May Day weekend

Much of my birthday and the three day weekend was spent outside at a park, doing activities with little kids. A big event for kids was held there (and at a shopping mall Saturday morning) where my English school had activities with our regular students. In the park, we had a stage and microphones, and all I did was say a few words like “sweep the floor” and “wash the dishes” when we taught chores, and “apple” and “banana” when we made fruit salad. I get paid an insanely high wage (15-20 times the minimum wage) because it looks good to have a native English speaker on the staff (even though all I do is say a few words into a microphone and pose for lots of pictures).

The best part is the staff I work with and the fact that I was the only non-Chinese teacher all three days. About 20 assistant teachers from the school (where there are many, many more Chinese teachers) were there to set things up and help with all the songs, kite flying, food, games, etc. They’re all around my age, they’re really close with each other (kind of like camp counselors), and they all find me fascinating. We spent all of the down time chatting (they’ve all studied English extensively but find that it’s easier to talk to me in Chinese) and then I’d come home to an inbox full of pictures they took with me and friend requests on Xiaonei (a Chinese social networking site that is almost an exact copy of Facebook).

On Friday night, after we had packed everything up and took seven or eight taxis to get everything back to the school, three teachers took me out for dinner and surprised me with a birthday cake.

It was sunny and hot on both Friday and Sunday and I got a little sunburned. It rained all day on Saturday. That’s been the typical weather lately.

Finally, after discovering that the locals have no idea how to make a pizza (though they really try hard – for an activity making pizzas at school two weeks ago the Chinese teachers bought ketchup and white bread – they were convinced that’s how Americans make pizza), I decided to write a pizza recipe when our writing teacher assigned us a short essay describing how to make something.

做比萨

大家都吃过比萨，是世界上最有名的料理之一。有各种各样的比萨, 可以过过所有的口味。无论男女老少都喜欢吃比萨。虽然做比萨又容易又好玩，但是很少人会做比萨。
先准备比萨面。最简单的面是三个配料：面粉，水，与酵母。你可以加鸡蛋，盐，或玉米粉. 放热水在一个碗里面，加一点酵母，让溶一下，然后加面粉（大概3：2 面粉：水）。 等一个小时，面会大一点。把面揉五分钟。在桌子上，放一满手的面粉，然后把面弄平。
面准备好，放番茄将在上面。然后放蔬菜，奶酪，与肉。先要切蔬菜和肉成块儿。最流行的比萨配料是洋葱，青椒，蘑菇， 菠萝， 香肠，培根，等等。在中国，玉米，海鲜，与色拉将也很多。
最后，要把比萨放在烤箱里考八九分钟。