Yesterday I hosted “breakfast” for 3 Chinese friends; Zhu (see Rock and Roll party entry), Tony, and a girl ( a friend of Zhu’s…I met her a couple of times at a bar, but I forgot her name and I felt too embarrassed to ask). The girl is a nurse who works with Zhu. An African-American friend from Brooklyn named Tevon was supposed to show up, but he bailed. Originally I thought I would make omelets, but I just have one pan and making omelets for 5- 6 people is difficult. So I made Jesse’s special scrambled eggs – mushrooms, garlic, beef sausage, cheese, spinach, olives, onions, and 9 eggs (but only 5 yolks…don’t need all that cholesterol). Haga showed up (she was working on Sunday) and my friends were a little shy around her, which surprised me. Oh…I also served Jesse’s special potatoes – potatoes chopped into 1 cm square bits, with Chinese chili sauce, wine, Chinese chives, garlic, and soy sauce. AND bagels, lox, and cream cheese. I found an Israeli bakery about a mile from our apartment. He didn’t sell the cream cheese and lox though (got to write to him about that… He should provide it), so I ran to the French Kmart-type department store to get those materials. My friends said they liked it. They didn’t talk much during breakfast. I think they might have been very hungry because normally they don’t eat breakfast at noon.
That day it snowed in Shanghai. Very crazy to see snow here. Of course, the snow melted as soon as it hit the ground – its not that cold here. I would have taken a picture but it would just look like a wet, rainy day. So the snow combined with the cold rain. Not too comfortable, but our apartment was warm and the food good.
Incidentally, I made a pizza the night before using Xinjiang bread and other ingredients we bought at the store. We don’t have an oven, so I used a covered pan. It turned out good though.
So in case you don’t know, Haga and I are going to Thailand on Wednesday – which is Chinese New Years. Everything in China shuts down for almost two weeks. Actually, Chinese people have started to slow down work for the last two weeks in preparation for their holiday. We are very excited about this trip. Our friend Tony Huynh is going to pick us up at the airport. Tony just got laid off from NEC France – with 7 months severance pay (he only worked there 8 months are so). He seems to have found a girlfriend or two in Thailand and is staying there for a while. I do not know if I will be writing anything on this blog while I’m gone.
We will stay in Bangkok until Monday, when we will fly to Phuket and then stay near the beach for a week. We will return to SH on February 1.
When I come back to SH, I will get an English teaching job to make some extra money while I look for better things. If anyone reading this has ideas for stuff that can be sourced here in China, let me know. February is the hiring season in China, so hopefully there will be a lot more work opportunities when I get back.
We are very excited about this trip.
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