Goodbye, Juana!

Over the course of the past semester, I have grown to be really good friends with one of my classmates. Her name is Juana, and she is from Colombia. There are actually a lot of Colombians at Nankai University, and I have spent a fair amount of time with several of them, but I have spent the most time with Juana. We often eat lunch together after class, and we have spent several afternoons shopping and chatting together. Hooray for good friends from all over the world!

However, these are sad days. Juana, like most of the Colombian students I've become friends with, is returning home at the end of this semester. Well, actually, before the end of this semester. She leaves on Tuesday. We've had a series of good-bye events as she has been preparing to leave, because everyone loves Juana and is sad to see her go. Last week we had a good-bye lunch, and many of my classmates attended:

Last night we had a final goodbye party. We went to a bar called Pepper, drank pretty cocktails, danced wildly, and said goodbye to our friend:

We were even entertained a little bit by the staff at Pepper, as you can see here.

As you can see, a good time was had by all. But after she is gone, Juana will truly be missed by all of us. Here's wishing her safe travels and a happy return home. Goodbye, Juana, until we meet again!

Merry Christmas! (Return of the Jedi edition)

(Before you even ask, I don't know what that title means. I was just running out of "edition" names for this series.)

Anyway . . . For Christmas, Ben's parents transferred some money into his bank account so we could go out and have a nice meal together. (Thank you, Nancy and Darrell Wayne!) Last night, we decided to have our nice Christmas meal at a Thai restaurant near Binjiang Dao, one of the major shopping streets in the city. Thai food may not sound like traditional Christmas fare, and I'll admit, it didn't exactly conjure up images of home and holidays for us either. But I have to say it really hit the spot. It was delicious!

Afterward, we treated ourselves to coffee at one of the many nearby Starbucks (there are three within a couple blocks of each other in the Binjiang Dao area), and then we further treated ourselves to a half dozen donuts from a little shop next to the Starbucks of our choice. There was a lot of self-treating going on last night.

Here are a few shots from our evening:

Ben, his pre-dinner gin and tonic, and our first dish.

We almost forgot to take a picture of our meal: Green curry with beef, Pad Thai, and yet-unidentified green vegetables that I love.

View of Nanjing Lu, the main road that runs through the area.

Binjiang Dao, a walking/shopping street: no cars allowed.

Catholic church at the end of Binjiang Dao. This was erected by the French in 1917.

I think that's the end of our Merry Christmas in Tianjin series. We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming . . .

Merry Christmas! (the Christmas Day edition)

So, Christmas Day for us was pretty laid-back. Originally, we planned to go to one of the fancy-schmancy hotels here in Tianjin and take advantage of its Western breakfast buffet. We really enjoy some of the breakfast offerings by street vendors here in China, but sometimes you just get a hankering for an omelet, waffles, and hot, crispy bacon made by hands other than your own. The problems with those buffets, however, are: a.) they can be rather expensive, and b.) they're like a box of chocolates: you never really know what you're going to get. When someone says Western breakfast, that could mean "just like home," or it could mean cold bacon and a few strangely filled pastries.


After much thought, we decided that our cravings for Western breakfast would be sufficiently satisfied by a couple of breakfast value meals at the nearest McDonald's. So, we got up and, after opening our gifts to each other, we snagged a cab to Mickey-D's and had a couple of sausage egg McMuffins. What could be more American than that?


After breakfast, we headed back home and called our family back in the States. Then we thought we might head out to...somewhere? We planned to take advantage of the extra day off and go visit some of the local sights. But, after calling our family members, we decided we were just to warm and cozy in our little apartment to go back out into the cold. So, instead of sight-seeing, we snuggled up on the couch and watched a few movies. Maybe not the most exciting day in the world, but it was like heaven to me. It was a very satisfying and restful way to spend our one day off--we both had to go back to school the day after Christmas.


Anyway, here are a few shots of our present-opening and Christmas breakfast:


Me and Ben's creative gift-wrap efforts.




Ben's first prezzie.



Ben's pretty excited about his new travel tea mug! We both got each other cool travel cups for Christmas (you can see my shiny new red tea bottle in the picture at the top).



Egg McMuffins, here we come!



Ben got me this coat, hat, and scarf for Christmas. He's the best ever!

Merry Christmas! (the Christmas Eve edition)

We are really lucky to live in the same city as Sam and Zhou You. The holidays could have been a completely miserable, lonely time for us, even with the friends we've made here in Tianjin. But thanks to Sam and Zhou You, we had a warm, festive (even if somewhat unusual) Christmas Eve this year. We went over to their place, and spent the evening drinking wine, making and eating pizza, and chatting with a few of their friends.

