Saturday night
Two of my students from the "Trainee" program made me dinner tonight. It was sweet. I met them at North Gate (in Chinese: Bay Mern) - one of the main entrances to the university campus - at 5 PM and we went shopping together at the supermarket.
It was super funny because they kept asking me if I had this or that utensil or basic food (like oil and vinegar and salt) and I was like, "No. No. No! I'm sorry, but no." So we bought many things (including a chopping board, a huge kitchen knife - for $3 Cdn - and sponges and rags to clean dishes afterwards) and headed back towards my apartment in the teachers' dorm.
These students are from Inner Mongolia (very distinct from plain old Mongolia). They work for an engineering company. He's 26, she's 25. They're both married but to different people (fortunately). As you may have guessed they're from my Monday afternoon class, which is a continuing education class where the students are older; they've stopped working in order to focus on learning English to improve their job skills.
The man, Jack, was the cook. He made fresh noodles using Mongolian flour and a bit of water. The woman, Alice, helped out by washing and stirring things when needed (and folding up his sleeves when he was kneading the noodle dough). Photos to come tomorrow.
So now my kitchen is a little more fleshed out. It means Jack will definitely come back to cook because I won't be the one doing any cooking in my kitchen.
Jack made us mutton-noodle soup with tomatoes and spices. It was delicious! It was simple but it took over an hour to make... Everyone was very pleased and happy.
We talked on my sofa after dinner. Alice and I drank OJ while Jack drank orange-flavoured beer. I showed them (upon their insistance) photos of Vancouver and Paris and Banff - some of you are in there! Hope you don't mind.
It was a super pleasant evening. They left around 9:30 PM. I went to Katia's to watch a video - I HEART Huckabees. I've already seen it but I totally forgot it so I didn't mind seeing it again. It's still just as strange as the first time I saw it. If it weren't for the excellent cast I'd feel like it was a pretty stupid movie, but there are some interesting and entertaining moments.
Tomorrow I need to work. I have to create a midterm for my students! I found this out on Thursday. My department wants a copy of the midterm I've created by the end of October. No outline of what the midterm should look like or be like (other than that it's a one-on-one with a teacher). Gotta love China.
That said, I don't think I'll feel like working, so it'll be hard.
Departments are important here. There's a whole structure to the university that I'm not fully aware of. I know I work for the HND (Higher National Diploma) department but then I have that extra "Trainee" program class Monday afternoon that screws everything up. I'm not sure if I belong to two departments or if I even belong to the English department at all...
I'm falling asleep at my computer. It's 1:30 AM. Good night.
It was super funny because they kept asking me if I had this or that utensil or basic food (like oil and vinegar and salt) and I was like, "No. No. No! I'm sorry, but no." So we bought many things (including a chopping board, a huge kitchen knife - for $3 Cdn - and sponges and rags to clean dishes afterwards) and headed back towards my apartment in the teachers' dorm.
These students are from Inner Mongolia (very distinct from plain old Mongolia). They work for an engineering company. He's 26, she's 25. They're both married but to different people (fortunately). As you may have guessed they're from my Monday afternoon class, which is a continuing education class where the students are older; they've stopped working in order to focus on learning English to improve their job skills.
The man, Jack, was the cook. He made fresh noodles using Mongolian flour and a bit of water. The woman, Alice, helped out by washing and stirring things when needed (and folding up his sleeves when he was kneading the noodle dough). Photos to come tomorrow.
So now my kitchen is a little more fleshed out. It means Jack will definitely come back to cook because I won't be the one doing any cooking in my kitchen.
Jack made us mutton-noodle soup with tomatoes and spices. It was delicious! It was simple but it took over an hour to make... Everyone was very pleased and happy.
We talked on my sofa after dinner. Alice and I drank OJ while Jack drank orange-flavoured beer. I showed them (upon their insistance) photos of Vancouver and Paris and Banff - some of you are in there! Hope you don't mind.
It was a super pleasant evening. They left around 9:30 PM. I went to Katia's to watch a video - I HEART Huckabees. I've already seen it but I totally forgot it so I didn't mind seeing it again. It's still just as strange as the first time I saw it. If it weren't for the excellent cast I'd feel like it was a pretty stupid movie, but there are some interesting and entertaining moments.
Tomorrow I need to work. I have to create a midterm for my students! I found this out on Thursday. My department wants a copy of the midterm I've created by the end of October. No outline of what the midterm should look like or be like (other than that it's a one-on-one with a teacher). Gotta love China.
That said, I don't think I'll feel like working, so it'll be hard.
Departments are important here. There's a whole structure to the university that I'm not fully aware of. I know I work for the HND (Higher National Diploma) department but then I have that extra "Trainee" program class Monday afternoon that screws everything up. I'm not sure if I belong to two departments or if I even belong to the English department at all...
I'm falling asleep at my computer. It's 1:30 AM. Good night.
posted by Caro at 1:21 AM
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