in which danielle makes chinese soup.

my first week back in hangzhou, three chinese buddies came over and showed me how to make soup with a whole chicken, veggies, noodles, and stock. it was totally awesome and so as it has been really rainy and cold the past couple of days, i was inspired to create my own pseudo-sino soup. chinese soups are great because they're never too heavy or rich, they're just packed with vegetables and fresh ingredients with really natural, simple flavours. i went to the grocery store this morning, picked up a bunch of nice veggies and some egg dumplings and then got to work.

i used:
- spinach
- 1 package of egg dumplings stuffed with pork
- thin, handmade noodles (gift from a friend - fresh from her nearby hometown!!)
- dried mushrooms
- garlic
- ginger
- pepper
- chicken stock
- water

i made the base with just water, stock, some black pepper, diced garlic, and big chunks of the ginger. when it was getting hot i threw the remaining ingredients in - after it had boiled for a minute, i let the concoction simmer for a few more and then it was ready. all told, took about 20 minutes from start to finish and the result was hot and delicious, absolutely perfect for today. next time i would add shallots, cilantro and maybe some more veggies - also overcooked the dumplings a bit but otherwise, reaaally good.

i had to go to hong kong for three days in order to get my work visa. it was a fantastic trip - i jammed so much sightseeing in, but my favourite thing was ultimately just walking around and watching the daily activities of the city. it's a great place - good vibe, vibrant, huge mish mesh of cultures and walks of life. i stayed in a little hostel in tsim sha tsui on kowloon, it was a bit of a rough neighbourhood but there was definitely lots to see and do within the surrounding area. would go back to hk in a heartbeat.

in which danielle gets a health exam.

at 9:30 on the dot this morning, i was picked up by my lovely lao ban, auntie lin, and we proceeded off to the Zhejiang Travel Healthcare Centre for my "healthy test". after forking over about 80 bucks and filling out some forms i was all set to dive headfirst into a myriad of tests. blood was first, went smoothly, and then i hit my first roadblock - the dreaded urine sample.

they handed me the little plastic cup, i went to the bathroom, mei you xiaobian. no pee. wait, okay, a little bit. i went back out and showed them. not enough, stupid waiguo ren, throw it out and try again! it was hard enough forcing it the first time but bravely i threw out my first cup and got a second one. naturally this somehow fell out of my hand and into the toilet. i came out, explained with halting chinese and mime as to what had happened. the staff were not impressed. out came the third cup. back to the bathroom i went, praying that somehow i would magically need to pee. as was expected nothing happened. auntie lin was getting a bit impatient by this time and decided to force 4 cups of water into me before lugging me off to the next tests, which would give me ample time to want to empty my bladder.

the next test was a weight, height, and eye exam. the good news is i apparently lost 5 lbs since i came to china despite copious amounts of booze and subway; i am now at roughly 145 lbs!!! incredible!!!!! thank you china (although i have a feeling this has something to do with my bout of food poisoning this past weekend)!!!!!! eyes weren't too hot even though i was wearing contacts but mei wenti. test 3 was an ultrasound. the woman grunted at me, pointed to a bed, i complied and lay down. she rucked my shirt up and unceremoniously dumped really cold liquid on my stomach then schlepped the device down. roughly five seconds later she threw a kleenex on my tummy and grunted again. i took this as a positive sign, cleaned up and went on my merry way to blood pressure lady.

blood pressure lady had no patience for my lack of chinese and got really angry when i had no idea what her purpose was or what i was supposed to do. i got yelled at in putonghua for a good minute until auntie lin gently gestured to the blood pressure machine (i'd had no idea that was the test i was getting) and all was suddenly well. blood pressure seemed good, now off to a heart test. once again my clothes were shoved up and weird liquid was dumped on me along with clampy things placed at various spots on my chest, stomach, and ANKLE. the concensus??? i drink too much alcohol so my heart is too fast! i'm sure that has nothing to do with being SCARED and FREEZING as i was half naked in a hospital WITHOUT HEAT and sporting OPEN WINDOWS. on a rainy +11 day. come on. auntie lin admonished me against the dangers of pi jiu as we proceeded to the x-ray. this was the most normal test of all of them and therefore not worthy of a paragraph.

at last it was time to return to the urine test, so i retrieved cup #4 and marched off to my stall. even after four cups of water, pressure to perform had somehow paralyzed me and i could only produce meager amounts of urine. it was just barely enough to satisfy the surly urine nurses but they stamped the forms and finally, finally, i was allowed to leave health check hell.

two hours later i'm now cold and starving but boy do i ever have to pee!!!

