Last week I didn't feel much like blogging. Why not? Well, I was up to my elbows in another kind of creating -- my teaching partner and I decided to hold a good old-fashioned Western-style birthday party for some of our students.
What do you need for a birthday party? Well, a cake, of course! The challenge? I don't have an oven. The usual trappings of cake-baking are either near impossible to obtain in Jiujiang (butter can only be bought at one store in town), or unheard of (confectioner's sugar must be procured on trips to more Westernized cities like Shanghai or Nanjing). But we were determined that our party be Western; I wasn't about to accept one of those fancifully-decorated-but-shaving-cream-flavored Chinese cakes as a substitute.
Thankfully, a generous friend who teaches at a local university does possess an oven, and hosted us for an evening of baking. We cranked out a nice and easy chocolate sponge cake. A stroke of luck (Fi found a bag of confectioner's sugar in her cupboard) meant we could have icing too.
The party featured timeless classics such as "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" and "Pass the Parcel." We also did vigorous demonstrations of the "Hokey Pokey" and the "Macarena" (though I personally don't see the need to lengthen the latter's earthly lifespan by one second longer, it seemed like a fun group activity, and the students LOVED it).
Believe it or not, we also endeavored to make a pinata (a three-day effort). Our rainbow-colored butterfly held up through 1 1/2 rounds of broomstick pounding before spilling forth its goodies into the hands of our shocked and thrilled students. They had never experienced a pinata before.
We had lots of snacks too. A good time was had by all.
Posted by Astrid at December 6, 2004 12:10 AM