Ice-Scooting

Yesterday we had a wonderful day. A had the day off and I'm on the first week of my five week Chinese New Year break from teaching, so we hooked up with the Bassetts and had loads of fun. Question: What would the Putnams do without the Bassetts? Answer: Let's not go there. As far as our Branch goes, we live geographically closer to the Bassetts than anyone else. We're only a few Beijing-blocks from each other (which are huge) but is has been a huge blessing to us over the last 5 months. Brooke is in our Nursery and we just adore her, and Bobby and Ashleigh are absolutely awesome and we're looking forward to being friends with them for a long, long time.

We took a taxi from the Bassetts house down to Houhai Lake which, come to find out, is an ice skating wonderland! I have never been a huge fan of ice skating - there's something about being cold, sore, and uncomfortable that I usually don't enjoy...call me crazy...However, riding on a chair, with my husband, feet off the ice, pushing ourselves forward with two screwdrivers soldered together was nothing less than AWESOME!

Why are we so surprised that they have their own way of moving across the ice? I don't know because by this time, we should have learned that they have different ways of doing lots of things, but somehow we are still surprised! We loved the ice chairs, even complete with a little steering wheel for Brooke, and the Bassetts ice-bike was great too. Bobby and Ashleigh (and Brooke!) are super adventurous - and if you know me, you know that "adventure" is my middle name. Not. A would start us in a donut and I'd be screaming, "slow down! A, you stop that!" Our poor children, I promise I won't swaddle them in bubble-wrap. :)

We had loads of fun on the ice and loved spending the time with the Bassetts. They've been back home for the last three weeks so we were so happy to have the day with them. We had a blast all-together and equally enjoyed watching all of the other people around us. I'll tell you what, while in China there sure is a lot of prime people watching to be done.

After ice-scooting we split for some lunch and met back up at the theatre to see Sherlock Holmes. It just came out in China on Sunday. We LOVED the movie and there is just something about sitting in a movie theatre that makes us feel like we're at home - the Chinese subtitles don't even throw us. After the movie we walked over to this awesome little shopping street and got some delicious-creamy-custardy-outside crunchy-triangles that the Bassetts knew about. It was a perfect treat and a great ending to our fun day!

Lost in Translation...

Speaking a second language is a fine balance between confidence to speak and the humility to sometimes be wrong. I've never really made a mistake in Chinese that kind of makes sense. Don't get me wrong, I make countless mistakes on a daily basis, but never really one like this. 

See the difference between these two words? See how that different is only the "g" at the beginning? ānjìng vs. gānjìng. These words could easily be switched for each other, right? Right?

安静

ānjìng

Quiet

干净

gānjìng

Clean

So we went to the Chinese National Museum yesterday on Tiananmen Square and before entering the museum you of course have to go through a security check station. The girl put my bag through the scanner and then asked me to open it up for her so she could have a look inside. I opened my purse and she grabbed a small Lysol disinfectant spray that my mom sent me for Christmas. (That's right, disinfectant spray for Christmas.) The girl asked me what it was and I told her in Chinese that it's a thing you use in the bathroom to make it more clean. Well...at least...that's what I thought I said. But I actually told her it's a thing you use in the bathroom to make it more quiet. 

The look on her face made me feel like I had said something wrong, but of course that language-learner-confidence kicked in and I just kept repeating it over and over and charading the use of a spray over a toilet seat. She was threatening me with confiscating my disinfectant spray! I had to defend the spray! I can't be without that stuff!

 "Make it quieter when you go to the bathroom! More quiet in the bathroom!" I kept repeating.

Her confusion was frustrating me so I turned to Bouk Goble (Beijing friend of ours who of course has way better Chinese than me) and said, "Do you know how to say germs or bacteria? I don't know how else to explain this to her besides saying that it makes the toilet more  ānjìng ." 

"You said  ānjìng? No, you need to say gānjìng! You just told her your spray makes it more quiet when you use the toilet!"