A note about the pizzas: Sam is kind of a culinary genius on this front. He discovered that the flatbreads sold by street vendors (who also sell various meats on a stick, Western Chinese style) make excellent ready-made pizza crusts. Just add sauce, toppings, and cheese, pop them in the oven for about 10-12 minutes, and you're good to go. I didn't get a picture of our pizza masterpieces, but I did get a few good shots from our little gathering (like the one above, of Sam stylin' in his new scarf and Santa hat--ho-ho-ho!) Here are a few of the rest:

Forgive the cheesy grins--we have a couple glasses of wine under our belts.

Zhou You and her co-worker friend

Baker and Wu Shuai

We took a few more pictures of Christmas gift opening, which I'll post in a "part-two." All-in-all, despite missing our friends and family back home, we had a very Merry Christmas here in Tianjin. We hope all our friends and family back home had a very merry Christmas, filled with food, family, lots of prezzies, and a swig or two of eggnog. We miss and love you all!

taste of home

Lately I've been feeling sad about being in China during this season. I've been feeling sad about knowing that I won't be able to spend time with my family on Christmas, of course, but I've also been a little bit down because I'm missing out on the specific kind of energy that permeates American life around this time of year. I'm not just talking about the frenetic "MUST BUY THINGS NOW" energy that overwhelms you any time you walk into a mall or department store. That is certainly part of the Christmas season, but not really my favorite part.

What I'm missing is something else--a certain kind of energy I'm having a hard time describing. It's a kind of crackling in the air that I associate with absolute possibility. School is out. Offices are closed. Finally, you can do all those things you've been putting off doing, or you can take the time to lounge around in pajama pants all day, should you so desire. You finally have the chance to connect with people you haven't seen in awhile. There is the possibility that you may find yourself stranded inside your home for a day or two thanks to snowstorms, but it is okay, because you don't have the heavy weight of work and responibility hanging over your head, if only for a couple of days. It is freedom, and excitement, and hope for a crisp, clean blanket of snow over everything, at least for a little while.

I'm still not getting at it exactly, but whatever it is, I still miss it. I've been feeling lately like this energy simply doesn't exist in China in this season.

That is, until last night. Last night we were invited to the home of some friends to sing Christmas carols and drink hot beverages. After noshing and drinking and singing and chatting for a few hours, we ventured back out into the night. When we walked out of thier apartment building into the crisp night air, it was snowing! The first snow this season in Tianjin! There was something about the snow blanketing the city, muffling the sounds of cars and people, covering all the dirty grayness that surrounds us every day with a clean fresh coat, that made me feel a little charge of that energy that I associate with this season back home.

Today, everything is covered in snow, and there is a cold northern wind blowing across the city. I have several appointments that I should be attending to today, but I just made a couple phone calls and cancelled them all. Today, I'm going to spend time doing the things I want to do but don't usually have time for. I'm going to sit around in my pajama pants all day, because I so desire. I'm going to be free of work and study, if only for this afternoon. It may not be home, but it is a little taste of that energy I've been longing for.

have I mentioned we eat dumplings here?

On Friday afternoon, our class teachers threw a little Christmas party for us. I guess I should first note that Christmas as a religious holiday isn't really practiced by most Chinese people. However, the commercial concept of Christmas is being more and more widely accepted. There are Christmas trees in front of many of the major shopping centers here right now, a few Christmas decorations can be bought at places like Carrefour, Isetan (a Japanese department store) and E-Mart (a Korean supermarket). The idea of gift-giving is pretty appealing to many Chinese people.

Also, our teachers are pretty sensitive to their students missing out on celebrating holidays because we are in China, so they made a special effort to recognize Christmas for us. Our Christmas party's main events included:

1.) all of us going to the kitchen in one of the cafeterias and learning to make jiaozi (dumplings), a process that eventually and predictably devolved into a flour fight,

2.) eating all of the ill-formed dumplings we just made, and,

3.) singing karaoke for hours in a really cold room in our classroom building.

A very Chinese Christmas was had by all.

Here are some pictures. Somehow I didn't get any karaoke shots, but I might get some from others, and then post them soon.

"Chef" Miguel prepares to demonstrate his skills.

Rolling out the dough

One of the cooks shows us how it's really done.

Stuffing the dumplings. These were filled with minced pork and cabbage.


Everybody's pitching in.

The whole day was all a lot of fun, and I discovered that many of my classmates are great singers. But I have to admit: I'm really starting to get tired of dumplings. I think it's time to take a break, at least for a little while. It's going to be hard to do around here--they're pretty much a staple of the Northern Chinese diet. It's going to be even harder to break the news to Ben.

perhaps the strangest thing

I've been wriggling around in my metaphorical seat for weeks, waiting for Ben to post the pictures of our trip to Mr. Pizza to try out potato pizza, which came very highly recommended by his students. Finally, finally he has posted! Check out his entry here.

