of bikes, zhongwen, and succulent curries.

up at eight today, hot shower and straight hair, bit of mapping and then i was off on my trusty secondhand bike that i bought for 70 yuan last week. he's a fair bit rusty around the edges and only goes one speed, but there's a nice little basket and the brakes work when i need them so i can't complain. i biked to my chinese lesson, arrived 20 minutes early so had some amazing xiao long bao for breakfast (a type of steamed dumpling stuffed with minced pork - perfect with vinegar and hot sauce). i met up with my teacher, chelsea, for the lesson at 10 at this big mcdonald's situated halfway between our homes (20 minutes by bike for me). it's always empty on weekday mornings, the coffees are 7 yuan, and we can work in relative privacy.

today's lesson was vocab for renting an apartment, but before we got into the book she had me just relay some stories from the last week to her in chinese, which was such awesome practice. it makes me realize how little i actually utilize the mandarin i know, beyond conversations with shopkeepers and taxi drivers. i seriously need to stop speaking to my chinese friends in english!

so here are the exciting updates in chinese (Now with twice the tones!):

1. last week i bought a secondhand bicycle. boo-yeah! = shang xing1qi1 wo3 mai3 jiu4 de zi4xing2che1. tai4 hao3 le!
2. on saturday night i lost my cellphone in a taxi because i was drunk and stupid. = xing1qi1liu wo3 diu1 wo3 de shouji yinwei wo3 hen3 zui4 he2 ben dan.
3. i feel like i'm too busy right now. = wo3 jue de wo3 tai4 mang2.

after my lesson i did some groceries with as much scrimping as possible then came home and made a weird, super easy pork and pumpkin curry that somehow turned out okay. i was inspired by the bf's amazing curry skillzZz and his awesome thai red curry last night. anyway, recipe is as follows:

- sliced lean pork
- 1 cup coconut juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp curry powder
- 1/2 an onion
- 2 cups sliced pumpkin
- sliced ginger to taste (i used about the size of a thumb)
- 1 sliced medium hot green chili pepper
- pinch of chili flakes
- 1/4 cup of water
- 1 tbsp oil

oil in the pan, get it hot, add the pork and curry powder. when pork is golden brown toss in all the remaining ingredients and let simmer until sauce has thickened slightly and pumpkin is soft and mushy. dump it all over rice and eat it while planning your wednesday english corner. hooray!