Blogging from China - Day 2.

Day Two from China:

As I sit here at the end of the day eating my Pop Tart (my eating for the day will be covered in a later paragraph), I have to say it was an eventful day for our group. We began the day attending a celebration at The Office of Chinese Language Council International. Their mission is to promote the Chinese language and culture throughout the world. We were able to tour their building and browse through their language materials that they provide to schools. If you would like to learn more about the efforts of the Chinese educators, you can go to www.hanban.org .


The afternoon was our official greeting from officials of the Chinese Government. Dr. Zhou Ji, Minister of Education of China, was the keynote speaker. Our meeting was in the Great Hall. The great hall is adjacent to Tiananmen Square. We will be touring Tiananmen Square tomorrow. American students studying for the summer in China performed for our group. We left there and attended a dinner and cultural celebration from Chinese high school students. The Chinese culture is very rich in its history and ceremonies. The student’s performance was the highlight of the day.

Everyone is feeling the effects of the 13-hour time difference today. The jet lag has caught up with all of us.

The day starts off with a western breakfast. For me that is the best part of the day. By now the entire group is well aware of my eating habits. They are all taking bets on whether I will lose more than 10 pounds this week. Even though I do not like Chinese food, those in the group continue to go on about how good the food has been. Today’s menu choice that I just could not eat included sautéed honey bean and yellow fungus and celery. Those at my table said it was delicious. I will just have to take their word on that. I have sent a few pictures of the food.


In one picture you will see what I thought and was told by the group as a Chinese cheese stick. Come to find out it was fried sweet corn. As I took a bite the entire table got a big laugh that they had tricked me into taking a bite. The other picture is a fish with it eyes clearly focused on whoever was brave enough to eat the fish. The hand in the picture that is just about to dive right in is Mr. Newsom.

Our Chinese hosts have been very gracious. I am looking forward to tomorrow’s adventures.

Hungry in China…..

Bob

(See more of Bob's photos here.)