Last night the I.B. department took all of their teachers (and Naomi and I) out to dinner at a restaurant that specialized in Peking Duck. The only difference between Beijing style and a normal roasted duck is how you eat it. They give you what are basically flour tortillas, onions and plum sauce and you are supposed to wrap the duck with that and eat it. It's actually quite tasty. The presentation of the duck is perhaps the most interesting though. The chef comes out with the duck he has cooked and slices it in front of you. First they put out some of the pieces of skin which you are supposed to dip in sugar and eat (it does taste better than it sounds, but I would have preferred salt to sugar). Then they give you the slices of good meat that you're supposed to wrap and eat. Then, they slice the head open and put it on the table. It seems to be that Chinese really value the head of any animal and seem to think it's the best meat.
So, yeah, I ate it (or at least half, and somebody else ate the other half).
Be forewarned, anybody with a good imagination and a weak stomach might want to skip over the next paragraph.
As I popped the little duck brain in my mouth, all I could think of was what my mother would say and how my dad would have definitely eaten it with me. The brain was tasty, but as they say, pure cholesterol (it really coats the inside of your mouth). I then ate the ocular muscle. I left the eye there because that just seemed to be going a bit too far for me in one night. I ate the cheeks, which were delicious and then I ate the skin. Frankly, it was tasty. Waste not, want not!
And I'm still alive!
After proving that I will try just about anything, one of the people at the table (originally from Taiwan) offered to take me to try sheep's head at a restaurant down the street. If I don't die in a week from some strange duck brain disease, I might take him up on it.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Thursday, December 14, 2006
China takes it's toll...
I was recently reminded, very subtly of course, that it had been a while. It's been almost a month to be exact. To be fair to myself, however, I did actually write another blog in the meantime, but it turns out my computer is smarter than me and it was deleted. Since I had spent an absurd amount of time writing it, I wasn't really inclined to give it another go. So, I'll try to avoid the same fate this time and use that handy little "Save as Draft" button. Or, perhaps if I'm really smart, I'll just hit copy every once in a while!
The previous blog was an elaborate description of my Thanksgiving dinner, which I will not attempt to repeat here. I do feel the need, however, to point out a few things. First of all, it was my first Thanksgiving in three years and I really enjoyed myself. It was also the first time I have ever roasted a duck and I managed to roast a chicken and bake four pies (three apple and one pumpkin) at the same time! Any of you who have ever eaten my chicken would be glad to know it was not undercooked this time! As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure it's close to impossible to undercook a Chinese chicken because they're about half the size of a normal American or European one. But that, in my opinion, is a detail. Anyway, long story short, there were lots of people and it was fun, though admittedly not the same as celebrating with family.
The weather here has now become a pretty constant freezing. It only changes once in a while when there's a strong wind and it gets pretty close to unbearable. I find it really hard to believe that as a teenager I could brave similar conditions without a hat. Living in Madrid must have made me a wimp! It actually might be easier to deal with if the weather would stay outside, but it doesn't. Our room is a tad leaky to say the least. It seems the only remedy for that would be to seal both doors (we have a balcony and an inner door that don't fit) with plastic and hibernate until April. I'm pretty sure they would stop paying us though, so that could be problematic.
Aside from the slightly cooler than comfortable living conditions, I don't really have many complaints! There is less and less sunlight, but thanks to the fact that they don't follow daylight savings, it's at least light out when I go to work. Besides, after a couple more days it will start getting lighter again. Work is going well, though like anybody, I have my days. I am exercising and eating well. I have developed a severe addiction to milk and haw fruit roll-ups (Mom, you should have bought me that food dehydrator when I was 10! haha), but they don't seem to do much damage.
Dan and I have continued our visits to the village in spite of the fact that the original couple that we went to visit is no longer there (they should be back at the end of February). The other day we had a slight misunderstanding with a couple of the guys. We thought (keep in mind this is entirely in Chinese) that they were inviting Dan to go drinking on Friday night. They are always asking how much he can drink, so it was funny, but entirely plausible to us. However, we had a birthday party to go to first. It was for a little kid, so Dan figured he would go and meet up with the others a little later. They decided on a time which would give Dan enough time to eat first (they did say drinking, afterall). They made some joke about saying hi and bye that we didn't truly understand until much later. So, Friday rolled around and we went to the birthday party. The restaurant was awful, but Dan ate a bunch because he didn't think he would get to later and certainly didn't want to drink on an empty stomach. He left, and I stayed. Apparently, however, drinking in China means eating too. They had invited us both out to dinner and we totally misunderstood. So, not only did they think we were weird because only Dan showed up, but when he only managed to eat about eight spoons full of food, they were a little confused.
