Hot Pot

One wall of my room has large glass doors leading out to the balcony, which was cool until this morning when I discovered that the sun rises really early in China. I hadn't heard my alarm go off, but rushed out of bed when I saw it was light outside. I rushed over to check my phone and discovered it was 5:30. I would have gone back to sleep, but the adrenaline from a fear of being late was already rushing through me. Curtains are not enough, I need something more intense.

Tonight was a night of hot pot. The general idea is you order the type of what I guess is best described as soup you want, then they place the giant pot into a hole in the middle of the table that has a burner underneath it. While it heats up you order all your things you want to place in fondue style, the sauces you want for dipping, and away you go. It was fantastic, the only problem was I had never personally been in charge of ordering before, I always had a Chinese friend or roommate to do it for me. Tonight was my night to be tested. I asked lots of questions and figured a lot out, but ultimately I still had to guess on a few things since Hangzhou's hot pot is different from the types I've eaten in America and Beijing. It was amazingly good, and I ordered all the right vegetables. The meat was a bit weird, some of it came out in large singular mound form that we had to shave apart with our spoons, and I'm not sure when or how but I managed to order some seaweed like vegetable. It was good though once you fondue'd it in the broth and then covered it in the sauce of your choice.

Pictures later, must prepare for class.