Well, I haven't really posted recently, but that's mostly because I haven't had anything particularly interesting to say (which may be obvious from my recent postings where I generally can think of nothing to talk about besides food). But, alas, I shall attempt to update anyone out there who may still be interested.

Mostly, I've just been working, working, working, but I'll attempt to give a short run-down of other "interesting" events that have occurred in the last month or so.

Thanksgiving: The other foreign teachers from ZZFLS and myself all got together for a somewhat makeshift Thanksgiving dinner. Considering we were working with a very limited supply of ingredients, and only a single toaster oven to use for cooking, it turned out remarkably well. We even had pumpkin pie and stuffing! (Which was made possible due to someone's kind parents shipping cans of pumpkin and StoveTop to China.) I was impressed, and the dinner went remarkably well. With the small exception that I may have accidentally set the table on fire when I knocked some tinsel into the candles. This is a note to all of you out there: tinsel is highly flammable. In the end, the table was fine and the only casualty was the bed sheet that was operating as the table cloth at the time. And my wine bottle which was quite charred.

Bus "accident": Just the other day I was heading back from downtown with a friend, and the bus we were in ran into car. The bus was fine of course but the car had a rather sizable dent. Don't worry, no one was hurt, with the exception of my foot, which was stepped on by a tiny Chinese lady as we were all tossed backwards when the bus slammed on the breaks. I've witnessed at least half a dozen of these types of accidents since I've been in China, but this was the first one I was involved in. It's not altogether suprising though. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but driving in China is nuts. Red lights are considered mere suggestions, it's not unusual to see someone blatantly driving down the wrong side of the street (no it doesn't matter one bit if there is oncoming traffic), four lane roads almost always have at least six lanes of traffic, and sidewalks can double as a seventh lane if the occasion arises.  Bicyclists and mopeds add excitement to the whole affair as they weave in and out of rushing traffic. It's not unusual to see bicyclists or a donkey cart (not to mention the street sweepers, almost always old ladies armed with stick brooms and orange vests) meandering up a highway where the rest of traffic is rushing by at 50 or 60 miles per hour; or to see a broken down bus being pushed along by the bus inhabitants (which I have seen twice now and each time found it to be extremely amusing). At first this all frightened me. Now I don't even notice it. After my own "accident" we just got off the bus and walked the rest of the way home. I then promptly forgot about it until I noticed the bruise on my foot given to me by the 80 lb lady. Good times.

Yoga: I am quite pleased that the gym I signed up for offers yoga and pilates classes, and despite the fact I can't understand what the instructor is saying, I am still able to follow along just fine. Unfortunately though, there is one instructor that often seems to think I still need extra help, and will often come and physically put my body into a pose. I mean I guess she does it for everyone, but sometimes it feels like she's picking on me. Mostly I just don't like it because the Chinese do not have quite the sense of physical bounds that we Americans have, and she had no qualms just grabbing any portion of my body and shoving it the right way. So yeah..I've been manhandled by my yoga instructor...so what? I guess it makes sense, considering there are so many people living so close, that personal space is seen a bit differently here. In general, the Chinese are just more "touchy" people. It is not at all uncommon to seen grown women holding hands as they walk down the street. Whenever I go somewhere with any Chinese woman, she will inevitably grab my hand. Which is maybe a little awkward for me, because I generally don't do that sort of thing. Many of the boys (and of course all of the girls) in my classes will hold hands or hug as they are walking through the hallways. And they aren't that young, they are 12 and 13 years old. I think it's kind of sad that if we saw 13 year old boys holding hands at home, we'd make assumptions. But here it's totally normal and doesn't seem the least bit strange at all. I think it's nice. However, I do draw the line at strangers touching my hair on the bus. This has happened a couple of times, and this I don't find so charming.

Hmm, well I can't think of much more to say. Hopefully sometime soon I'll have something more interesting to write about. Starting in mid-January I will have a six week break from school! I am really excited. I already bought a ticket to Thailand (total cost = $100 = awesome!) and am planning on spending about three weeks to a month in SE Asia with some of the other teachers, and then heading back to China in time for the Chinese New Year and to meet up with a certain special visitor. I can't wait. Only one more month!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! Until we meet again...

Dear China,

Thank you for creating tofu. It is healthy and delicious, you can put it in nearly everything, and you do such delicious things with it here in your country. So why, oh why, have you felt the need to defile it in the most horrifying of ways? I am referring to the nearly unspeakable tragedy that is - stinky tofu. Stinky tofu, is just that- stinky. No other way to put it. Sold in restaurants, on street corners, nearly anywhere you go, from blocks away you can catch a whiff of its scent. Once explained to me as tofu somewhere along the fermentation process, the delicious smell is due to some form of bacteria that has recently taken up residence, producing a smell similar to that of roadkill, but worse. Yes, I have attempted to eat it, back when I was naive and silly and believed a kind-hearted Chinese man who attempted to convince me and and a friend that stinky tofu is not nearly as bad as it smells. This is a lie. It is just as bad as it smells. No matter how many friendly Chinese people attempt to convince you otherwise, do not be fooled.

Now, usually I choose to simply avoid this food product. But today, in and unfortunate incident, a restaurant I frequent decided to change its menu, so there is no longer a picture of my favorite tofu dish. How am I supposed to order it without the picture? So with hand gestures and saying the word "tofu, tofu" over and over again, I thought maybe the waitress understood what I was going for. Turns out she did not. I do not blame her for the events that transpired, she was patient and kind and did the very best she could with this ridiculous laowai (foreigner) who can't even say the name of the dish she wanted. However, instead of my delicious onion, pepper tofu dish, I was given- you guessed it- stinky tofu. While not nearly as stinky as some, it definitely still had the scent, strong enough to bring back flashbacks from the fateful day when a good intentioned young Chinese man convinced me to try some stinky tofu...

So in conclusion, I am sorry China. I try to be a kind person, I can forgive a lot, but I don't know if I will ever forgive you for creating the monstrosity that is stinky tofu.

Sincerely,
Anna