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There is an episode of "Friends" that goes like this:
CHANDLER: I'm serious, let me do something, just not the turkey or the stuffing, nothing "high profile".
MONICA: Ok, let's see... Oh, the cranberry sauce, it is easy to make and no-one really cares about it.
CHANDLER: Tell me more.
MONICA: Okay, I'm gonna go check on something across the hall. You start by washing these (she gives Chandler a bowl with cranberries. Then, while she's going outside, she sees him with a bottle of soap in his hands) Not with soap!! (she leaves)
CHANDLER: You obviously haven't tasted my Palmolive potatoes!That's funny because you would never think of washing vegetables with soap........unless you live in China.
This is a photo of my dishwashing soap. There is a picture of dishes AND of vegetables! There is some spinach, a lemon and a red pepper. This is because here people use the same soap to wash vegetables & fruits and dishes.
They say "boil it, peel it, or forget it!" I was so prepared for a year without fresh fruits or vegetables. But washing with this soap seems to be sufficient. I've eaten (washed) raw carrots, celery, cucumber, apples, tomatoes...and I haven't been sick yet!
I think that the picture of the tomatoes in the sink and the dish rack is hilarious. By the way - did you know that tomatoes float? Well, that's all I have, I'll write more later!!
Tuesday was my night to cook dinner and I decided to make Ravioli. I looked online at "recipes" - which in my opinion can barely call themselves recipes - whose ingredients were: 1 pound frozen ravioli, jarred tomato sauce. I mean really! That's not a recipe! Anyway, certain ingredients hare hard to find here (like frozen ravioli, or jarred tomato sauce...), but I was pretty sure I could make it myself. I made pasta a dozen times or so in college. It's an easy process, but it's time consuming. The only ready made ingredients I had were cheese, and a jar of tomato paste.So I made "three-times-over homemade ravioli".Homemade #1: I made ricotta cheeseActually, I made fresh cheese a couple of weeks ago and put it in the freezer. I had read some recipes online and was sure that I could do it myself. You heat milk to almost boiling, add vinegar, let it curdle and separate the curds from the whey (a la Little Miss Muffet). It was pretty easy, but very messy. I don't think I would eat it with a spoon or anything, but it worked in the ravioli.Homemade #2: I made tomato sauceThis was actually my favorite part of the process. I found a good recipe for roasted tomato sauce that's essentially tomatoes and garlic, roasted for like 45 minutes and mushed up with some spices. I mixed it with my jar of tomato paste for a pretty good tomato sauce.Homemade #3: I made pastaYes, I actually made pasta. The recipe is 1 c. flour, 1 egg, 1 T water, 1 T oil. You put the flour in a bowl and make a little well in the middle. You put the egg, water and oil in the middle and begin to mix together with your fingers. Incorporate more flour until it is one big paste-y mess. Then you knead it for a while, roll it out, and either fill it (for ravioli) or cut and dry it (for spaghetti). So, I took all of my ingredients (homemade and otherwise) and made ravioli. I rolled out the dough, put little spoonfuls of the cheese mixture (ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and egg) on the pasta, folded the pasta over to cover the cheese, used some water to keep the filling in. Then I boiled the ravioli for 3-5 minutes. I layered a baking dish with tomato sauce and ravioli and baked that for 30ish minutes and then topped it with some more mozzarella. And it turned out pretty well :) I served it with garlic toast. Yummmmy.I was telling someone that I can make pletny of things here, it's just not very convenient, you know? :)
Before I tell you anything, you have to know of two stories I heard when I spent the week in Guiyang.
Kara told me that once she was going into her living room, and that she turned the light on and one of her lightbulbs burst. It showered the room in little glass slivers, which she spent a half hour picking up. She was really concerned, because her neighbors have kids who play in her living room. "What if they had been there?", she asked me. So I started to get concerned about exploding light bulbs.
A few days later Matthew said that he was replacing a light bulb in their stairwell. He said that he screwed it in and that it flickered twice and then exploded. Fortunately, he didn't get any of it lodged in him, but still!
Second, you have to know that I have spent nearly all of my life living with 8.5 foot ceilings. My 6'4" brother can scrape his knuckles when he stretches. I only need a dining room chair to reach the ceiling in my house.
So-
Monday was an ironic day for me. I went to bed Sunday night without picking the apartment up (which is unlike me). So Monday morning I was puttering around, getting things in order before my class at 10. I took care of my bedroom, the study, and I was headed into the living room.
I turned on the overhead light so I could see. One of my lightbulbs flickered and died. I looked up and it appeared to be swinging within the light fixture. I was a little worried about it exploding or falling or something. So I decided to take the lightbulb down before I had a problem with little bits of glass.
