Daily Discovery

March 31: One of things that I will miss most when I leave China is the convenience, of quick, cheap, delicious and relatively healthy food.

One of my favorite weekend treats? A bowl of 麻辣烫 (hot and spicy soup?), which is super accessible: you get a bowl; and you go to the cooler with all of the washed, cut and prepared veggie and meats; place your choices in the bowl; weigh it and pay by the pound; wait for the shop owner to cook the veggies and add the seasonings; enjoy!

This bowl with 10+ veggies and a bunch of noodles cost me just over $2 - a real steal and a delicious treat.

March 29: Back to the market to buy eggs today - and they are so cheap! Only 3.58 RMB per pound these days, and I thought I'd share a picture of how eggs are sold here.

Fun fact - eggs don't need to be refrigerated if they are not washed/pasteurized first (as they are in the States) due to a protective coating on the outside, so they just come transported in huge quantities and placed in the corner. You pick as many as you'd like and then they are weighed and priced.

The downside? The lack of washing and the presence of the protective coating often means the presence of other material stuck to the outside of the eggs (I think you know what I am talking about).

March 27: Every spring the student associations on campus have a mixture of a competition/annual report, wherein they prepare a PPT presentation on their club's work for the last year, and then give that presentation as part of a competition, receiving scores and awards for the best presentations.

The English Association invited me to stop by and watch their report, so I stopped by to support them. The PPTs were pretty good - especially when you consider that most of the students here have never used a computer before these last few months.

March 25: I received an important piece of news from my students as we were walking around the campus today - none of the new buildings are actually safe (so they claim), because they weren't built properly, and students not only have to stay out of the new buildings (who knows when they will be finished - the original date was almost 18 months ago now), but they also have to avoid walking on the sidewalk along side the buildings as tiles often fall off.

I'm glad that they told me - they are the people who care most about me here and always look for me; I don't know what I would do without them.

March 23: Remember yesterday how I mentioned that I've been playing with my students a lot lately? Well, I didn't mention the only downside to that ..

I think many people are familiar with Snapchat in the US, and China has a similar app that almost all students use daily - it's called 快手 kuaishou, and it's a video/image app where people can post and view other people's posts.

I was playing a little basketball with some of my nursing students this afternoon, and less than 2 hours later... I had dozens of students messaging me, "Wow, teacher play basketball very good." How did they know? Well, someone walking by decided that I would make a good video for their account and now anyone using the app on campus has undoubtedly seen my terrible basketball skills.

March 21: I've fallen into the (bad?) habit of enjoying a bunch of different snacks - it's my last semester, I had better try them all while I have the chance (such is the excuse that my mind provides), and so I've found a few fairly decent snacks from the stores on campus and across from the school gate.

Today, I found this package of chips, I think - or crackers? The line is very fine here between the two of them, and I was reading the package and discovered that there is only one line of English on the whole thing: "Oh well karma is a bitch." I really have no idea why... or what ...

March 19: Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today, during class the remote for the projector (I have technology for this class, fortunately!) was missing, and I was trying to ask my students if they knew where it was. Without even thinking, I asked, "Where's the clicker?" and then it struck me, they don't know a "clicker" is - i'm not sure how many people do .. but it made me think of my grandpa, and I missed him a little bit today ... every day, really. But, at least now a bunch of my students are carrying on the "clicker" tradition (don't worry, I also taught them the word "remote").

March 17: My grandma has the best timing on her letters; I'm not sure how she manages to time it so perfectly given the unreliability of sending letters across the world, but I received this letter today and was wondering what it could be!

Opening it, I realized it was St. Patrick's Day. I'd forgotten all about it, and it made my otherwise lonely day perfect. Love you, Grandma! I'll try to be more consistent in updating my letters to you!

March 15: Happy Friday! It's the first English Association event of the semester here at Wuwei, too.

The student leaders planned a movie, and they actually chose a really good movie! I was impressed. Can you make out which movie it is from the photo? They started 10 minutes before they told me to arrive, so I grabbed a seat in the back and enjoyed it with the 50 or so students who showed up!

