和平公园，二零零八

Yesterday one of my favourite students, Vanilla, invited me to go roller skating with her and some of her classmates.  I haven't been roller skating since I was in about...6th grade so I was pretty stoked.  Unfortunately when we arrived, the place was closed, so we settled for playing in the sprinklers at Peace Park, and eating ice cream in the shade.  We stuck our feet in the Chang Jiang (Long) river and somehow emerged without a disease, so I guess it's not as dirty as it looks.

The relaxing afternoon was followed by one last trip to the Indian Canteen for the year.  Then this morning our Sunday group went to our favourite place in Restaurant Row: Er Ling Ling Ba (2008).  The lovely sisters who run the place agreed to teach us to make some of our regular dishes, so Elizabeth and I stepped into the kitchen (which incidentally is smaller than most people's bathrooms) with our notebooks and camera's in hand.  We watched him create five Chinese wonders and hastily scribbled instructions in the hopes that we can cook them for our families this summer.  We had to occasionally call Emma in to translate, but for the most part managed quite well.  So this summer if you'd like to try some authentic Chinese food expertly cooked by yours truly, give me a call!

"What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child?"

-Lin Yutang