Settling in to Appt #402

Awoke on Monday morning feeling pretty normal. I dined upon my dried aprocots and almonds, with black tea.

Around 10:30 a.m. Brittania came by and she showed me around campus and then we went down the street a few blocks to the IGA so I could do some shopping for my appartment. I acquired a broom, dish soap, cleaning soap, bannanas and a fruit she recommended that is very large--yellow--and she says is very good, like Oranges.

The International Education group took me to lunch as a way to welcome me to the university. The six of us dined in a separate room at the restaurant and I had the opportunity to enjoy their hospitality and talk with the Vice Dean of the school, Huang Xiaoyong. They clearly enjoy each other's company and have a wonderful and engaging dialog with a lot of laughing...that they let me in on.

I had remarked that this was my first, official experience eating real Chinese food, since the Chinese food in America is, what we--Xiaoyong and I-- called, "regionalized". Either way, this meal brought back memories of my childhood when I could pick for my birthday any place to go out to eat. It was always for Chinese food because I enjoyed the Lazy-Susan at the center of the table...as I did for this meal. There were so many dishes to choose from. The most artful was the local fish, or as Xiaoyong put it, "Chinese food is also art." This is so very true.

After lunch I returned to my appartment with the remainder of the closing or dessert of the meal, a tasty sticky rice and two sided pancakes the size of silver dollars with a few raisins in them--all made with rice flower. That served as dinner...yum, yum!