Thanksgiving Week

This week was a busy one.  David had a games hour in the canteen with his students on Monday and Friday afternoons.  This is a chance for the students who come to practice their English.  He only had five there on Monday, but Friday ten of the students came.  They like to ask questions about us as well as play the games.  We usually stay on the basement level of the canteen to eat supper on the days when he has the games set up.  Most often, students will stay and eat with us also, making sure that we get the foods that we want and answering questions about what some of the foods are.  It is rather fun.

Tuesday, we had to go to Carrefour and get groceries for the upcoming Thanksgiving meals that we would be having this week.  That evening, Bob and Anna came over to work on their English.  They had some specific questions about the IELS (English proficiency test) and also a paper that Anna needed to write as part of the test.  They are both very bright students and they really want this opportunity to go study at Duke University for a year.

Thursday, we left here about 4 p.m. to go to the Hanlin Hotel and meet with the BYU teachers there. At first, we were just taking the old foam mattress that we had on our bed up so that one of the teachers could use it there.  The beds in China leave a LOT to be desired.  They are basically just a box spring that they expect you to sleep on.  Some of the hotels that we have stayed at throughout China have been almost as hard as sleeping on the floor.  Most often, the beds for the China Teachers haven't been that bad because the past teachers have purchased foams and mattresses for the beds.  This teacher's bed didn't have anything on it, so we took the old foam to her.  We figured that she could at least fold it over if it wasn't enough in a single layer.

We were invited to come earlier and have a Thanksgiving Dinner at a restaurant with them and then go watch a movie in their apartment, so that's what we decided to do.  We rolled the foam up as tight as we could  It was about five feet high and a little over a foot wide rolled up.  David packed it down to the bus stop while I carried a large bag that had a zippered sheet to cover it and a mattress protector in it.  I wish now that I had a picture of him on the bus with it!  We had tried to pick a time to get on the bus when it wouldn't be crowded and we were fortunate that we were each able to get seats and that the bus wasn't very crowded so that it wasn't taking up space for someone to stand.  I felt a little funny walking in the front doors of the hotel with it, but the  alternative of walking in the back way and carrying that thing for another half mile was not acceptable.  (It is a half mile or more to carry it from our apartment to the bus stop.)

None of us felt like going out in the cold to find a restaurant, so we opted for one of the restaurants in the hotel.  We chose the buffet restaurant, not knowing for sure whether it was good or not.  It turned out to be a really good choice!  They had planned a "Thanksgiving" Dinner for the theme.  They even had turkey!  They had some really good fruit salads and shrimp, and a lot of other dishes that were very Chinese, but they were some of the very best dishes.  The restaurant was so excited that some actual Americans had come to eat tonight!  They made a big deal about some sushi that the chef had planned for.  One of the teachers was invited to come eat it and then took a lot of pictures of her and the sushi.  Two of us other teachers were sitting at the table with her (David was off getting more food on his plate at the time), so we were in the pictures also.  They might have given us some sushi also, except we didn't go up when they came to tell us about it (sushi for some, not for me).

Some of the best fruit salad, shrimp and a cute teddy bear Baoza from the hotel's Thanksgiving meal.

We had a fun time watching the Percy Jackson movie after the meal.  Mostly, we had fun making fun of certain parts.  David and I hadn't seen it before, so it made it a lot better to have the others be able to inform us of when a "scary" part was coming up.  Then it became a joke about the scariness and it all devolved from there.  We had to hurry after it was over and catch the bus home because most of the buses stop picking people up after nine p.m.

Friday was games in the canteen, dinner with Lily and making pies day.  Lily was in town for some lectures and met us at the canteen for dinner.  We came back to the apartment afterward and had a good visit.  She didn't stay late because we kept yawning, not on purpose, but I was glad she didn't stay too late, I still had pies to finish baking.

Saturday I had to finish making the banana cream pie and then we had to get the apartment ready for the other foreign (American and Canadian) teachers that were coming for a Thanksgiving dinner.  We borrowed chairs and tables from some of the other apartments, took the carpet, and removed the coffee table out of the living room and made the office ready to set up the food in there.

This was our China turkey.  Someone said they thought there was a place near Beijing that had started to raise them.  It wasn't a very big juicy bird, but it was still turkey.

Me carving the turkey, or trying to.

The turkey was delivered about noon and the other teachers all got here by about 12:20.  I was the only one with carving experience, so I took off my brace and started to carve. I think I was frustrating one of the teachers for how slow I was going because after watching me for about five minutes and how I was doing it, he offered to take over.  It was hard trying to maneuver the knife and fork around without pain.

Green bean casserole, deviled eggs, yams with marshmallows, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy and bread.

When you have a bunch of single men that don't cook come, you have an interesting meal.  One brought the small cakes, another brought the larger cake and one brought the grapes and another brought an assortment of chocolates.  Then there was my pumpkin pie and the square pan was the banana cream pie (I only had two round pie pans, so the apple pie was a priority over the banana cream pie for the round pan)

Zina, Kyle (Michigan) and Jason (North Carolina).

Lynn (Toronto, Canada) and Mark (California)

Kyle, Jason and a Chinese student that joined us.

Mr, Hiroshi (Japan, here doing research joined us also), David and Pam Holt (Texas)  Pam has been here for 17 years and has been a big help to us and other new foreign teachers.  Unfortunately, the university is moving her to the new Quindao campus in January.  She will be GREATLY missed!

We had an enjoyable visit with the other teachers.  Some we hadn't met before and we all agreed that this more intimate setting was perfect for a Thanksgiving dinner in China!

Saturday evening we were headed back to the Hanlin Hotel for our District Conference meetings for Church.  We decided to also give the other teacher the mattress topper that we had first purchased when we got here with the help of another student.  It just was not what it had been advertised as being.  With that and the foam doubled over, I think she'll sleep better.  We were once again carrying an extra large bundle on the bus, but at least this one had a nice cover to it.

Sunday we packed two pies and a large bag of apples to church with us at the Hanlin Hotel so we could have our Thanksgiving dinner with our church group.  After the conference, we had some other guests join us.  We had sixteen in total: seven BYU teachers, Aaron (Vietnamese young man who is a member), Emily Jonas and her three children (also members), Mohammed (an SDNU teacher from Sudan) and a Chinese National named Jack.  Jack was there because he has shared Thanksgiving dinners with BYU teachers since he first met them in 2005.  He also spent a few years at UMASS studying and he just wanted to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner again, he said.  He did bring a bottle of bourbon and some VERY spicy shrimp sauce with him as gifts for the meal.  We had to explain to him that none of us here could drink the bourbon because of religious reasons (Mohammed is Muslim), so he graciously took that back with him.

Our meal was chicken, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, fruit salad, apples, mixed vegetables, vegetable salad and then the pies.

For added ambiance, one of the teachers made these napkin rings.  So cute and such great company.

It was an enjoyable meal and a great way to finish out a Thanksgiving week!