(until we ATE him!)This past weekend, we celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival, which gave us teachers an extra day off and a much-needed excuse for revelry. After some thorough Wikipedia investigation, I learned that the Moon Festival is a holdover from the Shang Dynasty. After some adventurous food investigation, I learned that moon cakes are filled with a plethora of unexpected things like minced meat and egg.
The funny thing is that this weekend may have been one of the first times the folks of Chengdu could actually see the moon on Mid-Autumn night. Apparently, the skies have cleared up exponentially since the earthquake. My administrator attributes the sudden sunlight to the number of factories that were destroyed and haven't yet been rebuilt. I'm just glad that the photo-shopped clouds on the school's website haven't turned out to be entirely made up. Let's hope it lasts!
The weekend began with a feast of delicious Sichuan dishes literally stacked one on top of the other because there wasn't enough room on the table. Then, our teacher contingent filed into a posh, silvery living-room-style private Karaoke (or KTV) room. It was one of the teacher's birthdays, so we sang our hearts out... privately... there wasn't the same humiliation factor that there is with Karaoke in the States; in fact, the Chinese teachers, who are usually very quiet in school, suddenly turned into Rockstars. I got to learn a lot of new Chinese songs and see some scandalous Chinese music videos. Of course, when my turn came I opted for that good old American sing-along: "You've Lost That Loving Feeling".
On Saturday, my friend Courtney and I ventured into the city to see Jin Li street, which is a "restored" ancient street. It's all old architecture and gray brick, and as soon as you walk inside, there's a Starbucks on your left. From Jin Li we met up with our new Chinese friend, who turned out to be a chef and took us to one of Chengdu's premiere hot pot restaurants. We let him order, and here's what turned up on the table:
Cow stomach
Goose intestines
Rabbit tongue
A squashed bullfrog, still whole, still looking about with its eyes
Seaweed
I ate everything except for the rabbit tongue, and I am very, very proud.
