Radio Silence

I apologize for the extended period of postlessness, but it's been a somewhat hectic few days.
And sadly, not in a good way.

On Wednesday, the 13th, I received a rather alarming e-mail from my agent saying something about my terminal contract. I wasn't aware that my contract had been suffering from anything incurable, so I immediately set out to rectify the misunderstanding.
While misunderstandings continue to abound I am sadly on the hunt for a new position here in Beijing.
I don't want to descend into the petty, finger pointing territory of the recently let go, but suffice it to say this was far from just.
While I doubt that any of the Meg parents have found their way to this blog I would like to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching the Bumblebee and Caterpillar classes these past six months. They are all bright, talented youngsters who have shown an amazing ability to learn English. They brightened my days, and I am so happy to have had the opportunity to teach them, even if the experience was cut short.

I am trying to look at the silver lining of this, attempting to see the window that supposedly follows that closing door, but I keep finding myself stuck on the simple facts.

I am going to miss my students and the other teachers very much.

And now, before my sniffles grow into full blown sobs of self pity and anger, I'll stop dwelling. Or at least stop writing about it.

Goodnight.

P.S.
Super Husband and I have tickets to go to Harbin on a sleeper train Friday, and return on a bullet train Sunday.

恭禧發財 Gong Xi Fa Cai

Today is New Year's Eve.

Happy New Year

No, I'm not a month late. It's Chinese New Year's Eve.
And that means that we don't shower, sweep the house, take out the trash, mop the floors, cut our hair, or do anything that could ruin our good luck for the upcoming Year of the Snake. We do, however, spend most of the day baking (or maybe that was just me) and listening to the fireworks being set off around the city.
I've made three different types of cookies today, and I have to say that they're all a success. I'm probably most proud of the first batch because they're from an iffy Pinterest recipe that I found, but they're a big hit. And so super healthy! All you do is take an old, overripe banana and mush it up (with chopsticks, if you want to do it exaaaactly like I did) then you add one cup of oatmeal. The recipe called for two bananas to one cup of oatmeal, but that ratio seemed off when I was doing it, so I just used one large banana to one cup oatmeal. I used regular oatmeal because it's all I had, but if you used some of the flavored ones, like cinnamon apple, I can only imagine that it would be delicious. Anywho, you stir your oatmeal and banana together, add in any treat-like toppings you want (hint hint, craisins and chocolate chips), drop spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet, and then bake at 350f (172c) for 10-15 minutes. Because I'm using a toaster oven all of my baking times seem slightly reduced from those in recipes. I chalk that up to the pans being that much closer to the heat source. I might make these next Sunday and take them to work for breakfast. They're like cookie breakfast bites. And I don't even like bananas very much, but these were stiiiill really good. (Mom, stop gagging.)

So many cookies

The other cookies I made were Brownie Bites, and a White Cake Mix Cookie, to which I added chocolate chips and marshmallows. My excuse for overdoing the cookies is that if you eat sweet things during the New Years celebration you'll have a sweet year, and to that I say "Suhweeeeeeeet". If there's a cosmic excuse to shove sugar into my face I am going to take it.

For those of you like me, in Morocco they say that if you start your day with something sweet you'll have a sweet day, so go ahead and add another teaspoon of sugar to that tea, the universe has sweet things in store for you when you do.

Back to New Year Stuff
Here are a couple of sites if you're interested in what the Year of the Water Snake holds in store for you:
Chinese Astrology 2013 -- this one has light text on a dark background so when Super Husband asked me to take a look at a sketch he's doing I had a hard time refocusing my eyes.
This one is weird, but you can read it if you want.

This blog has some interesting insights into ringing in the New Year in Chinese style.

What I've gleaned from living here, and also from reading all those things, is that traditions vary pretty widely depending on where your family is from. The fireworks and making lots of noise seems pretty standard for everyone. So turn that stereo up to the max, because it's gonna chase all the evil and bad luck away. And, at 12:01 be sure to throw open your windows and doors to release any evil that's been trapped inside from the year before.

So, Happy New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai! 

My "Soo Chinese" photo, trying out Super Husband's new glasses.

Vacation Blues

Four days off, and I don't know what to do with myself.
We've begun a daily yoga routine (and by daily I mean we've done it two out of four days, so that's a good start, right?), watched an entire season of The Walking Dead, caught up on the third season, watched half of season five of The Big Bang Theory and caught up on the sixth season, we've eaten way too much chocolate, and won third place at Lush's Pub Quiz.
Writing this I realize that most of what we've done has centered around television shows, but what can you do when Super Husband has a knack for getting sick when I'm on vacation? Every dang time, I tell ya.
Despite the rather sedentary start to our holiday we are planning to visit Harbin, or as I've heard it referred to "The Frigid North". Harbin boasts of an ice festival every year that isn't to be missed, or at least not if you're already in China, right? So we'll go over to the train station today and see if there are still tickets available.

And we have our tickets and hotels booked for an end of the school year trip to Bali!

