Need a laugh, well today the funniest
thing happened to one of our teachers. I won't mention any names, but his
initial is Adam. Well Adam decided to do a little laundry, which as I've
mentioned before is no easy chore. He put his clothes in the washer and
filled up the machine with water..... oh by the way did I mention you have to
stay there while the water is filling and hold the hose on the water faucet or
the hose will fall off. Then he added the powder and proceeded to let the
machine agitate. He then drained the machine and put the clothes into the
"spinner" and spinned them, then back into the washer for the rinse
cycle. Repeat the with the spin action and you're done. Well about
this time his girlfriend Katie came by to check on him and pointed out that the
powder he used was actually powdered milk not soap powder. It could happen
to any of us (except me I buy Tide soap powder to wash my clothes in and the
powdered milk I buy has a picture of a cow on it). We all got a big laugh
as Adam had to rewash his clothes! I tell you being illiterate is
absolutely no fun.
Class has started back and most all the students have returned so life on campus
has really picked up. Needless to say the topic in all the Oral English
classes today was "What I did on National Day Holiday." It seems
that most of my students went home and spent the Mid-Autumn Festival Holiday at
home with their families eating moon cakes (China's answer to our dreaded fruit
cake.....everyone gives them as gifts and no one eats them!) and eating various
other delicacies and watching television.
It's now Wednesday morning and I have to tell you what we did this last night.
Phillip the American teacher from New York has been yearning for some good ole
American meat. He's said he want's a big steak or fried chicken, well
steak isn't available in Jinzhou that I've seen, but chicken is. So
yesterday after I took the girls to school Katie and I went to the market and
went shopping. We bought several pounds of chicken, potatoes and carrots.
The deal was: I'd cook and the rest of the group would do the
dishes....sounded like a plan to me. I've never made fried chicken, but I
must say this turned out really good. We had fried chicken, mashed
potatoes, buttered carrots and gravy. Everything was devoured.
Phillip was so funny, he said "you know everything tastes soooo good, what
is that flavor?" I told him it was butter. "Oh that's the
flavor I've been really missing"
Well after we'd all eaten, I gathered up my plates and forks and headed back to
my room with the girls to let the others visit (sometimes difficult with my
daughters around) and "do the dishes." I heard the party break
up about an hour later and the dishes were started. Keep in mind there is
no hot water in the kitchen, nor is there a garbage disposal and frying chicken
creates a huge mess. I don't know if they put all the grease down the
drain or not, but Katie came in and told me they'd flooded the kitchen, that the
drain had started backing up....Dawn dish soap isn't available here either.
This morning I went down to the kitchen to microwave Charlie's milk and
discovered the floor is still flooded. Ohhhhh well, what an adventure we
are all having!