Chinese New Year

I know people get tired of hearing me say, "I love New York," but I do. There are so many wonderful cultural events to celebrate. Today we celebrated Chinese New Year. I made Vietnamese spring rolls for my class which has Vietnamese students. One of them, Preston was the one that informed me that several Asian countries celebrate Chinese New Year. Most of my students had never seen spring rolls before, but they bravely tried them. Most of them even opted for the hoisin sauce. Preston tried the roll and pronounced it better than his mom's. I doubt it. It was sweet though. At the end of the day the parents picked up their kids. As I stood visiting with another teacher, I saw Preston and his mom heading back toward me. It made me a little nervous as his mother does not speak English very well, so she seldom talks to me. I need not have worried though. This is how the conversation went.

Mrs. N: Preston say you make spring roll
Me: I tried
Mrs. N: Preston say he like better than mine.
Me: He is just being nice.
Mrs. N.: How you make?
I explained what I did.
Mrs. N: You fry?
Me: No
Mrs. N: (laughing) Most people think you fry. No, no, no. You make sauce?
Me: I bought hoisin sauce and added some chopped peanuts.
Mrs. N: awww, chopped peanuts. I try and you put garlic in peanut oil and add to sauce.

With that she walked away. As she was leaving, she leaned over and told her son. "Your teacher nice."

Who would have thought that all it took was a little chopped peanuts to make you a good teacher. I love New York.