Then one of my former students came up to me and told me that we must eat jiaozi today, it being the first day of winter and all. Of course, I wanted to know why, but all she could manage to say was that eating jiaozi on this day of the year was very important for our ears. She stood there trying to think of how to communicate the specifics of what would happen if we failed to eat jiaozi today, but she was at a loss. "Well, whatever it is, it doesn't seem good," I said to her. And she concurred. I had a feeling that the jiaozi-ear relationship had something to do with the fact that jiaozi kind of look like ears, which just goes to show you how much I have assimilated into this culture to be able to use my imagination this way. (The Chinese are always seeing food for more than it really is.)
Well, by now the line was twice the length of when we got into it, and there were still no jiaozi to be seen. I was hungry and impatient (the story of my life), so I talked Benjamin out of waiting any longer. But as we sat eating our lunch, we both realized that now we were craving jiaozi and that something would have to be done about it. We had some frozen jiaozi at home, but it wasn't enough to feed all three of us for dinner, so I said I would stop at Xiao Chao (our nickname for the little grocery store on campus) to pick some more up on the way home after class.
I also asked some of my students in my afternoon class about the necessity of eating jiaozi today, and they were able to tell me, with slightly better English, that eating jiaozi on the first day of winter will protect your ears from frostbite all year long because--I was right!--jiaozi are shaped like ears. "But if you don't eat jiaozi today," they warned, "your ears may very well fall off before winter is over." Then, concerned that they had frightened me, they quickly told me, "It's just a myth, you know. It won't really happen."
Better safe than sorry, right?
