Ok. Maybe "worst nightmare" is a bit overly dramatic, but something has happened that I have been worried about for years now.
I think it is pretty common knowledge that bikes are EVERYWHERE in China. Pedal bikes, electric bikes, bikes with carts...they are all over the place. Outside of big stores and shopping areas there are usually rows and rows of bikes in the parking lots. The Carrefour where I go shopping is no different.
(note: this is not a picture of the Carrefour parking lot, it's just to give you an idea of what I mean.)
The bikes often are not attached to bike racks but rather have wheel locks. They are also often crowded together cheek by jowl (or pedal to pedal I suppose). I don't know if it's just me, but for years this bike organization has always looked forebodingly similar to this:
This Saturday I left Carrefour with my purse and two bags filled with groceries in hand and tried to squeeze my bike out from between two others.
And it happened.
Luckily, I only knocked over 5 bikes. The 6th in line shuddered dangerously but held it's ground. Unluckily, one of the bikes was a motor bike with an alarm the immediately started blaring it's protest. Further unluckily, I was right by the entrance so I had a crowd. I quickly righted all of the bikes, jammed my groceries in my basket and pedaled out of there as fast as I could.
It could have been worse. Not even ten minutes later as I was turning the corner on my street, I passed a man looking dejectedly at no less than 9 domino-ed bikes. I think it was the universe's way of telling me not to worry about it too much.
So last night I went to dinner at Lucy's apartment. Since I have been using my toaster oven EVERYDAY I of course knew I had to bake something. While hanging out at Bed last weekend, Audrey excitedly asked me if I knew how to make pumpkin cheesecake. Since I knew Audrey was going to be at dinner too and I have an uncontrollable need to please people (and cuz it sounded yummy) I decided to make pumpkin cheesecake.
I found THIS recipe online, which sounded easy enough. The only problem is that I couldn't find canned pumpkin at either Carrefour or the imported food store. So I bought a small pumpkin and figured "Hey! How hard could it be to make pumpkin puree?"
It actually wasn't too bad, just time consuming. First I cut it in half and scooped out the yucks. (I went through the extra effort to pick out the seeds to make toasted pumpkin seeds but I got distracted by a friend and they ended up burning. :-( ) Next I brushed a little butter on the flesh, covered each half with foil and put them in my oven for about an hour. After that I scooped out the now tender pumpkin meat. A little time in a blender (that I borrowed from Chris and Becky) and I was looking at fresh pumpkin puree! After that I just followed the recipe (although I used a pre-made graham cracker crust since I already had one). And I ended up with a pretty tasty fall themed cheesecake. Lucy and Audrey (and Audrey's boyfriend and Lucy's roommate) LOVED it. I think it tasted extra good with a cup of coffee.
-Stephanie
P.S. When did my China blog turn into a cooking and crafting diary?
I often share when my students make funny mistakes in English, or do things that make me laugh. Recently, however, we have been talking about rhetorical devices (like metaphors and similes) as well as descriptive writing. Some of my students have written things that I really like. I thought I would share a few.
"Drowsiness is such a quiet killer that murders our time" (I really liked this one, probably because I've been sleepy lately and it makes it so hard for me to concentrate.)Life
"Life is the early bus, We always keep missing. Life is the traffic jam, We never stop waiting."
"The little ship, even now seemed to be as fragile as a piece of glass, steadily floating on the tranquil horizon."
"His hair is twisted and as complicated as IB math higher level."
"I used to hide myself from everybody Like a shadow cast on the ground Always behind somebody."
"It's the day of autumn Leaves are so tired that they fall to sleep on the ground."
"Looking at the lake under the sun shine, You will find that, It is glittering, As if it was made of thousands of diamonds."
That's all for now. I think I might actually get all my correcting done today just in time to correct my big stack o' midterms I'll be getting tomorrow. Whoo...
This picture amuses me. During last Friday's meeting we did a mini mock admissions. It is supposed to be a good example to show us teachers the kinds of things that colleges are looking for, and to read some sample recommendation letters since a lot of them are writing them now.
