Wordless Wednesday: More Tianjin

From my Classroom

One thing I love about small children is their ongoing narratives about life. It is even more hilarious in Chinese. A perfect illustration of this: one day I was waiting with my students at the bathroom and one of my kids starts excitedly pointing to her shoes and chatting to me in Chinese. I nodded and pointed and said, "Oh, you got new shoes!" A Chinese teacher looked at me and said, "wow, that's exactly what she said! Do you speak Chinese?" "No," I said, "I speak child." Anyone who has or has worked with kids knows what I mean and knows that this is true.

Here, from my classroom, are some favorite moments.

*This happens multiple times per day:

"Teacher, here is a booger from my nose. Seeeee?!"

*I have one student who drives a race car in the back of the classroom. He also flies airplanes and plays musical chairs by himself. Needless to say, he doesn't speak much English.

*One of my favorite students has SO MUCH energy that we have to have a 5 minute jumping session when the rest of the class is in the bathroom. That sort of brings the energy down to manageable levels. Sort of. He's super smart, though, and actually understands a fair bit of what I say, so as long as he's not endangering himself or others he has a bit of freedom to move. The kid has ants in his pants. The other day he was disturbing everyone so I told him to sit down {I make sure my kids learn those words right away!}. He looks at me, shakes his head frantically and says "Bu yao, sit down!" Bu yao is Chinese for "I don't want." It was a seriously cute moment.

*I have a new class that just started a few weeks ago. We were playing a game called "Who stole the Monkey?" to help the kids say "my name is ______." Basically, I put a stuffed monkey in the middle of the room and walked outside the classroom. My co-teacher then helped someone "steal the monkey." I came back inside and asked, "who stole the monkey?" That person would stand up and say "my name is _______." One learner got SO excited that when it was his turn he stood up and shouted "I stole Bob*!" To set an example, I said, "My name...." Usually that kicks them back on track, but he was still excited and said "My name is stole monkey Bob!" Adorable.

*While waiting outside for my students to finish at the bathrooms, one of my chattier learners started spritzing water on her face {she hadn't dried her hands} and said, "teacher look! It's just like its raining!"

Any good stories from your classroom or house?

*To protect my students' privacy, I changed his name.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Ancient Culture Street

This is one of my favorite spots in Tianjin. A tourist trap to be sure {though, mostly domestic Chinese tourists}, but I love walking around and looking at all the different shops. I've gotten many presents for family here, and the snacks are pretty delicious too.

Recipe: Thai Green Curry

My favorite thing I did in Thailand was to take a cooking class. It has encouraged me to do the same in China over the summer, and to really explore the flavors over here. It's also shown me that, really, it's not hard to cook authentic asian food. What you need, more than anything, is a little bit of knowledge.

This recipe is very easy, if not completely authentic. In Thailand I made this with a few different types of eggplant, chicken, kafir limes and fresh basil. Of course I can't find most of that here and nobody is eating chicken much these days.

The key is to find good coconut milk, and good curry paste. You can make the curry paste on your own {I'm going to try when I find a blender} but I have found that the pre-packaged paste is fairly serviceable.

Ingredients:

1-2 tablespoons of green curry paste

Approximately 1.5 - 2 cups of coconut milk

meat and vegetables {I used shrimp because I had it, peas, and red and yellow bell peppers}

1 teaspoon of sugar

1 tablespoon oil

1-2 teaspoons of Thai fish sauce {this is different from Chinese fish sauce}

Directions:

Heat a wok or skillet with oil inside.

When the pan is hot add the curry paste {if you make your own curry paste, it will have oil in it. No need to add extra} and saute for a few minutes until you can really smell the curry.

Add 1/4 of the coconut milk and stir the curry paste into it. 

Bring to a bubble for about 1 minute.

Add another 1/4 of the milk and repeat.

Add the remaining milk and repeat again.

Add your meat and let simmer in the curry paste until cooked.

Add your vegetables and cook until desired tenderness {I reversed this a bit, as shrimp cooks super fast and I like my vegetables pretty tender}.

Add fish sauce and sugar. 

Taste. If it's super spicy, you can add a bit more sugar.

Here are both pictures from the cooking class and from my own kitchen in Tianjin. 

Enjoy!