100RMB for tickets to a sold-out warehouse rave party downtown.  It was a blast and I don't know if I'll eve be able to have a better Halloween.

This being said, my expectations were pretty high and I just had to get over myself and realize that I wouldn't be able to replicate the Beijing experience at all.  Costume shopping proved to be difficult but I managed to throw together the Chinglish version of an 80's costume, complete with bright purple tights, a horrible purple scrunchie, and my own Chucks.

It was a fun night overall and the other teachers and I had a good time dancing and drinking those overpriced Tsingtaos.  I actually said "真的吗？！" ("Really?!?!") to the bartender when he said my small bottle of Tsingtao was 30RMB.

Sunday Adventures

The other teachers and I stay at a hostel when we go out in the city over the weekend because it is only 25RMB for a bed there and it is about 45RMB to take a cab back to our school.  Plus, this way we can wake up on Sunday and do more adventuring downtown before taking a bus back to our school.

Sunday morning I got up and walked down the alley from the hostel to get a yummy 包子 for breakfast and the lady let me take a picture of her.

I like her veggie and egg baozi's a lot and she also does a pretty great youtiao (fried dough).  I enjoy walking around alley markets because there is always so many things to look at, like live seafood, fresh vegetables, and made-to-order food.

I also walked over to the Old German Cathedral, that was built in the early 20th century by the Germans (Qingdao was a German colony until the Sino-Japanese war), destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, and rebuilt in the 80's.  I also attended Catholic Mass in Korean, complete with drum performance right after communion.  It was an interesting experience!

I also went to TaiDong, a shopping center in Qingdao and bought some things, mainly at Wal-Mart, funnily enough.  Jenna was with me and we had a conversation like this:

Jenna: You know what shopping in China is like?  Black Friday.
Me: Or preparing for the zombie apocalypse.
Jenna: Yeah, you know, there's people pushing and shoving... terrible lines... and even worse service.
Me: Yeah, it is pretty much Black Friday every day.  Why are we here again?

This is a picture of Tai Dong street from the escalator (yeah, not kidding) bridge that connects it to the other side of the street.   There are just so many people in China it never fails to amaze me.  I forget that there are 1.3 billion people in this country and they have to be somewhere.  This means more of everything: hair cutters (at least 2 on each block), mini-marts (probably 3 on each block), cell phone stores (5 on each block), restaurants (oh man...), and shoe repair men/ ladies who etch sparkles on your cell phone (everywhere).  I don't think I will ever get used to the sheer numbers of people here. 

As you can see, I have a proxy server that allows me to post to my blog, finally.  I no longer have to pay Matt in Chinese jiao (10 cents) and day old rice to post for me.