I have to say that this was perhaps the strangest eating experience I've had in Tianjin. Parts of the pizza were normal: crust, sauce, cheese, ham, onions. And I've seen enough pizza in China not to be too surprised by potatoes or corn on pizza. But mayonnaise? Corn flakes? Pumpkin in the crust? Truly, it must be seen to be believed.

When I told my sister about it, she said, "If I'd ordered pizza, and they brought me that, I would cry. Literally, cry tears." There was no crying involved for us, but I do have to admit, it was a bit baffling.

sleep tight!

I have this photograph from the first time I was in China for any period of time. It was 2000, and I had spent the summer in Dalian with a group of students, most of them from K-State. At the time the photo was taken, we were in a hotel in Beijing, where we had spent a couple of days before leaving the country, and we were getting ready to check out as a group.

(Darn it all, I wish I had a digital version of the picture, but it was taken in 2000, before I owned a digital camera.)

Anyway, there was this guy, sound asleep in one of the chairs in the hotel lobby. When I say "sound asleep," I mean it. There were about 40 of us students milling around, laughing, talking loudly, even jostling the furniture, but he didn't budge, or even twitch an eyelid. We were all impressed by his ability to keep on sleeping, despite all of our noise-making. So, two of the jokesters of the group--Jay and Jeremy--posed right next to this sleeping guy, their faces just inches away from his, while I took a picture. He never knew it happened.

Public sleeping is an artform in China. I am amazed at Chinese people's ability to sleep in places where I can't even concentrate enough to read a book. I've seen people sleeping in markets, on buckets, in wheelbarrows next to construction sites. Everywhere. While messing around online today, I found a site that captures the unique ability the Chinese people have to sleep when- and where-ever the urge may strike: www.sleepingchinese.com

It is incredible some of the places this guy has photographed Chinese people sleeping. If only I were so relaxed . . . .

Tianjin strikes again

Well, Tianjin has brought another man down. Or maybe it has just brought the same man (me) down . . . again. I have spent most of the weekend at home with another cold. I really don't seem to have any defenses against Chinese germs and viruses, despite my best efforts to drink lots of water, eat lots of vitamin-C rich fruit, get plenty of rest, and take my multi-vitamin every day (or at least most days).

The bad news is that I really needed to spend this weekend studying diligently, because on Tuesday I have my third-quarter test. With this cold, I haven't felt much up to that task. I pretended to study for a couple of hours last night, while actually watching episodes of House, M.D. Ben bought four seasons of the show on DVD at the main market on Nankai campus a few weeks ago, and it has provided hours of mindless, American entertainment. Needless to say, lacksidasically scrawling characters while listening to House's sarcastic retorts is not the ideal approach to studying.

The good news is that, while I've been under the weather, I have had plenty of time to "do research" for our upcoming travels. Both Ben and I have about two months off for winter holiday, almost all of January, and all of February. We plan to spend some time with our friend Jen K., who will be here for a couple weeks in January, and then we want to spend two or three weeks traveling with one of my classmates, seeing (some of) the sights of China. We know we want to go to Shanghai and Xi'an, home of the terra-cotta warriors. I really want to go to Guilin to see some of the famous mountainous landscape, although I've heard it can be kind of a tourist trap. We would also love to go to Hong Kong. We just need to figure out where else we want to go, and how long we can afford to travel, both in terms of time, and in terms of money. (It will be vacation time, but Ben has some serious PhD work he needs to attend to during the holiday.) I envision this trip being a fairly open-ended one--we might have a general idea of where we want to go, but not necessarily a set-in-stone plan for how long we may stay in each place. All I know is I want to go south--it's getting far too cold in Tianjin to want to spend an entire winter here!

In the meantime, it's time for me to buckle down with my kleenexes and textbooks (and no House in the background) and get ready for this test. The next few weeks are going to be pretty intense study-wise, between this upcoming test on Tuesday, and my final exams coming up in just a month. I'm just hoping Tianjin won't throw any more monster germs my way.

some cultural experiences

I learned a very important lesson about living in Tianjin today: riding a bike in winter can sometimes really suck. Today was the first time the temperatures have stayed below freezing all day, and the wind was blowing really hard most of the day, too. Riding my bike home, against the wind most of the way, wsa one of the least enjoyable experiences I have had since I've been here. Unfortunately, the temperatures are supposed to stay right around freezing for the next few days. Yay for me.