"but i'd rather be working for a paycheque
than waiting to win the lottery"

got holes in my new jeans for you

back in hangzhou with a new studio apartment downtown, amazing location and even better view. this week has raced by in a blur of beer and RMB, people popping in and out of my life, things to buy and feelings to consider. i need to have more discretion and consider situations more carefully. i also reeeeally need to lay off the booze for a few weeks.

i like my co-workers. i'm so lucky to have good people around me.

from an airport on a cold day

first day of the new year, waiting to board. i feel like i'm running on momentum, like i couldn't stop if i wanted to - somehow i've learned how to stop fighting things and just let myself be carried by the tide, by the way things are going, without allowing myself to actually feel it at any point. just in case it's too painful.

i need a haircut so bad

snowman impersonations in the pm.

i think there's a newish supernatural on tonight that i didn't see in october, so i'm pretty excited about that. i just need something to fill that 8-9 void!

it's freaking me out how much my diet has slowed down in the past month. i guess the less you weigh the harder it is to take off the remaining pounds. i'm skirting 150 right now, and ideally i'd like to be in the 140's (i'll take 149, why not) by the time we leave for the cruise next friday. psychologically to be in the 140's will merit a BIG WIN. if i can get 145 by the time i leave for china in january then that's that, i'll be absolutely thrilled with myself and try to stay somewhere between 140 - 145. i'm coming to terms with the fact that i am unfortunately sort of pear shaped and if i have curvy thighs my whole life i can live with it. the point is my body fat percentage is okay, i'm right smack dab in the middle of a healthy Body Mass Index, and my waist and hip measurements are also healthy. i cannot even remember the last time that i was anywhere near this, so that's a good feeling. (also i had chocolate mousse tonight and am trying to make myself feel better.)

only 5 more days of work to go! this weekend is like a christmas bonanza, tomorrow night my mom and i are seeing 'a celtic christmas' concert put on by the barra macneils, then saturday is old-fashioned christmas downtown thornbury followed by big family dinner at an inn near there. sunday we're seeing handel's messiah and having a little xmas dinner with my brother and my sister-in-law. i thought christmas without my dad would be a lot harder and a lot weirder, and maybe it is but i just haven't let myself grasp that yet? i'm not sure, but it's okay, i'm enjoying the season, the cheesy movies, the bing crosby cds, etc. we'll see.

come thou fount of every blessing

today i am happy and energized because it's friday, and it's so cold outside that my nose is still red. i love winter, the snow, the chill, and the resulting comfort and coziness of wrapping yourself up inside a warm house (or office). i think a lot of it is nostalgia of christmas when i was a kid. i've been working on a poster for work today, and at lunch i went out and did some christmas shopping (shop local!) and rewarded my spending of benjamins with a big hot earl grey tea from this coffee place down the street.

since i quit drinking coffee about a month ago (cold turkey, the only way i ever do it) i have taken up excessive consumption of tea instead. i feel way better about a bit of caffiene from tea than i do from coffee, plus the flavours are amazing. i'm so hooked on earl grey but my number 1 is this sri lankan christmas blend from holland's fine tea in fergus. amazing!! i could drink this stuff til the cows come home.

i really, really love:
- avon catalogues
- handmade christmas cards
- bing crosby's holiday classics
- mandarin flashcards
- x-weighted
- when my cat sleeps peacefully with me and doesn't stick his paws in my face and start kneading

dear sufjan stevens,

i'm sorry for forgetting about you for three years. thanks for still existing when i remembered.

