Mardi Gras snow

No big sights today, but I did wake up to snow! There was maybe a half an inch, but it was still kind of cool to see snow in Beijing considering it was built on a desert. Alex and I went to this design studio called VaporCube. She has a friend who works there and they are planning on doing a project on hutongs (the "shack" type buildings that are being knocked down in order to build highrises). He wanted us to come in because he thinks we could do a lot for the project. It could be really interesting although I am still unclear as to what exactly I would be doing. Seems like they want to do an exhibit and they want to basically spread the knowledge to people all over since there may not be any left by 2008. On our long walk home it started snowing again. I tried to take some photos but they didn't come out all too great. The creepiest thing was that I could see the sun perfectly but there were definitely no shadows. I can only assume that the pollution was so thick that the sun could not really get through enough. If I had not actually seen the sun, I would have thought it was really cloudy. Today had to have been the most polluted I have seen Beijing.

After walking around for a while, we stopped at April Gourmet for sour cream and apple sauce since I decided to make potato pancakes for Mardi Gras. Woohoo! While I was looking around, I saw a thing of Nutella and maybe I got a bit too excited. I called over to Alex and showed it to her and she immediately said, "Put it down!" so these two Australian women looked up and started laughing. They thought it was the cutest thing and we started talking about how great Nutella is. I am glad I made their day, they were even talking about how "cute" it was as they were walking out. At anyrate, I am super excited I was able to find all the ingredients I needed for potato pancakes since I am not able to have my mother's tasty cooking for Mardi Gras this year. Unfortunately they came out a bit too crispy because the stove is a bit freakish (and would probably be illegal in the US). There are only two burners and one of them doesn't seem to work unless the other one is turned off first. Then you have to fiddle with it for around ten minutes before it starts to work, if it does at all. In the middle of making the pancakes, I ran out of oil so we called April Gourmet to deliver another bottle. Somehow they misunderstood and delivered margarine instead. Even with all of that though, the pancakes were good and seemed to be a hit. Carrie even said that it was the best food she has had in Beijing.

Now I am super tired and am off to sleep. I will put the photos up tomorrow morning.