Crescent Rolls

My family gets together for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter each year and each time my mom is in charge of making crescent rolls.  Those holidays are the only time that we get to eat them so, for me, they are also a special part of the holidays and since my mom isn't over here I've been trying to carry on the tradition.  I think I got pretty close this time!

a white christmas eve

If you know me, you know I love snow!  That might even be a slight understatement.  As a little kid, I think I would start praying at least a month in advance for a white Christmas so anytime it actually worked out I was super excited.  Being the first snow of the year, and being on Christmas eve, I naturally had to go out and enjoy it.  Check out the pics...

The entrance to my apartment looking down
out of my bedroom window

ZZ students having a snowball fight

An old man playing the erhu alone in the snow.
It was very beautiful and sad at the same time.
Almost like a scene from a movie.

Angie's Wedding

This wedding was definitely the most interesting one I've been to over here so far.  Those of us who went left school a little early to insure we arrived at the restaurant on time, only to sit and wait for at least 45 min.  As the token Americans, we were given a seat of honor up front to better see the festivities, or possibly for the guests to better see us... hmm....  The bride was wearing a white dress, instead of the traditional red that is worn here, but she did have red gloves, tights, and shoes

There was a ceremony, it seemed more like a roast of the bride, groom, and groom's family than anything else.  I doubt the bride's family was there, but that's often how it works over here.  The grooms parents were dressed like ancient warriors and had paint on their faces.  A man in a red jacket spoke a lot, they bowed to each other three times, and they also linked arms while drinking a sip of wine from a glass.  I could not understand much of what was going on, I just clapped when everyone else did.  The bride came over and asked if a couple people from our table would speak, so after having a couple minutes to think one of the other Americans got up and said a couple sentences.  Then finally it was time for the feast.

Waitresses brought dish after dish to the tables that filled the dining hall.  Vegetables, meats, soups, bread.  The most interesting things on our table were squid, slices of pig's ear, donkey meat, and a dish made from mixing flour with duck's blood and cooking it (I think).  I tried some of each, some were much better than others and we also had some fairly normal food too.  We ate our fill and there was plenty left over.  Good times.

Wedding Invitations

In the US, or at the very least among Caucasians in the US, wedding invitations are sent out several months before the wedding.  One website I just visited recommends sending them out three months before the big date... that's a whole quarter of a year in advance!  Then there is the RSVP which we are supposed to send back several weeks to a month a head of time so that head counts can be given to caterers and that sort of thing.  It is considered a common courtesy so that people can schedule and plan.  It doesn't quite work that way over here.

Today, a former student walked into our office with a couple invitations and bags filled with sunflower seeds and candy.  She told us she was getting married and wanted us to come to her wedding.  Then she told us it is tomorrow at noon.  Say what?  Doesn't she know tomorrow is Tuesday?  and that we have classes to teach and work to do?  Then as she leaves, she says, "See you tomorrow!" like it is a done deal and our presence at the restaurant is a sure thing without really confirming who will go.  Seem strange?  Well it's not uncommon over here; it's perfectly acceptable (although I think for the other weddings I've been to we've at least had a couple days notice).  It just makes me laugh.  Not much is so set in stone that a person's schedule can't be changed around (even if they have prior engagements) and most will understand that something came up and just go with the flow.  In American culture, we might see it as an inconvenience, not an honor. 

Will I go to the wedding?  Yes.  Was I a little annoyed to find out it is tomorrow?  Yes.  Will I enjoy myself while I'm there anyways?  I think so.

Decorating the school

Thanksgiving has passed and it's time to starting getting in the mood for Christmas!  This past Friday night, most of the students and teachers gathered up on the 4th floor to decorate our classrooms, hallway, and office.  One room was devoted to making paper chains and Christmas signs, another room was for making snow flakes, other students were given tasks of hang Christmas lights (off the radiator pipes) and setting up Christmas trees.  My roommates made small cut out sugar cookies that the students could frost and eat and of course we had Christmas music playing in the hall for all to enjoy.  The students got really into once they figured out what was going on.  It was for the most part a great success; except for the part where we forgot that even though snow is white, over here white is the color of death so the room with snowflakes hanging from the ceiling reminds the students of a funeral... oops (we weren't reminded of this until afterwards).  My favorite by far is the paper chain that zigzags the whole length of the hallway!

Building projects

Besides teaching classes and hanging out with students, there are other day-to-day responsibilities that we need to take care of around here.  To help lighten some of Chris' load, I was put in charge of overseeing some small building projects that we've been needing to get done.  He and I met with the builder, which is a general term meaning he is also the plumber, electrician, carpenter/cabinet maker, tile layer and whatever else might be needed, to go over what needed to be done in three of our apartments.  After the initial meeting, I took over most of the dealings; going to the builders' market and checking the builder's work when he finished. 

