not your typical class field trip.

i'm a big fan of field trips. they're often a way to get a hands-on learning experience that can impart far greater knowledge than simply sitting in the classroom. i would say my first asian class field trip did exactly that! we've been studying language for 3 months now and are finally to the point where we can converse simply with people around town. thus, our teacher (laoshi shen) decided she would teach us to make "jiaozi" (aka dumplings): from start to finish.

we began our day meeting laoshi shen at the busiest market in town. if i ever doubted that i live in asia, i just needed about one second in this place to be reminded of the absurdity of my surroundings. we joke about it, but you can literally find ANYTHING in this place: flowers, vegetables, dental work, heat lamps, scooter repairs, woks, key makers, masseuse...i mean anything. (sometimes we longingly say somewhere in this market there must be FRO-YO...oh how i wish!) as you can see below, the rumor about asians eating dog proved ever too true as we saw an entire pup for sale amidst the other meat; welcome to asian life. this might've been the most SHOCKING hour and a half in all of asia....

just your local dentist...

yes, that's right: an entire dog worth of meat for sale. help me.

cause who wouldn't want blood with their fish heads?
(fraser's steppin a little too close, no wonder we take our shoes off before coming inside) 

duck dynasty aint got nothin on asia...

finding an asian teacher amidst hundreds upon hundreds of asians was a challenge in itself. however, after our class finally all met up, we were given assignments of various ingredients to locate, ask the price of, and bargain for the specific amount we wanted. it was an empowering experience as it forced us to utilize our language and yielded successful results!

veggies on veggies on veggies on veggies

a whole new view on buying meat...stabbed with a metal hook means it's fresh, right?

talk about fresh.

tongxue (classmates) explorin'

after gathering all of the needed ingredients, we scooted over to our teachers house to begin making jiaozi. this was a cultural experience in itself as it took 4 hours to chop, prepare, and cook the jiaozi properly! laoshi shen invited over some of her asian students to join us. due to their cultural norms, they would let us help with very little but did 'teach' us quite a bit. it was a joy to hear about their hometowns, fellowship together as classmates, and truly feel welcomed and at home in our teachers house. 

choppin' for hours.

assembling the jiaozi

one little, two little, many little jiaozi.

the final result: we made hundreds...

in the end we got to eat the long-anticipated jiaozi. it was DELICIOUS! we fried some and steamed others, but my favorite were the fried jiaozi (no surprise to those who know my eating habits). i love that we had a chance to put our language to the test and the opportunity to learn to cook such a traditional asian food! i'm excited for more class adventures to come...