Just a little update before I get back to my China trip (later in the week).

It never ceases to amaze me what a strange place I live in. I mentioned recently that it was cold. Well, there have been an unusual amount of cold days recently. By 'cold', I mean colder than average. It shouldn't be much colder than around -10 during the day and -15 at night, but there have been at least half a dozen days when it has been around -30. Annoyingly, the coldest time of the day is always between 7am and 9am, just when I'm going to work. I'm never really sure what to expect when I wake up and go outside. Sometimes it's just normal cold. Other days, it's COLD. My nose freezes instantly, it is hard to breath, my poor car has trouble starting and shifting gears. It's weird.

On these cold days it's so cold that it doesn't snow. Instead of snow, the moisture particles in the air freeze and become what's known as 'diamond dust'. It's called this because everything sparkles as if someone had crushed a diamond and sprinkled it in the air. It's one of those unique experiences that people travel a long way just for a chance to see. I get to see it just about every day.

My town is also weird because of the speed in which news travels. I guess it's the same as any other country town in any other country. I went to work last Friday and someone asked me how I was. 'I'm OK', I replied. Then they asked how bad the damage was to my car. 'What! Damage?! What the **** are you talking about?' I asked, a little concerned that someone had done something to my car. Someone else from across the room joined in the conversation. 'Oh yeah, I heard you had a car crash. Was it bad?'. I had no idea what anyone was talking about, but I went outside to check my car just in case (it was fine... whooo...). Apparently a rumour had started that I had crashed my car going over the dangerous mountain pass that leads to Asahikawa. I'm not really sure how the rumour started. From what I could piece together, there MAY have been a car accident, and there MAY have been a foreigner driving the car, but everyone I talked to had a second-hand version of the story. No one was sure where the story originated, so I'm not really sure what was going on.

About 10 minutes after this conversation, the school vice-principal comes over and asks me 'you weren't in (another town) yesterday were you?'. It turns out that there had been some kind of 'incident' involving a 'blonde-haired foreigner driving a car' in this town that's about an hour away. I told the vice-principal that yes, I have blonde hair and yes, I drive a car, but no, it wasn't me. I tried to get some more information out of him but the most I could get was that the person involved in the 'incident' was driving a white car (no, not me... my car's blue), and that it was fortunate I wasn't involved because it was the kind of 'incident' that it would be better not to be involved in. Whatever.

Finally, in local news, I made the district newspaper again. Not quite the giddy highs of a national newspaper, but bigger than a local newspaper. I have had another brush with fame and this time my name will be remembered for ever (or at least until people get sick of eating hamburgers).

Students and teachers at all the local schools eat a set school lunch every day, and most days it's basically the same thing. Monday is 'noodle day', Tuesday is 'fish day' etc. Once every month or two, the lady in charge of the school lunch centre goes to a local class and has the students help design a 'special treat' meal that will be incorporated into the next lunch calendar. Last November, the 3rd grade junior high class designed a burger made with Australian beef. Because it was made from Aussie beef the lunch lady let me choose the name. I came up with a couple of great comedic names for the meal (which everyone agreed were great), but each one was rejected by the lunch lady (who perhaps lacks a sense of humour). In the end I gave up and let someone else decided the name. Turns out it the chosen name was 'Jonathan Burger'.

'Jonathan Burger' day came and everyone was excited to see what the meal would be like. The meal consisted of a big beef pattie, some salad, a long sesame bread roll (much better than the usual crap bread we get) and a bowl of chicken cream stew. It was by far and away the best school lunch meal I've had since I've been here, and pretty much everyone else agreed. I was more than happy to give my name to a school lunch that will go down in local culinary history.

During the meal the lunch lady came to visit my class (which just happened to be the class that designed the meal). She asked how the meal was (everyone was very pleased), took a few photos, and explained to us that we better enjoy it because it cost about four times more than school lunches are supposed to cost so it wouldn't be coming again. When she came to take a photo of me I picked up the whole pattie with my fork, pulled a silly face and pretended to shove the whole thing in my mouth. It was a silly photo that was printed out and put on the classroom wall, so everyone could remember the day they got to try the 'Jonathan Burger'.

Fast forward to last week. I happen to run into one of the lunch delivery guys as he's delivering the school lunches. 'Did you see the paper?', he asked. 'Nope. What was in it?'. He pauses and a big smile comes across his face. '.......Jonathan Burger!'.

For some reason the district newspaper did an article on school lunches in my town and the focus of the article was the 'Jonathan Burger'. The article explained the history and popularity of the meal and included the previously secret recipe (actually, it was just a normal burger recipe, so I guess it must be the name that makes it taste better!). There was also a photo. For some reason, the lunch lady decided to use the photo of me trying to shove the whole patty in my mouth, but I didn't really mind.

I'll see if I can find a copy of the article and scan it.