It's Zootopia!

March 13: I think that these weeks are busy in part because of the journal requirement I have for my students, in which they must write a journal entry at least 4 times a week .. which means, I have a couple hundred journal entries to read, give feedback on, and parse for grammar/vocabulary tips for future classes.

The notebooks that everyone uses here are usually exactly the same, but I saw a bit of familiarity today: my students decorated their journal with a bit of the flair that I remember from my own classes (I don't know if I ever exchanged hearts for O's, but it definitely brought a smile to my face today!).

March 11: I have a busy week ahead, and I needed some nourishment and a bit of a treat to start the week, so I followed a recipe I recently found to make these German potato dumplings.

Now, I am not sure how authentic they are, but a friend whose family makes traditional ones told me they didn't look too bad, so I am going to go with it - especially when they are as delicious as they are.

Of course, they have to be delicious when stuffed and served with brown butter and butter-fried-bread (croutons, essentially), as butter makes everything taste good!

I might be making these much more often for the end of service ...

March 9: It's the weekend again, and this weekend, I feel like I am just about back in the routine of the school semester: a busy week, and slightly less busy weekend. Usually, my weekends consist of heading to the markets, buying food to cook, playing ping pong with students ... but unfortunately I can't escape from planning new and preparing classes for a few weeks out.

On my walk today, I found this intriguing scene: the little pond on campus is starting to thaw, but only partially as half of the pond is water, the other half is ice, and I'm not quite sure why; I'm surmising, however, that the actual reason is because the non frozen water is freshly pumped into the lake ... stay tuned for a few more weeks (or a month or so) and hopefully the pond will be blooming and beautiful again. (You can probably also see that the grass hasn't quite come back yet, and the campus is still awaiting the return of a little bit of green!)

March 7: I ate lunch today with a few students from one of my classes, and it's always one of my favorite things to do. I love to hang out with the students, and eating lunch together is much more personal and relaxed than the classroom, so we can have a lot more fun and talk about different things (in English, I insist .. most, of the time anyways :] ).

The downside, despite having a food card, they usually try and insist on paying for my food anyways, and if I am not quick enough they usually ignore every effort I make to prevent them from doing so. Don't worry, though, I'll make it up to them in the future with baked goods and other delicious food I'll share with them.

March 5: Of course, I can't eat at the cafeteria every day - I still like to cook my own food, so I experimented with another dish that I like, but veggified it for my vegetarian preferences.

It's usually peppers, fermented soybeans and a bit of beef or pork, but I went simple and omitted the meat. It's quick, it's fast, and it's really delicious. The fermented soybeans are salty, but also add a ton of umami flavor without MSG, which is pretty critical, I think. They are little flavor bombs to accompany the rice and slightly sweet, slightly spicy peppers.

March 3: My school was incredibly generous with me this semester, and instead of providing a ton of eggs and milk at the end of last semester for my New Year's gift, they took my suggestion and gave me a meal card for the cafeteria so that I could eat lunch and hang out with my students.

I've been testing it out a little bit this week, and have been discovering which restaurants and which food is delicious and worth visiting for the rest of the semester - of course, my students are always showing me the best places to eat.

Many students order the "fast food:" standard dishes that have already been prepared in huge quantities and then served similar to school lunch in the States, but you pay by the number/kind of dish that you eat. Dishes with meat are more expensive than those with only veggies, and you can choose rice or steamed bread; a fairly standard veggie soup (lots and lots of water, few vegetables) is free! Here, I have some tofu (I found a better restaurant for tofu afterwards), and some pretty delicious mushrooms!

March 1: Happy March! And I feel like it's truly March, as classes are starting to march along once again .. haha.

Luckily, now that march is here, hopefully the selection of fruit will increase, and the prices will decrease - there have been few options, all of which were expensive, during the winter!

At the market, it looks like it is starting - the banana vendors are now back out in force, with boxes upon boxes of bananas. I bought myself a few; the price write now is about 3.5 RMB per pound, which is actually more expensive than the US when converted (at least, if you know about Kwik Trip!).