Awesome.

I'll just end here because all that followed was my correcting myself, their laughter, our laughter, I probably got all splotchy on my neck cause I was embarrassed...Yea, I'll just end here.

Jiǎozi

饺子

jiǎozi

Boiled, steamed, fried, in soup, at home, at a restaurant, on the street, meat, vegetables, eggs, cabbage - doesn't matter, we love them all! This post is dedicated to the new love of our life - jiǎozi. Call them what you want - jiǎozi, dumplings, pot stickers - these little buggers are delicious and incredibly addicting!

I didn't really eat a lot of jiǎozi when I lived in China before, but over the course of the last four (and a half!) months we have eaten more than we can count. Jiǎozi are super common on the street and are pretty easy to pick up anywhere. Near our apartment we'll often stop by and pick up 12 jiǎozi for 5 RMB - about $0.75 - and either stay and eat them out of a steaming tray (like pictured above) or get them to-go out of a plastic bag with a pair of chopsticks. One of our favorite restaurants here is the Bao Yuan Jiaozi House. They serve a variety of fillings in colored wrappers so you can keep track of which filling is which after you've ordered a bunch of different kinds. And then of course, there's the pan-fried. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about. They're yummy at home and delectable here. Oh, and we can't forget, the black vinegar, chopped red peppers, green onions, and/or cilantro to dip them in before devouring. Holy crap. Lately we've been buying jiǎozi in the freezer section at the grocery store and either steaming, boiling, or frying them here at home. Jiǎozi are especially popular right now because they are a traditional food for Chinese New Year, which is fast approaching (January 23rd). Commonly, families will begin making their jiǎozi on New Year's Eve and eat them through the night as the celebrate together.

Given that we love them so much, and that Chinese New Year is coming, I figured that at some point we would need to learn how to make 'em! 5 of our students came over last night and put their mother and grandmother's training to good use - they did them very proud. If you've ever done this with Chinese people before you know that it is such a blast! We all worked together to stuff and fold them and has soon as the finished plate hit the table they disappeared! Wei Xiaozhe, May, Han Liyun, Edward, and Zhang Zijin all came over and showed Alex and I how it was done. Washing, chopping, chopping, chopping, mixing, kneading, waiting, rolling, stuffing, pinching, drying, boiling, straining, and DEVOURING!

One thing (among others) that we learned last night is that different provinces or areas of China have different ways of folding/forming their dumplings. All of our students are from different provinces so they each showed us their special technique - that was really fun. Alex's technique was a little thing we liked to call, "the burrito fold" or the ever-popular "star-ship enterprise." One of our students, Zhang Zijin, is from Hainan province which is one of the southern-most areas of China. He folded his jiǎozi and I was so surprised because it looked exactly like a fortune cookie! Look!

Now I Googled it, and the origin of fortune cookies is unknown - besides the fact that mainland China had virtually nothing to do with it and that they are only an American symbol of Asia. There are a lot of theories on where fortune cookies came from but if I could also submit my theory to the pile...it would have something to do with the jiǎozi from southern China.

When all was said and done we had made a giant, floury mess and had eaten about 130 dumplings! Alex and I are still recovering from the jiǎozi fest, but it was definitely worth it. We're happy we now know how it's done and look forward to perfecting the art when we try them again in the future!

Holidays Recap

We can't get too far in to January without recapping what a wonderful time we had with our first Christmas in China and our first Christmas away from home - we made it!

Our Christmas started on the 23rd with a night here at home to finish preparations and start some new traditions! Our wrapping was super-classy and we thought the home-made snowflakes were a nice touch. One tradition we decided to try is to make Chinese food during the holidays. I think we'll always remember our Christmas(es) in China and will want to celebrate that for years to come. I haven't really tried any Chinese cooking up until this point, so I was really excited to try our first home-made dish - gong bao ji ding! Combined with a you zi and some dumplings it was an awesome Chinese meal and I was really proud of the way it turned out. Alex and I enjoyed getting to spend some quiet time together before all of the activities we had with friends over the next couple days!

