Be Careful When Eating the Ma La Xiao Long Xia

First, I would like to say Happy Birthday to my Aunt Moe Moe. I hope that you are having fun.

Secondly, Nobody told me China was going to be this freaking cold. Everyday gets colder and colder. It is almost like I am back in Middlebury. I left Middlebury to get away from the cold, I guess that is just how my luck goes. Anyway, this weekend was one of the most fun weekends I have I had since I have been in China.

On Friday, after getting out of class and eating dinner. Dinner by the way was really good. We had this banana caramelized thing that was really good. I don't know how to explain it but it was good. Trust me. But after dinner, the Chinese roommates, my classmates, and I all went to Cha Guan (Tea House) and listened to ancient Chinese music. I thought that some of the songs were very pretty, while others were just so so. However, all in all it was a good experience. I am glad that I decide to go because at first I didn't want to. I mean who wants to listen to ancient Chinese Music right? Lucky for me I did decide to go, because it was better than what most people would expect. Although, I think on time is good enough.

On Saturday, pretty much everyone took a class field trip to the Temple of Heaven and Hong Qiao Shi Chang, (Hong Qiao market). The temple of Heaven was very lively. A lot Chinese people were out doing performances and things like that. If I can ever figure out how. I will put up some pictures. The temple of Heaven has three main structures. A really tall structure, which to me looked like Chinese version of the Leaning Tower of Pizza, just that it was leaning. But of course no one agreed with me, so maybe it doesn't look like that. The other structure in the Temple of Heaven is surrounded by a wall. The wall is really cool, because if you stand on the East side and start talking at the wall, a person can here you from the westside. The converse is also true. I know from experience. The last structure was a tall big round circle. At the center of this tall big round circle was a little round circle. Everyone wanted to stand on this little round circle and yell. I do not know why. I guess because it was the cool thing to do. So yes, I also did it. When in China, do as the Chinese, I always say. Anyway this structure things kind of sucked so I didn't stay long. So, really do not know what it was all about. But apparently, the Temple of Heaven is where the Emperor would come to give his sacrifices to heaven. And each of these structures represented some type of specially type sacrifice type place type thingy. Yeah, I don't really know but if you are really interested, I recommended you google it. I have found that google is pretty helpful with those sorts of things. Oh, this place had another special thing. This really long bridge. Made out of stone. Ok that's it for that place. After leaving the temple of heaven we went out to eat at Lao Beijing. It was nothing special, it is just a noodle place. This Lao Beijing that we went to was not that good, the one by our school is better. So after eating we went to Hong Qiao Shi Chang and went shopping. I bought so stuff that I really didn't need. I wanted to but so shirts but they kept trying to rip me off. The wanted like three dollars for a shirt. Come on now, I know that I am an American but please, three dollars. One person wanted ten dollars. I laughed in her face and told her that she was "zhen de hei" (literal meaning, really black, but I think it was your evil; not to sure a Wang Wei Feng taught me that). But anyway I was looking to buy $1.25 t-shirts but had no success. The lowest I got was about $1.60. What, I did buy was another memory card for my camera which cost about $15 dollars. Later, I found out that I got ripped of and could have got it for about $12 dollars. I always seem to get suckered. I also bought an old Communist propaganda poster. It says something like kill the American Devils or American Devils Die, something about America bad China good. I think it is hilarious and quite scary at the same time. After Hong Qiao Shi Chang we went out to eat.

Clark, Mark, Clark's roommate (Guan Tie Cheng), Clark's roommates best friend (Wang Wei Feng) and I all went out to Wang Wei Feng's family's restaurant. It is my favorite restaurant in China. The food was so good. First, we had appetizers. Cold tofu, pork something. Beef something, tomatoes, other stuff that was pretty good. And then what I thought was the really good came out. It was a huge Hot Pot of lamb meat. Oh, I need to mention all this food is spicy. This is very important for later in the story. And you need to remember that beer is the cheapest drink in China, although this time we had tea. But anyway, there was this hot pot full of lamb meat. The lamb meat melt right off the bone, it was delicious. And then they gave you these straws to suck the inside of the bone, very flavorful. Sooooooo good. This hot pot was huge. Then the main course came out. The main course is called "Ma La Xiao Long Xia". Ma is a flavor that does not exist in America, Ma literally mean paralyzing. La is spicy, but this dish was spicy beyond belief, but still so good. Words can not describe how good this dish was. Xiao Long Xia means crawfish. This is definitely my favorite Chinese dish so far. So they Bring out this huge dish of Ma La Xiao Long Xia, A plate that looks like a bicycle tire and as tall as my sister. At first, I did not know how to go about eating these crawfish, because I have never eat them before. But after a demonstration and several crawfish falling in my lap, I figured it out. So this whole time we are eating this really really spicy food and chatting and drinking beer. I do not realize that I have probably drank one huge bottle of beer to myself. Everyone stops what there saying and starts looking at me and laughing saying that my face is really red. I had yet to feel the effects of the beer when another huge plate of these Ma La Xiao Long Xia comes out. So, I am eating and drinking, when all of a sudden I cannot eat no more. I have reached my limit. I am now full, as the Chinese say "Chi Chengle" (stuffed). And I am "zhen de zhen de he zuile" (really really drink). I do not know how much I drank but it was a lot. By the end when everyone was done eating, okay, before that I was about ready to go to sleep. I pretty much was falling a sleep in the restaurant. By the time I got back to the dorm, all I wanted to do was sleep. However, the food was good. The next time I go and eat that, I am going to spring the extra dollar and buy the more luxurious sprite.

On Sunday, I really didn't do anything special. Clark, Golze, and I went to the Beijing Zoo. All the animals there looked really unhealthy. We spent about an hour in a half there because it was getting cold and that zoo was really not that exciting. The zoo's biggest attraction is its panda bears. This was my first time seeing a panda beer, so in my mind I am picturing a huge majestic, graceful beast. But these pandas were none of that. They were actually small boring doing nothing animals, except eatting bamboo. Apparently, they like the stuff. I think my cat, Kaboodles is more majestic and graciful than these animals and all he does is lay around all day. All so every place in the zoo had, to say the least, an interesting smell. Maybe because it was a zoo, I have been to a zoo in a long time, so I don't remember what they smell like. But this zoo did not smell like the zoos I remember. And that was my weekend.

Today, I went to The Bamboo Park and looked at the bamboo. The bamboo was just being bamboo. Staying planted and being green, and maybe even growing. I don't know it was hard to tell. But yeah, that was the Bamboo Park. As you can tell it was very interesting. Well time for me to go and do something. Probably study. I don't know if I have time. Lata.