A *sort of* Surprise Visit

Every week that goes by brings us closer to Bali.
That has been my mantra for the last two weeks, now that the heat has set in, in earnest and there's no relief from the humidity. The subways are getting a little... ripe, and I'm "feeling the heat" before I even have my morning coffee.
But this past week was special because my mommy arrived in Beijing on Monday night! It was a short visit, but a visit none the less. I knew she was coming some time in June, probably, maybe. But it wasn't until Saturday evening that I was e-mailed her official itinerary, and did a little dance and shouted a little bit.
I took Tuesday afternoon off to hang out with her, and Super Husband took her to haggle with the glasses people in Panjiayuan that morning. Sadly her adventures there were not as fruitful as ours, but she still managed to walk away with a pair of prescription sunglasses. Apparently the "boss" being in the shop is bad for business, because the endless arguing lost them the sale of two additional pairs of sunglasses. Some people just don't realize that a little discount here means a whole lot more sales over there. And Super Husband says he'll be looking elsewhere for any more eyewear purchases we make in Beijing.
After lunch at Luga's Mexican in SanLiTun (if you go, go to the one attached to the Italian place and the German place, not the one attached to the Vietnamese place. The selection is better.) we headed to the pearl market to peruse. While neither mom nor I made any purchases Super Husband found a very cool phone case, a holographic batgirl from the first edition of the "New 52", and he also bought me a jade pendant.
Mom was understandably jet-lagged by mid-afternoon, so we all retired to her hotel, where she napped and Super Husband and I sipped Starbucks in the lobby. We dined at an adequate but not amazing Thai restaurant in the adjoining mall, and called it an early evening. We all had places to be the next morning.
Wednesday evening, after a day of business meetings, mom joined me at Lush for Quiz. We once again took home the first prize, this time by a margin of only one point. It would have been higher but we didn't listen to mom when she said that Martina Navratilova was the winningest tennis player of all time. We did, however, score big with the Disney Princess quotes round, thank you very much.
Thursday, mom's last day in Beijing, she and Super Husband trekked out to the Bagou area where we had a lunch of Peking Duck, and those delicious, spicy green beans. Then they came and visited the school, where mom met my students. Of course, they weren't particularly talkative having just woken up from their naps, but they had said they wanted to see my mommy, so there she was.
After work I took the subway all 22 stops to Guomao (I had a seat the whole way! It was glorious.) where we got lost trying to find Bleu Marine, a Danish and French steak restaurant. It threatened to rain on us as we wandered around, but we managed to find it before it really let loose. We chose that restaurant on the recommendation of a friend, and were not disappointed. In fact, I have plans to return next Tuesday.
Mom flew out of Beijing on Friday morning, and Friday evening while Super Husband studied for his upcoming finals I had dinner with two friends, and one's visiting brother. He had just arrived that morning, and so jet-lag once again made it an early night for all.
Saturday was uneventful for me, but Super Husband saw not one, but two movies. One of which was the new Superman! He didn't call me in the middle of the night to tell me it was horrible, or amazing, so I guess it passed muster without breaking any records.
And now it's Sunday, a day for lesson planning, blog writing, and tv watching. Although, my tv watching has taken a dive lately. I just can't seem to find a "summer show" I really love.

On an unrelated note:
I'm still compiling lists of Beijing Tips and Tricks, so if anyone has any advice, or questions, please, please e-mail me so that I can make sure everything is addressed!

Hurrah for Two Day Work Weeks

It's Saturday, and it's smoggy, and hot outside. But not even that can dim our enthusiasm for Beijing.

Okay. That's not entirely true.
I'm typing this from the confines of my air conditioned bedroom, and have not set foot into the heat or smog yet today. It's perfectly possible, nay - likely that come nine or ten tonight we'll be singing an entirely different tune. One of sore feet, sweaty backs, and arms tired from lugging loot around the city.
We're heading out to Panjiayuan to get Super Husband a few pairs of glasses (at $30 a pop we can afford to buy more than one at a time) and then over to the Panjiayuan Antiques Market. We don't exactly have a list for ourselves right now, but I've not been during the weekend when it's supposed to be full of all kinds of goodies from ages past, and present.
Our previous trip there yielded some nice silk purses and bags, and some chopsticks. And that was on a Monday, so who knows what a Saturday will yield.

