Mutianyu v. 2.0

I went BACK to the great wall on Monday, back to the same section that I went to before. It's called Mutianyu and is not as touristy as the famous (and closer) Badaling section that most foreigners visit. However, I think Mutianyu is overall pretty touristy...but hey, I love touristy things, right down to the cheap tat that they sell on the way up the mountain. I went with Tia and Tyler (my friends from Korea. see xmas pics). They have been in China for about 9 months and had not seen the wall yet! I found a tour through the same centre that we did the cooking class at that went to the wall and the Ming Tombs for about $50 so I decided that it was worth going back to the wall in the winter when it isn't so hot.

It was definitely a much more comfortable trip, despite the freezing wind. I actually wore two layers of pants and socks which, as a Canadian, is kind of rare. Tia haggled to buy a giant "fox" hat at the bottom of the mountain before we walked the very steep hill to reach the cable car. Really, there's very little hiking involved and the steepest part is at the bottom of the mountain getting up to the cable car, not up on the wall itself. Thankfully, it was a very clear, blue day so the pictuers turned out great.
To get down from the mountain we took the toboggan run. It was truly one of the funnest and most bizarre things I have done in a long time. Imagine the concrete run of Collingwood (I think?!) only it's a long, winding, miniature bobsled run. You sit on a plastic sled that has a giant lever in the middle that you push down to move and pull back to brake. You wind your way all the way down the mountain, twisting and turning. Men that work there stand in the forest on the way down and shout at foreigners to slow down but most disregard their shouts and opt for a tear-inducing whizz down the mountain. I was going to take a video but didn't get my camera out and ready and figured it was probably not a great idea to try to fish it outta my pocket while zooming down the side of a mountain. You can kind of see the track in this picture. Maybe I'll go again sometime and get some better pics of that part. It was an exhilarating ride and for 40kwai (maybe $8) it was most definitely worth it. Plus, Tia's hat was just a scream so that made for many silly pictures on the wall and some good laughs that day.

After the mountain, we were taken to a nearby restaurant for lunch which featured a strange combination of dishes. Fried chicken tenders, whole trout, radish or something that was coated in what tasted like orange juice concentrate, a giant dish of scrambled eggs, cornbreads, flat corn pancakes, fried beans, broccoli with a very salty sauce, steamed rice, and other things that I am surely forgetting. I was a little shocked at first when they brought out the trout and didn't seem to bring out much else, wondering how much I would get sitting at a table of 8 people! But thankfully, there was lots of food, albeit strange food!

Next we went to Changping (in the North part of Beijing) to the Ming Tombs. Spoiler alert/ laowai warning: DO NOT GO HERE. It is truly, truly boring and there are many other sites that are much more beautiful than this. We went into the underground palace that was really just a couple rooms or hallways that looked like a glorified subway station. Dongyue temple has statues that are almost as nice and it costs only 10kwai to get in (about $1.5).

Jiaozi, Jiaozi, Jiaozi!!!

So I finally got to go to the hand-pulled noodles and jiaozi cooking class at the cultural centre that I have been looking at for a long time. I convinced Tia to take the class with me despite the 200RMB fee (about $35) and we had super fantastic, embarrassing time!

Hand-pulled noodles are ridiculously hard to make for beginners. Our chef spent three months learning how to do it. You use a bouncing motion from the knees and the waist, not the arms. However, my shoulders and arms got very tired after only a few minutes. The dough is unbelievably sticky and elastic so it is very challenging releasing one hand to catch the dough after you've spun it around. None of us could really work the grain of the dough very well---my strand definitely fell on the floor once and broke at my hands multiple times. It was incredible watching the chef pull and twist the noodles into angel hair strands so delicate and uniform without using a knife or any kind of untensil!

I definitely broke the beautiful strand of dough and ended up with a mess of fettucini-shaped pasta lying sad and abused on the board. After the noodles we got to roll out dough for Jiaozi (dumplings--basically like perogies). I was pretty good at rolling out the dough but truly, truly awful at filling and crimping the dumplings. We were taught a squeezing/sealing method with your two thumbs and one index finger that left me bewildered with warped and sad looking Jiaozi. Oh well, the experience was awesome and I'll be looking for more classes in the future!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

So I've been on vacation for some time now but have barely felt like it! Christmas Eve was fabulous. I went to a house party in the afternoon and ate homemade tourtiere and quiche and all kinds of fabulous foods and drinks. I left the party around 5 or 6pm with my coworker and her bf and went home to grab the dessert ingredients I prepared for dinner and headed to their apartment. We had an excellent diinner of crabs' legs and roasted vegetables and bread and wine and champagne. I brought Bailey's/vanilla mousse and chocolate mousse that I layered in martini glasses with these Asian custard pies from the convenience store (basically Twinkies in place of pound cake or something like that) with some chocolate condensed milk and a Ferrero Rocher and Oreo stick on top. It was DELICIOUS!

Xmas morning I woke up at about 7am and frantically cleaned and prepped my DISGUSTINGLY DIRTY apartment for company.

My friends from Korea arrived around 2pm and Tia and I started to cook while Tyler fixed my DVD player and watched Christmas movies.
We made a broccoli cheese bake, some roasted carrots, garlic mashed potatoes, rosemary/parmesan cornbread madeleines, corn with honey, peas, sweet broccoli salad, cranberry sauce, and packaged gravy. We drank and relaxed and watched movies while we waited for the tukery to arrive. That's right, the turkey came to my apartment in a cooler, wrapped in foil, warm and full of chestnut stuffing. The bird was juicy and tender and fantastic. I only have one dull santoku knife which I didn't realize would be such an issue so our bird got butchered in a most cro magnum manner but, hell, we got to eat the thing. It was really challenging getting everything warm, keeping it warm, and fitting it all on the table. Not an overall perfect meal, but very satisfying as I had great friends to share it with and more than enough Christmas spirit to go around.