Each teacher had to read one of the three fake applications for a college. Personal essay, transcript, recommendations...everything. Then we discussed them as a group and voted to admit one, wait list another and reject the third. I am proud of my group since we wanted our guy to get in (he wrote a really good personal essay) and he was the one the whole meeting voted to admit.
In this picture you can see the notes we collected for each of the three candidates on the board, listed by their last name (Gates, Leavitt and Wilson). I was in the group that read Gate's application so when the time came to write notes on the board, I volunteered like the goody-two-shoes I am. When I noticed someone in the back was taking pictures, I made a goofy face at them and then went back to what I was doing.
June sent this picture to me yesterday. Of course the camera woman happened to catch my silly face moment. BAH!
So this past Saturday I had two big things planned. One was the first ever Cuisine Festival and the second was meeting Lucy's Swiss boyfriend Andreas with some other friends for drinks. My day ended up being quite different from what I expected.
I left my apartment around 9am and stopped for a breakfast on the run at The Coffee Beanery. I met up with Lotus, her son (Jason), and her mother. We grabbed a cab and headed to the Cuisine Festival. We wanted to get there early so we could see everything. I thought for sure I would be there for a while. We arrived at 10:30 and I left at 1:30. It was rather a disappointment.
As soon as we arrived I bought pierogi because I was just so excited to see them in Shanghai. They were ok. Jason was funny and went and played on the bouncy house in the kids area and then ran up to hug HaiBao (the Shanghai Expo mascot which is freakin' EVERYWHERE). I planned to take pictures of everything I tried but that fell through pretty quickly. The only thing I did take a picture of that I ate was this cupcake. Which was tasty. I was mostly just dissapointed at how small the festival was. I did three trips around seeing every booth. The day wasn't a total waste. There was some interesting things to see like these terracotta warriors made of chocolate. I also made a friend. I was sitting down and enjoying roast beef, mashed potatoes and a corona when another foreigner came up and asked if she could sit next to me. Her name is Bonnie and she comes from a large family in Alabama. Her husband is a pilot for a Chinese airline and she sells baked goods. We chatted for a while, then went and got gelatto and chatted some more. We exchanged info and I hope to meet up with her again. She was a lot of fun and we talked about random stuff like juggling and a puppets. We also laughed at the clowns. After I felt like I had seen everything I wanted to see there, I left. I wasn't planning on getting together with Lucy et al until 9:30pm. That gave me a lot of time to kill. First I found a bench and read the City Weekend magazine I picked up at the festival from cover to cover. Then I just started walking down Nanjing Road. I ended up at a shopping center that had a movie theater. I figured, why not? I haven't been to a movie theater in China in a very long time and never have I negotiated one by myself.
I read the signs (which were all in Chinese), and ordered my ticket (in Chinese) and went and saw "This Is It" (in English...I have my limits. I did pay attention to the Chinese subtitles though). It was the only option they had that day in English. I was the only laowai in the theater which got me a few stares. Ah well. The movie was ok. Interesting enough. I thought it was funny that a lot of the people in the audience would clap after every song as though Michael Jackson was actually there performing. The girl sitting next to me got really into it and cried for the last 15 minutes or so.
After the movie I headed back out and walked some more. I ended up in People's Square. I figured I would sit and people watch. I took out my journal, planning on maybe writing something but instead ended up sketching (which I haven't done in a really long time). I ended up getting a lot of attention. It was really weird. I was just sitting on a bench sketching and trying to look as non-interesting as possible. A few people took pictures of me or what I was drawing, or sat half an inch away from me on the bench and stared at what I was doing. It's not even that good! What do you think? I decided to get myself a little something quick to eat before drinking. I didn't want KFC, Starbucks, McDonald's, Subway or Pizza Hut...all popular choices on Nanjing Road. I walked down a small alley and found some places selling Chinese snacks. I got some shengqianbao (fried meat dumplings...this time with crab meat and pork), which was boiling hot when it arrived at my table and burnt the crap out of my tongue and lips but was totally worth it because it was so gosh darn tasty.
I walked a bit closer to the club we were going to meet at but after all of my procrastinating it was still early. Lucky for me I always have something to keep me occupied. I am currently reading "Son of a Witch" (the sequel to "Wicked"). I sat on a bench and read for a bit. I even waited a little bit after the appointed meeting time. I was still the first one there. Oh well.
