When all else fails, eat

Between the cold, the lack of electricity, studying for finals, and a big nationwide English test coming up, my sophomores have been pretty stressed lately. They have apparently turned to food to calm their nerves, a tactic I can relate to as I'm pretty sure I used to gain ten pounds every reading week at NU. They have been kind enough to include me in their stress-eating. While I'm a bit sick of Chinese food since my town is quite lacking in variety, I always eat better when I go out with them. (But seriously, I would kill for a Portillo's hamburger right now. Or Lou Malnati's. Or even just a bowl of cereal.)

First stop this week, hot pot! Except this time my friend Sarah and I went to a place where you get to choose your own sticks with food on them from a giant refrigerator. You then put the sticks in the hot pot and pay by the stick. With each stick costing about 15 cents, I went all out.

Next up, cooking lessons round 2! My favorite girls came over to cook for me again, and were disappointed to hear I had not used the kitchen since last time we had done this. On the menu was fried bok choy, spicy pork with green peppers, dumpling soup, and scrambled eggs with tomatoes. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches made an appearance at dessert.

Finally, Justin, his girlfriend, and a few students who come to our weekly English corner went out for a family style meal of sweet and sour pork, duck, braised eggplant, and fried tofu. Ironically, the sweet and sour pork dish is the only food I have found here that remotely resembles American-Chinese food.

So well fed and ready to work, this week starts my sophomore finals. I'm giving them a listening and speaking test on top of their regularly scheduled classes, so as a break we'll just be watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Elf all week. I really doubt I'll be sick of Elf after watching it three times.

I will be sad to see my sophomore classes go. They are by far my most enthusiastic and fun students. I have really enjoyed teaching them and getting to know them. Most of them have become friends rather than students. Since my freshmen started so late thanks to their mandatory military training, I still have another couple of weeks of lessons with them.

But a month from today... Chicago!