You know you're back in Macau when...

…you go to Senado Square and see all sorts of crazy decorations being put up for the next holiday (in this case, Lunar New Year).

Other decorations are going up all around Macau: plastic plum-blossom trees, real kumquat bushes (those must have cost quite a bit, since they’re all loaded with fruit), and of course the ubiquitous animal figures, these being tigers in varying poses (some with clothes/props, some without). Almost every lamppost has some sort of decoration, and there are also red plywood walls going up mysteriously in many places.

Fake plum-blossom trees near St. Paul's ruins

Kumquat bushes and more fake plum blossoms in Taipa

Tiger fabric statues in Taipa, still under wraps

I’m planning to stay in Macau for the Lunar New Year itself (Feb 14-16), so it’ll be interesting to watch the celebrations around the city – I’m sure there will be fireworks, lion dances, and all the usual craziness. Those three days are also the only time that civil servants (including UM teachers!) are allowed to go gambling, so perhaps I’ll go casino-hopping not to gamble myself, but to see how many other teachers I can spot =P

In other news, I experimented with cooking Italian food last night, which turned out decently given what I had to work with, but still wasn’t the best I could I have done.
1) Chop onions, bell peppers, and garlic.
2) Cook the fusilli; drain and set aside.
3) Fry the onions, garlic, and bell pepper together to cook the onions.
4) Add 1 packet tomato sauce and another can of tomato paste to thicken the sauce. Stir to prevent from burning (the pan was really hot even with the lowest heat setting, so despite my stirring, it burned slightly anyway.)
5) Cut some chunks of (really expensive!) mozzarella cheese.
6) In a bowl, layer pasta + sauce + mozzarella. Repeat.

Finished product
(with garlic stir-fried sweet pea pods on the side)

The tomato sauce was sweeter than I would have liked (another reason why it burned), so if possible, I would have added more basil/oregano and maybe a bit of pepper to give it more savory/spicy flavor. I also probably should have used green pepper instead of yellow, but you just have to make do with what’s available.

Spring semester starts tomorrow – we’re only teaching one class each this semester, but consequently we’re adding a lot more extracurricular activities, at least one every other week, plus English table and admin table. What took up most of my time last semester was lesson-planning, not grading, so having just one class isn’t that much less work. I’m also hoping to kick-start my Chinese improvement with a tutor/language partner, get more exercise (Yogaworld heh), and maybe shadow some more at the Hope Clinic, so it’ll clearly be a busy semester regardless!

P.S. Now that I’ve finished editing all my Malaysia photos, blogs will be retroactively posted in the near future. In the meantime, you can check out my photos albums on Facebook, but you have to be a friend of mine to see them.