Another lesson: today, I went with my friend Juana to one of the libraries on campus to study for the big test we have coming up next Tuesday. In the process I learned something very interesting about the way study rooms work here. Apparently, students can put their stuff--books, pencil cases, etc.--on a table and reserve their own study spot all day. It's really crazy. We went into this study room to study, and there were about three spots in the entire big room that were not occupied by people's belongings. However, there were many spots that were not actually occupied by a person: not when we arrived, and not when I left about an hour and a half later. Juana said that every time she has been there it has been exactly like that. If a student did that in America, their stuff would either be stolen, or turned in to the front desk, and their seat would probably be taken. On the other hand, there probably wouldn't be quite so many students studying that hard at the library in the middle of the day in the U.S., unless it were the middle of finals week.

something that isn't food

I realized as I was writing my last post that 5 out of the last 6 posts on this blog have been food-related. I guess that tells you a little something about what I think is important. Or maybe it tells you what I associate with the holidays. Or maybe it just tells you that, right now, food is my primary window into this culture. That's probably the nicest way of putting it.

Anyway, I wanted to write about something that isn't food. And this is the perfect time to do it, since we have a very recent new addition to our family:

My new bike!

We were eating dinner with some of my classmates on Monday night, when Juana mentioned that there were some people selling new bikes at very low prices just down the street. No, not stolen bikes; just new, relatively low-quality bikes. But hey, what do I need a high-quality bike for, anyway? And at $25, who cares if it's quality or not. Actually, having a low-quality bike will probably help ensure that it will be some time before it is "lost." (Of course, it will probably also ensure that I build up some massive leg muscles--this thing doesn't pedal so easy.)

Ben and I engaged in a little christening ceremony after we bought the bike. First, we took some steel wool and tried to scuff up the paint as much as possible. We especially scuffed up around the bike's logo. Ben even took a little time to scuff up my seat. Then we took handfuls of dirt, and rubbed them in all the places where my hands and behind won't be touching. The goal was to try to make the bike look at least a little bit well-used, less shiny and desirable, to try to deter would-be thieves from taking it. I tried to capture our artificial "weathering," but our efforts didn't show up so well on film. Anyway, it seems to have worked so far--two days later, and my bike isn't lost . . . yet . . . .

food, glorious foooood!

The apple pie was a hit. It disappeared pretty quickly at our day-after-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner. I very dutifully took my camera with me to that dinner, with the intention of taking some pictures of the guests and yummy food. Unfortunately, as soon as we got there, my coat and bag were shuffled off to another room, and I kind of completely forgot all about my camera once the festivities began. That's kind of what I do. Anyway, I'll just tell you, the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes and everything else (there was a LOT of food there) were all delicious. There were about 50 guests at the dinner, mostly Americans, although there were also some folks from Canada, England, and of course, China. It was really nice to have a little taste of American tradition in the middle of this holiday season.

I've been realizing lately that we actually eat quite a lot of Western food, especially compared to most of my American classmates. I think it's primarily because we have a kitchen, and since most of my classmates live in the dorms, they do not. So, we eat as much of our own cooking as we do Chinese or Korean food. (We eat quite a lot of Korean food here--have I mentioned that? There is a big Korean community here, and so there are lots of Korean restaurants. Also, since he works at a Korean school, Ben eats Korean lunch daily. Sam and Zhou You often like to eat Korean food if we go out together. It all adds up to a significant amount of Korean food being eaten.)

Anyway, I discovered on Friday that one of the Carrefours here (there are several) carries some Duncan Hines mixes, including a blueberry muffin mix. One of our exciting events of the weekend was making (and gobbling up) blueberry muffins on Saturday morning. Ben took some shots, which I briefly hesitated to post since I'm in my PJ's in them, but since I really have no shame, here they are:

This is our silicon muffin pan. It's great, but the only one we could find (i.e., this one) had kind of pyramid shaped spaces, rather than round, muffin-shaped ones. It makes for some funny looking muffins, but they are tasty!

Fresh from the oven! Yum!

Thanksgiving in Tianjin

First of all: Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Thanksgiving is nearly over here--it's about 10:00 pm as I write. I have to say, today didn't really feel like Thanksgiving. Other than a few "Happy Thanksgivings" from my classmates, it was really a pretty average Thursday. For one thing, I didn't get to sleep in. I got up early, did a little homework, went to class at 8:00. After class, I went out to lunch with some classmates (Chinese fast food, not turkey and fixin's), picked up a few things at Carrefour, and then went back to campus to study for awhile.

Ben and I did go out for a "Thanksgiving dinner" with one of my American classmates, Nathan, who was, conincidentally, one of my classmates in Chinese class back at KU, too. No, our Thanksgiving night dinner did not include turkey and stuffing. Instead, it was made up of some of our favorite dishes at a restaurant we frequent just down the street from our house. Have a look:

Ben and Nathan drinking a little pre-dinner tea.