If you know me at all, you could probably guess that I enjoy going to the builders' market.  We call it our Home Depot, but it's nothing like the stores in the US.  First off, it is not one store, it is a lot of small individually owned shops in that are along several little streets in one area sort of a much more compact version of buildings in an industrial park.  It's definitely not one stop shopping at this place, you have to trek from one shop to the next, across the road, and down the side streets looking for the best price or seeking out the item you desire.

Working with the builder is one area where cultural differences come out.  The way they do things around here often seems to be just adding more patches to the problem that happened because it wasn't done "right" in the first place rather than providing a more long term solution.  I think it is more normal for a person to just tell the builder a very general idea of what they want done, he will do it whichever way seems best and then whatever price he tells them at the end is what they pay, possibly after some negotiating.  Since we are working with a budget and have some differing ideas of how to best fix a problem it causes frustrations on both sides. 

An example of this happened last year; the weight of the "glug-glug" water dispenser on my kitchen counter over time caused it to settle lower than the other areas.  I had a backsplash that was glued both onto the counter and onto the wall tile behind it.  In some areas the backsplash stuck to the wall and not the countertop creating a gap, in other areas the backsplash stuck to the countertop and pulled the wall tile down with it.  The builder came and instead of leveling out my countertop, which he deemed too difficult, he removed the wall tile and the backsplash and then made the tile slope to match my countertop and then reattached my backsplash.  Not only was my countertop crooked, now the wall tile matched it.

Do we try to accept the lower quality fix or go against the cultural norm and force our way?  Is there a happy medium?  Probably, but it can be very difficult to find.  Either way it is still fun to wander around the builders' market and be involved in building projects.

More Thanksgiving pictures

Baking party!

Getting some help with the crescent rolls.  :)

Yummy!  I forgot and only measured out about
half of the amount of yeast needed and had to
try and add some more in after the dough was
mixed.  A little denser than normal, but they
tasted good.

After baking Settlers party.  Actually, waiting-for-the-rolls-to-
rise-a-second-time-and-then-bake party.

 

The bird's in the oven!  It's not so easy to find turkey here.

Apple, pecan, and of course pumpkin!

After dinner entertainment... watching veggie tales silly songs

Thanksgiving celebrations

Living overseas, especially in a part of the world that is very different from western culture, we often have to celebrate our holidays in a much different way.  This especially holds true for Thanksgiving, which is a thoroughly American holiday. 

Over here, we celebrate it twice which is our normal practice when it comes to sharing our customs with the students.  Things still operate pretty much as any normal day, we still have classes on both Thursday and Friday so there's no Black Friday shopping madness for us (not that they even know what that is or have big sales to go along with it). 

Our first celebration is with all the students on Friday night.  We all go out to a Muslim restaurant (because some of our students and staff are Muslim and therefore cannot eat at any place that serves pork) and eat a large dinner that has no resemblance to what we would typically eat in the US.  During the meal, we share with our students the history behind the holiday and just have fun.  Once everyone has had their fill then the real fun begins.  I am not sure when this tradition started, but the teachers then have to give a performance which is followed in turn by both of the grades sharing their own performances and giving gifts to each teacher. 

Saturday we had a baking party at C&D's apartment in preparation for our American only meal on Sunday.  I attempted crescent rolls again, this time I didn't realize I had only put in half of the amount of yeast the recipe called for until I was almost done kneading the dough.  The rolls were still yummy, but a little denser than the way they are supposed to turn out.  We started in the afternoon and after everyone else was done baking by the time mine were on their second round of rising so to pass the time we played a game of Settlers, ate dinner (I think I had most of them baked by this point), and then watched a Bollywood movie called "The Three Idiots."  We had a blast and had "aal iz well" stuck in our heads for several days.

Sunday we gathered for a short meeting then started heating and preparing for the feast.  We found one of the few turkeys in the country and had some items from the US specifically designated for the day such as cranberry sauce, stuffing (from a box... I know...), pumpkin pie filling and a bag of pecans to make some pies.  Locally we are able to get potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans and things like that to round out the side dishes.

All in all, even with the events of Thursday overshadowing things a little, we had a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Some of the girls

The boys

Fruit salad... sprinkles make everything better, right?

The staff singing "If you're thankful and you know it"
just replace "happy" with "thankful" and you'll get the gist

Grade 2 singing

The guys are "rapping" a comedic story.
The one on the left is holding a type of percussion instrument
which when translated means "fast boards" that he is keeping
rhythm with the "rapped" words.  Apparently this a traditional
form of entertainment.  Who knew they also invented rap
music?

