Food!

It's been an exciting day of adventure here in Beijing.  First, we received bottled water and toilet paper from Dr. Clark, two necessities not provided in our rooms, followed by a tour of the important locations on campus such as the ATM, the school store, and our classroom building.  After the tour, Dr. Clark treated us all to breakfast! And later, after changing our money at the bank, to lunch! The food in China is amazing, better by far than Chinese food in the states. Everything is complex in taste and texture, and we're eating things we'd never dreamed of trying before. 

The first picture is of one of the dishes we had at breakfast, consisting of celery, black fungus, and chunks of pure gluten, which Kyle, Hannah, Sadie, Amy, Annalisa, and I thought was some sort of weird meat until Dr. Clark corrected us.  We also had Dragon Buns, which were amazing, Sesame Balls, which were also amazing, and string tofu, which apparently tastes like nothing BUT tofu.  And it, too, was amazing!

The second picture is of the giant portrait of Mao hanging above the stairwell of the restaurant where we ate for lunch; a Henan food place touted by Dr. Clark as Mao's favorite restaurant.  We ate tiny unshelled shrimp, incredibly spicy tofu and pork, and pig ears!  It was a grand old time.

So fear not!  We are eating, and it is fantastic.