Here's me and Nathan before our fabulous feast.

This dish is beef, onions, and cilantro, heavily seasoned with cumin, and served in a pot over a flame at your table. Spicy and exciting.

These are a kind of pancake, filled with what I think are garlic shoots. They have a very strong flavor--a little goes a long, long way.

This is Ben's favorite dish ever. We get it every time we go to this restaurant. It's green beans and salted celery, lightly battered, tossed with sesame seeds, and then fried with garlic and red peppers.

After dinner, I made the pie for tomorrow's Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Thanks to Ben's years of baking practice, the crimped edges turned out pretty well. I just hope it tastes as good as it looks.

Even if today didn't feel like Thanksgiving, I have so much to be thankful for in my life. I'm thankful for the opportunities I'm having here to meet people, and to learn about Chinese culture. I'm thankful for my friends here. Most of all, I'm so thankful for all of you, my friends and family back home. I'm consider myself blessed to have so much love and support in my life, even if it is (this year) from afar.

I hope you're all having an enjoyable Thanksgiving day. Eat lots of turkey and take lots of naps today--do it up true American Thanksgiving style for me!

practice pie

Just when I was beginning to despair about missing out on the holidays, and Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing this year, Ben and I got a phone call. It was one of Sam's friends inviting us to a big Thanksgiving dinner this Friday. (We don't get Thanksgiving day off here, of course, so it's just more convenient for everyone to celebrate on Friday night.) Anyway, she gave us all the details, and then, toward the end of the conversation, said: "By the way, I heard you and Ben like to bake. Could you bring a pie?"

It's true that Ben and I like to bake. But it is also true that I have never made a pie completely on my own in my life. I have sliced fruit for pies many times. I think I once helped my mom roll out a crust when I was a little girl. But I've never made a pie from beginning to end by myself. Of course, I didn't mention any of that when she asked us to bring a pie. I just agreed. Later, not wanting to embarrass myself by bringing a complete disaster of a pie to the dinner on Friday, I decided it was necessary to make a practice pie.

This venture was not with a couple of dilemmas.

Dilemma #1: Crisco is kind of hard to come by here, but is kind of necessary for a good, flaky pie crust. So, I had to make a trek out to The Good Friend Store, the local Western grocery mecca, where they carry all kinds of things you can't buy anywhere else in Tianjin. I wasn't sure if they would have Crisco there or not, but it turns out they had both regular Crisco, and butter-flavor Crisco. Dilemma #1 solved! (I also saw they had some carmel/chocolate swirl chocolate chips, which I didn't buy, but which I am seriously considering going back to get.)

Dilemma #2: I don't have a rolling pin. I made the best of things by using a floured smooth-edged glass, but I think I'm going to have to invest in a rolling pin. I just couldn't get that crust to roll out thin enough.

Dilemma #3: I don't have a pie pan. (Yeah, I know. Kind of an important part.) Sam and Zhou You have a pie pan, which they offered to let me use, but it was really cold last night, and I didn't want to bike over to their place in the cold to get it. I had a round cake pan, and I decided that, for a practice pie, that would be good enough. However, I soon discovered why we bake pies in pie pans and not round cake pans. The cake pan was so deep, and its straight sides made it really hard to do anything pretty with the top and bottom crusts, like fluting the edges. Mental note: get that pie pan before you make the "real" pie.

Anyway, I baked the pie, but it was certainly no masterpiece of a pie. I never got a picture of the whole thing--just a post-eating shot. Ben stayed up later than he wanted just so he could have a piece of the practice pie, so we attacked the thing pretty much as soon as it came out of the oven. Since we've already cut into it in the photo, it's kind of hard to see just how ugly my cake-pan pie turned out--although I think you get the idea. But trust me, it was ugly. Yipes.

On the up-side, I ended up with an apple pie that tastes really good, even if it is a terrible sight to see. There were a couple of moments when I regretted ever having promised to bring a pie, since this practice pie seemed such a disaster. But I think I learned some good lessons through the practice pie experience--I'm pretty sure it's going to turn out okay.

just a little fun

Ben and I (okay, let's be honest here--it's mostly me) have been messing around on yearbookyourself.com. It's this fun little site where you can upload a picture of yourself, and then see what you would look like if you were in a yearbook photo from the 1950's to 2000. Here are just a couple of our fun results.

This never ceases to crack me up. This is a 1990 version of Ben. Love the mullet. Maybe Ben should look into it.

