Educators on the Edge: International Night 2014

KIS International Night - Saturday October 4, 2014

This event was held earlier than it was last year. I'm not sure why we didn't wait until the annual January date, but it makes me wonder if it had something to do with the rumors we've been hearing about no heat this winter. Actually, the latest rumor is that there will be heat, but just less of it. Perhaps we won't be able to heat the school this winter for weekend or extra-curricular events? Who knows?!

International Night 2014 was still a big hit! It was well attended, the entertainment and food was spectacular, and I participated in a new and unique way this year.

Helping China

This is LaLa, a senior at KIS and our one and only Chinese student. Although LaLa has been living in Ukraine for several years and speaks Ukrainian fluently, her Chinese roots are strong. She still speaks Chinese at home and tutors young children who want to learn Chinese. This year LaLa wanted to make sure that China was represented at International Night, but she didn't want to do it alone. She solicited the help of our biology teacher, Xin Yan, whose mother is from Singapore (so, close enough, I guess), and Xin Yan asked me if I would like to offer my culinary skills and my kitchen to help LaLa. I was happy to oblige, not because I have Chinese cooking skills, but because I wanted to learn some Chinese cooking skills. LaLa's menu was a bit ambitious: baozi (dumplings), fried rice, and stir-fried cabbage salad. I know it may sound like a simple meal, but the events committee advised having enough food for 400 people. Granted, we only needed "samples", but LaLa, Xin Yan, and I were going to need MORE help!
The three of us were able to handle the grocery shopping without a problem on the Thursday night before. The taxi driver, on the other hand, had a difficult time getting us and our bags into his small car! On Friday after school, with the help of some other students, we started cooking. It was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun. We chopped; LaLa cooked. We ate some pizza and chopped some more. The others chopped, LaLa cooked, and I tried to keep up with the dirty dishes.

Kids will work for pizza

We worked hard until about 10pm and then called it quits. We weren't quite finished, so LaLa returned the next afternoon to finish up before she had to report to the school for the Flag Parade which kicked off the evening at 5:00.

I don't know if we actually fed 400, but the Chinese table received a lot of visitors and a lot of compliments. LaLa felt proud and we were happy for her.