The ceilings here are high - maybe 11 feet. I can't reach the light fixture, even with a chair. But I decided to try to stand on my coffee table and give it a shot. I thought about bringing in a chair, but the coffee table seems pretty sturdy.
So I slid out of my slippers (I didn't want to be slippery) and stood on the coffee table. I moved my foot and leaned trying to reach the lightbulb (I was like three feet away - it was kind of silly to even try). And then - CRACK - a pane of glass in my coffee table broke. I was standing with bare feet in broken glass.
Oh the irony: I was worried about little pieces of glass, and here I am with huge daggers of broken glass. (Here is the glass in a bucket) 
My coffee table has two sections: a wooden section and a glass section. The wooden section had this weird little compartment that had rocks under some glass. This is the glass that broke. Here is a photo of that part of the coffee table. 
I carefully got down and went to get a towel to stop the bleeding in my foot. I had some deep scratches in by big toe and the sole of my foot. But I had a small gash in my baby toe that was really bleeding. There was a little trail of blood spots around my apartment where I had walked.
The first thing I did was to look online to see what constituted a bad cut, versus just a cut. They said that if the cut was so deep/big that the sides of the wound wouldn't close, that you needed stitches. Well, even though it was bleeding, it was holding itself together. This is good, since I have found out that they don't use anesthetic for stitches here - eek!.
So I called Sara to come over (Kris was in class) and she helped me clean up my foot and put bandaids on. She also helped me clean my floor.
I didn't go to class - Kris put a movie in for the class (it's a listening class, so it's not really a stretch for them to watch movies). I just sat with my foot up and watched a movie.
It actually isn't that bad at all. It was more alarming than anything. I've been favoring my baby toe when I walk and wearing sneakers everywhere. The other cuts are almost healed, and I'm keeping my eye out for any signs of infection. But bactine and neosporin are helping me out a lot. So that was my first, minor medical emergency in China.
Yesterday Sara, Kris, Joni and I went to get facials. When we met with Joni on Sunday she mentioned that she was going to get one this week, and we decided to join her. We went to a little salon that looked more like the Nurse's Office to me. There were four beds and each of us laid on one. We were covered up with a sheet and our hair was secured back with a headband of sorts. There was one technician (young woman) for each of us. They washed our faces. They used a soft washcloth to remove the soap, and then added something wet and squishy - like a gel or lotion. For about thirty minutes they massaged our faces and used acupressure on our temples and sinuses. It was weird, but good, I think. Then we had some sort of stinky mask (sea weed, maybe) for about a half hour. During that time we got a scalp massage and an arm massage. That was more weird than good - a lot of gentle pounding, I think. Finally, they removed the stinky mask, cleaned us up, and put some lotion on. When we were done I wasn't sure that my skin looked any better. In fact, I thought it may have looked worse. But I think it was just the impurities being drawn to the surface, or something, because I came home and washed my face and went to bed. And this morning it looks great! The whole thing cost 20 kuai and it was pretty good!
So around here they just turn the power off from time to time. It's not that there was a storm and the lines are down or anything - they choose to turn the power off. There is only so much electricity to go around, and they will turn it off on campus buildings to do construction or to check wires or something.
It happened twice this week - Tuesday and Thursday. They turn the power off around 8am, and it comes back on at 6pm. It makes for a quiet day. And it means no internet connection, hence few blog updates this week...
The week was good. Still no Literature book... Sara, Kris and I decided to do a rotating dinner schedule. I cook Tuesday dinner, Sara cooks Wednesday dinner and Kris cooks Friday lunch. It's nice to cook a big meal and to have company!
We started this week and it went pretty well. I made scalloped potatoes with green onions. The only "regular" onions I could find were red, and I didn't really want pink scalloped potatoes :) So I bought a pound of green onions (which is a lotof green onions!) and just used the white parts. It was reasonably successful. Sara made "coca cola chicken" which was good, and Kris made cream of chicken soup and biscuits. Mmmmm, I may get spoiled on this plan!
This weekend has been delightfully quiet. I have done very little. Yesterday my accomplishments included some grading, doing dishes and sweeping. And I spread that out over the whole day! Since yesterday I have watched the entire A&E Pride and Prejudice - three hours yesterday and three hours today.
I bought some yarn and am working on a blanket for my sofa. It's coming along pretty well!
I needed this weekend. I guess one of the biggest aspects of culture shock is just that it takes significantly more effort to do "everyday" things. Buying groceries in a different language, taking a bus into a new city, climbing 106 stairs to get to your apartment... they all take a physical toll, you know? So down time and rest are vital in maintaining sanity!