******
Skip to eight hours after that first bit was written and we have successfully procured three new pairs of glasses for Super Husband (two sporty/informal pairs, and a "business" pair), a silver bracelet with the 12 signs of the Chinese Zodiac on it, a silk table runner, and a calligraphy set. Getting the lenses in the glasses took so long that we didn't get to Panjiayuan until after 4pm, and they begin packing up around 4:45 for a 5 o'clock closing, but over all we were fairly productive.
Add to that some homemade french fries and I'm calling it a day.

We were also full of energy because this past week was only a two day work week. Huzzah and Hurrah. It's amazing the difference that kind of thing can make.
On Friday the Red Lions, Maroon Lions, Teacher Korey, and I attempted to make ice cream in a bag. I'm putting pretty heavy emphasis on attempted. I'm not ducking the blame here, but it's pretty much all the nurse's fault. Hers, and the fact that the freezer at the school isn't worth a hang. I asked the nurse (she's the only one that's allowed in the kitchen besides the cooks) to freeze plastic ziplock bags of water so that we could just break up the ice and put our bags of sugary milk in there and shake shake shake. Without telling me, she deemed it unhealthy to freeze stuff in plastic bags, and instead put a huge bowl of water in the freezer. That would have been annoying, but fine. Except only the top 1/2inch layer froze, and the rest was just cold water. So, we worked with what we had. After 10 minutes of shaking yielded no results we decided to just put the bags of "ice cream" into the freezer until it was time to send the kids home, six hours later. When I went to check on it at 4:50 we still just had cold milk.
I was so disappointed.  So we sent bags of milk home with our kids and told them to freeze it at home, and hopefully it would work.
On Saturday morning one of the moms sent me a photo of her son eating his ice cream, so at least they finally got to enjoy the fruits of their (really, I did all the work) labour.

Now it's Sunday, and we're FaceTiming with Super Husband's brother. We can't decide whether to spend the day being lazy (our prerogative) or go shopping for things to send back to Houston with my mom. Because she's coming to Beijing on a business trip, and I'm so excited. Although she and I will both have to work, we'll at least have a few dinners together.

Zhongzi, Dragons, and Protective Bracelets

Seven Day work weeks are the worst. For everyone. The kids hate it, the teachers hate it - Horrible. By Sunday two of my students were home sick, and all of the Maroon Lions were desperately trying to infect the rest of the school with their tiny children coughs.
But today, Tuesday, is Dragon Boat Festival, which means we have yesterday, today, and tomorrow off work.
Neither Super Husband nor I have really gleaned the history behind Dragon Boat. We're pretty sure that it has soooomething to do with a soldier who drowned himself as a sacrifice in order to save a bunch of other people. But I dunno.

 I guuuueeeess I could look it up. 

Hold Please.

Okay, so I've done some research, Wikipedia was involved, as were other sites, and it turns out I was about half right. Or really only correct about someone drowning himself. The poet Qu Yuan was exiled from the court of the Chu kingdom because some other guy didn't like him (I'm pretty sure I'm over simplifying this, but whatever.) and he wrote a few patriotic poems, and then drowned himself in a river so that he didn't have to see his beloved Chu kingdom invaded by some other kingdom... maybe the Qin kingdom. This is kind of where stories differ. Some sources are saying he drowned himself in despair over the exile itself, others say he couldn't bear to see the conquering of the Chu kingdom. Either way, all stories seem to agree that when local villagers realized what he had done they searched for his body in "dragon boats" and threw food, like zhongzi and eggs, into the river to attract the water-borne creatures away from his... ahem... corpse.   

