School Begins

The last couple of days have been the official beginning of school for all of us Purdue folks.  Classes have started alright there are bright spots and things that aren't looking as good.  The course on chinese culture has a very nice teacher.  Th chinese language course will likely be very difficult.  I had a 1.5 hr session this morning and it was very defeating.  Difficult to learn, difficult to say, difficult to translate.  It has left me in a very sour mood.  Classes take place everyday from about 10 am to about 4 pm with 1 hr for lunch.  This is not a typical schedule for me as I would prefer to have my long class sessions in the morning.

To start the class year off right, we went out to a bar last night.  50 RMB ($7 about) open bar list.  Choose from a long list of mixed drinks and such, it wasn't far from campus but we took a taxi to make sure we got there since it was dark.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it was a pretty good time.

It is very different that here there is no cheese really.  I was at the grocery store looking for cheez-its or any cheesy type of cracker and I was very sad to find out that ... it doesn't exist.  No cheddar, no mozzarella, no parmesan, no american, no havarti, no swiss, nothing.  No cheese flavored... anything really.  This is a problem.  I bought some crackers thinking they were cheese, I got home and someone looked at the package and wondered why I would have bought peach flavored crackers.  It was quite the surprise.  Since then, I've found 1 thing in the store that is cheese - "Cheesy Cheese" Pringles.  I have since bought and eaten them without satisfying the need.  I am going to Pizza Hut tonight, it WILL cost a LOT of money and I don't mind.  I am taking donations to support my cheesy habits.

I hope the rest of this week gets better.  My class load is much heavier than I was expecting.  Please send your greetings to my phone number.

JBiber