Happy Halloween

Today was Halloween in China, and as such my kindergarten had fun activities this morning... meaning I didn't have to teach. (oh yeah!) Instead we got to hand out candy. It was a ton of fun to see all the costumes and to be the bearer of all that's holy to 4-6 year olds... candy.

Also, my friend Christi came over last night and we made cookies. The recipe was for pumpkin spice cookies with a hershey kiss pressed into the center... like peanut blossoms. And as my previous posts have indicated things in China are different, and never really go as planned. So, here's how things went.  ... We planned for a week to get together. The day before we realized we didn't have an oven. But, borrowed one from our neighbor. Then, in order to get pumpkin puree I boiled chunks of pumpkin and removed the skin once soft, then mashed it. (I'm a regular pioneer cook). While that was happening, we baked pumpkin seeds. Then, I didn't have a bowl big enough to mix the dough, so we used my wok. Yes, very China. Also, China doesn't have shortening... but a quick internet search revealed a substitute of mashed banana. So, in went the banana! The dough ended up being very sticky, but we managed to get it into roughly ball shape and onto the pan. Speaking of the pan, we oiled it rather heavily because things burn quite easily here in the orient. After a while of much anticipation and frequent checking they were done. The cookies were a bit dense, but we pressed the kisses into them and stuck them in the fridge... the kisses were sliding off. After a short wait, it was time to taste test!! They looked good, they smelled good, the dough tasted good, and I was ready... I'd like you to know that they are good. But because of the banana they have a certain banana taste. Yep, that's China.

Oh, and today when I went back for the afternoon one of my teachers gave me a snack. She said it was fruit from the ground. It was a white-ish transparent slice of a pie. I asked her what it was, and she had to go look up the English.... apparently it was water chestnut or something. It was odd.

Lastly, I biked a ton today. The route to school is about 2.6 miles (I have an app) and I biked it four times today. Then, I biked the 3.6 miles to Wenli... Where the guys live to get dinner. In case you don't want to add that all up its roughly 14 miles.

Okay, now I'm sitting at Tony's with Laura, Jason, Seth, Tony, Angela, and Tony's parents watching Hocus Pocus as per required for Halloween.

Until next time.