Turkish Delight!

Have you ever actually eaten Turkish Delight??? I have and I wouldn't recommend it! Not that it is that bad it just cannot in any way ever lead up to the magical delicious powers that it possesses in the classic CS Lewis story The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. That book is one of my absolute favorites. Not only the book but any and ALL movie adaptations. I actually like the small budget BBC version the best. Maybe because I watched it every year of my life, that I can remember of course. When I was in 8th grade at Hand Middle School for our dance performance we did a ballet version of the classic tale. I was Father Christmas. It was fantastic I had a solo and got to dance with some of my best friends! Speaking of Father Christmas I want to give a little shout out to this guy:

Black Santa. One of my coworkers at work has this guy on her door. He is my favorite. When I was a kid my dad would give us black Santa Christmas cards, it doesn't really have anything to do with race, it was just another one of his ways of showing us that things are not always the way people think. Open you mind a little more and accept the concept that if there IS a Santa, he might be black...who are we to put a color on his skin. So I have adopted this notion and love it more every year.

Christmas time is a lot different this year. First of all I cannot believe that it is the 6th of December already. I mean whoa time sloooow down. I do love this time of year though. I mean I am the brokest of the broke so it is forcing me to get creative with my Christmas presents this year. I am going to make some wreaths and other decorations as gifts. Making stuff n general is just so much nicer than buying something. I mean hey I love to be bought for but if you take time to think about me, and what I might really like and then you MAKE IT FOR ME...whoa. Awesome. My family hasn't decided what they are going to do for Christmas yet so it is kind of up in the air. Which is OK. No matter what it will be a world different than last year. In a gesture unmatched by any in my life my family showed me support by spending their Christmas Eve '09 on a plane. They boarded a plane and flew to China to be with me. Now it wasn't the smoothest trip, but honestly China isn't really one of those places you can just hop a plane and go vacay for a week. The language and the society are so different that it takes a lot more preparation. Unfortunately I was ill the week they arrived, not a surprise I was sick at least once a month. I also had only lived there a few months and so I was unprepared to show them around. I only knew a bit of the language and IT WAS FREAKING COLD!! But I will never forget that they got on that plane and came to see me all the way on the other side of the world.

One thing that I gained in China that I will continue to appreciate in my life is Indian food!! I mean I think Mexican food is #1 in my world but there is a serious lack of it in China. I didn't eat a taco for over a year...sad state of affairs! BUT almost as if the world was like sorry for taking away your favorite try this, and thus I was introduced to Delhi Darbar. It was a restaurant that after the first time I ate there I went to at least once a month and that was the bare minimum. It was the regular dinner spot for my roommate Lindsay and me. She, being from England, was well versed in the way of the curry. It never occurred to me that because we live next to Mexico that we would have more readily available Mexican food, where as England is closer to India and therefore they have more Indian food. Now I am not discounting that either country does not have varying degrees of each but between the two of us we just noticed that it worked out that way. and when Lindsay comes to the US she is going to get a major dose of Mexican deliciousness! Anywho back to Indian food. there were several occasions where David and I would start out to try a new restaurant and would just end up talking ourselves into Delhi Darbar. Well I fell in love, with the spices and the colors and the whole experience. Needless to say I have been craving since my return home. The other day on our ride home from work we were a bit out of the way and K pointed out an Indian food restaurant that he says is comparable to the greatness he enjoyed in Japan. So we decided that it was 100% necessary to have Ifood night, and we did. EG and I went to K&L's for dinner one night. K called in our order and brought it back for us. I ordered this:

Murgh (chicken) Tikka Masala, which was my favorite dish in China. We also had veggie samosas and lemon rice. We had some yummy red wine to wash it all down and I tell you what ladies and gentleman, I was one satisfied diner. K got us level 3 spice which was perfect although I think I will step it up to a level 4 next time. It needs to hurt a little bit right! One day I will go all out and get the vindaloo, hard core right.

Well since I have been talking about Indian cuisine I might as well tell you about a book that read while I was in China, a book that in some ways changed my life. Shantaram. Lindsay found this book in a hostel that we frequently went to to drink beer and play pool. She read it first, and I tell this girl could read, the book is roughly 1000 pages and she finished it in like a month (it took me 4 months). She would sit on the couch and read and laugh or read and cry and she would just say, wait till you read it then you will understand. And understand I did. the reason it took me 4 months to read the book is because it forced me to take it slowly. I began reading and was instantly mesmerized by the writing. It is really thick at first but once you start to appreciate it you are hooked. I found it brought out the lit. minor in me. I would read it with a pencil and a note pad underlining and writing in the margins. Taking notes on things that I needed to look up or ideas to cross reference. It is seriously a brilliant and intricately told story. The first half of the book is one that I can see myself reading over and over again. The second half is thrilling but it in no way compares to the beginning. It is philosophical and beautiful and tragic and terrifying. And it all takes place in India. A land that I have always had an interest in but is made even more magical after reading this story. I would suggest this book to anyone and even gave it to EG as a gift, although I don't think she has even picked it up. It is intimidating, but once you start you will be transported to another world entirely! You can check out some info about it here, and to tell you just seeing this cover makes my heart beat a little faster

Well if you check it out happy reading everyone!

