Like being a journalist again

Someone once told me about pretending to be a reviewer at a restaurant. "You eat slowly, and take notes as you're eating. They'll be really nice to you and give you a free dessert."

I don't think the noodle place took me for a journalist or a food critic, I think the family was just very performance oriented, as much of China is. I wanted pictures of the little boy making noodles. I also wanted video. So the boy's father excitedly told the boy to do a good job and not make his country lose face
.

This was the most open air noodle place I've been to in recent memory. our table was right next to the window so we saw the stuff being made. It was cooked outside in pots next to the door. So I went to get video of that, as well. The young man working the frying pan threw noodles into the big boiling pot.You can see the people playing pool in the background because this is in the alley near the pool tables.
I took this video as we were leaving. Then the boy's dad, who also works at the restaurant, insisted on us watching the cut noodles being made. A guy took a loaf of noodle mass and sliced strings off of it in such a way that they flew right into the pot.

Envy, Racism and Poptarts

How does discussion of running around the track outside my apartment lead to racism and poptarts?
Just the mere fact that the infamous firefighter commandos were looping around the track at the same time. Yesterday morning I had to cut my run short because there was a big show in honor of the special day. So I made it up in the afternoon, which I have never done before.
As I went home from work, I could see that the firetrucks were parked in front of my apartment again, (at least they look exactly like firetrucks as I know them, but I could be wrong.) which meant the green dudes were on their afternoon run.
These firemen wear olive green clothes and I think I remember them sometimes wearing camouflage pants and jackets. But because it's hot, a big camouflage pile accumulates at one corner of the track as they shed them. This time most of them are rolling along in their green shorts.
I had never shared the track with them so I was scared, but they didn't react in any way that I noticed to my intrusion. I think I went around once before running upstairs to put on more sunscreen. My skin doesn't tan. I just reddens. My track buddies, though, have all developed really nice color. I rounded the track trying to decide what color it was. My first thought was the frosting on the cinnamon poptarts, which made me nostalgic for my childhood and hungry at the same time. My second thought was coffee ice cream melting. "Ah, cinnamon people...is it racist to think about people that way?" and I went on to think about how my skin looks a lot like steamed bread. Feels like tofu. I spent the rest of my laps intentionally not looking at the firefighters since anyone watching would probably assume I was ogling them. It's really hard to explain that I used to be a painter and a lot of times I just see bodies as art.

I forgot to tell you about my birthday

Not much to say. These Chinese cakes have no butter in them, and most of the frosting is intended to end up on people's faces in the inevitable cake fight.

It was really amusing waking up on a train at 4am on my birthday, riding back from Wuhu. That was when the lights turned on. I had somehow managed to drape all of my train blankets over my bed, trapping Shannon--who was sleeping in the bed below mine--in a canopy, so she was fortunately spared some of the blast of light.
(the beds are like this, stacked three high. Here's Sarah in the middle bunk)
We arrived at the train station at 5 and had time to got to our apartments and get ready to trach at 8. I find it really exciting to do extreme things, such as not sleeping well and going all day straight. Therefore I was so entertained by the thought of what I was doing that I didn't feel tired for the first two hours of teaching. then, during the second class, I yawned, the students picked up on this and instantly commented. although they seem entirely incapable of hearing, understanding or caring about anything I'm trying to teach them, they are perfectly attentive to any motion that potentially entertains them or warrants unsolicited remarks of concern. Thus asking them questions draws blank stares but dropping a power adapter or kicking a chair by accident elicits gasps and pleas to be more careful. Therefore, yawning got me a barrage of comments that I must be very tired. I had to admit that I was, and that really didn't help. The more they talked about it, the more tired I felt.
Once class was over, I went home and passed out for a while until Aaron came for lunch. I don't remember well when I'm tired. After that I made it through office hours, probably sleeping most of the time, and then on to the faculty meeting, and after the faculty meeting was my birthday dinner. It's a blur now, but there were pancakes, per my request. It was actually the next day that my students surprised me with the cake.

My Kingdom for a Horse

car-ride to qingahanhu: 20 kuai
(sweaty car-ride back) 20 kuai
4 tickets into qingshanhu: 80 kuai
one lap around the circle: 10 kuai
Riding a Horse: priceless

It was worth it. It really was. It was over in about two minutes but it made my day.

Something humbling I realized was that I don't know how to ride a horse, either that or what I do know doesn't work with Chinese horses. Or maybe it just another reminder to not try to impress anyone with what I can do. It's a big temptation here, considering my skin, height, naturally curly red hair and my ability to speak my native language are all amazing and valuable to people I meet here.
Also, about the eighty kuai I spent on tickets, the only tickets the place had were the kind that allow you to do any five of a list of things, such as riding this rickety bike thing over the lake, which was fun. It also included the little maze thing, which also made my day. I was a well over a head taller than the walls, so I imitated all of the adults who just walked on the walls.
Finally, I went on the standard spinning amusement park ride thing, on which
I lost my ticket, so I couldn't go on any other rides. The thing was, there were no other rides I wanted to go on, anyway. It was really just out of a sense of obligation to use all of the lines afforded by the ticket. My purpose in buying the ticket was to ride the horse, and if that was all, it would have been worth it. I saw again how important it is not to get caught up in using freebies and cheapen what is more important, even if you feel guiltily wasteful.