Fermented Tofu

We have been in China for one month now. I think I'm starting to like it here. In a strange and disgusted kinda of way. I'm starting to make peace with the food even. I've found some foods that I like. I'm trying more food from the cafeteria. That is always an experience . . . Today Bruce and I went to dinner with two other English teacher (not from ILP) and our foreign affairs person Kaile and her boyfriend. It was the first time we really spent social time with a China person. I absolutely love Kaile! She is in her mid 20. She is sooo funny. She is always trying to teach us new Chinese words. So we ate at a restaurant that serves "hot pot" or as their sign said "hop pot". Basically, there is a mini stove in the center of the table. They put a big bowl on it filled with broth. Then you order meat, veggies and other foods you want in your pot. Let me tell you, it is soooo much easier to order at a restaurant when someone can speak the language. She even got us free drink. So, once the broth gets boiling you add the meat and veggies one at a time. First she added the meat, let it cook, then we ate it out of the bowl. Then she added the veggies, and we ate that. Then some more meat, and so on. It was amazing!! We even got some sesame seed sauce that tasted like peanut sauce. It was great! I think I may try to make it when we get home. Over dinner we talked about some pranks we were going to play on Tim. I won't give it away, you'll have to wait to read it next week. As it turns out, the Chinese celebrate the 1st of April in the same fashion we do! I can't decide if I want to play a small prank on my students. I've really gotten to know them this week. My home group was all girls for the first 2 weeks. But we switched some kids around, because of conflicting personalities, so now I have 5 girls and 1 boy. Drew, my boy, was very rowdy when he was with his other group. But from the moment we switched him, he has not been a problem. I think he was too stunned at first to misbehave. He didn't participate for the first week, but in this last week he has opened up. He is such a cute boy. I'll get his picture up sometime. Other than that, my classes have been going well. We started visiting the kids in their dorms at night, I think they really like it. They really are starting to melt my heart.

Next week we have a vacation. I don't remember the name of the city and Bruce is asleep other wise I would ask him. (Forgive my bad grammar too!) So I will get back to you on that. Oh, and I wanted to say happy late BirthDay to PAM!! Miss you all!