From Grits to Chopsticks

“Children’s Day” is fast approaching here in China (June 1st), so local primary schools have been working hard to prepare programs for parents and dignitaries.  The school directly across the street recently organized a marching band.  The first practice was interesting to watch, but the constant repetition of their single song began to wear on us!Click here to listen to Marching Band

The kids also prepared a song for their Children’s Day presentation:Click here to listen to Childrens day singing

This seems to be a higher-end school where the students dress nicely each day, often in matching uniforms.  They also take field trips in chartered buses:On Thursday, though, we took some of our university students to visit a different kind of “school”:This facility is located in a relatively poor neighborhood and provides after-school programs for the children of migrant workers:In cooperation with the local government and civic committees, this facility is making a real difference in the lives of these kids,helping them with homework and teaching them important values:As with most NGO’s, they need more volunteer helpers and are currently seeking a manager.  Let us know if you’re interested…

Since our apartment is on the edge of the city, we don’t have to walk far to find beautifully landscaped parks:But when put into context, we quickly realize that we’re not in the countryside:Last year, Bill Gates published this chart on his blog:We can certainly relate to this.  Throughout the day, thousands of cement mixing trucks roll through town toward multiple massive projects:Every apartment building in China appears to be more than 95% concrete:Even the small buildings on the edge of town start with brick, but are quickly coated (by hand) with thick layers of mortar:Unlike the huge apartment buildings, these projects get their cement delivered by a different (but equally effective) method:

Over the past year, we’ve enjoyed spending time with a young couple who operate a small tutoring school in our apartment building.  This week, they invited us over to make “shuijiao,” traditional Chinese dumplings.  As with many kinds of Chinese food, there are numerous steps which need expert guidance.

Preparing the fillings requires a lot of chopping and mixing of ingredients.  Most of our dumplings were filled with a mixture of ground pork, eggs, chives, garlic, ginger, salt, and soy sauce:

– stirred with chopsticks, of course:We also prepared shrimp for a shrimp + pork filling: Our friend kneaded the dough for about 20 minutes, getting it just right to form the dumpling shells:

You may have noticed that almost everything is cut with the same cleaver, saving a lot on dishwashing.  We were then trained to roll and cut the dumplings to the ideal size and shape:The dumplings are filled and the edges pinched to retain the contents:Dumplings are usually made by the entire family during Spring Festival, providing a nice time of family fellowship:

Once the dumplings are ready, they are dropped into a pot of boiling water:When some of them start to float, quench the boiling with some cold water:

After three cycles of boiling and cooling, it’s time to sit down and enjoy a good meal together.  And since it took two and a half hours to get to this point, everyone is hungry enough to eat them all!Oh yeah, one more thing – it is traditional to drink the dumpling broth afterwards to aid in digestion (fortunately, he didn’t say aid indigestion!):

In addition to thoughtful calls from our children in the States, we enjoyed a special Mother’s Day treat: Timothy and Caitlyn came for a visit!  It was so good to spend time together walking, talking, and sharing meals:Earlier in the week, Susan invited some students over to teach them how to bake muffins: They also brought some Mother’s Day roses for Susan:Happy Mother’s Day!

When Johnny Nash released his only #1 hit song in 1972, he might’ve been anticipating air quality issues in China 40 years later.  A good spring shower can scrub out some of the airborne particulates, allowing us to see clearly after “the rain is gone.”

We also had unusually clear skies yesterday.  It was Labor Day (May 1st), slowing down the flow of construction trucks in and out of the city.  It had a dramatic effect on air quality (these numbers are very good):For the last few months, our city planners have been rebuilding Haigeng Park at the north end of Dianchi Lake.  On Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed walking along the lakefront:Here is a sign giving the “dream view” of the blue water and nice beach at the park:They’ve done a very nice job of building the park, but they have a long way to go before the water quality looks like the advertisement:But the polluted water doesn’t seem to stop the large number of fishermen trying to catch the mutant carp that can survive here:The fishermen don’t seem to be deterred by the “no fishing” sign either:Speaking of fish, it’s always interesting to see what’s on display at the supermarket: Finally, in the “China Challenge” category (at least for foreigners), the local gas company recently decided to change over to natural gas (from propane, I think).  This required everyone to get a new cooktop:Since we couldn’t read the notice taped up at the entrance to our apartment, we found out the hard way – our old stove stopped working.  Fortunately, our landlord was willing to help us get a new stove and was also willing to pay half of the cost:Clear skies and cooking – blessings that we don’t take for granted!

