Sweet Home...Alabama???

You have not lived until you've heard a Chinese girl on guitar singing "Sweet Home Alabama." : ) This was a textbook case of culture clash; one of my favorite Southern songs was badly butchered! I was the only American who stopped to listen, and the Chinese nearby must have wondered what I thought was so funny. I wonder how "irony" translates in Chinese.

I digress. This week I was able to spend time with an old high school friend, Vina. She is here visiting two aunts who live near Beijing. The aunts showed us Chinese hospitality at its best: they took us out to eat. (Aside: I have not yet been sick from the food here; considering my adventurous eating habits, this is a miracle.) We ate "hot pot," a traditional Chinese meal in which of a variety of raw dishes and a large boiling pot of water are placed on the table. With "hot pot," you throw whatever you like into the pot to cook, then take it out and eat it. It was very good, but they ordered far too much for us. The aunts must have known that we could not have eaten everything in front of us, but still they urged me to "eat more!" and "don't leave any food on the table!" (All of this in Chinese, the aunts didn't speak a word of English.) Poor Vina was kept busy translating both ways for us as we conversed; we talked so much that Vina occasionally confused her Chinese and English.

I have three free days for the Fourth of July and am visiting another old friend in Tokyo on Sunday. I'll tell you how it goes when I come back to Beijing!

Life is still amazing, but there's no place like home.

Signing off from my hotel room,

Nathan