forever plus a day,

danielle

...and by night i blog about FISH!

so, amazingly easy low fat tilapia recipe. tilapia has become one of my new favourite fish because it's incredibly low in calories and fat, and it's absolutely delicious - and affordable.

per fillet: a few slices of lemon, a couple slices of onion, mushrooms, slivers of red pepper - whatever veggies you wanna throw in there. place the tilapia fillet on a piece of tin foil, douse it with black pepper and garlic powder. squeeze a bit of lemon juice on there then lay the slices of lemon over the fish, along with some slices of garlic. throw the veggies on top then fold it all up in a neat little foil package and toss it in the oven at 400, bake for about 20 minutes, give or take depending on how thick the fillet is. it is so perfectly moist, smells incredible, and tastes really great with a sprinkle of peppercorns and a side of salad. i find any fish (and boneless skinless chicken breasts too) taste great when they're baked like this, with lemon and veggies and any spices that you see fit. hurray!

4 weeks til the cruise, 4 weeks til work is over, 6 weeks til i set foot back on chinese soil. my life is a series of countdowns.

sweet you rock and sweet you roll

i'm moving back to hangzhou, china the first week of this coming january to teach at the school i was at before (see also: frustrated post about weird working conditions and low pay!). my boss said i'll have increased wages though, as well as the possibility of an apartment that i coveted greatly during my previous hz stint. i'm actually so excited to go back there and plough through a couple of weeks of teaching, followed by a month off for chinese new year! so my backpacking plans shall be bumped up to february and will inevitably become more expensive as it'll be prime holiday season in china. i missed my students, my little neighbourhood with its fruit stands and bakeries, and mostly my proximity to the BEST SHOPPING DISTRICT in the city. also 25 cent beers. i have to admit i'm kind of nervous about leaving my mom and my house this time, just because i feel guilty and pained over her being alone in this big place. she said she was gonna visit a lot, for long periods of time, and i hope she does. i know my brother and tory aren't far away but i also know it will be tough for her, and me. my mom and i were always really close, but since my dad passed away we've become even closer, relying on each other so much for support. i guess we'll see how things go.

since no blog post is complete without a weight update: i've only got about 10 lbs left to go - i'm at 155 right now which isn't bad for 5'8" at all!! i'd be happy being somewhere in the size 8 to 10 range and i'm at an 11 right now which, again, isn't half bad. my mom and i are going on a 7-night carribbean cruise for christmas this year, so we went bathing suit shopping yesterday. i tried on a bikini, a truly horrifying experience, and then decided i'll go with a tankini. i am still extremely embarrassed about my thighs but the rest is OK. i dunno, if i can lose these last 10 lbs by the cruise then hopefully it won't be so bad. right now i've lost a total of about 53 lbs since february but it's weird how it seems like it's never enough, i can't look in the mirror without criticizing myself and still seeing myself over 200 lbs. the hardest part of dieting is trying to mentally adjust and come to terms with yourself.

there's this guy, he's classy, a real gentleman. i got to hang out with him a bit for just one day last week and it was awesome. i haven't been interested in someone for a really long time and i wish i could see him again but such is life, i'm moving, i think he's interested in some other girl, and i'm too much of a mess right now to let anybody care about me.

we had our last grief counselling night on wednesday, where we had to bring a picture and something that represented the person we lost. i brought my dad's old air canada captain's hat and a picture of him that i'd taken in hangzhou almost a year ago, just before i found out he had cancer. he was standing on a rock, wearing a yellow golf shirt and a big smile. when i tried to talk about my two items at the counselling, i started crying so hard that i could hardly say anything. it's things like that that make me wonder if maybe i'm not dealing with this right, that maybe i'm running away from grief/working through his death by leaving for china. i wish there was a book that could tell me how to make this pain go away. there's a hollow part inside of me that will always be there. it's been just over four months now but sometimes it still feels like it was yesterday. i miss you dad.