What are you reading, or what have you read that has changed your world a little bit??

xox

Time to remember...

What a week what a week. Last week really was special. It also already feels like it was nine years ago! Time is flying by so quickly. It is already December! I am not quite sure what I think about that, I mean it is great go DECEMBER but in general I like to savor my time and it is hard to do that when you blink and a year has gone by. I have to go ahead throw some mad props out to my dear friends April and Andrew for hosting the most amazing Thanksgiving extravaganza I have ever had. They were gracious, the food was amazing, Andrew cooked the most delicious turkey I have EVER eaten EVER! I am not exaggerating! It was his first try and it was the best. April out did herself. She is already a phenomenal cook but the macaroni and cheese, soup, dressing and especially the homemade sweet potato pie were so delicious. Also she made an amazing turkey salad for sandwiches the next day that rivals any chicken salad I have ever had! Watch your back Gourmet Shop ;)

So thinking back on a couple of past Thanksgivings, last year I was in China. Obviously. At the time I was the only American in our program so it was really interesting being surrounded by so many people who just do NOT celebrate this super American holiday. I had to teach on the Thursday but I had no problem with that because I was at Huanghe the primary school where I taught 3rd grade. I had three classes each class had aprox. 50 students in each and they were my little rays of sunshine in smoggy Xi'an. I taught them from the first day of their 3rd grade year to the last day and I watch them grow and change so much. Their little sparkling personalities shining and changing and growing and melding. I could see some of the students really take a great interest in English. They would ask questions and really try to talk to me! Oh brilliant! Anywho, I took that Thanksgiving Thursday and veered away from my usual lesson plan to tell them about this special holiday. I gave them vocabulary words like pilgrims, native Americans, turkey, family, thanks, feast, harvest. I, along with my assistant teacher, explained the history of the tradition and then how it is celebrated to this day in our country. After telling them how it is spent with your family, eating and giving thanks they asked me if I was going to go and see my family and friends. I remember getting teary-eyed in class and telling them no, that it was too far for me to travel. They were sad, they didn't understand why I would move so far away from my family. They wanted me to be happy, and I told them that I was very happy because I was extremely thankful for them. Then we went around the room and they got to tell me in English what they were thankful for, which with their limited vocabulary was a lot of the same things. Family and food, but when you think about it isn't that usually what we are thankful for as well?! After being a bit emotional it was time to have some thankful fun. So I passed out plain sheets of paper and told them to get out their markers. Then I went to the chalk board and traced an outline of my hand...then drew a face on the thumb and some little red chin turkey dangles and stick legs. When I showed it to the kids they all cheered and were so excited. Although I can't remember the actual Chinese name for a turkey I know that the literal translation is fire bird, interesting considering we fire them up each year! Well each student took to drawing out their own turkey hands. I wrote  GOBBLE GOBBLE in big letters on the board and by the end of class everyone was gobble gobbling around the class. It was the most fun. By the end of class they handed in their pictures, and almost all of them had dedicated them to me. They wrote in English and Chinese Happy Thanksgiving Sumner we love you. They wrote me messages saying how thankful they were for me because I teach them my language and because I am beautiful and funny. It may have been the most amazing day of my life.

After finishing teaching I went home and met up with my roommate Lindsay and our friend/ coworker Rob. Both R and L are from England so they had no real commitment to this holiday but decided to share it with me. I am not sure if they will ever know how much that meant to me. Hotels in the city were pretty good about serving appropriate Western feasts. So we hopped in a cab and headed off to the west side of the city to the Sheraton, they were offering a Tgiving buffet with all you can drink wine and beer for $180 kuai which is about $30. I'll take it!!! We lived on the east side and just had to go straight through the city wall and out the other side to get to our dinner destination, but it still took an hour to get there. Traffic in China is the craziest!! Once at the hotel we were seated and served, we quickly hit the buffet where we saw some much missed delicacies, like SALAD and CHEESE. It was brilliant! I ate and drank and ate and drank...then ate some more. It was gluttonous for sure, and it may be a sin but I deserved it! The three of us had a great time. We made our way to the dessert table more than once. This was the first time we were introduced to some of the weird ice cream flavors they serve, mushroom and green tea and something purple but I can't remember what it was! After dinner I introduced Rob and Linz to the Thanksgiving waddle, what we all are used to, the trying to move after having eaten our weight in turkey in fixins. We took a cab to Oscar's to continue the festivities but I quickly headed home. I had had a gracious plenty and was stuffed and sleepy. The day had been beautiful but challenging. It was cold and I was so far from home. I was thankful to be there and for the opportunity to grow and experience the world in such a dramatically different way, but I was homesick.

It is a Thanksgiving that I will never forget!!!