Merry Christmas!

I know we are late, and I have been absent lately from blogging. I have been pretty absent from using my computer lately. But now the semester is over, and I have two months off of school. Hopefully that means more regular blogging.

Merry Christmas! Sorry for the late greeting.

For Christmas, Alvin and I went to our friend's house and we had a Christmas brunch. We had all kinds of food from breakfast burritos, casseroles, jouk, to cinnamon rolls.

Afterward, we played a fun gift exchange game. Everyone was supposed to bring a gift to the gift exchange. We then used musical chairs to have the person who is out open one present. After all the presents were opened, each person voted on who they thought would like that present best. In the end, everyone went home with a present.

Alvin received the game "Clue." I received four avocados. Yeah! I won the avocados in a landslide vote. I asked Alvin how everyone knew that I wanted them; he said it was because I screamed with joy when they were revealed. Mmmm. I have eaten two already for guacamole. I look forward to using them in the California rolls I will be making soon.

Identity Crisis Resolved

You may recall back in October when I first wrote about my identity crisis. To recap, for all these years I had only known how to say my name in Cantonese. When it was translated for me into Mandarin Chinese a few years back (coupled with me not really remembering too clearly exactly how to write it), I ended up with the 2nd character in my name written... incorrectly. This was not discovered until my parents came in October, saw my student ID card, and thereby informed me that I had written my name wrong.

Imagine if you were male and your name was Miguel, and you lived in Mexico. Upon moving to the United States, you decide to choose a more-English sounding name. Well, naturally, Miguel probably translates over to Michael... but some Spanish and English speaking friend of yours decides to translate your name to Michelle instead. So, for your first semester of college in the United States, all of your friends and teachers call you... Michelle.

So, ok, maybe my situation was not so drastic - I think the incorrect Chinese name I had through this semester was gender neutral. But still, it was slightly embarrassing letting my teachers know one by one that, well, I spelled my name wrong this whole time.

Last week, I pulled the trigger and asked our department administrator to change my name officially - to the correct character. I received my new student ID today (with the same picture, heh heh!). My name is now written as it should be. But it will take some getting used to for my teachers and classmates to begin calling me by my correct name, and for me to respond to it.

Tea Parties

Yesterday, some friends and I had a tea party with cucumber sandwiches, muffins, and cookies. And also tea. It was fun, and I exclaimed how I love tea parties.

Today, for our last Extensive Reading class this semester, our teacher announced that the reading for class was on Chinese tea and customs. So she had us all rearrange our desks to make a big rectangle. She then brought out Chinese snacks, her tea cup collections and four kinds of tea to try. She explained some of the customs and explained each tea.

The first was an Oolong tea. This tea smelled strong and has a pretty strong bitter aftertaste. I usually like Oolong, but this one was too strong.

The second tea was a black tea whose name literally means "Return of Sweetness." At first it tastes smoky, but then at the end it tastes sweet.

The third tea was "pi-er tea." It was reddish in color. When the students tried the tea, there was an overall sense of, "ewww." I thought it was definitely not my favorite. These tea leaves were dried in a clump and were then aged. This tea was the most expensive. The worst part was trying to keep a straight face in class while Alvin repeatedly whispered in my ear, "this tastes like manure."

The last tea was a mixture of items, very similar to 8 treasures tea. This tea included mo-li flower tea, dried lemon, rock sugar, dried rose petals from the teacher's garden, and red dates. This tea smelled like roses and tasted sweet. I think this one was most people in our class's favorite.

So my ranking of the teas, from best to worst is: 8 treasures imitation, "Return of Sweetness," Oolong, and "Pi-er."

By the end of the class, we all enjoyed learning from the teacher while sipping our tea and eating our rice cake snacks. I looked around the room and felt privileged to have gotten to know our classmates who come from around the world. This semester has been fun, and we are sad to know that most of our classmates will be going back home for the next semester. I am so glad for this experience today to top off the semester. I love tea parties.

Weekend Project: Lamb Bacon

Just wanted to keep the world posted on something I will be trying out this coming weekend.

A few months ago, I came across this article in the NY Times which talked about making lamb bacon. Well, we live in a pork-free zone, and so I have been toying with the idea of making lamb bacon. I tried it once already, actually, in October - but I did it wrong. After curing the meat, I didn't soak it to remove the excess salt - the post-roasting result was way too salty - we're talking, cringe-worthy salty.

I've found another article in the North Coast Journal on making lamb bacon, which I will be trying out. Actually, I already began curing the lamb two nights ago. Will give it another 2 days in fridge. Then, on Saturday... it's on.

But here is the big challenge ahead: smoking. I want to try to smoke the bacon before slicing it and frying it. Smoking meat here is difficult for a few reasons: 1) nobody here has a smoker or ever smokes their meat - "You foreigners are just so strange..." 2) I don't have a backyard in which I can build an underground pit with which to smoke salmon, like Alton Brown; 3) I'm not sure where I can find wood chips out here.

So, there is a chance that I will make a homemade stovetop smoker using my wok. Just need to get permission from the Executive Chef.

Well, I am documenting the process and will keep you posted on how it goes. If all goes well, perhaps we will have bacon on Christmas morning after all.

Squatty Potty

A couple months ago, I was with my friend from the states who moved to my city around the same time I did, and we both went to the airport bathroom. I said, "the first stall is a squatty potty but the rest are western toilets." So she said, "ok." So we separated, and when I came out of my stall, I realized that she went to the squatty. I asked her why, and she said, she now prefers the squatty because you don't have to touch anything (ie. the toilet seat or flusher.) I remember I couldn't stop laughing at the idea of her liking the squatty.

