The Short List

Just a few fun things I've realized/thought of lately:

You know you're in Langfang when...
...you actually look forward to eating eggplant and tofu (ok maybe you already do, but I never did)
...you vacuum every surface instead of dusting (including the walls & ceiling)
...one bottle of shampoo and conditioner cost more than all of your other groceries combined
...you forget what rain sounds like
...you wash your eggs off before you put them in the fridge (cause they're just that fresh!)

Told you it was a short list. Maybe I'll think of some more and add to it later on.

Things are humming along here- it's nice to kinda have a feel for what's going on, especially teaching. Some highlights from the past week or so:
- having 13 people (8 students and 5 teachers) in my apartment to watch the movie "Prince of Egypt"- a meaningful movie that has sparked some meaningful conversations
-visiting our friends Wil and Courtney in Tianjin- we played games, chatted & laughed, and checked out Eric Liddell's old home (bonus points for you if you know who he is without Google's help). Check out all of our silly pictures HERE
-warm weather!! Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon, but it seems that spring has finally arrived, and I've put the long johns away. Yippee!

Happy spring to YOU! What are your highlights??

Jiaozi everywhere!

What the heck is jiaozi, you ask? And why is it everywhere? Well, for those less fortunate who have not had the pleasure of eating jiaozi, they are Chinese dumplings- tasty little Hot Pockets, if you will- similar to (but better than) what you will find in wonton soup in America. And it was everywhere-meaning all over my apartment-when "the girls" came over and helped me make my very own homemade jiaozi (pronounced: gee-ow-zuh). These are the same girls who have come over before to sample pancakes and chocolate chip cookies. After the last time, they decided that they would have to share some of their homemade cuisine with me. So that's what they did on Saturday- and we had a blast together. A delicious blast. Here are some pictures of the process:

First comes the dough-simply flour and water mixed together, then pinched into little balls, then rolled out

Then you add your fillings. We had three kinds: beef & onion, egg & mushroom, and egg & greens

Next you fold it and pinch it together. Much trickier than it sounds. Lisa was also a novice at this, so we had fun laughing at ourselves together (she's from the south where they don't eat jiaozi very often). After they're all folded, you boil them til they float, and voila- you're done!

Victory is an old pro!

Cinderella mixing up some more dough- she needs a touch more flour

These are special flower shaped jiaozi, made with two pieces of dough. I failed to pinch mine enough times, and they all thought it looked hilarious.

Full and happy: Mango, Rene, Lisa, Victory, Cinderella, Lily, and me!

All in all, I think we made over 150 jiaozi. I didn't get any good pictures of the finished product, but that's mainly because we were eating them as we went. Nothing like fresh jiaozi!