The First Couple of Days

The first two days started both painfully busy and painfully slow. In other words, they weren't altogether interesting--but there was lots o'busy work to take care of at the University.



This is me and the Dean of Renmin University. I was the chosen one to pin the Dean with our official Mizzou pin. He wasn't wearing a jacket--so for while there I was worried I was going to have to reach down his shirt to put the pin on. Fortunately, he had a pocket.





This is kind of an interesting thing here in China: many of the elevators have the days of the week on the carpet. It's like underwear--only rugs. Of course, only the really fancy places have this. No, seriously. At least it helps me keep my days straight and this rug is especially correct. After a long week, Friday was more than welcome.



On one of our first nights, my roomate Leslie and I wandered in to a Chinese restaurant with ONLY Chinese language. No English. No pictures. No buffett. So, we figured, "what the heck" and just randomly pointed at a line of Chinese, hoping for the best. This is what came out--and it was pretty darn good actually. This may have to be a fall back approach for the rest of the trip.