My computer keeps eating all my attempts to post.
I am getting too annoyed to keep rewriting.
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We made a big decisions today. We quit Chinese School. The decision to quit Chinese School was not one we made lightly (though I will admit that once the decision was made, we were unanimously gleeful). Since M started “chinese club” (the experimental program I mentioned in this post), we have been overwhelmed by the amount of Chinese lessons and classes she had each week. Even after we cut out one night of tutoring, M was in classes four days a week. Add that to the 1-2 days a week L also has Chinese lessons and it was a recipe for burnout and complaining. Taking up two afternoons after school, Chinese Club is a huge time commitment, but it is SO worth it. Even though it is at the beginner level, it is top-notch, full immersion instruction that includes games, singing, engaged classmates and FUN. M sometimes complains that the material is all reviewing for her, but I have seen her confidence in speaking increase exponentially in the last few months. Chinese Club has been so successful, Mr. A and I have started to talk about revising our language learning goals from familiarity to achieving a level of actual verbal proficiency. When we found out Chinese Club will continue into the New Year, we were ecstatic. On the other hand, Sunday Chinese school is a colossal waste of time. While we like M’s teacher, they move SO SLOWLY through the materials, the class is disorganized and unruly and the only thing M was learning there was how to write some basic characters (something we can ask her tutor to add to M’s home lessons, no problem). Now that we switched M into the class for English speakers, we never get to see our friends either. In addition to the fact that it is largely ineffectual, chaotic and disorganized, our biggest complaint about Chinese School is that it is a huge weekend time suck. M’s class is from 2:30-4:00 each Sunday afternoon so there aren’t many family activities we can squeeze in around that time. We are so busy with other activities during the week (both girls also have swimming lessons in addition to Chinese), we really want our weekends to be free to relax. While M is in a phase of complaining about pretty much every aspect of learning Chinese, M particularly disliked Chinese School. It seems like there are no good reasons to stay. So as long as Chinese Club continues or the quality of instruction there improves, no more Chinese school for us! Hip hip hooray! I totally didn’t post yesterday. It didn’t even occur to me. Yesterday, I was busy planning for our very first family movie night. We watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. We ate pizza and movie theater candy. We snuggled up on the couch. It was nice. Tonight I am going to see New Moon with a bunch of friends who (like me) are somewhat embarrassed to be seeing it. There is safety in numbers. Three is a wonder. Last week, living with L was like living with a ticking time bomb. Everything we said or did had the potential to set her off on the fast track to tantrum land. This week, she is amazing: giggly, pleasant, and full of silly jokes. If I didn’t know better I wouldn’t believe it was the same kid. Tonight during M’s Chinese Club, L had a date at the local children’s museum with my parents. As the middle grandchild (M and my older niece are close in age so they are treated as one and the same, then there is the new baby who is 7 months old), L often gets the short end of the stick where one on one attention is concerned. She had an awesome time with my parents and charmed the pants right off them. L is getting so big and capable, she isn’t a baby any more. ____________________________________________________________ Dinner tonight: Jiaozi Two Ways (aka Jiaozi showdown), Sugar Snap Peas.
The Jiaozi on the right are the Zhong Crescent Dumplings from page 100 of the Sichuan cookbook. There dumplings were boiled (shuijiao). I generally like the texture of the skin on boiled dumplings the best, not matter what the filling is. This filling was kind of bland, but good. The jiaozi on the left are Three Sisters Dumplings from page 63 of the Hunan cookbook. I didn’t read the whole recipe before I chose it. Once I had the meat mixed up, I realized I was supposed to use rice flour wrappers. I didn’t have any so I used the plain wheat ones as the other dumplings. They were still pretty good, though I steamed them and they were a little dried out around the edges. The filling tasted a bit like sesame oil, which I do not love, but overall they were ok. The family’s consensus was the boiled ones were better for both skin texture and filling flavor. I made a quick and easy dipping sauce of diced ginger, japanese seasoned rice vinegar and soy sauce. The snap peas were cooked by dicing some ginger, sauteing it, then adding the snap peas and a pinch of salt. Yum. When I asked the family what they thought, M said the dumplings were “Hao, hao, HAO CHI!!!” She also ate four snap peas under duress. L ate only one bite of dumpling because she ate a taco with my parents earlier. I expect her to eat the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow. She generally likes dumplings (and anything else we allow her to dunk in dumpling sauce). Mr. A said (and this is a full quote) “They taste so good and I love them so much, it makes me want to have sex with you.” Alrighty then. I think they were a hit. I have been trying to think up a post all evening, but still I have nothing. The only thing that crosses my mind is how weird it was to see a Twilight Burger King commercial. What is the relationship there? I do not know. |
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