Grade 1 singing the chorus of "You raise me up" about 8 times
in a row

A not so typical Thanksgiving Day

It's the fourth Thursday of November and for Americans, that means it's Thanksgiving; our celebrations won't actually happen until tomorrow and Sunday.  Today started out like any normal day here, I got up, got ready, went to school to teach my classes.  The first one at 8:00am was a computer class, Internet & Email.  Not long after class started the power went out.  I explained as much as I could about the Internet, without actually using a computer to show them, at least their class manual has some good screen shots in it!  Then I gave them free time to study for the test they had the next period.  The other class I have Tuesday and Thursday mornings typically doesn't require anything that electricity is crucial to operate, I still had to change my lesson around a little, but nothing too bad.  The power finally came back on after we got back from lunch.  :)

The afternoon was much better, I showed a Planet Earth movie relating to what we have been discussing in Geography class and the students enjoyed it.  I also went pumpkin shopping with one of my roommates, the pumpkins here are pretty small and we will use them as table decorations tomorrow night when we celebrate with the students.  Then a local friend invited a couple teachers out to dinner, it turned out to be something more to the effect of showing off the Americans to a group of her friends, not just a small dinner with her.  We had to leave the dinner early to get back for study hall, at least I did and it provided the others with a good reason to head out early.

I got dropped off at the school gate just as study hall was about to start, walk up the stairs and find two students standing at the end of the hallway talking.  Turns out two girls got into a fight, hair was pulled, some punches were thrown.   Good times.  Our policy is that fighting is an immediate cause for suspension.  That means not only will the two students miss classes tomorrow and Monday, but they will not be allowed to participate in our Thanksgiving dinner.  That is a huge thing and carries a lot of importance because the students will plan a program to show their appreciation to the teachers.  So after we heard everyone involved side of the story and decided on the consequences, there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth.  I'm not sure what we are going to do if they try to show up tomorrow evening; things could get really interesting then.

I have this theory that I get the difficult study hall nights.  Most of the time study hall is no big deal, sometimes I can get stuck in the computer lab the whole time answering questions, but it's usually pretty calm up there.  Last year, I got the night when one girl had kidney stones and was lying on a couch crying in pain.  In America I am much better equipped to handle the situation, I at least can speak the language, not so much over here.  I think that tonight's was probably worse than last year though.

So that was my Thanksgiving day, I'm glad that our celebrations weren't in the midst of this.  Hopefully the next couple days go a little smoother.  There is still a lot to for which I am thankful, I just hope you can enjoy your day a little more than I did mine!

Ping Pong

This first Activity Night of the quarter was game night.  We had puzzles, cards, board games, and a couple ping pong tables set up.  I ended up playing ping pong pretty much the whole night; the muscles in my right arm were sore the next day.  haha  For a while, we were just hitting the ball back and forth, then one of the students decided it was time to play a real game. 

In this area, games go to 11 points.  We started playing and it all seemed pretty typical, we volleyed back and forth to determine who served first, then every 5 points we switched who served.  I kept track of the score and so did one of the students who was watching.  The numbers we were saying were the same, but when the score was something like 8-6 I realized that the students score was opposite of what I thought the score was.  I suggested evening it up to 7-all and then we went on for a couple more points and it again their score was opposite of my score.  I then asked if they would explain the rules they play by so I could understand the scoring. 

After a lengthy discussion, I found out that, unlike in America, the person who gets 11 points first is the loser, not the winner.  We were playing by the same rules, except for who gets the point.  Basically, their points are like negative points, so instead of a positive point going to the person who won the volley, the person who lost gets a negative point.  It took a long time for me to determine what "losing a point" meant, it's not that if a person had 5 points they would go down to 4 points, it's that another negative point is added on.  It took almost as long to understand the first to 11 looses.  Once I was on the same page as all of them the games continued.

I think the students were being kind to their new teacher and letting me win.  Or else my ping pong skills improved a decent amount from the one time I played while I was home this summer.  Maybe it was a little bit of both.  Either way, we all had a good time.  :)

PS - For those who are curious, over here "ping pong" is pronounced "ping pang" so there's at least one word that's easy to remember! 

Getting back into the groove of things

A random list, in no particular order and definitely not exclusive...

• I had almost forgotten just how dry it is here.  The first day I was back I had to pull out the chap stick and moisture lotion.
• The middle of last week is when I finally adjusted to the time difference.  Woohoo!
• It feels right to be back
• I have two good roommates  :)
• Living on the 6th floor gives me a nice view of the "mountains" and construction on the new new building at school.  I just hope some day the hike up the stairs will feel a little bit shorter.
• This apartment is all around a much better apartment than the one I lived in last year.  Windows that actually seal, better lighting, matching floor tile, a finished drying room, and improved kitchen layout!
• The local method of scoring ping pong is weird.  (I will save the rest of this for another post)
• Apparently it's not as big of a deal for women around here to remember their wedding anniversary.  Or maybe it was just that particular person.  ;) 
• The roller skating rink has a pile of rubble in the corner.   No one crashed into it and no one seemed to really care about it or think it was unusual.
• I almost have all the new students names and faces down; there are still a couple I'm working on.

