Mid-Autumn Festival

So, we didn't have school on Wednesday because of the holdiay called Mid-Autumn Festival, which is a traditional Chinese holiday.  We ate a lot of these things called moon cakes, which are flaky pastry filled with different insides like peanuts, dates, red bean paste, egg, meat, etc.  I liked the peanut and red bean ones fine, but the other ones were kinda gross.

I'm not really sure exactly what the MidAutumn Festival is about, but I've heard two different legends so far.  Both have lovers that have been seperated and celebrating the moon reunites them.  I think.

We decided to go with the cultural students out to hot pot, which is my favorite type of Chinese food.  Its kind of like fondue, only with soup instead of cheese and everything gets cooked in the pot right in front of you.



There is the spicy side and the nonspicy side, and I have started embracing the spicy side.  They also provide you with some good dipping sauces, one being really spicy peppers and the other is a peanut and sesame sauce which is awesome.  There is a gas flame underneath the pot that keeps it bubbling and everything cooks pretty quickly. 

This is some of the stuff we put in the pot: sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, noodles, 3 kinds of tofu, meat, mushrooms, veggies, everything.  It's pretty awesome.

This is half our group, it was so big that we had to take up two tables.  From left to right:

Wayne, Neil, Faith, Jess, Sammi, Jacob, Jessica, Me, Eileen, Enoch's arms.

A couple of guys (Aaron and Neil) have now shaved their heads, which has been very surprising to some of the Chinese students.  I was thinking that maybe I could be next...  well, maybe not.  My hair has been pretty fantastic since I've been here so I'll keep my curls.

After toasting the moon, a group of us headed to one of the nearby amusement park to wander around.  I shot at baloons with a rifle bb gun and we rode a couple of really sketchy rides.  Again, most of those rides would be illegal in the states or condemned.  They are building a new one that looks pretty nice, maybe it will be done before the weather gets really bad.  I do have some good pictures, but that can be another post.

I'm now completely over my cold and back in action for most things.

All of the freshman teachers are now coming back from summer vacation and so I have a whole new host of people that I need to meet and remember the names of.  Many of them are returning teachers but a couple of them are new.  New people mean new personalities and so it will take another month before things really settle.  I'm always excited about new people, so hopefully some of them are fun to hang out with.