HOT POT

I LOVE HOT POT!  I've only had it a couple of times but it is really, really good!  For those that don't know what hot pot is, it is a fondue style of cooking and eating where you cook your food at your table.  When you go to a hot pot restaurant you can order a seasoned water, oil, or other liquid to cook your veggies and meat in.  Your table has a heating element and you boil the liquid right there to cook your food.  It is really fun and can take awhile but is pretty filling and tastes super fantastic.  If you can find a hot pot restaurant in your city then I definitely think you should try it out.  Of course it may not be as good as hot pot here in Beijing but most Chinese food outside of China isn't as good as it is here. 

CO-WORKERS

I haven't written anything about my co-workers so this post will be about them.  Disney has about 6 centers in Beijing and they are pretty spread out.  It is a really huge city and takes a bit of time to get from one center to the other.  I will be honest and say that I haven't really gotten to know most fellow employees until more recently.  I don't have anything against anyone but when I got here I just intstantly connected with members of my church that live here and they were an instant family and support to me.  Most of my time has been spent with them but as time has gone on I've been able to get to know and become good friends with others at Disney, especially those that work at my center.  I'm really grateful for my friend Stella who recently moved to France because her contract here came to an end.  She was amazing to work with - really friendly and helped me a great deal with learning the ropes and was so amazingly helpful. She was the only other teacher at my center when I arrived.  My first Director, Lesley, was really great and now my new director, Phoebe is super awesome as well.  My trainer Richard is a fantastic guy and there are some other teachers here as well that are just really nice and amazingly talented. There are two other teachers at my center now that I have become good friends with - Ryan is from Massachusettes and Kendel is from California.  There are a couple other new teachers too that I don't know very well yet - Jeffery and Kendal "with an a" to distinguish from the other Kendel.  Anyway... I've met a few other people recently from other centers who seem to be really cool.  I've learned over the last month how important it is to have a team of co-workers that are responsible and dependable.  Things were extremely frustrating for me recently and I started looking for another job but I can say that because of amazing co-workers that really stepped up to the plate, it has made everything so much better and I am so grateful for that.  I think I have always been blessed to work with such amazing people and it has made an amazing difference in my life. 

CCTV

The first picture is of the CCTV building here in Beijing. It is probably one of the most photographed modern buildings because of it's unique design.  CCTV stands for China Central Television.  There are a lot of channels but I think most of them suck and not just because I don't understand anything they are saying but it is just really, really different.  Pretty much everything is controlled.  Programs consist of a lot of drama-soap opera style programming and a lot of concerts and talent competitions.  There are always programs on with kids, adults, and music groups competing for judges.  The judges usually consist of a person famous in the entertainment business and a few military officers. I usually have my TV on the music channel but I am convinced that whoever runs that station decides what he/she likes and then forces everyone to listen to it because there is little variety.  I also usually watch channel 14 or 15 too because they will play classical music sometimes (actually I guess I don't really watch it but will have it on and listen while I do other things).  There is a channel that plays English movies and some of the HBO programs (United States of Tara, Whatever the Larry David Series was called, and a couple others that didn't interest me) in the evening. The movies usually suck and I don't watch them but every now and then there will be a good one on.  Another channel sometimes shows BBC programming so I finally got to watch Tess of the d'Urbevilles and the Candleford series.  Anyway, I miss all my American shows.  DVD's are cheap here and I bought both seasons of Glee for about 8$ the other day and caught up on that.  I'd love to get cable or something to have more access to English and American programming but oh well.  Sometimes I'm glad I don't have access to it because it allows me to get out more and experience Beijing.  

SLACKER

Please accept my apologies for being a slacker about my blog.  I don't really have a reason for not posting in awhile. Sometimes I am busy and I just forget and other times I am just lazy.  New Posts are now available.  

KNOT TYING

Last month in my Chinese class we had a woman come in to teach us about knot tying. We got to make a necklace and a bracelet from different colored threads.  It was a bit confusing at first but once I got into the grove and figured out the pattern,  it was easy to keep going. Traditional knot tying has been around for at least 1000 years here in China.  From what I read there is some evidence that is was around even hundreds of years prior to that and appears to be closely tied to Buddhist history.  Most of us think of boy scouts when we think of knots but It is considered very much an artform here in China.  I will say though, as I was making my necklace and bracelet I did have numerous flashbacks of my craft making days at campfire camp and church camp when I was younger.  Some knots are really basic and others more complicated.  Most knotted decorations are sold in markets and are usually red in color.  A lot of people hang up traditional knots in their homes for good luck and for prosperity.  I have one traditional knot hanging from a mirror in my apartment and you can see the picture below.  I know most of you have seen these kind of knots or something similar in Chinese restaurants or maybe other places.  

HUTONG TOUR

After my kite making class we headed to an area of Beijing called Houhai.  It is one of the areas of the city where you can visit hutongs.  The word hutong means "water well".  Homes are usually connected to each other along narrow alleys and roads.  This created very tight night communities among neighbors and residents. The government has demolished a lot of the traditional hutongs and other homes here in order to make way for newer and more modern apartment buildings.  The hutong tour was really, really great.  We got to ride in a rickshaw and we had a guide that explained the construction of the hutongs.  Hutongs and homes in China are designed in alignment with feng shui.  The hutong has rooms that face north, south, east, and west.  I can't remember all the details but the I believe the sons had rooms on the north end and the daughters on the south end.  The doorway and porch had design elements that indicated the social status of the family that lived there.  We got to visit the hutong of a family in Houhai and the lady that lived there made us lunch - lots of yummy, traditional dishes.  We also had a quick lesson on dumplings too.  

LET'S GO FLY A KITE

For my Chinese class a few weeks ago we got to attend a kite making class and also a hutong tour.  This post will be about kites and the next will be about hutongs. Kites were invented in China almost 3000 years ago.  The best kite makers in the country have truly perfected this art and process.  the instructor of our class has one of the best kite shops in the city and it is his business that makes and sends kites to royals of various countries, high profile politicians, and celebrities.  He constructs most of the kites out of bamboo and silk which are the same materials they were originally made from thousands of years ago.  The silk kites here in China are very, very beautiful and colorful.  Most of them are representative of animals from the chinese zodiac or insects.  For our class we made kites out of rice paper and the bamboo.  We got to color them with chalks and crayons and since I am not an artist, my kite wasn't very creative or beautiful.  After we made the kites we all went to Houhai to fly them if we wanted and to go on a hutong tour.  There wasn't much wind but my kite did fly!