Celebrating the Middle of Autumn.

This past week was China's National Holiday during which most offices and schools get a week off for vacation.  It just so happened that right at the beginning of the week long holiday (of which our school got 3 days - Saturday, Sunday, and Monday), the fullest the moon will ever be during the year happened (also known as Mid-Autumn Festival).  To celebrate Mid-Autumn festival the foreign students at our university decided to throw a little party, potluck style.  It turns out more than 50% of the students are vegetarians.

Our teachers, snacking first....the one on the right is really into it
(she's our favorite, by the way)

The students jumping in.  There are 27 foreign students.  Most are from Japan.
The left side and center tables are vegetarian, the right side - meat.

Marie (German student) and me

Aaron and Stowe, one of the English teachers at our "Uni,"
as the aussies and kiwis say

The Greak Yak Jerky Experiment (Round 1)

I like to make my own beef jerky. It's a handy snack when traveling, which we do a lot of; it is also a great pack stuffer for hiking trips, which I always try to do a lot of. Plus, I'm not sure if you've heard, but buying jerky costs more than a black market kidney these days, and I'm trying to cut my overhead...

So, now that I'm settled in, I figured it was time to try my first batch of "high elevation jerky." Caveat: they only eat yak meat here, and I am less than familiar with the ins-and-outs of yak cuisine essentials.

Here it goes:


First, I went and bought 3 pounds of yak meat - 2 pounds frozen and 1 pound fresh. I divided each in half, so that I had 4 test groups (to see whether fresh or frozen meat works better for jerky).

Defrosting the frozen yak meat

Preparing to wash the meat

A handful of fresh yak meat, in desperate need of a washing

Trimming and slicing the meat

Next, I mixed two marinades: a new one I called "Mango Fire," from mango concentrate and mix of zesty spices, and my old stand-by - a flavor I call "The French & Indian War." Trust me, you'll enjoy the battling flavors.

Mixing up a cup of "Mango Fire" marinade

Adding marinade to each of the 4 batches

Give the flavor time to set in overnight

2 batches of Mango Fire, 2 of French & Indian War

Time for a taste test...

Verdict: Mango Fire was a fail on all counts. Both batches were less than desirable, with one being so fetid that I gave it away immediately. The French & Indian War was, as always, reliable and delicious, though this time a little gamier than I like.

Back into the lab with a pen and a pad...

Little House on the Prairie?

I was at a tea house the other day, and this is what they served my tea in. It's a thermos. Apparently from sometime between the days of Little House on the Prairie and the Industrial Revolution.

A glass gallbladder? Really? Is that even sanitary?



I guess as the old saying goes, "when in Rome, Jinbang."

Peppermint (I can guaran-dang-tee it)

My wife is a bit of a beverage-artisan. Give her a frother and a bottle of some exotic flavor-enhancing syrup, and magic happens.

When we came home for the summer, my mom surprised Stacy with a bottle of Starbucks peppermint syrup, which made the long trip back to Asia and up the mountain with us.

Yesterday, like a perfect storm of peppermint perfection, my wife's passion for elaborate libations and my mother's generous gift of "delicious in a bottle" came together in what may now forever be known as: a peppermint hot chocolate.

It. Was. Incredible.


Was my experience enhanced by the North Carolina mug? I can guaran-dang-tee it.

The Dream Team

Recent discovery: The SMJ (one of the two "big" supermarkets in town) has added a pretty stellar line-up to its roster. See below.

That's right people, we can now get A&W ROOT BEER AND CREAM SODA! Not to mention the good Doctor and his assistant Cherry.

This place is in-credible!!!



[NOTE: the reason this is so incredible is that we moved from a fairly cosmopolitan big city to what may colloquially be known as "the stix," and yet somehow we are able to get a much finer selection of canned happiness out here in No-wheres-ville]

Catching back up: part 4, we live in a dorm room

So at the new school we're attending, foreign students are required to live on campus.

Here is a little video preview of what our dorm room(s) looked like before we moved our stuff into it:

we had already taken the furniture out - so here's what came in the room

to show just how small the kitchen is

Catching Back Up: Part 3, Final Destination

To get to our final destination, we still had one 24 hour train ride left, with my stomach still feeling a little bit uneasy.  But we made it with no major issues!

This last part of our trip is beautiful, climbing in altitude to 15,000 ft in some places.  The scenery was beautiful and Phil gave us some Sherlock episodes, so the 24 hours passed pretty quickly.

We hiked to the top of the smallest mountain (14,000ft) our first weekend in town.

Catching back up: part 2, The Steiners

24 hours on a train.......it's long.  But it's actually not too bad if you take it in the afternoon - because then you just enjoy the ride, eat dinner, sleep, wake up (at like 11:00), eat breakfast, and then you're pretty much there.

It's not that bad....unless you are throwing up and having diarrhea for the 24 hour trip like I did. (sorry if that's too much information, living in China we just talk about these things).  The train attendant actually got mad at me for asking her for trash bags.  She said they were going to run out.  So I asked her what I was supposed to do then about my "issues"....she had no answers.  So she just gave me another bag.

sign in the bathroom on the train.

At the end of worst train ride ever, we ended up with our friends Phil and Julie and their girls.  Phil and Julie are amazing.  It has always felt so natural hanging out with them.  Conversations with them are both challenging and fun, and we're pretty much guaranteed to always spend time laughing with them.  They were a great last stop on our way up the mountain to our new city.

steiners!

The world as I see it

Here's a view of our town, looking from just over top of the monastery to the north of town:

Catching back up: Part 1, the return to China

We got back to China at the end of August to a home covered in mold from not being aired out all summer long.  Also, our flights got messed up on the way back to China, so we didn't have luggage for a few days.  So we spent our first week cleaning up our apartment, very reminiscent of when we first moved into that place.  I didn't take any pictures of the apartment covered in mold, though Aaron wanted me to, because I just didn't want to remember it.

A week after being back in China we packed all of our stuff onto a moving truck, cleaned out our apartment, got ripped off (didn't get the extra months we had already paid for our apartment back), said goodbye to our favorite neighborhood people then got on a 24 hour train to spend the next couple of days with our friends Phil and Julie.

This lady runs our favorite dumplings restaurant down the street from our old apartment
We saw her at least once a week for a year.  She cried when we told her we were moving.

random neighborhood girl whose homework for her english class
was to take a picture with some foreigners.
so when she heard we were were packing up our house, she came running over.

packing it up

a blurry picture so you can see the stuff in our truck