Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

感恩节快乐!

The Bei Hua guys (Jim, Matt, Kevin and I) and Jenny went out for a great meal at a Brazilian BBQ buffet restaurant. The type of place where waiters bring various kinds of meats on skewers, so my kind of place. Actually, there's plenty of other things to eat and an endless amount of beer. So, we had a great meal, sharing what we are thankful for and having a fantastic time.

As we celebrate with family and friends, let's not forget those who do not have enough food. Please go to Free Rice, its an easy and fun way to help a good cause! You can learn a new word AND help out the United Nations World Food Program.

Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?

Tonight, my tutor and I were discussing that this Thursday is Thanksgiving in the U.S. and my plans for the day. Then, she asked me, "Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?" So in my very basic Chinese, this is what I managed to spit out:

"Many years ago, the Europeans came to America. They did not know how to cook, so they were very hungry. The people living in America, before the Europeans came, knew how to cook. They helped the Europeans, so they did not die, so they gave many thanks. Now, families come together and eat a whole lot of food, and give thanks for what they have."

It was pretty amusing rendition of the first Thanksgiving; nevertheless, I think I managed to get the point across.

Dumplings! (饺子 - Jiao zi)

One of our favorite foods in Jilin is dumplings. We were disappointed before because we missed the festival when each person is supposed to eat 100 dumplings, regardless, we've eaten our fair share of dumplings here.

Thus, this past Saturday, Matt, Kevin, Jim, Jenny and I went shopping to make a whole bunch of dumplings. It was a success and by the end of the night, we had our share plus tons to freeze. We spent several hours chopping, rolling out dough, making and boiling dumplings, oh and of course, eating our product, while we worked.
Kevin, the dough master












Rolling out the dough into small patties
(Can you tell which hands are mine?)












Dumpling stuffing: assorted meats and egg based fillings












Jim, Kevin, Jenny and I working the dough.

First Snow

Today marks the onslaught of snow here in Jilin. Its been snowing steadily for about 12 hours now and has covered the campus in white. This has made walking treacherous because the combination of precipitation on top of the "red tiles of death" equals very slippery, concluding in a big wipe out.

In Chinese comprehension class today, most of the students were wistfully looking out the windows at the falling snowflakes, totally not paying attention to our teacher. She, being the great person that she is, totally understood, as most of our class is originally from different countries in Africa and have never seen snow before. She let us out a little early, so that we could frolic in the snow.

Bei Hua Da Xue Library (北华大學圖书馆)

Kevin and Matt enjoying the snow, outside our usual lunch spot, which we affectionately call the Muslim Noodle Place.