At this point in the trip, I’ve almost broken every rule that my doctor laid out for me prior to leaving.  He said, don’t have fruit, or drinks with ice in them, wear a ton of bug spray, avoid raw food, and don’t drink the water.  I specifically asked him about sushi.  He didn’t recommend it.  Well, I’ve had fruit practically every day, sport a million bug bites (sans Japanese Encephalitis, thank god), ordered plenty of icy drinks, and when I needed to take a pill and couldn’t find my purified water, gasp, I even drank some water from the sink.  I have not died.  I finally broke the sushi rule last night.  It was soooo worth it.

We ate at a table outside the dorm because it was nice out.  I think the fried oysters were my favorite.  But the salmon and tuna sashimi was also amazing, and the shrimp sushi was also amazing.  Accompany that with winter melon milk tea.  And further, accompany that with the sliced mango Tammy unexpectedly delivered to us.  No regrets, life is good.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story did not detail that Tony picked out all of the sushi and helped Jocelyn and I get to and from the restaurant.  Ming and Mark also helped with transportation.

In class this week, we started learning verbs such as “to have,” “to want,” “to like,” “to buy,” and “to understand.”  Now we’re starting to piece together sentences with conjunctions like, “I like Japanese movies, but I don’t like Japanese television.”  “I want a German car, but it is expensive.”  And, as always, still practicing writing my characters.  They take me an abnormally long amount of time, but they always look very precise in the end.

Here’s a picture of the board after a class exercise this week.  This would have looked so daunting three weeks ago…

In culture class the other day, we learned Chinese paper cutting and knotting.  I really missed crafting, so I enjoyed it.  We made paper apples with the character for “peace” inside.  George explained how at New Years everyone will buy apples and eat them because the beginning of the word for New Years is also the beginning of the word for apple.  They get really expensive for one day and then the prices drop immediately afterward.  We also made a little pine tree out of paper, and a dragonfly out of yarn.  The Chinese knotting was lot more difficult than I expected it to be, and mine didn’t really look like anyone else’s in the end, but hey, that’s what makes something your own.

In Chinese painting this week, we learned to put together a landscape since our teacher can’t make class the next two weeks.  We will have a substitute teacher.  I tried to replicate his piece, but I really only liked my trees in the end.  His painting is on the left, mine is on the right.

Last night, a big group of people went bowling, and ordered mini hot pots afterward.

The bowling alley was really nice, pristine compared to the smoky alleys at home with the completely outdated carpet.  We bowled two games.  I was quite proud to win the first round of our lane with 104, but I totally lost my luck the second round.

Leon and I expected to be competing for the second title, given that he only lost by one point in the first round, but then, a dark horse.  Sonia claimed to be horrible at bowling, boasting a lofty 60 from the last time she came, and then she turned around and bowled over 120.  A personal best by a mile.  Leon and I both lost.  Sophia too.

I was really glad I got to try hot pots after the game because I missed the first time everyone went.  Jocelyn and I split a parmesan cheese with milk hot pot and a pumpkin hot pot, dolling out cabbage, blocks of pig’s blood, squid-looking mushrooms, and pork to each other from our respective pots.  There were flames under each kettle.  You’d reach into the pot with a ladle and it was a total grab bag— you had no idea what was going to surface in the spoon.  And the warm, milky broth after you had fished everything out of the bowl made you feel really warm on a rainy night.

Then Tammy drove me back, and lent me a raincoat.  She is always so prepared.  Matching in blue!