This is the 1960 version of me. I think it looks very much like a picture I've seen of my mom, except she didn't wear glasses.

what's for dinner #1--jiaozi

Before we came to China, we asked our nephew, Tommy, what kinds of things he wanted us to take pictures of while we were here. He had two very specific things in mind: where we live, and what we eat. With that in mind, I've been meaning to write a post about food for awhile now, and I've been collecting pictures here and there, with the intent of posting them all at once. Unfortunately, I'm not so good at bringing my camera with me when we go out to eat (or anywhere, for that matter) so I don't always get a shot of the interesting things we've had to consume. So, here's the first of what may become a series of entries on what we eat here in China.

I think it's kind of hard to imagine what Chinese food is really like if your only experience of Chinese food has been at Chinese restaurants in the States. We eat some dishes here that are similar to those you can find at your average American Chinese restaurant. For example, one of the first things I ever learned to order was sweet and sour pork (althought I have to say that the sweet and sour sauce at even your most dumpy, hole-in-the-wall restaurant here really is far better than that gloppy pink stuff you find at most American Chinese buffets).

But on the other hand, many dishes here are unlike anything you would expect. For example, many things here (in Tianjin, anyway) are not stir-fried in sauce, or deep-fried like eggrolls, but rather steamed or boiled. Take jiaozi, or Chinese dumplings, for example, which are really unlike anything I've ever eaten at any Chinese buffet in the Midwest (although you can find their equivalent in Chinatowns and nicer Chinese restaurants with dim sum). I guess you can sometimes find fried dumplings on a Chinese buffet, filled with a tight little wad of sweetened meat, but they are nothing like the jiaozi we eat here. Jiaozi here are generally boiled, and can be filled with any number of things, from seafood to beef to pork to mutton, cabbage to fennel to onions to . . . really any meat/vegetable combination you can imagine. Meat fillings aren't usually sweet-ish, but rather savory, and usually include a vegetable and sesame oil flavors. I've seen dumplings accompanied by a kind of sweet sauce in the U.S., but I think that may be a southern China thing. Here in Tianjin, we like them savory and sour.

I went to the Zhou's home (my sister-in-law's parents' home) yesterday for jiaozi lunch. Poor Benny was too sick to leave the house, but they were kind enough to send some home with me. I wish I had taken some shots of the pre-boiled jiaozi. There were several very large bamboo trays of them, all lined up neat and pretty, ready to cook (when you make jiaozi, you make a big batch, because they are pretty labor-intensive to make from scratch). I did, however, get some shots of those I brought home. These were pork and cabbage, and pork and garlic sprout jiaozi.

Jiaozi are usually dipped in dark vinegar, and you can add mashed garlic or red peppers to the vinegar, according to your own taste for them. That's how we eat them at the Zhou's house. A jiaozi restaurant that we have been to a few times serves vinegar and whole cloves of garlic to chew on, along with your jiaozi. Sam says that's his favorite way to eat jiaozi, but I have a hard time bringing myself to bite into a whole clove of garlic. At our house, (when we are eating leftover or frozen jiaozi) we sometimes have chopped garlic in our vinegar, but more frequently just vinegar, because we're too lazy to chop the garlic, and we don't really keep the red peppers on hand.

I think they're best when they're hot and fresh, but they're pretty good leftover, too. And, as I discovered this morning, not bad for breakfast.

Anyway, it's a good thing we like them, because we still have this entire bag left over, even after eating them for dinner last night, and breakfast this morning.

today's quest

Our big goal for today was to buy a bike. Another bike to replace the "lost" one. We've spent a lot of time discussing this quest. The main issue at hand is, are we going to buy another new (expensive-ish) bike, which will probably be stolen in another week? Or are we going to buy a used (i.e., previously "lost") bike? There are pros and cons to both. With the new bike, it will be more expensive, and it will probably be stolen again, but I won't feel like I'm contributing to the vicious cycle of stolen and re-sold bikes that is so prominent here. On the other hand, a second-hand bike will be cheaper, and will be less likely to be stolen, but probably once belonged to someone who was almost as upset to find it "lost" as I was when mine was "lost."

I've tried to convince myself that, by contributing my brand new bike to the steal and re-sell system that is so pervasive here, I have earned the right to buy and ride someone else's stolen bike. Sort of like a pyramid scheme. I've paid in, even if it's just at the very bottom. I should get something out of it. But unfortunately, I am not easily convinced.

With that in mind, I refuse to buy a second-hand bike. Ben, on the other hand, is much more comfortable with the idea of moral relativity, and thinks buying a second-hand bike is just much more practical. He's probably right, but we decided that if we were going to buy a second-hand bike, it was going to be his.

So, we set out today to buy a bike. That's all well and good, except it turns out that I don't really know where to buy second-hand bikes. I thought I knew where some guys were selling them, but it turns out I was wrong. Then Ben thought he knew another place where we could buy one, but it turned out that they were only selling second-hand electric bikes, which wasn't really what Ben had in mind.

