Thanksgiving Weekend (12-1)

Thanksgiving weekend turned out to be a busy one this year. Shortly after Kasey arrived, she asked if we did something for Thanksgiving. I figured that this was important to her and we should have a dinner. A couple weeks later at a group dinner, she asked again. Then I knew it was really important; so we started to talk about it. We invited Dale to share the expense so we could treat our British friends to the American holiday dinner. I invited Yienfanh, since he is the other American in the area. We also invited Hannah. So it was an international celebration. Sean was especially excited to have his first (in his life) Thanksgiving dinner in China. 

The menu was roasted chicken, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, rolls, a squash dish, cream puffs, and chocolate. Other than the squash dish that I prepared, everything was purchased ready to eat.

When I was at Carrefour to purchase a few things, I walked past the cooked birds and decided impulsively to purchase two ducks to go along with the chicken I would buy at the local market. The woman asked with hand motions if I wanted them cut. That’s a deal, as I wouldn’t have to deal with doing that myself. When she was cutting the first duck, I looked across and thought the meat didn’t look cooked; so I said I wanted only one. The other woman showed me that the neck and head had already been cut off; so I was stuck buying two ducks. They put the pieces into two bags and then packaged them together in one big bag. I could see something white on top and wondered what that was. When they brought the bag to me, the white thing looked like Beijing duck crepes. Using my dictionary, I asked if it was cooked. The woman said “yes,” and mimicked eating. So I realized that I had unknowingly purchased Beijing duck, not roasted duck. I also learned that the cost was twice what I had expected, as the price was per half kilo, not per bird as it is in the market. Oh, well. I decided that I would pay the extra cost since it was my error.

Later I went to the market to buy the roasted chickens. The birds are hung in a glass case with a sign that has two prices. The man asked something that I didn’t understand; so I repeated that I wanted two. The woman took out two birds and pulled them apart into small pieces. When I got home and unwrapped them, I realized that the chickens were ducks. I hadn’t looked carefully at the birds she took out of the display case. So the menu was altered. But it worked out just fine.

We had an enjoyable time together. Hannah brought her roommate, Vivian. The squash dish (squash and onion stir fried with oyster sauce) was popular. All the duck was eaten as were half of the corn and potatoes.

Since there was another bag of duck from Carrefour and we had corn and potatoes, I decided to make duck noodle soup and invite Yang and Michelle to have Thanksgiving leftover lunch with us Americans on Friday. They were delighted; so I was really glad I’d thought to do that.

When I opened the extra bag of duck, I quickly realized that it was the extra pieces—bones, head, neck. So it went into the freezer, and I made the soup with the extra pieces from the roasted ducks. It turned out very well, and we had a pleasant lunch together.

This was the first time I’ve done Thanksgiving abroad. It was fun to plan and prepare the meals. I’m glad Kasey suggested it.

On the weekend, Paul and Hannah planned a trip to Xiling Snow Mountain. Sean, Ian, and I joined them. It was really great to have Hannah with us, as she made the hotel reservations and took care of dealing with people—buying tickets, negotiating prices, reading menus so we could order. We could have gotten along without her, but she made it much easier for us. And it was nice for me to have another woman along. And we all enjoy her company. So it was a good group.

Saturday morning we left the building at 6:15. We met Hannah at the entrance and took a trishaw to the bus station. We were lucky to get a big one with two benches in the back; so we could all fit into it. From Wenjiang, we went to Dayi, which took about 40 minutes. There we got the bus to Xiling, which took another hour and forty-five minutes. When we arrived, Hannah arranged for a van to take us to the front side of the mountain after taking us to the hotel to check in. She had been concerned about the quality of the hotel, but it was quite nice.

The ride to the front side took 45 minutes, and we arrived at about 11:00. The plan was to walk to the top, which we had been told would take about seven hours, and then take the cable car down. I was a little concerned because I know I’m a slower walker than others. The path is easy to walk on and doesn’t have many stairs, which was nice. 

It goes along a river that has many small waterfalls. 

Some of the river areas are quite lush with plants and moss on the rocks. 

It was lovely. After a couple hours, some people told Hannah that there isn’t a cable car down the mountain from the front side. You have to walk more to get to the cable car down from the back side. And it would be dark when we got to the top. 

So we decided to walk to the big waterfall and then turn around. We saw a few groups that were planning to sleep on the mountaintop and then go across to the back side in the morning. The trip up took three hours, and we returned to the bottom in two hours. Paul thinks we walked 14 kilometers/ 8.7 miles—a good walk for the day.

In addition to the scenery, another highlight of the walk was the monkeys. We saw small groups in a few places and enjoyed watching them gather as they became aware of people walking in the area. Potential food sources. A few were a little aggressive, but most kept their distance.

The plan for Sunday was to walk up to the middle of the back side and then take the cable car to the top where there is snow. This walk was more challenging than Saturday’s walk, as it was the Chinese continuous stairs most of the way up. It took three hours to get to the top, a distance of 3500 meters/ 2 miles. 

At the top we took the free bus to another mountain where you get the cable cars to the top of the highest mountain. When we got in line, a woman was telling people to stay in that area because the line would take 3-4 hours and we’d only be on the top for a very short time because we’d have to get in line to come down. We weren’t sure if her information was accurate or if she was promoting spending money in the tourist village there. After waiting in line for almost an hour, we met some students who were leaving. They’d given up waiting, as they’d been in line for two hours and were not yet at the building. 

So we decided that the woman was correct and stopped waiting. After walking around the tourist village, we noticed that the line had moved only about 50 meters in 45 minutes.

The tourist village is nice, and it’s a beautiful setting. However, I had no interest in spending time there. 

There are several places to eat, a hot air balloon that goes up and down, several activities only one of which was working that day. It would be a fun place for families with children and will be more fun when there’s snow.

We took the cable car down to the bottom and Hannah negotiated a van to drive us back to Wenjiang. Once back, we had dinner together—hot pot—before returning to our rooms. It was really good to get out with everyone and to be out in nature most of the weekend.

In all of my classes, I presented a brief Power Point about Thanksgiving and Holiday—Thanksgiving and Christmas—foods. Students loved that. On Thursday, my class shouted out “Happy Thanksgiving” when I arrived. I was really touched, especially since it was 8:40 and I hadn’t thought about Thanksgiving yet and was really surprised. Zoe sent me a nice message that was also touching:

          Thank you for being in my life, you are the first foreign teacher during my learning career, you are always so kind and friendly, you taught me a lot during the last year, I am really appreciate your help .

          In China, there are more and more people like to celebrate Thanksgiving Day, and so do I.

          At this time, I want to say "Thank you".

          I hope you will be happy everyday. And keep healthy. Best wishes for you.

I am not sure whether you Americans will write a letter like this, since you are far away from your hometown, I hope you can feel the warmth from one of your friends me-Zoe^_^

          Thanks again!

Bennie also gave me a note thanking me for accompanying her down the walk in her life and being her best friend.

There was a board displaying “Thanks Day.” I don’t know what it was about, but there were notes hanging above it and around it that I think were notes students wrote about what they are thankful for.