Aaaand we're planning a post-Bali trip to Chengdu in Sichuan provence, and from there, to Tibet.
I spent a good hour this morning researching the different permits necessary to get to Tibet, and I'm pretty excited about it.
See parents, we're not focused on saving so much that we've forgotten where we are.

In more New Years-y news: The firework stands are popping up, and the evidence can be seen and heard around the city.
I love fireworks. Maybe not as much as my sister does, but enough that I'm prepared to lay down 120rmb on some really cool ones. Maybe go up on some tall apartment roof and set up a display that will awe and amazing the city. Or just awe and amaze me. Either way, 120 well spent.

Boiled Goat Spine... Yum

Boiled Goat Spine Hot-Pot

On Friday after work a couple of coworkers, Super Husband, and I all went out to get dinner. I deferred to my coworkers greater knowledge of cool eateries around Beijing, and so we were led to this hotpot restaurant a few stops south of work, on line 5. Now, this all sounds fine, right? So far, so good. Until we get there. And I see that it's not just any hot pot. Oooh, no. It's special, traditional, goat spine hot pot.
An aside here, for those of you not as well acquainted with my oddities: I don't eat food off the bone. I understand that animals have bones, and I understand that those bones impart flavor to soups, and things of that nature, but I would like all bones far away from me when it is time to actually partake. As Super Husband said on Friday, to illustrate my dislike of bones "She doesn't even know what a chicken wing tastes like." And it's true. I don't. I can't put the bones up to my face. It's a combination of my dislike of the savagery, and of getting grease and sauce on the corners of my mouth. Can't stand that.

So, it was with a resigned air that I sat down at the table (after waiting for 30 minutes... This place was buuuuusy, so I guess as goat spine goes, this one was good). We were presented, fairly promptly, with a bubbling bowl of spine. I don't really have any other way to describe it. Brownish and rather unappealing, it looked like something any self-respecting witch would envy. And so we dug in. Super Husband, being a more adventurous eater than I am, was the first to pluck one out of the pot. I followed suit, not wanting to offend those that had been so anxious to take us there. My only saving grace was how absolutely tender it was. I had no trouble at all using my chopsticks to divest the meat of their offending bony counterparts.
I also used a single chopstick to remove what could either be bone marrow or spinal cord. We're not entirely sure, but I was told it would be tasty, and it wasn't... un-tasty.
We also ordered these fried sandwich things, that were good, but too big for me. They would have been perfect in finger sandwich form. They're large triangles of pumpkin filled sandwiches, that have been breaded and fried, and then rolled in a sugar and breadcrumb combo. But they used Texas Toast, those thick cut slices, so there was just too much going on.
We also had what is basically a quesadilla, minus the cheese. It's a flat, tortilla like bread, filled with grilled onions, and it was yummy.
The only thing lacking, like with so many meals here in China, was a good dessert. Normally I would file the fried pumpkin thing away as a dessert, but it came out in the middle of our meal, before the veggies had even gone into the hot pot. Ah well, maybe one day I'll start carrying little Dove dark chocolate hearts in my purse for the perfect little dessert.

On Sunday Super Husband and I met a friend from work in the subway and she took us down to Panjiayuan, where there is, in addition to the cool antiques market that we went to when my parents were here, a couple of huge buildings devoted entirely to glasses. We ventured into one that she recommended, and proceeded to look for glasses for Super Husband. The first shop we went to boasted of reasonably priced french production frames. Or maybe lenses. I'm not sure. We found a pair that Super Husband was reasonably happy with, and my friend commenced the bargaining. That would have been the end of the story, but she wasn't happy with the price. They wouldn't go below 260rmb, and she said she didn't want us to pay more than 200. So on to another shop we went. The next one had a more boutique feel, with faux fur lining the display cases, but they didn't have anything in the style we wanted, so we moved on. The third and final shop specialized in sports glasses. Now, I don't really know what that means, because I'm pretty sure most athletes wear contacts while engaging in their sport of choice, but there we found a pair of glasses that everyone was happy with. They give Super Husband a Clark Kent look, although he doesn't have laser vision when he takes them off. Far from it, actually. We were told that he is both near and far sighted, and has an astigmatism. My poor, vision impaired husband. (I, on the other hand, have better than 20/20 vision. So nanananana.)
In the end we got the frames, exam, and lenses for a grand total of 180rmb ($30), which is pretty dang cheap. We plan to go pick up a few more before we return stateside.

So, you know that angry rant I posted last week? The one about how I was supposed to get a month off, and instead it's three days?... Well, yesterday, Monday, the administration realized that there was no point in having two English teachers on staff for a total of 30 kids. So, I have 9 days off. Yay! Although, I'm slightly upset because they didn't let us know that we didn't need to come in until 3:30 yesterday, so there was no time to let parents know ahead of time. I would have liked to have been able to post a note saying "I will be on vacation from Tuesday the 5th until Monday the 18th, if you have any questions _______ blablabla"...
Oh well!
Vacation!