Hostel Dumpling Night

Instead of ‘dorms,’ Lingnan has ‘hostels.’ There are 6 on campus, 4 are the Southern Hostels- A, B, C, D- and 2 make up the Northern Hostels- E and F. . I am in Hostel F. Each hostel has a Warden, who is kind of the director of the hostel/an adult, and a bunch of tutors, who I see as comparable to RAs.

As I explained during NSO, each hostel kind of does it own thing and has it’s own traditions. And earlier this week I was able to participate in one of Hostel F’s own traditions- Chinese Dumpling Night for Exchange Students.

So on Monday night, most of Hostel F’s exchange students gathered in the common room on the ground floor with the executive board, tutors and warden of Hostel F.

Our Warden first showed us how to make dumplings and then everybody gathered around the table and started making their own dumplings. I had to make a few dumplings before I got the hang of things, but once I did it was so much fun! There were two huge bowls-one with meat, the other with veggies- and dozens of chopsticks to pick up the mixings to put into the dumpling. There were so many piles of dumpling sheets (I’m not really sure what to call them- the dumpling sheets?) Hands were everywhere, but somehow we managed to make hundreds of dumplings without poking anybody with chopsticks.

There were so many different designs of dumplings, you could definitely tell who had made them before and who was just beginning. The Warden explained that you could usually tell who made it by the design, which was so true. Mine were so simple, while some of the tutors’ were so complex.

The tutors began to cook the finished dumplings, while we continued to make them, and then it was time to feast! And feast we did! They were all so delicious and the tutors kept filling up our bowls. It was a great night to meet the Warden as well as the tutors and executive board and other exchange kids in my hostel while eating dumplings!