I took Justin, Monica and the twins from Morocco to Yuan Yuan Canting for lunch today. Justin's parents are from China and they didn't speak Chinese around the house while he was growing up in Canada, so he's having to learn from the beginning, but his accent is perfect and he's a very fast learner. The twins are 17, speak French and seem painfully shy to me, but they're Chinese is very good if you can get them going.

We arrived in a whirlwind. Laoban was ecstatic to see us, as were his wife, one of the waitresses from yesterday, the chefs and Laoban's right-hand-man - the one who knew a little English.

They shooed a group of young Chinese men out of one of two air conditioned rooms in the back, but I convinced the group to stay out in the sweltering heat of the front room so that we could interact with Yuan Yuan's wonderful staff and Laoban.

Yesterday was hot. 97 degree high and today was supposed to get higher. When I returned to my apt. yesterday, aside from the usual sweat, my face was flushed and I was out of breath as if I'd just been running for an hour. Today was the same. Inside the restaurant, it was not only hot but also steamy. Laoban's face seemed extremely pink and I couldn't tell for sure, but think it had more to do with Baijiu than the heat.

Laoban was delighted to speak with the newcomers. He instantly assumed Justin was fluent and spoke faster with him. It was great practice for Justin and it turns out Laoban and Taitai are from the same province as Justin's mother.

I had Lu-lu tell me how to say, "Please give us 5 of your favorite dishes" and I repeated the sentence to Laoban. We received the chicken from yesterday and the eggs, an extremely spicy soup of various bits of animal - giant hunks of liver and some off-white porous material that was crunchy and hard to grind with the teeth. A steamed mountain vegetable with garlic and sweet and sour chicken balls with pineapple. When the pineapple dish came out, I told the only joke I know in Chinese (and one that, in fact, I learned today!): Ma-Ke Bolou! (The Chinese called Marco Polo "Ma Ke Bolou" but "bolou" is pineapple so the name translates to "Maco Pineapple" and supposedly there is a flavor of ice cream with the same name.) I received a hearty round of applause.

A note on liver. I have always thought that I really, really hate liver, but whatever I had today wasn't bad at all. I'm assuming it has everything to do with preparation though. The best part of Yuan Yuan is that the food is REALLY good. I mean, these cooks really know what they're doing. I certainly plan to go back again tomorrow.

Even though I love the people I took to Yuan Yuan today, I realized how important it is to venture out on my own if I really want to learn to speak Chinese. I encouraged Laoban to sit and talk with us and he did for a short bit, but the English overwhelmed him and eventually he got up and sat at another table to smoke his cigarette and drink his Baijiu. He'd still GAM BEI us from the other table, though, and he was incredibly impressed with Monica's height. He gave her a big hug after a back-to-back comparison of their heights (He's quite tall).

We were just finishing out meal when Laoban walked outside, scooped up three soaking chickens with the heads lolling from the bodies and took them to a large chopping block in the back of the restaurant. His trousers were rolled up to just below his knees and he started deftly chopping up each chicken with a huge chopping knife and a cigarette dangling out the corner of his mouth.

I've seen enough meat preparation to turn me into a vegetarian but knowing the history of starvation in this country, I understand the lack of sensitivity for animals of any kind. Food is precious and in fact, the Chinese are much less wasteful than we are in the US. They literally find uses, food wise, for every part of the animal. One woman I ate with the other day said that she thinks the Chinese are the most creative in terms of culinary ingenuity because they manage to make almost anything taste delicious (I'm not sure if she's hip to the high amounts of MSG used in food in the past to make it more palatable...).

Class was hard again today, even though we've finished the ridiculous "Chapter 6: Where is your home located and what is the environment like in that part of town?" which was written by a Chinese English teacher with a masters degree in English and are now into "Chapters 7 and 8 - buying fruit and looking for a lost cell phone". It's as if my brain is full of word soup and there's not room for another drop. I'm plugging away, though, because, well, I have to! Angelene missed class again and has decided to end a week short of the last class. Sarah is debating switching to private classes and Artur, Oliver and Christina weren't at class today for who knows what reasons. Poor Lu-lu, she's practically beside herself, but I don't know how to help since her fear of punishment seems to come from an inconsolable place.

I'm off to meet Monica and Christine (Mon's roommate and one of my companions from Hangzhou) at Zapata's for a free margarita or two tonight.