Well, I have a meeting with my group here tonight, but nothing else is on the agenda for today. Maybe I'll take a nap... :)
Well, we had a nice weekend in Guiyang. Friday we left at 10:30, got to the bus station by 11ish and on the bus to Guiyang at 11:10. We arrived about 90 minutes later and had lunch at a little restaurant. Then we went to Walmart (one of the main things to do when visiting Guiyang!) and took a taxi back to the Financial College where Kara and Susie teach. We stayed with them for the weekend. The four of us went to Rebecca's for dinner and met up with 8 more people there. It was all young English teachers. We had dinner and played games - fun! Saturday we went to Guigong (gway-gong) to go swimming. Kris taught at that campus for five years before coming to Anshun. The campus is on the edge of Guiyang, like a suburb. We had lunch there and then rented a boat and went on the lake. It was the most beautiful lake I've ever seen: there were wooded mountains all around it. The water has a high mineral content and feels "silky" when swimming. We paddled the boat out for twenty-five minutes or so and then jumped in! The air was cool (65 degrees), but the water was warm (80 degrees). It was wonderful! After swimming around for a half hour or so, we went back to the boat. And because the air was so cool, we pulled the boat back rather than getting out into the cold air to paddle! We're talking about going back sometime. Hopefully by that time my batteries will be charged in my camera! It felt a little like a dream it was so beautiful. I wish you all could have been there with me!
"Dao Guiyang" is Chinese for "to Guiyang"! Sara, Kris and I are headed to Guiyang for the weekend. We'll meet the rest of our ULS team there. I think we'll also visit Walmart.
There was a huge thunderstorm last night. At 4 in the morning some lightening struck so close - the sound was deafening! The electricity was out and I was groggily trying to close all of my windows and unplug my computer in the dark. It took me a while to get back to sleep because there was so much thunder and lightening!
I changed my Thursday 4-6 class to Friday 8-10. It means that my Fridays aren't free anymore. But to me, there is little difference between no classes and an 8 o'clock class. I still have the majority of the day free.
I think (hope) that my second week of classes was more successful than my first. The only exception may be my literature class. The students still don't have the book, and it's practically impossible to teach literature without a book! We spent two hours making a timeline of the authors and periods of American and British literature. It's a boring thing to do, but even more boring when the terms "Renaissance", "Neo-Classicism" and "Critical Realism" enter the conversation. The students were totally unfamiliar with those words, and it's very difficult to explain them! Thankfully their book (when they get it) is mostly in Chinese. So hopefully they can read some of the words in their own language and have a better understanding than I can give them!
Well, I need to pack since we're leaving in thirty minutes!
:)
Monday night the English department had a banquet.
We all took a bus to somewhere (I have no idea...a restaurant, maybe) and sat in a little room and had a banquet. Most of the faculty were there: five foreign teachers (three with ULS, my organization, two with Peace Corps) and maybe 12 Chinese English teachers. The head of the department, Jack, was there too.
We sat around for a little while. Some of the teachers played Mah Jong for money (Kris said that teachers can rack up a huge debt playing mah jong: 20,000 yuan in one night!!)
Then dinner was served. We sat at a round table that had a very large lazy susan in the middle of it. They put platters of food on the lazy susan, and you would just spin it so that what you wanted was in front of you. There was a spicy pork dish, a whole fish (including the eyes) that you would just pick some flesh from and eat it, several soups, some rice noodle dishes, some mashed potatoes, some vegetable dishes... it was crazy! And everyone uses their chopsticks to take a bite or two of what they want. We had rice in our bowls and just ate and ate for hours.
It was really spicy and the only drinks were beer and hot tea. As I'm not much of a beer drinker, I drank hot tea from a plastic cup. The food was very spicy and the tea was very hot...that's not the best combination!
At one point the other table was laughing a lot at one of the teachers. He was saying "let's go" in all of the different tones. It sounded like "Let's! Go!", "Let's Go?" "Let's Go!!" "Let's Go..." I mean, it was obviously the same phrase, but they think it's so funny that the same words said in different tones still mean the same thing in English. I'm still having such a hard time with tones that I didn't even get the joke-I had to ask Kris!
We got home very late 9:30 and I think I just fell into bed. But it was a good night!
So Tuesdays are tentatively my laundry day. I thought I'd share with you how laundry is done here. This is a photo of my washing machine. As you can see, there are two sides of the machine, and each has its own basin. The basin on the left is larger. You put clothes, water and soap in this side. Here the clothes agitate and drain. The other side is the spinner. You take the clothes out of the water and put them in the spinner. The machine is plugged into the wall for electricity. But it is not hooked into the water.
To get water into the first basin you take the shower head off of the wall and put it in the machine. Once there is enough water, you turn off the shower head and let the machine agitate. Once it is done agitating, you take a hose off of the side of the machine and lay it on the floor. The water drains out of the machine into the shower drain on the floor. Then you spin the clothes, and you put them back in the first basin. Use the shower head to fill the basin again with clean water, allow the clothes to agitate again - rinse cycle. Drain the water again on the floor, then spin the clothes again. The spinner gets the clothes relatively dry. There are no dryers, so you just hang up the clothes to dry at this point. It doesn't take any longer than overnight to dry most things.