We finished off the meal with coffee made in my Vietnamese single-perc with Bailey's and pumpkin pie with whipped cream that we scored from the house party the day before. I hope you all had a great Christmas, too. Christmas in Beijing was beautiful with blue skies and great Xmas displays. Maybe next year you can come and see it for yourselves!

On boxing day I tackled the carcass of the bird and was victorious in creating delicious soup--perhaps the best turkey soup I've ever had. It was a little disturbing dealing with the turkey head and neck and all that but after one swift blow to the neck that grossness was removed and disposed of! I also made myself a turkey pot pie (twice :P) with the leftovers and topped it off with parmesan cheese at the end. It was totally delicious and I'll be making another one as I still have a bit of meat and potatoes left!
For a 6kg bird I really didn't end up with that much food leftover once I split it with my friends so overall I am totally pleased and couldn't ask for anything more!

'Tis the Season...

Hello everyone,

I have been busy making my classroom as festive as possible for the holiday season as well as documenting all of the materials that I have made over the past few months so that I will have a portfolio but also some security if anyone approaches me about not pulling my weight. I've made the bulletin board festive with papier mache holly berries and a cotton snowman, my lead teacher and I changed the curtain in our entrance from fall leaves to origami snowflakes with hand-strung beads, and we've been hanging garland from the ceiling for days! Did I mention that I made papier mache ornaments for my students (I only have four) and painted their names on with glue and then glittered the heck outta them so that they have something to take home for Xmas?! Phew, I am tired just thinking about it. My lead teacher and I came to blows because apparently I spend too much time on the crafts---we have four students, it gets boring, really, it shouldn't be an issue! I may not be able to paint and draw like my brothers but I can weild a glue gun like nobody!

We had a Christmas Activity and I decided that my class's activity should be to make edible marshmallow snowmen. They were kind of a nightmare but my principal was impressed and wants me to design an extra-curricular course of "Food Art" for next term...guess I'll be working on that during the break. If anyone has any ideas for fun, edible crafts for kids let me know!!

I have plans on Xmas eve (my first day off) to go to a house party with cookie decorating and probably mostly drinking in the afternoon (oh, it's 5 o'clock somewhere!). Then, I'll head to a friend's house to have dinner with her boyfriend and his coworker---no meat on xmas eve because he is Catholic *sigh* but I think there may be some meat pie during the afternoon! yay!

Then, I will frantically clean my apartment Xmas morning in preparation for Xmas dinner that I am hosting for myself and my friend and her boyfriend that I knew in Korea. I have ordered a 6KG COOKED TURKEY to be delivered to my house between 6 and 7pm. 6kg was the smallest one I could get---it's gonna cost us about $100 for the turkey alone but oh well! We could pay slightly less and go to a restaurant for a full dinner and not get leftovers or pay this much and at least get our money's worth!!! So I'm gonna be cooking for Xmas dinner this year again only really all I have to do is mash some potatoes and roast some carrots and onions. Easy, peasy!

It's possible that I'll hit up a cooking class at the Chinese Cultural Centre near me where I'll learn to make hand-pulled noodles and dumplings on the 27th if I can sucker someone into going with me! (These things are really only fun if you have someone to laugh at yourself with)

Other than that, no plans for my break. I've been buying myself all the things that I would get in my stocking anyways, treating myself to whatever I want so that I don't get any more depressed being without a loved one in Beijing!!! I bought myself some UGG boots for $20 and a silk robe (which is fabulous!!! and I have been looking at since I was in Korea!!!!) for $10, Law and Order the ORIGINAL first two seasons for about $25 yay! it's so hard to find, Bailey's for my coffee/tea on the big day (or now bc I'm impatient!), a heat-proof madeleine pan (been looking for one even in Canada---so excited to find it!) for ONLY $10!!!!!, I bought CANADIAN BACON ya!! from the foreign food store and have english muffins so will be making eggs benedict at some point probably with cheap bubbly (55 kwai-about $10!!!!) and OJ, and plan on getting a box of Froot Loops and some more perfume because I'm running low. Perhaps I'll splurge on some clothes for New Year's, I don't know. I have no plans for it yet so we'll see how that turns out. I'm getting a little stir-crazy in Beijing and wish that I had of splurged and made the trip to Kyoto like I almost did but I've got to save up so that I can make it home to Canada if I need to! You can leave the country but your debt still follows you! For now I'll stick to 100RMB ($15-20) brunches with CHAMPAGNE and good meals with friends.
Happy Holidays, everyone.

Oxen Xmas Tree...

It's that time of year again. Beijing is going all out with some very festive outdoor displays for the Christmas season. I've been very unhappy professionally the past couple weeks and was nearing quitting but have decided to wait it out a little more. Every night I walk home through "The Place" because there is a GIANT tree and a skating rink and it's just so festive it makes me so happy.
I bought a tree for my apartment and decided todecorate it with the Year of the Ox Chinese New Year stuffed animals that are everywhere these days. My oxen xmas tree makes me happy. Get your computers ready for some skype time...xmas drinks and chat is a must and really, it's 5 o'clock in one of our countries!