Hotpot, GRBs, and Hac Sa

Thursday night, Susan/Austin/I were at the office pretty late, so we decided to go out for dinner with Mari and Brian in Taipa. We were all really hungry, so we opted for a all-you-can-eat hotpot (火 鍋）place, which was made even more fun by the fact that Brian and Mari had never had hotpot before!

Getting super-excited

As usual, Susan and I managed to decipher enough of the menu so we didn't end up ordering anything too bizarre, and we got a good mix of vegetables/meat/noodles. One side of the pot was clear soup and the other side was supposed to be Thai spicy-style, but Austin and Susan agreed it wasn't spicy enough (which was true, compared to the Szechuan style we had at Little Fat Lamb the first time we took Austin), so they even asked for more chili pepper to put in. The following semi-amusing conversation ensued:

Brian, eating some vegetables from the Thai side and turning bright red: Yikes, this is really spicy?
Susan: Really? Lemme try!
*Susan eats a piece*
Susan: Uh, this isn't spicy at all...

All in all, though, it was a really good dinner for only about $10 USD each. Afterward, Susan and I took Mari to the Royal Supermarket next door to show her where to find frozen 湯 圓 (glutinous rice balls, aka GRBs) that she had loved so much in Singapore. She didn't end up buying all of these, but she got some peanut and red bean ones to try cooking at home. Later that night, Susan and I got text messages proclaiming her success and the state of her happy stomach =P

Mari gloating over her GRBs

Friday afternoon after work, Sam/Susan/I headed to Hac Sa beach, where we were meeting with the MPI ETAs and some English teachers from Xinjiang. The Xinjiang teachers were in Macau taking training courses at the Bell Center where Emily works, so she was showing them around Macau on a rare free afternoon. We just hung out there for a couple hours, chatting over snacks on the beach, playing a few games of charades, and attempting to throw the one guy into the water (apparently it's an annual tradition). The teachers went home around 5 PM, but we ETAs stuck around for a few more hours just talking since we haven't had much time to hang out together recently. so it was nice to catch up on stories of everyone's recent travels and vent a little about work as well.

The Xinjiang teachers, who were (understandably) super-excited to be at the beach

Weekend agenda: Lots of grading/lesson planning, church and dance as usual, and we'll see what else comes up =D