School has started, class is great, and homework is happening. There are five students in the class, and everyone seems really nice. There is a young man from Vietnam, an older teacher from Wales who has been teaching at private schools around Asia for the last twenty years, a language expert from Singapore, a young women who I think may be in seminary and here on exchange, and myself. Also, because we are special students, our class is held in the international/graduate student building which is brand new and really nice. This means air conditioning and no bugs. Also, it is an inside/outside building so it is sort of like a touch of home (in this case home being Sakamaki Hall at the University of Hawaii).

And as always, the food is great. I have now entered the “hubris stage” and am trying to eat anything and everything edible. Will this come back to haunt me? Only time will tell. I took a picture of the menu at my favorite eatery so that I could come home, translate it, and figure out what the foods were. This has been great. It has allowed me to order foods that I know are loaded with vegetables, or on the other hand, to order deep-fried balls of pork stuffed with chilies! My favorite go to is a really simple and lean long roasted pork with a sort of thin peanut sauce. It is pretty delicious. Also, I have gained a reputation as one of the only foreigners that anyone on my street has met who likes fruit. Thus people now regularly bring me fruit to make sure that I experience the real variety. Not too bad a reputation I guess.