Gifts

If your love language is gifts, you would feel very loved here. (Or if it's words of affirmation, but that's a topic for another day).

My love language, however, is not gifts.  So, though I feel loved when I receive gifts from people to an extent, mostly I feel awkward and confused.  (This is, of course, excepting birthdays and other holidays where gifts are expected).

I can't even tell you the number of times that I have just been walking around campus and a student I even vaguely know sees me, runs over, and shoves a small gift in my hand.  Usually, it's food.  One time I got off a bus with another teacher, and my student saw us and shoved bottles of juice into our hands, smiled, and said goodbye.  Another time I was in the cafeteria.  I saw a student, waved hello, and then sat down at my table.  Next thing I know, she comes up from behind, hands me a bottle of milk tea, smiles, and walks away.

Chinese people also bring gifts when they come to your house.  I'm usually better at handling this one since I expect it.  Fruit is a very common gift.  Here's what I received from some students who came over last night:

A bag of tangerines, and a box of milk

I am also frequently given gifts in class.  When I walk around at the beginning of class to talk to students, often someone will say, "Here, Teacher!  Take this!" and a piece of candy, or bread, or tofu strip seasoned with zi ran will be shoved into my hand.  I always try my best to refuse the gift, but inevitably it gets put into my hand, or my mouth.  Today in class I was given two pieces of candy, and was made to take a bite of a roasted sweet potato (which was delicious, by the way).

Culturally, I am almost always confused when these things happen.  In America, students don't just randomly give you things like this.  What student after class goes up to their teacher and says "Here, have this chocolate" and then walks away without even waiting for a "thank you"?  No student, that's who. 

My initial response, as an American, is to thank the other person profusely for the gift (as we like to say "thank you" a lot).  Chinese people do not say thank you nearly as much as we do.  So I say thank you and get the Chinese version of "you're welcome" which is "no thanks", or "it doesn't matter".  Culturally, from my perspective, they're not looking for thanks when they give a gift.  That's really difficult for me.  I never know how much I'm supposed to say thank you, if at all.  I often am oblivious as to what to do or say, so I just hope that I don't offend anyone by any action or inaction I do when receiving a gift, and can play the "dumb foreigner" card if I do.

I dare you to randomly give someone (like a teacher or coworker) a small gift this week.  Don't plan the gift too much.  Think in the moment.  Let me know how that goes.  I'm betting they'll be pretty surprised.

Noodles

Last night we watched Kung Fu Panda.  I have to say, that movie has whole new levels of meaning for me after living in China for 3 months.  One of the things that resonated with me most was the line from Po's father, "We are noodle folk.  Broth runs through our veins."

Since coming to China I have eaten an overwhelmingly large amount of noodles.  I love noodles.  I eat them cold, stir-fried, and, my favorite, in a soupy broth with vegetables (of which there are about a bazillion different varieties).  There are cut noodles, pulled noodles, rice noodles, potato noodles, and any other kind of noodle you could imagine.  I gladly and willingly eat them all.

Eating noodles is not for the fainthearted.  Have you ever tried to eat a super thick, 2-foot long noodle with chopsticks?  It's a challenge, and it can be really time consuming.  I still am trying to figure out how Chinese people do it without getting splatters of broth all over the table.  Perhaps I shall never know.

All that to say, I really like to eat noodles.  In fact, they are now pretty much the only thing I eat in the cafeteria.  I usually only get rice when I go out to restaurants.  However, the portions of noodles that are served here are, in my opinion, huge.  I have never been able to consume an entire bowl of noodles in the 40 minutes I have for lunch every day, and most of the time I'm eating as fast as I possibly can, and am usually pretty full by the end of the meal, and yet there are still enough noodles for a whole meal.  (I'm currently eating a bowl of leftover noodles as I type).

This all changed last weekend.  Cathy and I walked hungrily to the dining hall for lunch.  We traipsed on up to the 3rd floor where I knew they had a dish I wanted. "he ye fen".  It's kind of like ma la tang, if you've ever had it, but more peanutty, and without the "it is very bad for you" warnings from students. 

The delicious dish is served to you in the huge black pot it's cooked in.  The yummy broth is absolutely filled with about 5 different kinds of noodles, cabbage, seaweed, tofu strips, black fungus, and other leafy vegetables.  My favorite part is that you can have a little bowl on the side for sauce to dip the boiling hot noodles in to cool off and flavor.  I use the peanut sauce.  It's delicious.

So, this day, I was very hungry, and kept eating and eating away.  I hope I talked to Cathy, but I honestly don't remember because I was so absorbed in the noodle-y goodness.  Before I knew it, I dipped my chopsticks into the broth to grab a noodle and to my absolute shock, I couldn't find one!  I gleefully ordered Cathy, "put your chopsticks in my bowl!", which she agreed to with a look of confusion on her face.  After her, "wow, you've eaten a lot" congratulations, I practically shouted, "no, you don't understand, there are no noodles left!" Cathy graciously rejoiced in my achievement with me.  I then found one last little noodle.

The Last Noodle

 And then I ate the last noodle.

The face of a full and happy person.  Don't be deceived by the amount of broth.  The pot was overflowing with noodles when I started. 

All in all, it was a good day.