Lucy and Andreas were the first to show up after me, followed by JJ, then Kevin and Peter and lastly Audrey and her new boyfriend Ryan (who is from Maine! I was surprised to meet a Maine-r).
We ended up staying for 4 hours. It was really a good time. Good conversation, good drinks (I had the Brendetta, a fruity rum drink). We were at Bed, a club I had been to once before. Instead of couches or chairs, Bed has...well...beds. Sorta. They are large flat cushioned platforms with a bunch of pillows. Because my flash is broken, like I mentioned before, I can't take pictures at night. But here is a picture from the last time I was at Bed just to show you what I mean: Again, this picture isn't from this Saturday, but oddly enough this is in the same "bed" that we sat in this weekend. It was a good group of people to hang out with. We sang and talked and joked and laughed. I interviewed Andreas (mostly jokingly) to make sure he was good enough for Lucy. I think he passed. Here is an excerpt from our conversation:
Me: What is your favorite thing about Lucy? Andreas: Ask me what my least favorite thing about her is. Me: Ok...What is your least favorite thing about Lucy? Andreas: She doesn't live in Switzerland.
We ended up leaving because the bar was closing and everybody went their seperate ways. I got home a little after 2am, meaning I was out wandering around for 17 hours. Long day!
Anyway, there is a real post for y'all. This whole posting everyday in November is totally not working.
Time keeps getting away from me. Saturday was an extremely full day and I plan to write about it.
For now it's late at night and I am still trying to perfect my lesson plan for tomorrow (which will hopefully be fun).
Hopefully another guitar video will hold you all over until I have time to post some substance. For those of you who missed it, the link has been updated in my last post so you can actually see the Coldplay cover video.
The video of me singing Fear You Won't Fall is HERE.
This whole "posting everyday" makes me run out of interesting stories pretty quickly. I guess the exercise is to either find excitement in everyday things or at least to try and write in such a way to make them sound exciting. Instead I decided to record a song on guitar and post it. Whoo!
I think this should totally count as a post. It took some practice and a few takes and then some editing for this video so the amount of effort is the same (if not more).
Tomorrow should be interesting. I am going to a cuisine festival and then out with Lucy to finally meet her boyfriend. So that should warrant a post. And yes, I still plan to finish posting about Japan...eventually.
Anyway, here is Yellow by Coldplay. I don't know why I look so serious. Just concentrating and worried about messing up, I suppose.
EDIT: I tried to upload the video on blogger and it didn't work. Tried to upload to youtube and it didn't work. So now I have an account on a Chinese video website Tudou (which means potato and I think that's hilarious). So finally, here is a link to the video I was talking about:
So yesterday after work I was feeling a bit peckish and decided to go out to eat. My original plan was to eat at the food court underneath the Carrefour since I wanted to get groceries anyway. Did I mention the food court was open again after being under reconstruction? Did I mention it was closed to begin with? Oh well...it's open again and I'm happy. Instead, I met up with a coworker (Karen) as we were walking back to the apartment building and we decided to get pizza.
The restaurant we went to is called New York Style Pizza. I think I might have mentioned it before. I like the pizza there because it tastes like...well...pizza. The way I expect it to. Like it tastes back home. I also liked it because it wasn't terribly expensive. Certainly not cheap but and ok price considering I would usually go there and end up with enough leftovers for a cold pizza breakfast and dinner to boot. But I don't think I'll be going back there again.
Last night was far from a pleasant dining experience. First of all the windows were open and the place was swarming with misquitoes. While we were waiting a COCKROACH crawled up along the edge of the table right in front of me and scared the ever living daylights out of me. We switched to a table at the other side of the restaurant (although considering what happened next we should have chosen a table at a different resaturant entirely).
