M-Kitchen

On this sunny but terribly smoggy (the air quality index got up to over 400 by noon, very hazardous), I got a message from Tammy about meeting for lunch at Guanggu. 

We ended up at M-Kitchen, one of several somewhat fancy restaurants up on the fifth floor of the mall.  It's a south Asia fusion place-dishes with curry, or Thai flavors, and even the occasional Vietnamese influence.  We had seafood spring rolls, mango fried chicken, an eggplant dish, and a kind of thing made of two pieces of thin, tortilla-like bread with a curried beef filling.  Tammy and I also got fancy strawberry juices. 
We walked around the mall a bit and went to Carrefour after-again I was reminded why I normally try to do my shopping on a weekday. Eeesh.

Spending time with these two is always good for laughter, especially as Tammy says that Micah makes her laugh just by, well, existing.

Finally Fall

I love alliterative (or consanance, if you want to be picky) titles. They just make me happy. 

Anyway, back to the point.  Now that we're solidly into November, it's finally starting to look fallish.  I was beginning to think we'd never get any color, thanks to the super dry and rather warm weather we've had. 

Poor Abused Oranges

I made the mistake of leaving a small pile of mandarins on my coffee table, and Micah got bored as he was loitering in my living room after a study. Now, he's pretty good at juggling tennis balls, but with the fruit...well, I commented that it was less juggling than just throwing oranges at my floor. He responded by throwing them at me instead. 

It's Contagious!

Sigh...our holidays are starting to catch on here...I guess you can't have too many reasons for a party.  Wal-mart here seems to have a slightly larger aisle of Christmas decorations every year.  Granted, the decorations available here make dollar-store plastic baubles look like the height of elegance and good taste, but it's still fun to decorate, albeit in a tacky, shiny sort of way. 

The thing I'm fussing about is that not only have Christmas decorations caught on, but so has the habit of putting them on display immediately following Halloween.  It's November seventh and I rounded a corner and there was the tinsel. 

I guess I really shouldn't complain...As soon as I got over my indignation (didn't take long) I justified the practice by loading my basket with snowmen.

Halloween!

I get out of class at 3:40; by the time I pack up my scattered belongings and get outside, it's about four.  Too early, really, to go get dinner, but late enough that I don't really want to hike up the five flights of stairs to my apartment and get comfortable, just to go back out again soon.

So, I usually take my time wandering across campus towards the food street.  I often end up sitting on a bench in the park and reading for a while, enjoying the pleasant fall temperatures as long as I can.  I'm not looking forward to the drizzle and chill of winter interrupting my routine. 

Today was the most fun of all, though.  Strolling along still in my witch costume, carrying a jack-o-lantern, nearly everyone I passes did a double-take.  As I crossed the commons, I passed a group of grandmothers out taking their toddler grandchildren for a late afternoon walk; I stopped and re-lit my jack-o-lantern to show the children.  They shyly peered into the glowing eyes, and looked askance at my funny hat.  Who is this strange looking person who can't talk properly? Actually, I think the grandmothers were more excited.  Who ever though of turning a pumpkin into a light? Takes playing with your food to a new level.

I hadn't really planned it, but I realized as I walked on towards the gate that I would be passing the kindergarten just as it let out for the day.  Sure enough, as I walked along in front the school, I was quickly surrounded by a giggling group of curious children and probably even more curious parents.  I showed them how the lid came off the top of the pumpkin, and the candle inside.  One little girl was brave enough to try the word, and she pronounced "pumpkin" quite clearly.  A few of the boys tried on my funny hat. 

I went on to dinner at my favorite little restaurant, where the proprietor and her son exclaimed over my costume, too.  I kept the jack-o-lantern lit as I finally headed home in the dark; I know I 'll be tired of it by the end of the week, but for today I had a great time causing double takes and surreptitious phone pictures. 

Guanggu...joy?

Well, I really wanted that to be an alliterative title, but it's been a long day and I can't think of an appropriate word-starting-with-g to express having a good time shopping with friends.  Gregarious at Guanggu? Nah.  Oh, I guess I could have just said good times at Guanggu...