The next day, we went to visit the old mother and told her the story, but she didn't seem to think it was that funny. A friend of hers stopped by to look at us though. That was fun. After hearing that Dan was from France and I was from America, she looked at us confused for a minute and then said, "But you have the same face!" They, apparently, think all Caucasians look alike. She also commented that I had oddly small feet for a foreigner. Why was she looking at the size of my very normal feet?? We may never know.
Since I'm on the subject of cultural differences, I'd like to draw a mental picture for you. Imagine a world without diapers. It's sort of frightening. It's China. They do not use diapers. Little babies just pee when they have to (and yes, I have at least one friend who came close, too close, to getting peed on). This in itself is kind of bizarre by western standards, but it's a little weirder when you see the pants they put on their kids. Imagine mini chaps, but with a bit more butt cover. The kids have a huge and presumably drafty slit down the back of their pants (summer and winter) so that when they have to go, there's no struggling with pulling the pants down. They just squat and go. Yeah. All I have to say is that I'm really grateful they stop wearing those pants at some point.
The previous blog was an elaborate description of my Thanksgiving dinner, which I will not attempt to repeat here. I do feel the need, however, to point out a few things. First of all, it was my first Thanksgiving in three years and I really enjoyed myself. It was also the first time I have ever roasted a duck and I managed to roast a chicken and bake four pies (three apple and one pumpkin) at the same time! Any of you who have ever eaten my chicken would be glad to know it was not undercooked this time! As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure it's close to impossible to undercook a Chinese chicken because they're about half the size of a normal American or European one. But that, in my opinion, is a detail. Anyway, long story short, there were lots of people and it was fun, though admittedly not the same as celebrating with family.
The weather here has now become a pretty constant freezing. It only changes once in a while when there's a strong wind and it gets pretty close to unbearable. I find it really hard to believe that as a teenager I could brave similar conditions without a hat. Living in Madrid must have made me a wimp! It actually might be easier to deal with if the weather would stay outside, but it doesn't. Our room is a tad leaky to say the least. It seems the only remedy for that would be to seal both doors (we have a balcony and an inner door that don't fit) with plastic and hibernate until April. I'm pretty sure they would stop paying us though, so that could be problematic.
Aside from the slightly cooler than comfortable living conditions, I don't really have many complaints! There is less and less sunlight, but thanks to the fact that they don't follow daylight savings, it's at least light out when I go to work. Besides, after a couple more days it will start getting lighter again. Work is going well, though like anybody, I have my days. I am exercising and eating well. I have developed a severe addiction to milk and haw fruit roll-ups (Mom, you should have bought me that food dehydrator when I was 10! haha), but they don't seem to do much damage.
Dan and I have continued our visits to the village in spite of the fact that the original couple that we went to visit is no longer there (they should be back at the end of February). The other day we had a slight misunderstanding with a couple of the guys. We thought (keep in mind this is entirely in Chinese) that they were inviting Dan to go drinking on Friday night. They are always asking how much he can drink, so it was funny, but entirely plausible to us. However, we had a birthday party to go to first. It was for a little kid, so Dan figured he would go and meet up with the others a little later. They decided on a time which would give Dan enough time to eat first (they did say drinking, afterall). They made some joke about saying hi and bye that we didn't truly understand until much later. So, Friday rolled around and we went to the birthday party. The restaurant was awful, but Dan ate a bunch because he didn't think he would get to later and certainly didn't want to drink on an empty stomach. He left, and I stayed. Apparently, however, drinking in China means eating too. They had invited us both out to dinner and we totally misunderstood. So, not only did they think we were weird because only Dan showed up, but when he only managed to eat about eight spoons full of food, they were a little confused.
The next day, we went to visit the old mother and told her the story, but she didn't seem to think it was that funny. A friend of hers stopped by to look at us though. That was fun. After hearing that Dan was from France and I was from America, she looked at us confused for a minute and then said, "But you have the same face!" They, apparently, think all Caucasians look alike. She also commented that I had oddly small feet for a foreigner. Why was she looking at the size of my very normal feet?? We may never know.
Since I'm on the subject of cultural differences, I'd like to draw a mental picture for you. Imagine a world without diapers. It's sort of frightening. It's China. They do not use diapers. Little babies just pee when they have to (and yes, I have at least one friend who came close, too close, to getting peed on). This in itself is kind of bizarre by western standards, but it's a little weirder when you see the pants they put on their kids. Imagine mini chaps, but with a bit more butt cover. The kids have a huge and presumably drafty slit down the back of their pants (summer and winter) so that when they have to go, there's no struggling with pulling the pants down. They just squat and go. Yeah. All I have to say is that I'm really grateful they stop wearing those pants at some point.
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