Making dumplings

In China, it's fashionable to be pale. (Quite the opposite from the tanning salon on every corner in the U.S.) So when the girls are outside and it's sunny, they use a pretty decorative umbrella. I bought one for myself, even though I would love to be tan, because the shade actually helps in this crazy heat!

After class today, I bought a beautiful bouquet of flowers for one of my students and her family. She invited me to her home for dinner.

When I got there, two of her dad's friends were making dumplings, and they insisted that I try! I wasn't very good at it, but it was pretty amazing seeing how practiced they were.

Joy's father is a professor at the university where I'm teaching right now. He was a little to shy to use his English, but he understood everything I said. Her mother was very thin, but she ate more than any of us! :o)

Here's my very own dumpling that I made all by myself. I could tell because it wasn't as pretty as the others. :o)

I got to watch Joy's mother play Mah Jong with her friends before we left. It's much more complicated than the one-player computer game I'm obsessed with back home.

Loved this example of "Engrish"...