Memorial Day

[Editor's note: This is an early email that - with Linda's permission - I've turned into a blog post.  It is chronologically out of order, but certainly helps explain her obsession with towels and shower.]

Fireworks are going off here, but I don't think it's in celebration of Memorial Day.  No big news updates other than our shower has been repaired. Now we can actually shower instead of splashing off under the faucet with our plastic "little bears" coffee mug. 

See photo...also see photo of the shower so you begin to get the picture. The shower room is actually one big shower room--vanity and sink in the same room. They were very considerate and left us each a pair of slip on shower shoes. I found out tonight that there are no replacement towels, so it looks like we will be headed to the laundry tomorrow. I can't see washing the towel in the sink.

Dinner tonight was interesting. Some fried vegetable cake (we all gobbled those down) and some of the kids at our "family style" table thought at first they were chicken-fried steaks...the corn and beans inside dispelled that idea, but they were crunchy and had a little heft to them. Broccoli appeared for the first time, and we all applauded! Lots of snow peas and then a soup dish with surprise---clams---a few folks tried that. We all passed on the soupy-meat surprise dish, but the rice disappeared in a heartbeat. We were reminded to bring our own drinks to dinner, but then someone took pity on our empty glasses and brought two Cokes and a bottle of orange juice to our table. We cheered again! 

Today was an interesting history lesson on Chinese culture and the progression of Chinese rulers from the Qing (sounds like Ching) dynasty through Mao.  There was a bit of glossing over the cultural revolution, but heavy on the Japanese invasion and Nanking. The speaker was a Chinese scholar with several books to her credit on the topic. Several pictures of Japanese beheading Chinese.

I'm going to send Whitney the official third blog posting tomorrow with additional ruby slipper photos. Several students from the old U.S. of A. didn't know why I was taking pictures of red shoes - they thought the shoes were a gift for the orphanage.  When I tried to explain the connection, one young woman said, "I didn't know you were from Kansas. I thought you lived in Dyersburg!!!!"  Ah, the cultural gap. 

Finally, I had a great ice cream treat today--green tea ice cream bars.