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Other entries in Anji

learning to cook

the weekend was sort of half-restful, half-tiring. saturday morning was spent cleaning (see previous entry), and saturday afternoon, i met up with a student named erin. we did some window shopping and i learned that she is from a small village and her family are farmers. she mentioned knowing how to cook, so i took the opportunity to invite her to my house. hehe.

she surveyed the situation and decided what we needed, then took me off to the market -literally - for supplies. we bought salt, soy sauce, and msg - the three chinese cooking staples. they sell msg in bags like salt here. we then went to the farmer's market (see previous entry for photos of the market) and bought vegetables and chicken. we got enough food to feed four, we bought vegetable oil, mie (uncooked rice), baskets to use as collanders, and loads of other supplies (since my kitchen was nearly non existent). altogether, i probably spent around $5 to stock my kitchen and buy loads of ingredients. we brought everything back to my home. when erin saw that i had bread and chips ahoy in my cabinet, i was numerously chastized and warned about how unhealthy those things are. "do you eat these often??" she said, with incredulity. "no, not often," i lied guiltily back.  we cooked a beautiful meal. she instructed me to use salt and msg on vegetables, and to use soy sauce when cooking meat or fish. i now have the leftovers in my fridge, waiting to be eaten. very tasty.

sunday, i spent tooling around anji with my new friend, meshell. i met her through vicki (see vicki's ball of dirt site!), a new zealander who's been teaching in anji for the past year. meshell majored in english and speaks very well. she's outgoing and fun, so we went shopping. she helped me buy a headset/mic for my computer (so i can use google talk!) and we ate a small lunch. then, we visited her young friend (rose) who owns a small clothing shop. we spent the greater part of the afternoon in rose's shop, browsing the supermarket, and enjoying sodas and ice cream at KFC. also, meshell invited me to visit her furniture factory - she works for a company that specializes in making chairs, particularly wooden dining chairs and office desk chairs. it was fascinating to see the place where these products are actually MADE. i take it for granted... in the US you just go into office max and buy a rolling office chair, assuming it's made on some assembly line , or maybe not even thinking about it's origins at all. it turns out, these chairs are all crafted by hand, even the plastic ones, and the factory is very small.

altogether, it was an interesting and uneventful weekend. now, it's raining, which matches my mood at the moment. i think culture shock is starting to settle in. i feel a bit alone - being the only westerner in my school and spending the greater part of my time either laboring to communicate with non-native english speakers - all of them essentially students - or just hanging out alone. i know that will change and i'll adjust. but, at the moment, things are a little hard.

Photos / videos of "learning to cook":