Yangshuo: Living at a Cooking School

I've now been in Yangshuo for 48 hours. So far, things are pretty awesome.

I apparently have a talent for arranging internships for myself in the most beautiful and scenic locations in the WORLD - the village of Chaolong (which is about 6 km outside of Yangshuo), where I am staying, might be the best yet.

On Tuesday morning I left Guangzhou for the airport, after a breakfast of some mushroom dumplings (I didn't really understand how it worked, and I accidentally bought about 25 of them for about $1) The taxi to the airport was only ￥120, much less than i had expected, so that was nice - flight was right on time, and was quite quick (about 45 minutes in the air) and soon I was landing in Guilin! The pointed hills looked really cool from the airplane.

I was picked up by a female taxi driver who had a sign with my name. She spoke almost no English, so the hour long car ride was quite quiet, but nice. The highway between Guilin and Yangshuo is in very good condition - at parts it looked no different than the Merritt Parkway, except in gaps between the trees and hills there were rice paddies!

I met Pam when I arrived - I am staying at her house, which is attached to the original cooking school location in the village of Chaolong. She will only be here until Monday, when she leaves for Australia, so I will be taking over her tasks here once she is gone. This mainly includes doing the shopping for the school every morning at the market in town, but also includes helping book customers, organizing/coordinating and then just helping out in general. I am here to learn about Chinese food and also to learn the language, so my plan is to hang out at the school as much as possible to observe and learn as much as I can.

After settling in, Pam and I went to a nearby hostel where we rented a bicycle for me - for the next month it appears that I will mostly be traveling around by bicycle or on the back of someone's motorbike - either a friend's or a motor-taxi, which are quite common and cheap.

The Yangshuo Cooking School has been in Chaolong for over 5 years, but last year Pam and Kelly, one of the teachers, opened up a new branch of the school by the Li River in the main town. This location is quite nice too, and is convenient. Kelly is the primary teacher here, while Leo (her boyfriend) is one of the main teachers in Chaolong. Right now I am in Kelly and Leo's house using their computer, since Leo has a card reader. Both of them are about my age, are super nice, and speak great English.

The four of us had dinner on Tuesday, then went out to a local bar, then to a 6-year anniversary party of a friend's massage parlor. So there was lots of food.

I can't even remember everything I've eaten here so far, but some highlights have been an AMAZING mushroom soup, cold salad of local ferns (similar to fiddleheads!), crispy pork (much like chicharron), pumpkin stems w/ garlic, and a pig's stomach soup (sounds not-so-great, but was in fact delicious). This doesn't include the things we have cooked at the school, which I will get to later hopefully.

On Wednesday I got thrown right into helping at the school, since there was a very large group of 8th graders in town from the International School in Hong Kong. I stayed in Chaolong and helped out as both Leo and Sally (another teacher) taught in the two classrooms, about 17 people in each one - in both morning, and then again in the afternoon.

The kids did a pretty good job, but it was a bit stressful at times since the kids often forgot the directions - but I definitely felt useful, as there was a lot to help out with.

This morning was much calmer - I went to Kelly's class and got to cook along with four others - this time adults - we tried out a new menu which included steamed dumplings, sweet and sour pork, tofu w/ mixed vegetables, greens with garlic and spicy chicken w/ star anise.

Hopefully I am going to be good at cooking some Chinese dishes by the time I'm back in the US!
I've learned a lot already, so that's good.

There are swimming holes in the river about a 5 minute bike ride from where I'm staying - it's really hot here, so I went for a swim with Pam yesterday and it was really great - and in just about the most scenic location possible, next to rice paddies and with views of the pointed hills jutting out of the valley.

Oh, and I have gone to the market in the morning twice now with Pam, and I am attempting to learn which stalls she goes to, how much things cost, how much of what to get, and how to say things in Chinese. The language part might be tricky, but hopefully I'll be okay.

The local market is great - small enough to be manageable, but big enough to have a good variety, mostly local ingredients. I'll eventually be able to take some pictures.

After the market, we go to a small stall next door for breakfast of rice noodle soup w/ a delicious pork broth - you get to choose which pickled condiments you want to add to your soup, and you can also choose a meat. They also throw in some crunchy soybeans. Very good and tasty breakfast for about $0.40

That's all I have time for now....I've included some pictures.

If anyone has questions, post them in the "Comments" section and then I can answer them. Also, leave a comment if you read this. Aside from my parents, I dunno if anyone is even reading this, so it would be nice to know my audience so I can try to customize the posts to fit your interests :)



View of the garden from the entrance of the cooking school.


Pam's house, which is where I'm staying. The cooking school is actually part of the house too.


A small road between the house/school and the swimming hole.



Countryside near Chaolong.


View of the valley from nearby the swimming hole (about 5 minute walk from where I am living)


View of the Li River from the cooking school in town. This is the river that many boats sail down from Guilin. The swimming hole is on a smaller river.


A meal that was cooked by one of the 8th grade teachers. The table is in front of the garden.


A better look at the meal from the cooking school. Counter clockwise: rice, steamed chicken w/ ginseng and chinese dates, eggplant Yangshuo style, pork w/ mixed vegetable, green veggie w/ garlic, and then something else (I don't know who made that or what it is - it might have been made for the staff)


8th graders cooking!


More 8th graders cooking!



Leo and Pippy (his and Kelly's dog) on his motorbike. This was just before I hopped on to come over here to write the blog entry!