Surviving China

I confess that I am a Survivor fan. I have pretty much watched every episode of the past 15 seasons, except the second half of Palau I think. At one point, I thought the show was losing originality and good cast that I thought I would lose interest but I was sure glad to find out they finally came to China for the latest season and it turned out to be quite interesting.

Out of all things, I usually enjoy the food challenge and the final reunion show the most. Seriously I think I would not be able to go through any of the challenges myself easily. But this Chinese food challenge would have been a piece of cake for me. Maybe not the turtle part. I have even had Balut once. Thanks to Sister Malana and Sister Gellor on my mission. I only drank the content of it and could not down the fetus with feathers and the beak. It did taste like chicken soup and was not bad. But if it was a million bucks on the line I would have no problem eating the whole thing. Ha! And the so-called "thousand year old egg" is a myth to most non-Chinese. I was talking about it with my students the other day and it is actually a fermentation process caused by alkaine that turns the egg black, not because of age and mold. I never find it disgusting and it is so true that taste is a cultural habit and a nurture thing. It's funny finally a Mormon won this time but I did not root for him at all! I was betting on Amanda since almost all past winners had high EQ and she seemed to have it all. Thanks to Todd's calling her out in the last second (accidentally or not) and Todd's better performance facing the jury she lost. He deserves it though. And the whole season is available at www.cbs.com if you want to watch it now!