Our "lunch" yesterday turned out to be a fantastic feast!!  The students
brought the dishes, some homemade and others were take-out from restaurants.
The spread was INCREDIBLE!!  The students were so proud and excited.  They
kept dishing up new items onto my plate, eager for me to try each dish,
especially the ones they had cooked themselves.  One of the dishes was
liver.  They would not tell me what it was, but asked that I try it.  I
looked at it's bumpy complexion and asked if it was tongue,  they said "No!"
and laughed.  I asked if it was stomach, again "No!" and some laughter.  I
finally got it right with liver,  YUCK!!  I did try the tiniest bite
possible and they asked if it was better than American liver.  I said yes, I
thought it was better, but I still didn't like it!  Luckily, this was a dish
from a restaurant, so I did not offend anyone who might have slaved over the
wok cooking it!!  Following the meal, was photo time!!  I think I had my
picture taken more times yesterday than on my wedding day.  They were so
excited and camera-happy.  First several rounds of group photos with each
class.  Then many individual photos.  My mouth hurt from laughing and smiling.

In the evening, we went with three of our students to a restaurant that is
famous for a traditional mongolian dish:  "mutton in a hot pot."  The lamb
is brought out on plates, uncooked and very thinly sliced (it looked like
proscuitto).  In front of you is a hot pot, over a flame, filled with a
spicy broth.  You take a piece of lamb with your chopsticks and dip the lamb
into the hot pot for several seconds until it turns brown.  You then remove
it and dip it into a spicy sauce.  It was really very delicious!!  They also
brought other things to dip:  tofu, bean sprouts, rice noodles, and LIVE
SHRIMP!!  There was a debate between our Chinese hosts, whether to order the
frozen shrimp or the live shrimp.  Marlene mentioned something about
freshness and so the live shrimp were ordered.  When they were brought to
the table,  a lid had to be kept over the bowl,  because they were JUMPING
OUT ONTO THE TABLE!!  (a last ditch effort to save their little lives!!).
After getting over the shock of it and accepting our roles as murderers, we
became quite adventurous and enjoyed the little guys.  It could have been
worse,  we were also offered DOG!! (dog in a hot pot!! poooooor
Niiikkkkiii!!) Anyway, we had a really enjoyable evening with lots of good
conversation.

I'd better go,  I need to get ready for class this afternoon.
Love, Sally