Finally our pizza came out. I made my way through my first slice of delicious pesto pizza without incident. I was halfway through my second slice, enjoying a big bite when I felt something hard and sharp in my mouth. I spit it out immediately and in my hand there was something that looked an awful lot like glass. Let's back up a bit. When I was in middle school, my music teacher told my class a story about a slave woman who wanted to kill her master. So when she was cooking she decided to grind up a drinking glass that one of the children had broken by accident and put it in the batter for the cornbread. At dinner the master ate a ton of that cornbread, saying it was the best she ever made. In the days to come the master was bed ridden, with an agonozing pain in his gut, slowly dying and no one could figure out why. He eventually died, his stomach torn up, bleeding from the inside.
So here I am staring at this shard in my hand (and two other smaller pieces that were in the same bite) and this story is the only thing in my head. After I got back to my apartment I did a bunch of reading online on the subject. If what I read is right, ground up glass won't hurt you, and anything big enough to do any damage you'd notice as soon as it was in your mouth, like I did with that piece of whatever-it-was in my pizza.
The waitress gave us 20% off and a coupon for next time (which I gave to Karen, be she brave enough to return). Sometimes the middle class American in me aches to be back in the US. First of all, I could accurately express how I felt at the moment had I been in the US. I could have asked to see the manager. The meal probably would have been free. The whole event probably wouldn't have happened at all.
It isn't even the cockroach that gets me. I saw one in the office about a month ago and I really didn't care. I don't want them around when I'm eating and I especially don't think they should be around when I am paying as much as I was for my meal. If I go to a tiny bring-your-own-chopstick style noodle shop, I wouldn't really be surprised if I saw a cockroach.
But there was something in my food. I think it's either plastic or Plexiglas. That piece was actually bigger than you see in the picture was bigger when it was in my food (I cut off a bit to try and analyze what it was). If the people working there were careless enough to let something like that get on the pizza, how do I know that next time it won't actually be glass?
Next time I want pizza I am going to go to Papa John's, Pizza Hut or making my own in my toaster oven. I know people make mistakes but I don't think I could go back there and enjoy that restaurant after sitting there feeling terrified that I was going to die an agonizing death of internal bleeding.**
The baseball metaphor doesn't really work here, but I like it anyway...two strikes and you're out, NYSP.
So yesterday I went to BaBaiBan on my quest for a laptop battery. I struck out three times in a row. At BaBaiBan, the electronics store next door and at Best Buy. At BaBaiBan the man suggested I call lenovo and have them give me an address of a place nearby where I could get one and at Best Buy they said the best they could do was a 4 cell (mine is a 7 cell). Both said if I did get my hands on a replacement it would probably set me back over 1,000RMB ($150). UGH! I really don't know what to do at this point.
There is some good news though. As I was leaving Best Buy I noticed the toaster oven section. I have never stopped looking for a toaster over. As I was browsing I noticed one that had a sale sticker on it. It was the last one left in it's model and also has a slight dent on top. So instead of being 400 RMB it was 250 RMB! I of course bought it. Isn't it pretty? Plus it fits PERFECTLY on top of my microwave. It saves me counter space and looks pretty spiffy. Talk about meant to be.
Tonight I went shopping and went a little "OMG I CAN BAKE" crazy. I got stuff for biscuits and cookies and even a frozen toasted sandwhich-y thing. Of course since I had a toaster oven in my apartment for almost a full 24-hours, I had to start baking immediately. The cookies came out more like chocolate-chip cake. But you know what? They were warm and delicious and smell wonderful. And I can BAKE!
My last post I did at work so I couldn't add a picture, but here is the winner of the cooking contest, Sigma (far left). All three of these girls are my students. :-) One last quick thing...today a black cat crossed my path twice. Should I be worried?
That's all for now. I need to get to sleep so I can wake up early for breakfast and TOAST SOMETHING!
I was asked by one of my students to be a judge in a cooking competition that was held yesterday after school. Of course I said yes.
The club that organized it all is the "Olive Club" here in the high school. They promote healthy living and proper eating habits. There were six students that were competing and we had to grade each one on four different categories. Taste, health index, economy (how cheap or easy it is to make) and creativity.
There were three teachers as judges (myself included) and two student judges. Us teachers watched in trepidation as the food was being prepared. It didn't seem like anything was being washed and the room was jam packed with students touching and trying everything. All I could think was...I am SO going to get the flu.
