Thanksgiving -- Beijing Style

Thanksgiving 2012.  Thursday afternoon, the school treated us (students and faculty) to a Chinese banquet at a local restaurant.

No turkey, but since a bird is a bird, Beijing Duck!!

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To add a Thanksgiving touch, the school ordered Apple and Pumpkin Pies.  You should have heard the cheers when the annoucement was made!!

Eating Pumpkin Pie with chopsticks.....life in China!!

P.S.  File this story under the "Ernie is a total bachelor" file.  A couple of the other American teachers here are cooking Thanksgiving turkey for their advisees.  I felt bad that my students got the raw end of the deal being assigned to me as their adviser, who can't really cook.  Therefore, I devised a scheme where they would cook for themselves.  I invited them over to a "make your own calzones" dinner on the Friday after Thanksgiving Thursday.  I simply would make the dough, they would choose their own filling from broccoli, mushrooms, onions, spinach, shredded mozzarella, tomato sauce and sausage.  Easy right?  I should be able to pull this off without a hitch.  UNTIL, the girls decided that they wanted to bake before hand.  So off we go to Jenny Lou's (where you can get all your western products) to purchase baking materials.  Friday afternoon, right after school, I go home to make the dough to give it time to rise.  The girls come over, the kitchen is a tornado of activity.  Everyone wants to do something in the kitchen.  I turn on the oven to heat it up and then........nothing.  Kids start arriving.  I fiddle with the stove/oven and....nothing. I call my colleague (thanks P-C) and we figure out I tripped the fuse.  I go and flip the switch, it stays on for 5 seconds then trips again.  I start unplugging EVERY household item.  The switch keeps tripping. The kitchen is out of commission with 20 students in my living room.  Then, LIGHTBULB moment.  My stove is gas!!!  So what do I do?  I pan fry the dough into mini-pizzas while wearing a headlamp.  The kids didn't really care.  They were happy with food and a place to hang out.  I guess I should have done a test run of using my kitchen, since I hadn't turned anything on since I moved in back in August.  Lesson learned.