After a couple of weeks, I started to realize that she has a point. If you roll up your pant leg before going, then you just squat and then you are done. With a western toilet, I would squat anyway because there are no toilet seat covers. Then, I might even have to use my own tissue paper to have to clean up the toilet seat.

So now, when I go to the pizza place that has a choice of western or squatty, I choose the squatty.

Fireworks Show! Celebrating UAE's 38th?

This was the view from one of our bedroom windows this evening at around dinnertime. No idea why we had a fireworks show today (only partially visible... most of it was behind the buildings). Perhaps here, too, they are celebrating the 38 year anniversary of the United Arab Emirates becoming an independent country. Or perhaps - and this is quite possible - they are just celebrating the grand opening of a restaurant or a new superstore.

Fireworks are less common than firecrackers. We hear firecrackers often, though less so during these winter months. Whenever somebody moves into the complex (usually a newly married couple coming to their home for the first time)... their friends will light a long string of firecrackers right outside their building entrance. Sometimes, it is the appliances delivery people who light firecrackers for them. If there is a restaurant grand opening, they often put up a huge display and light firecrackers - usually on a Saturday morning - to let the whole neighborhood know that they're open.

I need to find out where we can buy these firecrackers.

School Quarantine

Our school has been quarantined since Oct. 15th to try to prevent the spread of H1N1. You may wonder what this means.

I will give you a break down.

Basically, all local students who live in the dorms have not been allowed to leave the campus walls for almost two months, except in cases of emergency. Then the teacher must write the student a pass. Those students who live off campus, students who work, or international students, have a pass they show the school guards to get in and out of campus. Only students or teachers can get onto campus. To enter, all students and teachers must get their temperature read with infrared thermometer.

The students living on campus, must check their temperatures three times a day, and if they have a fever, they and the rest of their dorm mates are quarantined in the school hotel. In the beginning, many students were scaling over the walls to obtain freedom. Soon, the school threatened the students with withholding degrees if they are caught trying to escape. Therefore, the jumping over the walls slowed down.

Although the precautions may seem different, there has been very few cases of H1N1 at the school.

One sad thing is on a Friday or Saturday night, I see a lot of the students lined up near the fence talking to their friend, family, or loved one on the other side of the fence. Sometimes, I see a couple hold hands through the fence and looking longingly at each other with the look, "when can we finally be together?"

One happy thought is that since the school shortened the Oct. week long holiday for H1N1, we will be getting out in Dec. instead of Jan. this year to make up for the lost vacation days.

Conquering A Fear

One of the fears that is closer to the top of my list is that of having to go to the bathroom really really badly, but being in a public place where bathrooms are unavailable. I think this fear goes back to some bad experiences at Disneyland in 1989.

Well, they say that one of the best ways to conquer a fear is to face it. Tonight, I conquered my fear.

After a nice, yummy dinner of hot pot with friends, out in the other part of the city, we began making our way home on the bus. This is typically a 40 minute bus ride back home, and often it is spent standing up in a crowd full of people. About halfway home, I realized that I was starting to get a pretty bad stomach ache. This was a crucial decision-making time. I had 2 options.

Option 1 - Try to wait it out, which means another 20 minutes of bus riding and another 6 minutes to get from the bus stop to our complex, up the stairs, and into the bathroom.

Option 2 - Get out of the bus now, and find a bathroom.

I went with Option 2.

Why not Option 1? Because I've done Option 1 before, when the requirement was something like 10 minutes - and it was a miserable 10 minutes. Trying to do Option 1 for 26 minutes simply means being miserable for 10 minutes and then settling for an even more urgent Option 2 anyways.

So, I told Bethany I would like her packet of tissue, I would be getting off the bus, and I'll see her at home. And then, I got off the bus.

At 9:30PM, with most places either not having a restroom or being closed anyways, I knew that my chances of finding a restroom were... slim. In fact, I already knew - as soon as I got off the bus - what Option 2 really meant. It meant joining the ranks of the hundreds of millions of Chinese in this country who have gone to the bathroom in places that were not bathrooms. Do you think hundreds of millions is an exaggeration? You wouldn't if you lived here.

As I walked down the street, I was not looking for an open restaurant or hotel with a bathroom. Because I knew I wouldn't find any. I was looking for a long, dark, empty alley. And within about a hundred feet, I found one. In and out of the alley in probably less than 90 seconds. Then, I hopped on the next bus and headed home, just 10 minutes behind Bethany.

I apologize to the country for having to do what I did. But I'm pretty sure I see somebody duck into an alley or a roadside or a field - to do what I did - at least a few times every week. So I don't feel too bad. Better in the dark alley than on the bus.

Now that I have conquered my fear, I don't think I will make this a habit. But at least, I know it can be done if absolutely necessary.

Guacamole

On Friday night we heard a rumor that avocados were spotted in our city. So on Saturday, Alvin hopped on a bus and took a ride downtown to look for them. He was able to find them at this one grocery store that sells some western food. So he bought a couple for us and some for our friends. The price was expensive even for avocados in the states. They are imported from Mexico (see picture below).

I have not had an avocado in six months. I even forgot how an avocado tastes like. But here they are:


So today Alvin made guacamole. Originally, we were going to serve Mexican food to our friends who just moved to town. But then we found out that our other friends, who we bought some avocados for, also was going to serve them Mexican food with guacamole the night before we were serving dinner. So we decided, I guess we will have to eat the guacamole all by ourselves. Don't worry, we will serve our friends something else instead. Also, they probably don't appreciate the guacamole as much either since they just arrived from the states. For me, I think this was the best guacamole I have ever had, but maybe it is because I have been deprived for so long.