After many hours of walking around, sort of looking for bike sellers and sort of just strolling, we bought this:

No, I don't know what it is. Something some guy was selling on the street. It's kind of like a sweet sticky rice-cake thing, with dates in it. We walked by the guy selling it, and Ben's face lit up. I asked him, "Do you want to buy some of that?" and he got so excited, like a little boy at an ice cream shop. So, we bought some. The only problem is, now we don't really know what to do with it all. I mean...there's kind of a lot of it.

and the real winner is . . .

Here's another quick update on that Chinese-speaking contest. Apparently there were winners, as we found out about a week later. I got third place. As far as I'm concerned, that's great. Good enough to place, but not good enough to have to go through the whole process again at the next level of competition. Thank goodness that cultural experience is over.

careful what you wish for

I know it's been a little while since my last post. Or maybe a not-so-little while. I could offer many reasons for my absence. Last week was midterms, which consisted of four tests in two days--I haven't experienced midterms so intense since I was an undergrad. And then there was the fact that we had a little taco party at our place last weekend. Ben and I spent quite a bit of time shopping, preparing, and cleaning house before our guests arrived. (I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I am no better a housekeeper in China than I ever was in the U.S.) So, there have been some things that have been keeping us semi-busy. But on the other hand, life here has become fairly routine. I have been feeling like I've settled into a pretty stardard daily schedule, and within that, there's really not so much to write about.

In fact, just a couple days ago, I was working on a post about how nothing exciting was really happening around here right now, how I was so sorry for my blogging absence, and how I wish I had something more to report. I finished a quick draft of the post, and then had to run out the door before posting it, because I was about to be late for class. I scurried out to the front walkway in front of our building to grab my bike . . . only to find that my bike had been stolen.

This is actually a pretty common occurrence around here. In fact, my friend Juana had her bike stolen from right in front of our classroom building, in broad daylight, just a week ago. It was locked--double-locked, actually--at the time. Bikes are stolen so often here, it's kind of a joke. Like, people ask you, "Has your bike been stolen yet?"

Nevertheless, when I found mine was stolen (or "lost" as the Chinese would put it) I was so frustrated. Argh! I had had the bike for no more than a week. It was a new bike, as opposed to one of the second-hand (i.e., "lost" and then re-sold) bikes that most people ride, which is probably why it was taken. I guess it was a little too new and pretty for quick fingers to resist. But I barely got a chance to enjoy it myself. Plus, now I had no form of transportation to get to a class that was going to start in 15 minutes.

Anyway, the whole experience sent me into a kind of tailspin. I had no choice but to walk to class (and get there about 30 minutes late--it's a pretty hefty walk from our place to my classroom building). As I was walking, I just kept getting more and more angry. I know it makes no sense, but by the time I arrived at my classroom building, I was mad at the entire country of China. What kind of place makes it so easy and common to steal bikes? Who are these jerks who think it's okay to steal bikes. Don't they know how late they were making me for class? How could no one have seen someone taking my bike? And why didn't someone stop these people? It was almost enough to make me hate China.

You don't need to tell me it's not logical--I am fully aware of that--but the experience has put me in a pretty bad head-space for the past couple of days. I've read that this kind of thing is all a part of the transition to an unfamiliar culture--you go through periods when a seemingly small thing (like finding your bike has been stolen in a country where everyone's bikes get stolen) will just send you into a (hopefully short-lived) downward spiral of frustration with the new place where you're living. I guess I'm a textbook example. But knowing that doesn't make me any less frustrated, or make it any easier to just pull myself out of this mode.

In the meantime, I'm really having a hard time caring about my studies. I've been spending a lot of time pining for home, and its wonderland of unstolen bikes and drive-thru restaurants. I've been doing a lot of online window-shopping for clothes that are both attractive and in my size, something that is in somewhat short-supply here. Needless to say, I'm a little homesick. But at least I now have something to write about.

and the winner is . . .

So, here's a little update about that Chinese Speaking Competition.

I almost didn't do it. I was still feeling lousy from my cold on Friday, and I had kind of a bad day at school. I felt like I was too scattered to be able to get up and recite a speech I didn't really know all that well. I just had these visions of myself getting up there, losing my place or forgetting a line because I was so nervous, and then just starting to cry in front of everyone. I think I've mentioned it before, but I kind of seem to cry easily here. I just did not want to start crying in front of a room of people, whose eyes were all on me.

But, my friend Steffi convinced me to suck it up and do it. That's what Germans are for.