So, the lowdown on zhongzi is this -- They're rice dumplings. There are traditionally two types, sweet, and spicy. The spicier zhongzi are traditional in southern China, and are usually filled with pork or chicken, and dipped in a spicy sauce when eaten. The sweet zhongzi, traditional in the north, are filled with fruit, often jujubes, and are dipped in sugar when eaten. I thought they were wrapped in banana leaves (which I don't like) but apparently it's actually a bamboo leaf, so that's cool. If you would like to make zhongzi, for whatever reason, there is a video of an older asian lady (I didn't watch it) making them on youtube. 

On Sunday the older kids at school made them, and it was hilarious to me to listen to the foreign teachers try to coach the kids in English about making them. Finally, at least for one class, the Chinese teacher just took over and made it a Chinese lesson. 

While the older kids were making zhongzi the younger classes made "five color thread bracelets". The site I linked to earlier, not wikipedia or the video, talks about the significance, but not the history, of these thread bracelets. I'm wearing one right now, and I made one for Super Husband. They are said to protect against plague and disease, and you have to wear it until after the first rainfall, when you're supposed to take it off and throw it into a river. I may or may not remember to do that. 

Moving away from Dragon Boat festival a little, the quiz team won first place again. Because we're just that cool. 

And that looks like it's about all the news I have... 

Oh, wait. I forgot about Sunday's Korean dinner. 

We struggled to get a taxi for almost an hour. Honestly, that's never happened before. We ended up taking a "black cab" after ten or 15 regular taxis, all empty and displaying their "available for hire" signs, drove right past our frantically waving arms... I even closed my umbrella in hopes that the prospect of a dripping umbrella was the major deterrent, but no such luck. After all that we finally arrived at our destination, a Korean restaurant hidden behind some construction and a guard booth (there was a big golden retriever in said booth, and he was rewarded for his existence with some scratches behind the ears).

My experience with Korean food is limited to three separate dining experiences, two of which were in Beijing, so I am far from an expert on the subject, but what we had was good. Of course, we did let an actual Korean person do the ordering, so that might account for some of it. 

First out was a plate of boiled pork, and kemchi. This was accompanied by a basket of lettuce, and we were told that you make a lettuce wrap out of the kemchi and pork. 

Kemchi and Boiled Pork

Korean Mijiu (rice wine) mixed with Sprite

We also partook, for the first time for either Super Husband or I, of Korean mijiu, or rice wine. This particular mijiu was brought in a large pot, and mixed with Sprite. I don't really know if that's somehow fairly traditional, but it seems that it is one of the "flavors of choice". It's served in these little metal bowls (that I couldn't help thinking of as dog food bowls every time I took a sip) and it was really pretty tasty. Super Husband said that it tastes like ice cream, and while it is a smooth, sweet flavor, I wouldn't go quite that far.

We were at this restaurant for the belated birthday celebration of one of Super Husband's Korean classmates, and we found out that there is a "traditional" birthday hazing ritual. When you're down to the dregs of a pot of mijiu everyone must add something (and I mean anything) to the pot. Soy sauce, soju (another Korean alcohol), hot sauce, broth from the soup we were eating, and even lettuce were added to the mijiu, and all were subsequently consumed by the birthday boy. And here, let's just all give thanks for the fact that they didn't know when my birthday was, because my stomach was barely strong enough to withstand his torture, much less drinking that slop myself. Ick. 

And that really is everything... unless it isn't. But it is, for now. 

Fragrant Hills, Taco Rolls, and Evil Balloons

This week was action packed. Or at least the latter half was.
Monday I found out that I'd been nominated as head of the decorations committee (of which I am currently the only member) for the American House graduation ceremony, and a group of managers and I went to check out the location. It's a lovely hotel with a Mayan theme, and the room we chose will suit perfectly. It has a decent size stage, with wings and back entrances so that the kids don't have to run through the audience to get on stage.
Now I just have two months to figure out exactly what decorations we'll use.