The whole washing process take 30 minutes or so. Only once have I forgotten about the water... Luckily there is very little water pressure, so it didn't spill over or anything!
I actually don't mind how complicated it is. It could be worse...I could wash them in the river with a bar of soap!! 
Yesterday (Sunday), Kris, Sara and I rode bikes into town.
The rules of the road are so different here; it was quite an experience! Kris led, and Sara and I just tried to keep up.
It is a slightly downhill trip from the school into town that takes about 10-15 minutes. We could mostly coast downhill. Once in town we did a variety of walking our bikes (in more congested areas) and riding. We visited markets and did some "window shopping". Then we had lunch at our favorite beef-noodle restaurant. Then it was off to the grocery store. Right across from the grocery store there is a video store. You can buy western (most likely illegal) movies for 7 yuan (88 cents). I bought Spanglish and Rent.
Then we went to the outdoor meat and vegetable market. We found frozen chicken breasts! Yay! There is no "back stage" at that market; they sell live chickens or dead chickens. You can watch them pluck the chickens right there. It was quite a relief to buy 14 small chicken breasts for 24 yuan (3 dollars).
Finally we tried--unsuccessfully--to find a store that would sell electricity converters. As soon as I can find one, I'll put up more photos. I need to recharge my batteries and the batteries they sell here are enough to take just 15 photos before they die...
If the philosophy in the States is "it is your responsibility not to hit anyone", the philosophy in China is "it is your responsibility not to get hit by anyone." The biggest vehicle has the right of way. Riding bikes through town was quite an experience.
Riding back to the University was so hard, though. If we could coast most of the time going to town, we had to pedal the whole time going back. And I had a backpack full of chicken, flour and cornmeal. The incline, the extra weight and the fact that the elevation is quite high here (2690 feet above sea level) all together made the trip back killer. About .5 kilometer before the school gate Sara and I just got off our bikes and walked them back. Kris is in great shape and bikes all over, but we are totally not there yet! It was funny, because Kris had said, "biking into town is easier than taking the bus." When Sara and I were red-faced, walking our bikes, she said to me, "how is this easier than taking the bus!?" But we survived!
My only complaint is that I didn't put enough sunscreen on my arms. I guess I didn't realize that they would be so exposed; but holding onto handlebars gives the sun a pretty good shot at them! So my forearms and the tops of my hands are burnt. It's kind of funny, because my fingers are fine! I'm actually feeling better already since yesterday.
So that was the adventure of the weekend!
So, I'm teaching six classes this term: two listening, two oral, one reading and one writing. I only had five of them this week because freshmen don't start right away. It's amazing how tired I am from teaching only ten hours this week!
Monday was listening at 10:00. The classroom is pretty high-tech. Each student has a computer screen and a headset. I can put a book under a document camera and all of the students can see it at their stations. When I play the tape (it is a listening class, after all), the students all put on their headsets. It's a pretty easy class to teach. I play the tape, the students answer questions about the passage, I go over the answers. Rinse, repeat. There is very little preparation needed for that class. I teach the same class on Thursdays.
Tuesday I had both oral and writing. Oral is hard, just because it is a class of 41, and the goal is for them to learn how to talk. I can't possibly talk to each of them in the time given! I assign some pair work, but there is always the possibility that they will just talk in Chinese. We also do some "choral readings", but that's not a useful for learning how to speak "off the cuff". So that's an experience.
My writing class was challenging, only because the students didn't bring paper. I think I'll actually really like it. It is my most advanced class - they are juniors who are on the 4 year program. We wrote a collective essay on summer vacation, which was rather successful.
My last class is Literature, which has the potential to be my favorite class. The students aren't terribly advanced - they are only on the two year program. But I love Literature, personally. The book is really cool. It has just the most famous parts of the most famous literature. For example: this week we studied Shakespeare. The book had Hamlet's "to be or not to be" soliloquy and Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?). I think that I may be more excited than all of the students combined, but that's OK!I don't have many photos to share, because my batteries in my camera are dead. They are rechargable and I brought a charger with me. Unfortunately I don't have the right electricity converter to plug it in to the wall! Once I buy a new charger I'll take more pictures! I'm incredibly tired, but it's good. Life just takes a lot of effort here!!Well, it's Saturday night and I'm just got back from doing some shopping, so I'm going to put things away.
:) Liz
I think that the picture of the tomatoes in the sink and the dish rack is hilarious. By the way - did you know that tomatoes float? 
