All the Tea in China

One of the cool things about teaching in an international school is the exchange of cultures. My school only has a few different cultures represented because the students are all Chinese (the staff are Chinese, American, Canadian, British, Australian and South African), but the school tries to give the staff, especially the international staff opportunities to learn about Chinese culture (see here for the coolest Peking Opera experience). One of those opportunities was given to us last week during our weekly meeting time. The Chinese department organized a traditional Chinese New Year meal (with delicious jiaozi - also called Chinese dumplings, pot stickers or gyoza), a presentation about the history of the Chinese zodiak and for a parent to come and share with us about tea.
Introduced as Dora's dad we had a parent who was really passionate about tea come and share with us about the history of tea, and the types of teas. More importantly, we go to sample the teas (and he gave us both an ornate tea disc and a sample of the tea in the disc so that we don't have to destroy the beautiful disk to sample it). As we sampled each tea he explained how to brew the tea (yes, the different teas had different procedures), and showed us different equipment we could use in different situations for making the tea.  He spoke some English so sometimes he presented in English and sometimes in Chinese. The funny thing was a Chinese member of the social studies department was translating, but when Dora's dad spoke in English he would just automatically repeat it in English. Sometimes, I would translate it faster than he could and he would stick the microphone in my face for me to take over translating, but there were too many words I didn't know for me to take over translating.

This is tea wrapped in painted wrappers. I actually got some interesting shots
Of the tea and the tea "ceremony," but the just won't upload....

It was really cool seeing Dora's dad (sorry that's the only name that was used) present about tea, because his passion was so apparent. When we tried to ask about how much some of the really good teas cost we were told that there was no price, because they weren't teas we could buy. They were from his private collection!

 

According to legend the order of the Chinese zodiac is the result
Of a race. This is an illustration from that story. 

The history of the Chinese zodiac was explained using a YouTube video.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find the same video or I would have shared the link here. 

They served lots of yummy foods including three different types of
Chinese dumplings (a traditional Chinese New Year food).