There were about eight contestants in the beginners-level competion, which is where I am. (Two years of study in the States does not an Intermediate make.) I was the second one to go up there. The girl before me, one of my classmates, was excellent. Composed. Clear. She took her time and remembered all of it, even though she had a couple small stumbles here and there. Me, not so much. I got really nervous. I lost my place a couple times. I got distracted by people coming in and out of the room, and ultimately left out one small chunk entirely. I had to look at my cheat sheet at the end to rember the final sentence.

But, ah! the relief when it was over! I was so happy to be finished that I almost didn't even care that, toward the end of the competition there were a couple of girls who hadn't even bothered to memorize their speeches. They just read them from a sheet! How fair is that? It's not hard to correctly read pinyin spellings of Chinese words off a piece of paper. If I had known that were an option, I wouldn't have been nervous to begin with! (Okay, so maybe I cared a little bit.)

In the end, the winner was . . . all of us. They gave us all T-shirts and congratulated us on our hard work. Despite the fact that I am a very competitive person who usually likes to see a winner, and usually likes for that winner to be me, that seemed like exactly the right way for that competition to end. I know everyone worked really hard to prepare for that contest, and everyone deserved a reward for the hard work they had invested . . . except for maybe those two girls who didn't memorize.

it's all in the timing

I apparently have absolutely no natural defenses against Chinese germs and viruses. I have a cold. Granted, I was attacked from within my home (Ben was sick last weekend with a cold he probably brought home from his many sickly teenage students), and maybe anyone would expect to fall prey under those circumstances, but this isn't the first cold I've had since I've been here. In fact, I think this is the third. If it's going around, chances are I've had it, am in the throes of it, or will very soon get it.

This cold comes at a kind of bad time for me. I found out on Monday that the Chinese Speaking Competition I signed up for about three weeks ago will be this Friday. Yeek. Not a lot of fore-warning. Last Friday, when I asked when the competition would be held, I was told that it would be "in November sometime." I don't know about you, but "November sometime" does not mean the same thing as "one week from today," even if "one week from today" is actually in November.

But that's the funny thing about scheduling around here. It's not really done far in advance, and if it is done in advance, it's not often clearly communicated to those involved. This isn't the first instance where Ben or I have experienced that kind of last-minute notice. In fact, Ben experiences this kind of situation on a nearly weekly basis. He is constantly finding out that two days from now he won't be teaching such-and-such a class, because the students are participating in such-and-such an activity. Sometimes it works in your favor, like when I found out one Thursday that all my classes were cancelled on Friday, because the teachers were all participating in a sports day like the one my class had to participate in. On the other hand, it can work against you. Like when you find out on Monday that you will be reciting a speech in Chinese on Friday, and you haven't even chosen the speech yet.

Ahem.

So, in the midst of fighting off this cold, I have also been furiously memorizing a three-minute speech in Chinese, which I will present in competition tomorrow. I've memorized about 3/4 of it, but that doesn't mean I can present it well. There's a big difference between being able to stumble over three minutes of memorized Chinese, and being able to present it as if it were your own ideas. I have a lot of work ahead of me . . .

who says there's no halloween in china?

Well, actually, I say there's no Halloween in China. That is, unless you're among a bunch of non-Chinese people who also celebrate Halloween, in which case there may be Halloween in China. But it will be very, very difficult to devise a costume. It takes a lot of searching: there's no "Halloween section" in China's Wal-Marts, and there's no seasonal costume store at any of the many, many malls in Tianjin.

Nevertheless, the foreign students at my school pressed forward. Last night we celebrated Halloween at Alibaba's, a local bar that draws the expat crowd most weekends (and some of my classmates on most weeknights). There were actually a TON of people in costume at this place as the night went on, but sadly, my camera battery died before I was able to take pictures of all of them. So, here are some pics from early in the evening.

Poor Benny was home sick with a cold, but Sam came out to play for a little bit. . .

and managed to scramble together a borrowed costume for this picture. The witch's hat belonged to some girls sitting at our table. I found the gold mask after hours of searching, and grabbed it, thinking I could use it for something.

"Who is that lovely lady?" you ask? It's Nathan (in drag), of course!

Felipe (the mummy) and me. I had a heck of a time devising those kitty ears. I actually used part of a mask like the one Sam is wearing above, and worked a little Halloween magic on it.

Steffi and Felipe. Steffi heard Nathan was going as a woman, so she decided to dress as a boy.

Two (of three) comrades. This is actually probably the easiest kind of costume to find around here. You can buy this garb at a lot of market stalls on the street.

There are a few costumes I really wish I could show you pictures of. For example, my friend Miguel managed to put together a complete pink fuzzy bunny costume, and he wore it all day long. You should have seen the look on our teacher's face when he walked in to class.