I’ve copied and pasted parts of an email we sent to our family this morning, but I’ve added some details about our restaurant meals Friday that I told the fam they’d need to check out on the blog instead.

It is Sunday morning here. We are at Ruth’s and will hear from Drew later this morning via cassette.

Our meals on Friday were very different from each other and very good and enjoyable. We had lunch with the couple from France who have been teaching French here at the university for the past year. Since they were flying back home to France on Friday afternoon, we were fortunate to be able to have lunch with them. We went to Nicolas’ favorite place - “JiaoZi King.” Since he speaks Chinese, he did the ordering. “JiaoZi” is a kind of Chinese dumpling. You can order whatever kind of filling and cooking method you want. So we had three kinds, each with different meats and veggies inside - one type boiled, one baked, and one fried. There were also several side vegetables - a cucumber salad and some cooked eggplant that was to die for! Below are two pictures - our little group and the food we enjoyed together. Believe it or not, the five of us ate the food below for $6.00.

We really enjoyed getting to meet Laure and Nicolas and hearing about their time here. They gave us some good insights for what lies ahead. We hope that their transition back into life in France will be easy.

Friday evening we were taken by taxi to a hotel in town. At its restaurant we were in our own little dining room. The table setting was elaborate and the school officials were very nice. The food was delicious, plentiful, and extremely varied. I could not begin to describe for you all the things on the menu, but among the ones I recall were some green vegetables, mutton, sea fish, beef, and some bread called “straw hat”. It was a good opportunity for the four foreign faculty for summer school to get to know several deans and vice-deans, some people from the office that deals with the foreign faculty and students, and one of the financial officers. Below is a picture of our group.

Tonight we will go to yet another restaurant and eat with some friends of Ruth’s. One surprise that we have had so far is that we have eaten very little rice. We had rice at the first restaurant that we went to, and at the dinner with the university officials we tasted a sweet rice and fruit dish, kind of like a molded pudding.

Tomorrow morning our classes start. There will be a general assembly where we will introduce ourselves and then Becka and I will have our classes meet together and show the video from our daughter Megan’s wedding to introduce our students to our family.

It’s so nice to be able to write to you all like this! It certainly lessens the feeling of being literally on the other side of the world.

I have re-opened the comments feature of the blog and I will post any comments that I am able to. Since in this country I am responsible for the content of my blog, I must make sure that everything on it meets with their legal requirements. I am sure you understand.

More after classes get underway! Thanks for every remembrance of us. We have done remarkably well in adjusting to the time difference. Our jetlag has been absolutely minimal! Please keep us in your thoughts!