Sept 12, 2007 Noon

Hi everyone!

Life is settling into more of a rhythm here in Langfang. I’ve been teaching 14 hours per week, and will pick up four more hours next week. Brad has been teaching for 2 hours per week, and will pick up 16 more hours next week. I’ve been adventuring around campus with my camera, photographing the beautiful or intriguing sights around our new home. They are posted on facebook, if you are interested in seeing them!

Two nights ago, we had the most wonderful meal that we have had in China. We met with the other English faculty from our school, and they treated us to dinner. We took taxis to what appeared to be a greenhouse not far from our school. Inside, the building was full of plants, especially ferns and bamboo. It was like being in a rainforest! The paths between tables and “rooms” were actually slats of wood, with little bridges and gazeboes scattered among them. Bamboo or bead curtains, and large amounts of foliage defined the “rooms”. We have already decided that when our families come to visit us, we will take them to this place!

The meal began with the choosing of seats, as they spread the Americans out between the Chinese hosts. Brad was made to sit at the head of the table, meaning that he was always served first! We were offered wine, sprite, tea, and rock sugar before the food. Newt asked if we could have only a little bit of wine, but could we please have Sprite too? We had to giggle when they brought us our little bit of wine, and poured our Sprite right into the wine! Then they proceeded to serve the same thing to our Chinese hosts also! We love their hospitality here. Every few minutes someone announced a toast and we all clinked glasses. In China, you honor someone by “clinking” your glass lower than that person. So everyone competes to hold his or her glass lower than everyone else does! Brad is getting very good at this competition.

The food was amazing…and it just kept coming! Dinner began with smaller dishes: broccoli in a buttery sauce, lotus roots in honey, and shrimp rolled up in thinly sliced meat. Following the first plates were flayed bass, squid with miniature sesame hamburger rolls, mushrooms and eggs with tofu, and pork cooked in a pumpkin that was also edible! A chef brought us a whole duck and sliced it in front of us. It was served with “burritos” as we call them (though they are thinner than at home), sliced onions, and two different kinds of duck sauce. After the duck was fully served on the plates, which also had duck heads, they brought us soup made from the bones of the duck. In this way, nothing went to waste. Following the duck soup was a bowl of “porridge” which tasted like grits, or hominy. Shrimp fried rice completed the meal (rice is traditionally the last dish served, to fill you up if you aren’t full yet.) There were many many more dishes, but I can’t remember them all!

Our wonderful dinner ended with Wayne trying hopelessly to get Brad to pronounce the word for rock sugar (“bien cah”)! The Americans thought his pronunciation was fine, but the Chinese kept laughing at his words and telling him it needed to be further back in his throat! He was finally only able to say it correctly when he had the “bien cah” in his mouth! After dinner we flagged taxis back to campus to rest after our grand meal. There are so many things to tell, but we will write more later. Take care!

Love,
Jess and Brad