Ping Pong-itis!

Hello, it's been a busy week. Tuesday, Jeff aka Fu de Ming invited me to dinner with his family. He lives about 3 miles off campus in a great apartment: 3 bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, 2 bathrooms and 2 decks, front and back. There is also a great clubhouse with it and there it happened...a marathon of ping pong, first with Jeff, then with Roland and his fiancee who both teach at the university. Then Jeff's two sons arrived: Danny and Liu (leo). We played till the cows came home as they say in VT. I have the underarm chafing to prove it too. Dinner was served and there was a nice mixture of English and Chinese. Foods included chicken with dry tofu, green veggies with garlic sauce, a sort of corn chowder, lots of vinegar soda, yes vinegar. It is popular here and tastes delicious. I brought two bottles, Ellen and Roland brought two and Jeff had bought six himself. So, the vinegar just flowed all evening. Jeff's father in law, another "ye ye", grandfather has a strong background in Buddhism. They are all riveted on the elections in the States so I got lots of questions about it. I presented the sons with a couple of gifts: pens and those feather things the kids like to hit off their feet. It's the rage in China.

On Wednesday, my birthday, Shane and I headed for Ding Hu (Ding Who) mountain to visit the top of this sacred mountain and visit the butterfly museum. I did not know a mountain hike was included in the tour so we took just a fantastic hike through verdant forest and bubbling streams and waterfalls. I can honestly say it was just as pristine as any place in VT and actually Ding Hu water is very popular around here, lots of people drink it right from the rocks and I guess it is bottled too. I don't dare as there may be "something" foreign in it my delicate system cannot tolerate.

Thursday was relaxing, did laundry and went out to dinner with Fr. John, Peter and David. John and David are from Australia and Peter is from England. I stated there hasn't been such a gathering of the allied nations since Eisenhower visited 10 Downing Street during the War.

Friday morning a couple of students came by for round two of a mini course I've offered on Wisconsin Fast Plants. We covered lots of ideas and did some hands on stuff. Bottle Biology also addressed the infamous fruit fly trap, aquaterras where you can have plants and fish growing in the same column, and of course the better known compost column. We all went out to lunch at Canteen no. 3 and then back to the apartment for some international camaraderie. Two of the students and I had tea and just the best ever fruit, a huge yellow pear that was so delicious. It was large but not dry, it was kind of like a watermelon inside. They are all amazed at how I can use a knife and showed me some of their scars from their own previous attempts. I suggested they point the knives AWAY from them as they cut and it all seemed to make a lot of sense.

This weekend will be busy: breakfast with Dawn and her husband tomorrow a.m. (he's a surgeon, she works in the foreign affairs office at the school; I rent their apt. during this stay); Dinner at the Dynasty Hotel with Yang Jing Guo, the principal of the school for the deaf on Sat. night; church and breakfast out with James Sunday morning. I'd like to visit the school for the deaf after that and mix with the students a bit. We have fun comparing USA and Chinese sign language. Gesture and body language will come in handy at this point.

I've already begun to pack as leaving on Tuesday for Guangzhou overnight, then fly out on Wednesday a.m., 9:15 for the dreaded 26 hours to get back to Rhode Island. Looking forward to getting home, but this has been just a great great journey.

Bye for now, will proceed to upload some pictures now. Frank