Last week, we received a wedding invitation from one of my former students whom we hadn’t seen in several years.  She explained that, following college graduation, she had joined the congregation of Trinity Church, one of the two large churches in town.Here is a photo of the physical invitation:The wedding ceremony was unusual in that it was so similar to a traditional western wedding, including the bridal march:

singing of a hymn (click OdeToJoy for video):exchanging of vows and rings:and songs from various groups, including from the church youth group (click Youth Choir to see video):Post-ceremony photos in China are a bit different, with random groups assembling for shots with the bride and groom:There were also quite a few photographs taken throughout the ceremony:And to conform to tradition, a large display of flowers adorned the bridal car:It’s exciting to see our students growing up!

As previously mentioned, on Sunday afternoons, we try to take a break from our busy lives and walk around town, visit a park, or climb a mountain.  Even though we’ve been living in China for five years, we still enjoy seeing local sights.  We often walk by ornately decorated doors: A fish restaurant recently opened on a small island in the nearby temple pond, allowing fishermen to catch their own dinner:As we climb the mountain, there is a smaller temple nestled in the trees:On the valley across the road, an old farmer has carved some farm plots out of the hillside:We finally reached the park at the top of the mountain and appreciated the fact that they had clearly spelled out the rules in Chinese and in English:The Chinese excel at gardening.  This park is full of flowering trees and azaleas:We enjoy watching people and their dogs, especially this little guy with shoes on:They recently built a mountain bike race course at this park.  Someday, I’ll have to fix the flat on my bike and give it a try:Speaking of signs, I felt obligated to comply with the Chinglish on this one:On the way back down the mountain, we discovered that snakes in China can get very large:Just a few more steps and we emerge onto the street near our apartments, refreshed and ready for another week of city life!

The air was unusually clear when we flew to Chengdu recently, allowing us to take the following picture of our part of town:Our apartment is on the western edge of town (beneath the red arrow).

We recently shared our excitement about the pending completion of a new road entering our apartment complex from the south:It is finally finished.  Now that it’s open, we’re not sure if it is a road or a very long parking lot.  The rapid growth of automobile ownership in China has created a significant parking problem…We’re also excited about a new supermarket that has opened in the basement underneath our apartment building:Instead of riding a bus or taxi, we can just walk to the corner and go down an escalator to buy groceries and other household goods:It’s actually a good place to shop, living up to the name of “happy life, go”:If you don’t want to get your fruits and vegetables here, you can walk along the nearby street on Thursday when the farmers come to town:I’m still not sure if people can understand what’s being advertised by the cacophony of advertising messages.  Here’s a brief video clip so that you can see what I mean: Street Fruit Sellers.  And if you just want to get unhealthy skewers of street food, you can get that on the corner after dark:These are just a few more things close to our Chinese home.

Last week, Susan taught about Easter at our school English Corner:The students enjoyed decorating Easter Eggs: Susan also planned an egg hunt for the students (although there aren’t too many places to hide eggs in a classroom):Each egg contained some goodies and an Easter topic for them to discuss in English:There were 18 eggs to find, and (surprisingly) there were 18 students who attended!The foreign language department of our school also held their first official Easter party.  Among other activities, they had an Egg coloring contest (with large eggs hanging from the ceiling) and asked me to be one of the judges:Today was Easter Sunday, but here in China, it was also QingMingJie (tomb sweeping day).  Family members go together to clean the tombs of their ancestors (all of the white stones below are tomb markers):They often leave offerings of fake money and fruit at the tombs: As we hiked today, we could hear people shouting out greetings to dead relatives and calling their children “to keep their spirits from remaining at the graveyard.”

There are many tombs on the nearby mountains, but this particular one was unique and caught our attention:No fruit or fake money was placed in front of this tomb.  And a different shout came to our minds as we walked away from here: “He is risen!”

Across China, many cities have been working to move college campuses to outlying areas.  Our city is no exception, with the largest area of development on the subway line southeast of town:Last week, a student and I walked around the University of Science and Technology:Modeled after Yale University, the place is very impressive, including the 12-story library.  I’ve heard that there are over 150,000 students attending the universities in this new district.

The new campus for my school is northeast of town (no subway or train – boo hoo).  As mentioned in a previous blog, it’s a fairly long bus ride from our main campus:That just changed – for the worse.  The northbound highway closed for a 4-month maintenance project, so our bus now leaves at 6:10AM and takes small, bumpy roads through the countryside.  The two hour ride would be a major problem if you were prone to motion sickness or had back issues (click Bus Ride to Yanglin to see video).

The students are not very happy about the remote location of the school, especially those who moved across the country with the hope of living in a large city.  At least they can take tennis lessons on the school courts (try to avoid the dirt pile):If there’s nothing else to do, you can always join the crowd of students heading to the cafeteria after class:As usual, I asked my students to sign up for lunch if they’d like to eat with “the foreign teacher”:This is usually an interesting time, giving me a closer-up view of what the students are thinking:Of course, it’s always interesting each semester to see the English names selected by students.  Here are some from this year’s roster: Aroma, Una, Mean, Seven, Eleven, Milo, Sky, Snow, and Money!