Super Husband sighted exhaustion and malaise  (and I'd like to think a little bit of wanting to spend some time with me) and played hooky Tuesday and Wednesday. I cooked at home and he studied and watched Chinese soap operas.

Much of Thursday afternoon was spent planning for Friday's Children's Day celebration, and that meant blowing up copious amounts of balloons. I only got through seven or eight balloons before my previously only mild latex allergy kicked in. I spent the rest of the day repeatedly washing my hands and face, and hoping that reapplication of chapstick would assuage the burning of my lips. It didn't.
So I can never touch a balloon again, apparently. Thankfully other teachers are not so afflicted, and we ended up with over 250 balloons by the end of Thursday.
Friday morning was a hectic blur of tying ribbons (apparently ribbons and streamers are the same thing...? I definitely asked for streamers when I ordered the decorations) hanging balloons, moving tables, and setting up chairs. But by 9:30 all of the parents had arrived and the children were in their costumes for the performances. The Red Lions danced to YMCA (I will not be taking credit for that, their Chinese teacher chose it.) and while I thought they had done better in practices their parents said they were amazing. And really, that's what matters.
After the performances everyone made their way outside for face painting, bobbing for apples, water balloons, egg races, and basketball tosses. It was like a mini-carnival, and the kids had a blast. 

This is Ellen, she's on of the Managers. But mostly this is the only picture taken that shows any of the decorations. 

After clean-up it was time for a little staff bonding, complete with pizza and drinking games. I never lost, and so was spared from having to down large quantities of whiskey.

Saturday we enjoyed a relaxing morning. My usual tutoring session was cancelled because the parents wanted to treat their kids to a school free Children's Day.
In the evening we joined a few friends for dinner at a famous Sichuan restaurant here in Beijing. Both Super Husband and his roommate felt that it was some of the best Chinese food they had eaten in Beijing. After dinner we strolled around the Olympic area, catching glimpses of the Water Cube, and getting quite close to the Bird's Nest. I often forget how close I actually live to the Olympic area, but I could easily ride my bike there if I wanted to. 

On Sunday we lunched on Kraft macaroni and cheese, courtesy of a Christmas present that my parents brought from family in Texas. I will admit to changing the recipe slightly. Instead of milk and butter I mixed the cheesy packet with a cup of plain yogurt,and I also added a cup of spicy baked zucchini slices. All in all I think it was a healthy enough lunch. Especially considering that we spent the next four hours hiking around the Fragrant Hills with the Red Lions. 

It was even lovelier than I thought it would be. Super Husband and I have decided that we need to go at least two more times before the end of summer. 

After trekking along the paths and getting really nice and... I would say sweaty, but I was taught that women only "feel the heat"... So, after feeling the heat we all shuttled over to a Mongolian restaurant where we were celebrating Britney's fourth birthday. 

We had a really lovely meal. Super Husband particularly enjoyed the lamb ribs, and I liked the stewed beef and potatoes with cilantro. They also served "spring rolls", but they were unlike any we'd tried anywhere else. They more closely resembled a taco than what most westerners consider a spring roll. A thick tortilla or pita bread with pieces of sliced lamb, spring onions, chives and lettuce. It was very good, but dry. I'm wondering if maybe we didn't miss a sauce that you put on it,  or perhaps dip it in.
Another interesting aspect of the meal was when the performers asked both Super Husband and me to do a traditional toast. While it didn't involve a speech, it did involve flicking wine from our right ring fingers toward the sky, then the ground, and then dabbing it onto our foreheads, and finally drinking the wine in a single gulp. After we finished those prerequisites we were draped with a silk scarfs,  which we took home.
All in all it was a lovely day, and the birthday girl was more than happy with the turn out.
When we got home we barely had the energy to download the photos from our phones and camera before conking out for the night.
Now it's Monday, and the start to yet another seven day work week. This time we've ameliorated the situation somewhat by adding in fun activities that will teach, while giving the teachers a bit of a break.