Ok that's it for now...

Fall

Some of the villages that surround the city where I live are particularly famous for their apples.  For those that like apples, this is the place to be!  The week I arrived was my school’s break between 1st and 2nd quarters.  During the break, most of the students went to their hometowns and the ones who live in apple country brought back mountains of apples.  They brought back a lot of my roommates (and since I live with them, I got to enjoy them as well) and they gave about the same amount to the office for all of our school staff.   Between our apartment and office we were starting to try and be creative with what to do with them; I think an apple crisp (or two) was attempted, an apple coffee cake, and one of my roommates has been having fun making applesauce. 

In a society that still holds on to some superstitions and might be considered a little fatalistic, it never ceases to amaze me what people will do to bring about good luck and blessing.  One morning as I was pulling an apple out of the bag to eat, I was amazed to find this

This character means "blessing"

It's not a sticker or paint, somehow they did something so that the peel did not change from yellow/green to red.  Pretty awesome.  If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, I wonder what this one might do for you?  

In other areas of Fall related happenings, a couple days after I got here was their Ghost/Spirit Festival.  On this day, people will buy fake paper money and other things and go out especially after dark and light them on fire as an offering to their ancestors' spirits (or ghosts) who wonder the streets.  I think, as they are burned, the deceased are supposed to receive a usable version of these offerings to assist them in the afterlife.  I don't know how many people still really believe this, but it's tradition and they still do it.  The best part of this day, from my perspective, is that they seem to think that lighting these fires on the sidewalks and in the middle of intersections, especially the larger ones, is better.  Imagine traffic that's a little crazy to start with and then add small fires in the road.

Fall is also the time when leaves fall off the trees.  This week, all the leaves on the trees that line the road on the way to school dropped off.  There are some mountains nearby that actually have trees with leaves that change color this time of year, but I was a little bit surprised that all the trees near school still had their leaves and that they were green.  I guess I had forgotten this from last year; their leaves just barely turn a slightly more yellowish-brown shade of green and then all at once they fall off.  I showed one of our interns some pictures of what some of trees back home looked like right before I left and she thought they were all fake leaves.  They are definitely lacking in this area around here.

I have been told by several people that this year, Winter is supposed to be a very cold.   Right now it is rather mild and the students keep making comments about how it is not cold yet.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see, there's still plenty of time for cold to come, but as for now even though it drops below freezing at night, I'm enjoying the mid-50s (degrees Fahrenheit) during the days.

Getting here

10:00am EST Tuesday (10:00pm local time Tues.) - leave my home for Philadelphia International Airport
11:30am (ish) Tues. (11:30pm Tues.) - arrive at airport; told my luggage will be checked all the way to my final destination (yes!), go through the very long security line that moved much quicker than what I thought it would, bought an Auntie Anne's cinnamon pretzel for lunch :)
1:40pm Tues(1:40am Wed.) - board the little airplane for a 27 min flight to JFK

2:10pm (ish) Tues. (2:10am Wed.) - arrive at JFK and figure my way to the next terminal (I forgot you have to walk outside and down the road to get to it), check in and go through security again, then try to find something to pass the time - have I mentioned I don't really like this airport...
5:20pm Tues. (5:20am Wed.) - 30min behind schedule, board the big airplane for the long 13.5hour flight

I mostly drifted in and out of sleep most of the flight except when the Chinese guy next to me just thought he'd crawl over me instead of asking me to move.  We fly north so if you have a window seat and the sky is clear you might have a nice view of the Arctic Circle out the window.  (Awesome!)

7:10am (ish) Wed. (7:10pm Wed.) - finally got off the plane about 45 min late and I hurried to get through customs so I could make it to my next flight (without delays I was supposed to have only a 2 hour layover)
7:45am Wed. (7:45pm Wed.) - arrived at the gate just in time to board the bus that took us out to a normal sized plane for a 2 hour flight to further out (got an Asian version of a ham sandwich as the snack on the flight... strange)
10:30am Wed. (10:30pm Wed.) - arrive, but my luggage did not make the flight with me, had fun trying to communicate with the employees who take care of such things, meet up with DW and headed to the hotel for the night
12:00pm Wed (12:00am Thurs.) - check in at the hotel, finally wake my roommates up so they can let me into the room, brief hellos and then sleep!

Thursday consisted of taking a taxi for an hour back to the airport to get my bags, then a shuttle bus to the train/bus station area.  We bought tickets and sat around at the bus station until our 4:00pm bus left; 5hours later we got to our city.  A taxi ride and ascent up to the sixth floor (with all my stuff) got my roommates and I to our apartment.  CW showed up to check on us and the wired connection to the main light was totally causing it to flicker and then not work so he spent a little time fixing it... welcome back!  :-P