I figured I better do a quick update before I go to bed. Otherwise, I'll never get around to it. So this last weekend was a lot of fun. I took the other interns I work with to Beijing for some sightseeing. The Singaporeans have never been to Beijing before so it was especially cool for them.I took them to all the usual spots like Qianmen, Houhai, Wangfujing, etc. Some random Chinese people asked to take pictures with me again (see pic below) at Qianmen. That hasn't happened in a long time. It's always funny when they do. I obliged them :D (kind of makes me feel like a celebrity I guess).
The night market was a lot of fun! I got them all to eat silk worms and scorpions (the scorpions are actually quite good). Then I tried a seahorse for the first time. They were pretty gross. Just a crunchy, boney, fishy, nasty taste. Wasn't too fond of them. After our night market adventure, I took them too a popular pub at Sanlitun called Bar Blu to relax after a long day of walking all over Beijing. Our last stop for the evening was my favorite massage place in Xizhimen. It was nice to see all of those people again. I still can't believe you can get a 90 minute foot massage for less than $10! I love it!!
Tonight I taught all of my co-workers that have been attending my English lessons how to bake cookies. It quite an experience! Just to get this out of the way, the recipe was called "The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies in the Universe" (they live up to the name) and I was originally told that getting all the ingredients would not be a problem (after all the Director really wanted them). So at 5:00pm today when I went to the kitchen to start getting the ingredients ready, the head of the kitchen Yu Tingting, told me that her manager would not approve of the purchase of chocolate chips due to their high price. I was pretty bummed, how can you make chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips?!?! It just doesn't make sense! So I figured I'd still give it my best shot.
Funny side note: After Yu Tingting told me that there were no chocolate chips, she showed me some potato chips and said, "All we have are potato chips, can we use these?" It was really hard not to laugh (I was afraid I'd offend her)! I guess it is confusing having the word chip in "chocolate chip." Needless to say, I had to explain that chocolate chips were nothing like potato chips.
So we started putting all the ingredients in their separate bowls and I asked for the electric mixer. Then, not to my surprise, I was told that they don't have one. So we had to try and mix everything by hand (with chopsticks and a soup ladle because they didn't have any mixing spoons). That was not easy, and we were never able to fully break up some of the clumps of brown sugar (which was the weirdest brown sugar I've ever seen btw). Then when we started putting the dough on the cookie sheets I tried to explain to them that it isn't a science, and that they only need to put similar-sized balls of cookie dough in lines along the baking pan. I don't think I explained it well, because they were putting the dough on the pan in the shape of an already baked cookie and swirling the top of the dough around in circles with chopsticks trying to make them perfect. It was funny to watch. Baking is a pretty foreign concept for the average Chinese person. Ovens aren't very common here (I am told only the wealthy have them) as Chinese food is typically steamed or pan-fried.
The cookies turned out just OK. There were still clumps of brown sugar in some of the cookies, and the ovens didn't bake them evenly. I just hope the Director enjoys them when he samples them tomorrow. It was a super-fun experience and I think everyone enjoyed it. I really like all of the people that take English classes from me (there are about 10 total). I'm glad I get to hang out with them 3 times a week.
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