On Christmas Eve we got up early and went to Grandma's Kitchen to meet some of our friends for a glorious American breakfast. This restaurant has awesome food (which of course is expensive) but we decided to splurge in honor of the holidays! It's a tradition in the Hales family to get together with family friends on Christmas Eve morning for breakfast so we decided to continue that. We met Bouk and Hailey Goble, Jen, Gavin, and Sam Ryan, and Nick and Dana Wester. Breakfast was lovely, the company was awesome, and Alex loved having a burger, fries, and milkshake for breakfast! After breakfast we went to a bowling alley close by (another Hales family holiday tradition) and had such a blast! It was another one of those times that we forgot we were on the other side of the world for a minute because it felt so much like home. We don't try to create those times, but when they happen they are more than welcome. :)






After bowling and breakfast we jumped on the subway and headed across town to the Hoskin's home for a Christmas Eve party. I've got to add this darling picture of Joe and Katie Hoskin not only because it's adorable, but also because when they're famous I want tangible, internet proof that we are friends of theirs. Cause trust me, it's gonna happen. And when it does, I'll say "Oh yeah, Joe and Katie, we're friends with them - look at our blog, there's proof."



In all seriousness, we absolutely adore the Hoskin family and were so grateful for the invitation to a party with friends that felt like a party with family. It was so cute because between the other three families there, we had 10 kids who all matched up in ages really well. As soon as all the kids got there they paired off with their little buddies and were just giggling all night long. And get this, we got to sit at the big kid table with the adults! We're so old here! We enjoyed the evening with the Hoskin, Quan, and Morris family as well as the cheese ball, pumpkin chocolate chip bread, meat balls, homemade rolls, salsa, cider, ham...oh no, I'm drooling again just thinking about it. Highlight of the evening (even more so than the food and company) was the Christmas play the Hoskins organized. It is a beautiful tradition that we decided will make an appearance at future Putnam Christmases as well. The spirit of Christ and Christmas was so strong and we're grateful to the Hoskins for creating that - even with a goofy Mary and Joseph. (First Nursery Leaders, now this? I think Katie Hoskin (Primary President) is trying to tell us something...)

On Christmas day we had great plans to wake up early and enjoy our first Christmas morning together. Wait. Did I just use "us" and "wake up early" in the same sentence? Well, if you know us well, you know that's never going to happen. So technically our first Christmas morning on our own was an epic fail, but there's nothing wrong with opening presents at 7 pm, right? Right. We enjoyed a short church meeting and then headed to Nick and Dana Wester's for a gorgeous Christmas dinner and gift exchange with the Westers and Gobles. Dinner was delicious, Dana out-did herself as usual, and the gift exchange was so fun. We are so grateful that we have such good friends here that we can spend these times with - don't know what we would do without all of them.

Speaking of presents, Santa was seriously on our side this year in helping our packages from home arrive! We only had one casualty...Jenn... :( But the rest made it safe and sound and for that we are grateful. We appreciate our friends and family thinking of us so much. There is just something about holding a box/envelope/package that your loved ones held and sent across the ocean that makes home feel so close.

On Monday morning, the 26th, we got up and were on Skype for almost 5 hours...such is life...And it was wonderful! We loved getting to talk to our families and are grateful that they're willing to talk to us while we're so far away. It was wonderful getting to chat and share a little bit of their Christmas with them.

While we were in transit to and from our Christmas Eve activities we had our camera handy and snapped a few photos of what Christmas looked like on the streets of Beijing. Nice weather, pretty decorations, people selling Christmas Apples everywhere, and a trip up the Xitucheng escalator - longest ever.



For us it just goes without saying that we missed our families over the holidays - cause that's a given. It wasn't fun to be away from our loved ones, but it was a great experience to feel more established, have a unique Christmas, and make great memories with our friends here. God bless us, every one!