11/26/07
I am currently making lesson plans (I am going to teach my kids about the American Education system). But I am doing my best to procrastinate as well. When I came across the concept of elfing yourself in my good friend Paula's blog I couldn't help, but try it myself... me as an elf (http://elfyourself.com/?id=9608232642). It may not work totally right, but like I said I am lesson planning and I can't waste any more time if I am going to sleep tonight.
...let the Christmas season begin.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Sorry It's been awhile...
11/23/07
It's late. I should be sleeping. But I just can't make crappy excuses any more. I need to update my blog. I don't know when the day came that I felt like it had been too long since I had written so I would need to write something epic to make up for it, but somewhere along the way that's how I started thinking. I mean, don't give me wrong I haven't cut off all outside contact with the world, I even put out my second "newsletter" (if you didn't get this let me know and I will send it your way), but I have not been posting on my blog. This is a big deal. It was something I wanted to be committed too. I mean, I don't really know if people read it, but even if one person does it's worth it, right? But I just got done reading a lot of my friend's blogs and was put to shame by some and their ability to post and tempted to justify my actions by others and their lack of posting. Either way, I made it hear. I have decided to shy away from something epic because let's be honest, I studied science and not English in college for a reason and I would have never posted again. Instead, I think I gave you this weak sauce monologue…man…maybe I will talk about Thanksgiving, will that make this better?
I was pretty jazzed about Thanksgiving. I mean, it's a day that centers around eating, and I love to eat. And being in China, I really love to eat American food. So, I was getting all geared up for Thanksgiving and I even signed up to bring some sweet potatoes. They have sweet potatoes here, so I thought I would make some candied yams that everyone would be really impressed with and it would be great. Wednesday night I abandoned the candied yam idea because the brown sugar here tastes like molasses and I am not a fan of that and I wasn't about to willingly put an inferior product out there. Instead I was going to go mashed sweet potatoes with some extra additions. Well, I'll tell you what, they actually have two kinds of sweet potatoes here, and I chose the wrong kind. They weren't really starchy enough and what was suppose to be like mashed potatoes looked more like applesauce. Long story short I ended up with a product that not only was inferior, but I refused to even have it put out there. Just plain awful. Ok, not awful, because if you put enough sugar, butter, and cinnamon in something it is bound to test at least ok. Let me describe it like this --it was one of those dishes when you are working through the food like you see it and your curiosity is peaked. It looks new, it looks mysterious. Before you serve yourself, you think this could be really good, but you also think, but it could be really bad so you take the "obligatory spoonful" because you just can't not try it and go sit down to have your dinner. You first eat your "big hitter" items and then it's time to see if the gamble pays off. You eat a bite (about half of what you scooped on your plate) of the mysterious dish to see if it will pan out and just as you feared, disappointment. I mean, you don't spit it out and it tastes alright and you might take another little bite to see if you can figure out what exactly is in it, but in the end you just sort of spread the rest of it out on your plate so it looks like you ate most of it and thus you don't insult the chef. Not to bad you lean over to the person next to you and warn them, but bad enough that when they take their bite they look at you and you just nod and say, "Yeah, I am not sure either." -- I wasn't going to put people through that disappointment, so I didn't serve it and I just received ridicule from some of my teammates here (well deserved and really the same thing I would do to them too if they had done it). So it was humbling, but don't worry, they still let me eat and eat I did. We had all the food essentials (except Sweet Potatoes that is) and everything else that goes along with Thanksgiving for that matter too (a list that includes: NFL football-recorded two weeks ago and mailed over, pickup football, a lot of desserts, a lot of fellowship, a late start to the meal because the turkey took too long, and just a day to give credit to the one who give abundantly). So that's my story. It's a long one, but I suppose I will use length over creative prowess to reestablish my presence in the blog world.
It's late. I should be sleeping. But I just can't make crappy excuses any more. I need to update my blog. I don't know when the day came that I felt like it had been too long since I had written so I would need to write something epic to make up for it, but somewhere along the way that's how I started thinking. I mean, don't give me wrong I haven't cut off all outside contact with the world, I even put out my second "newsletter" (if you didn't get this let me know and I will send it your way), but I have not been posting on my blog. This is a big deal. It was something I wanted to be committed too. I mean, I don't really know if people read it, but even if one person does it's worth it, right? But I just got done reading a lot of my friend's blogs and was put to shame by some and their ability to post and tempted to justify my actions by others and their lack of posting. Either way, I made it hear. I have decided to shy away from something epic because let's be honest, I studied science and not English in college for a reason and I would have never posted again. Instead, I think I gave you this weak sauce monologue…man…maybe I will talk about Thanksgiving, will that make this better?
I was pretty jazzed about Thanksgiving. I mean, it's a day that centers around eating, and I love to eat. And being in China, I really love to eat American food. So, I was getting all geared up for Thanksgiving and I even signed up to bring some sweet potatoes. They have sweet potatoes here, so I thought I would make some candied yams that everyone would be really impressed with and it would be great. Wednesday night I abandoned the candied yam idea because the brown sugar here tastes like molasses and I am not a fan of that and I wasn't about to willingly put an inferior product out there. Instead I was going to go mashed sweet potatoes with some extra additions. Well, I'll tell you what, they actually have two kinds of sweet potatoes here, and I chose the wrong kind. They weren't really starchy enough and what was suppose to be like mashed potatoes looked more like applesauce. Long story short I ended up with a product that not only was inferior, but I refused to even have it put out there. Just plain awful. Ok, not awful, because if you put enough sugar, butter, and cinnamon in something it is bound to test at least ok. Let me describe it like this --it was one of those dishes when you are working through the food like you see it and your curiosity is peaked. It looks new, it looks mysterious. Before you serve yourself, you think this could be really good, but you also think, but it could be really bad so you take the "obligatory spoonful" because you just can't not try it and go sit down to have your dinner. You first eat your "big hitter" items and then it's time to see if the gamble pays off. You eat a bite (about half of what you scooped on your plate) of the mysterious dish to see if it will pan out and just as you feared, disappointment. I mean, you don't spit it out and it tastes alright and you might take another little bite to see if you can figure out what exactly is in it, but in the end you just sort of spread the rest of it out on your plate so it looks like you ate most of it and thus you don't insult the chef. Not to bad you lean over to the person next to you and warn them, but bad enough that when they take their bite they look at you and you just nod and say, "Yeah, I am not sure either." -- I wasn't going to put people through that disappointment, so I didn't serve it and I just received ridicule from some of my teammates here (well deserved and really the same thing I would do to them too if they had done it). So it was humbling, but don't worry, they still let me eat and eat I did. We had all the food essentials (except Sweet Potatoes that is) and everything else that goes along with Thanksgiving for that matter too (a list that includes: NFL football-recorded two weeks ago and mailed over, pickup football, a lot of desserts, a lot of fellowship, a late start to the meal because the turkey took too long, and just a day to give credit to the one who give abundantly). So that's my story. It's a long one, but I suppose I will use length over creative prowess to reestablish my presence in the blog world.
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