May 25 Part 1 -flower tea, the English, and Tomato

"I've had 2 authentic Chinese meals now. So far, the food is pretty similar to
what we see in the States, but these are places that Westerners go. (Remember not being able to find a place to eat near my hotel that I was comfortable with?) One thing I'd never heard of was Lotus root; it tasted good.

Also, the first place had flower tea, which didn't have much taste and had white
specks of what I thought was flour, later learned was chrysantemum, floating in it. The 2nd meal, they just had warm water in a teacup. Neither meal had any rice. I was told that people will think you're cheap if you order rice at first b/c it shows you're trying to save money. Only at the end, if your guests still aren't full should you order rice. Went with a group at lunch today and learned to use chopsticks; I was even picking up peanuts with them.

Had English First boot camp today. A great bunch of people, including some from
Ireland, New Zealand, Wales, Australia, and several from England. Also, one
guy from California. Turns out my boss is from an hour up the road from
Charlotte--Thomasville. A black guy with a downhome sense of humor. Another
teacher at my office is from Wilmington, NC."

As for the British, do they STILL not have dental plans in England?? Everyone I meet
from there has bad teeth. Also, one of the English guys, when we were
successful at something actually said 'Huzzah!' Hearing them reminded me that
the British say 'different to' instead of 'different from'. I also discovered
that what we call a white board marker, they call a 'board pen'.

The students here are all encouraged to choose English names, and apparently
they have wide lattitude. I met one yesterday named 'Tomato' (pronounced the
British way) and another name 'Lala'.

I'll leave you with this: There was a slide show which discussed the concept of
entrepreneurship. Guess which picture they showed to represent that concept?
The Statue of Liberty."