We had lunch at a Korean place and I had 拌饭, baofan, a mixed meal. Portions of vegetables and rice are served in a little pot (placed on a hot plate so it keeps cooking) with a fried egg placed on top. Today there were also pink bean thingies that tasted like meat. Were they meat? Who knows... The aim of the game is to mix everything up, including the egg, before you eat it. The broken egg yolk is cooked by the hot rice so the rice is nice and eggy. I, however, refuse to do this, as I think it spoils the individual flavours, so I just eat everything without mixing and leave the yummy egg, intact, til last. I think that the reason I prefer Western cuisine is that meals are normally served up with a portion of this, a portion of that etc. With Eastern, everything is shredded and mixed together so it is easier to eat with chopsticks. This means each mouthful tastes the same, which gets boring. I like having a bit of potato, then the taste of pie, then the different taste of say, carrot.
I always ask for "不要辣"-"don't want spice". This amuses them- the laowai can't handle a little heat...
While we were eating I noticed a massive hairy caterpillar on my shoulder. I screamed and knocked it off. That wouldn't happen in Edinburgh. Humph.
I went with Anthony to his school as I had an informal interview with his boss about a job. I helped out in Anthony's class-which consisted of several 20 year-old Chinese people desperately trying to avoid saying anything. They had to find out about me and what my interests were etc. The Chinese can be quite blunt, especially the guys, and sure enough the classic "do you have a boyfriend" came up. I explained you don't ask British people that straightaway... They also asked, out of an American, an Englishman and a Chinese man, who I would date. I pointed out that I would choose based on personality not nationality and you shouldn't judge people on race. I did clarify that I would never date an American though:P
I told them about Tibby, my pet cat. Another girl had two cats and we had a squee moment over how cute cats are. Ahem. Another amusing moment was a girl asking if I liked football. I said yes, and then she got really worried that if she went to the UK she would have to like football too...
I told them a bit about Scotland. They knew nothing, except that Scottish men "wear dresses".
I was offered the teaching job but I have decided not to accept as it is too few hours a week (2-3) and I would only have a couple of weeks off at Spring Festival when I want at least 4. Plus it would be teaching children and I would prefer older students.
Becka and I had dinner with Tommy. He took us to another Korean restaurant. I was a bit fazed at first as the waiters kept carrying pots overflowing with flaming hot coals around. I felt this was a hazard. Their purpose, other than to make customers get out of the waiter's way, was to be placed under and thus heat the hot plates in the middle of the tables. Streaky bacon was cooked on this hot plate and then you wrapped it in lettuce and ate it like that. There was also thicker meat of some animal or t'other and a proper looking steak that was chopped up-which I thought was sacrilege. The steak was cooked from frozen which I thought you were never supposed to do... We also had lots of little free dishes like seaweed, a dollop of cold mashed potato (quite yummy actually-had carrot in it) and 茶蛋, chadan, which are eggs that have spent some time in a bowl of tea. It was the first time I tried them and they did not offend the tastebuds as much as I had feared. Lastly, there was a pot of vegetable soup that had peppers in it. It looked very spicy but Tommy was like oh you have come to China you must try everything so I had it and it burned my mouth off and I TOLD YOU SO. Tommy apologised while I gulped down water.
Tommy was lovely and paid for it all. I had been worrying through the day as Anthony had implied the difference between a language partner and a fiance is about 2 weeks... Plus he said that Tommy liked Western girls and Tommy had texted me "好梦" "sweet dreams" two out of the last three nights...so I made sure Becka came along Nice and Friendly. However we had a really good time and were chatting away like ol chums so no danger there I think. Although he would actually make a good husband- he's got a stable job which pays enough for him to afford to learn English. Perhaps I should not be too hasty...
I love the institution of Chinese Marriage. The other day I was on the bus travelling down the main road and there was a wedding "convoy". At the front was a convertible, roof down, with the bonnet covered in flowers. Inside was a groom driving, and the bride in a big poofy dress and with flowers in her hair. Following behind were several black cars with pink ribbons tied to the doorhandles. Being black, with blacked out windows, made them slightly menacing looking. The pink ribbons added to this rather than detracted...They travelled so slowly that my bus kept pace with them despite stopping for passengers.
In class today we did sport. Anthony explained the Offside Rule clearly and correctly. In fluent Mandarin. He gets points for that.
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