This is China...

Saturday found us hanging out with new Chinese university friends, most of whom took groups of us to the Temple of Heaven or other sites around Beijing. We met some of these Chinese friends in classrooms on Thursday and some more at "English Corner" - a spot on the People's University campus reserved every Friday night for Beijingers to come and practice speaking English. Most come expecting to talk to other Chinese people and were vere excited to find about 20 Americans there to practice their English on! Our students really enjoyed English Corner, and they've been excited to see some connections they've been able to make with their new friends.
Today (Sunday) we visited a local fellowship and experienced something which is so familiar to us in a totally different language. We couldn't understand the words, but we enjoyed being with our brothers and sisters and were encouraged by what we saw.
Parents, have no fear, your children are NOT going hungry!! For Sunday lunch we feasted on snowpeas and fried peanuts and Chinese hashbrowns and kung pao chicken and sweet and sour pork and eggplant and spicy fish soup and ... and ... and ...
Many brave souls also opted to try the quintessential Chinese cuisine you won't find at Leean Chin's: dog. I have to admit that I wasn't quite so adventurous when I was here as a college student! We ordered enough so everyone could get just a taste. (For the record, it does not taste like chicken.)
We will be back in the classrooms on Monday, meeting hundreds of new Chinese students and hoping to make whatever connections we can in the short time we'll have with them.