Anyhow, due to summer vacation, then bedrest, it had amazingly been three months since I had been to Guanggu, the center of the universe or at least the center of our little neighborhood of it. 

After having a 9study in the morning, our group split into two factions based on lunch preference.  One group headed to Subway while Micah, Tammy, Jim, Kaila and I were thinking Papa John's.  Amy tagged along as far as the bus stop, but decided it was too much trouble to drag around her laptop all afternoon and headed back. 

We kept the waitress busy bringing us massive amounts of garlic butter sauce, which we drowned everything in.  It's nice to get a fix of American cheese, butter, and bread now and then. 

Micah wanted to look for some elusive shirt he persists in thinking he will find here, so Tammy and I followed along, ostensibly to shop as well but really not to miss an opportunity of heckling Micah while he tried to shop. (I'm sure he really values our opinions on his clotthing choices...snort. I say helpful things like "Get the neon orange one!")

Micah's shirt remained elusive, and I ended up being the only one to buy anything.  It's rare I find anything in China as I am built very different from the women here, but I found a navy blue sweater with white dots that I am really excited about. 

Outside I expressed my enjoyment of being able to go shopping and traipsing around again by taking pictures (really, that's how I celebrate just about anything).  I was in a silly mood, but I did make an effort to be normal in one, for Tammy's sake. 

Belated Birthday Cake

Micah is one of those people who keeps his birthday quiet; I only found out last year because I just happened to get curious and ask, and it turned out that it was his birthday that very day.  What are the odds?? Well, I guess I can answer that, 1 in 365, I suppose.

This year I intended to annoy him by whispering the secret to all our friends so they could embarrass him in song and also make a cake. Well, the cake part didn't embarrass him, he even specified that he wanted chocolate. 

Unfortunately, I was in the middle of bedrest on his birthday, and couldn't get out to buy butter and sugar.  Besides that, he had a cold. So I told him to take a rain check. 

This past Saturday, though, I was in a cooking mood, and we had friends coming over to watch The Dark Knight (part of the on-going campaign to lessen my ridiculously long list of I-can't-believe-you-haven't-seen-that-have-you-been-under-a-rock movies).  So I took the opportunity to finally bake a chocolate cake.  It's more of a surprise two weeks late, right?

Just a note on the pictures: I was going for taste, not presentation...the candles are supposed to be in the shape of an m but you can't really tell.

Halloween Hijinks

Okay, that title sounds extremely corny. 

Anyhow, it's the week of Halloween, and my busiest week of classes yet.  I have nine classes this week, but eight of them are the same lesson. 

One thing I really enjoy about teaching English in China is teaching about culture, and the most fun lessons are usually about holidays.  And the students are so appreciative of any effort to liven things up with pictures and props...seriously, it'll probably be a bit of a let-down if I teach in the states again...you can't beat walking into a classroom and being greeted with a chorus of OOoohs and having so many camera phones turned towards you that you start to understand how movie stars feel on the red carpet. 

So this week I'm celebrating Halloween and amusing my students by dressing as a witch for class.  This was an easy costume as I already seem to have nearly every article of clothing in black, including a voluminous black jacket with a swirling velvet pattern that reaches nearly to my knees, making quite good witch robes. I think my mom found it at a yard sale. Micah found a witch hat at Wal-mart the other day, which I just remembered in class that I forgot to pay him back for. 

I also found a pumpkin large enough to carve-not an easy feat here where pumpkins are just another vegetable to be eaten.  They don't have much need of huge ones since a small one is plenty to make a side dish for a family meal.  However, it's actually good that I have a very small jack-o-lantern; much easier to carry to class.  The students have never seen one in person before, so jack got his share of paparazzi, too.

I voted for this post-apocalyptic "Radioactive" cover to win Response of...

Milo

Micah is babysitting for our friends Patrick and Maya this week.  While they go to visit her family for a few days over the National Day holiday, they needed someone to watch their tiny little kitten.  So, here is little Milo! Isn't she cute?

42 Amazing Maps

I love maps.  As any of you who have been in my house know, as maps feature prominently in my decor. On road trips, I'm the one with the atlas, navigating.  Maps make me happy. :)