The first dish we tried was a tuna and boiled egg sandwich. Not too creative or daring or healthy but good and solid and tasty. The next thing we had was potato salad type dish with potatoes, cucumbers and carrots. It was ok. Slightly sweet. Crunchy. Next came a weird dish of potatoes, tuna and corn...I'm not sure what it was supposed to be. It tasted ok but I can't imagine having it again. The next dish definitely got my highest score for creativity. It was a kind of glutinous rice sprinkled with sugar and served on rose petals. The rose was a bit bitter, the sugar was nice but the rice goo was pretty plain. My favorite dish was the 5th one. One of my students (do you hear the note of pride in my typing?) made a very yummy dish with cucumbers and tofu. It was garlicy and fresh tasting with just a bit of spice for a kick. Last, but certainly not least, another of my students made a mashed potatoes dish with bits of ham. It was pretty darn good and made me homesick for mashed potatoes.
In the end, the mashed potatoes came in the first, the cucumber and tofu came second and the potato/carrot salad came in third. And it's almost 24 hours later and I haven't gotten sick yet, so it looks good! I asked the student in charge of the club when there would be a cooking competition for the teahcers. :-D
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The weather has gotten so weird. Last week I was wearing sandals and t-shirts comfortably. Today I am shivering in a sweater. Apparently this nice cold won't last too long though. It's supposed to get back up to the mid 70's later this week.
For those of you who care, please remember that Daylight Savings Time does not exist in China. I am therefore now 13 hours ahead. Keep that in mind when setting up skype dates or sending text messages (text messages I receive while sleeping will either be checked and immediately forgotten by Half-Asleep-Stephanie or will be replied to very grumpily).
Tonight I am going off to the BaBaiBan department store. My coworker reccomended it for getting a new laptop battery. Wish me luck!
Yes, I know. My plan to post everyday in November has already fallen short. Here it is, November 2nd, and I didn’t post yesterday, did I? Nope. Ahh well.
I wanted to post a bit about Halloween before it got too far away from Halloween.
First of all I was amused when my office mates mentioned how keen they were on the idea of decorating our office for Halloween. On the Tuesday before, we went out to Carrefour and got a bunch of decorations, a few costume pieces and even a pumpkin. I forget if it was Wednesday or Thursday during lunch that we decorated.
It was a mad and fun dash of stickers, balloons and spider webs. (I did most of the spider webs…I love doing the spider webs. Did you notice the spider webs?)
Most of the work I had been doing recently with my 11th graders was a bit dull, so I thought they deserved a bit something more fun. Something to show them that writing in English can be enjoyable. I also felt like being a little dramatic. When the students came into class I turned off all the lights. I had prepared ahead of time by drawing the curtains and blocking out as much sunshine as I could so the room would be as dark as possible. Then I turned a flashlight on my face and asked what holiday was coming up.
I started class with a spooky story. I had looked for a few online and decided to do a slight variation of one about a murderous doll. I looked a long time for something good and scary (I honestly had trouble sleeping in my lonely apartment after that night of research) and that would be easy enough to understand and still be creepy. Here is the basic story I told (slight variations were made in each telling):
“Once there was a girl named Sarah. Her mother gave Sarah a little doll, but she didn’t like it very much. She thought it was creepy. This doll had long brown hair and big brown eyes.
One night, Sarah woke up around midnight because she thought she heard a strange sound. This sound was a very quiet voice that was saying (said in a creepily quiet singsong voice): ‘Little doll, little doll, in the kitchen. Little doll, little doll, on the stairs. Little doll, little doll, in your sister’s room. And now she’s dead!’
Sarah woke up the next morning and her sister was gone. She told her parents about the little doll, but they didn’t believe her. They called the police and looked all day, but Sarah’s sister couldn’t be found. Sarah was very scared when she went to bed that night. Around midnight she heard the voice again: ‘Little doll, little doll, in the kitchen. Little doll, little doll, on the stairs. Little doll, little doll, in your parent’s room. And now they’re dead!’
Sarah woke up and found her parents gone as well. She was all alone. She didn’t know what to do. She knew no one would believe. She stayed in the house all day, too scared to even move. That night she couldn’t sleep. She just stayed in her room and waited. At midnight she heard the voice for the last time: ‘Little doll, little doll, in the kitchen. Little doll, little doll, on the stairs. Little doll, little doll, in your room now. AND YOU’RE NEXT!’”
