Beautiful, Breezy, Beijing..: My students are fracking awesome...

This past week included our first meal in a Chinese home. The girl Chris tutors, her mother invited us both over last Sunday for lunch. She told Chris we were having dumplings. She picked us up in her car and drove us to their lovely apartment, near the third ring, I believe. When we got there, we both had not realized we would actually be helping to make the dumplings. I have made homemade ravioli before with my mother (her mother is Italian) but this was a little different. The filling seemed pretty straightforward -- it was raw pork mixed with some green onion and salt and sugar. Then she mixed half of the pork with cabbage and half with chives, to make two different kinds of dumplings. She mixed flour with water to get the dough to wrap them and Chris and I were charged with actually wrapping them up! The first few were so difficult but then we started to get the hang of it. Even still, when they were ready, we were somehow able to pick out the ones we did since they were nowhere near as picture perfect as the housekeeper's =). The only downside was how long it took to prepare them. I think they make a lot of them and then freeze them for later in the week. I plan to try it at some point while we are still here.

Homemade dumplings -- and yes, that is a Christmas Tree in the background!

Teaching updates include giving my first pop quiz last week (!). The students all groaned, but most did OK on it. Either way, judging by the participation this week, my plan to get them to do the readings worked. This week our topic was Energy Security and I had them read some articles about shale gas drilling. During the second half of class I had them get into groups of four and debate with one another, one side being an energy company looking to "frack" in an area that involves drinking water for up to 15 million people. I had the other side argue as a local politician representing the 15 million people, receiving pressure from their constituency to not let the drilling happen in case it contaminates their drinking water. It was so great -- the kids all got so heated! In one of my classes they were YELLING! It was great! Most of them were unfamiliar with this entire topic so it was good for them to experience both sides of the argument. Some had so much trouble taking both sides. One girl who was supposed to be arguing on the side of the energy company said something like, "But, we are people too and we understand the importance of drinking water. So we will not try to do this if there are these risks." What a sweet kid. I tried to explain to her that the companies advocating the drilling sincerely do not believe there are health risks to the water contamination. In the end, I asked each of the groups what their opinions were, and I think I would have to say it was about 40% in favor of fracking, 60% in favor of moratoriums. One group was very creative and said as the local politicians, they agreed to let the company frack as long as the entire potentially affected municipality gets free gas from them. All in all, I think it was a great "topical discussion". =) Next week the topic is Food Security and I am contemplating another debate about genetically modified foods...

That's really all to report for now.
I will close with more pictures, mostly of food (duh).

Sunset looking out one of our balconies

Here is a ritual we have noticed at night near the intersections by our school. People will burn fake money to "send" to their dead family members. Usually either on the anniversary of the death or on the nearest festival holiday (as explained by my students).