Every time I told the story I said each “little doll” part quieter so they had to strain to listen and then abruptly changed to a louder, rougher, demonic voice for the “AND YOU’RE NEXT!” I think that plus the repetition, the suspense and the dark room made for a decently scary story. I got a lot of them to jump and a few of them to scream, which made me very happy. J
I then passed out paper, pens and flashlights and told them to write their own scary stories. I think writing their stories in the dark using flashlights added a lot of fun and spookiness to the class. A few of them got really creative and added sound effects or tried to tie their stories into the school to make them creepier. They were a few that weirder me out. One that really stuck with me was a story about a young girl whose shoulder’s kept hurting but all her doctor’s said she was fine. When a psychic suggested her parents take a photo of the girl to look for ghosts, they saw the ghost of a man who had been hung in their house. His feet were resting on the girl’s shoulders. *shudder*
On Friday a few people in the office dressed up. I didn’t want to wear my Athena costume to work, but I had my jester hat and shirt from last year’s Halloween so I just wore them.
From left to right here is Jane (the head of my department), Lotus, June, XuPing/Shopping, and me...the freakin' giant.
On Saturday I went on the LGBT Annual Pub Crawl. I went last year and had a TON of fun. This year wasn’t as good as last, and it was probably due to a lot of factors. One of the biggest was that I didn’t have Ron to hang out with this year like I did last year.Also, there were a ton more people than there was last year but the bars are still just as small as they were before. Which meant that people often got a drunk and then hung around outside. Which was difficult to do when it started raining. Oh well. I still had fun. I even won a prize this year for…erm…well…for having the largest breasts on the bus I was on.
I got really into my costume this year. I had the main part of the costume made at a tailor that Lucy recommended. This is what I gave her as reference:
I was really annoyed when the costume wasn’t ready to be picked up when the tailor said it would and then when I did pick it up it was a bit too big. I don’t think I’ll be going back to that tailor. For shoes, I bought a pair of plain brown sandals and then painted the top part with gold nail polish so that it looked like gold with leather. I also got some gold leaves at the craft market which I attached to a bent hanger to make myself a laurel crown. I also got some gold rope I wore as a belt. I painted my fingernails and toenails gold and had gold eye makeup and gold glitter on my arms and chest. Last but not least, I wore the matching ring and necklace that Elysse and Heather got me from Cyprus. Unfortunately, this is the best picture I got of my whole outfit. It's rather blurry and dark.
Because I was feeling extra crafty and didn’t feel like carrying a purse, I also sewed pockets for my cell phone/keys/extra makeup/etc into the skirt of the costume and a pocket for cash inside my bra. It worked out really well.
Here is a picture another pub crawler took of me on the bus. Also a bad quality picture, but at least you can see my crown better. I love how it came out.
I am a little annoyed right now because my camera has cracked out on me. The flash doesn't work anymore and I don't know how to fix it. I feel handicapped. How can I document my life here without the use of a camera? UGH! If I send it home to be fixed I just know it will take forever. I wonder if I can get it fixed here.
And because my electronics seem to like failing on me in pairs, my laptop battery is 100% GONE. It has been failing on me horribly since I got it back from CNS at Drew this summer. Yesterday I got a warning that it could no longer hold any charge. If the power chord gets disconnected my laptop shuts down immediately. I am going to try to go to the electronics market tomorrow to get a new laptop battery because this is BEYOND inconvenient.
Anyway, that's all for now. Hope you all had a good Halloween!
This journal is my way of keeping in contact with loved ones from home while I spend a year teaching English at the PingHe IB School in Shanghai China. I'll also be posting knitting updates on my project: a blanket. Each square is knitted using a skein of yarn given to me as a present by a friend or family member. **UPDATE: I signed another contract so it looks like I will be here until at least June 2010.**
(note: this is not a picture of the Carrefour parking lot, it's just to give you an idea of what I mean.)
This Saturday I left Carrefour with my purse and two bags filled with groceries in hand and tried to squeeze my bike out from between two others.
