Dinner with Bob and Anna, David and the hospital.

Bob and Anna have been so happy with the fact that they are now eligible to go to Duke University that they wanted to take us to dinner in a special restaurant to thank us. Monday evening, we met them at the West Gate of campus and got on a bus to take us close to the area that the restaurant is located at. We still had to walk quite a way to get there, be we are used to that, this is China...

The style of restaurant was themed to be like old mountain restaurants from China long ago.  There were groups of men that were poor and they would get together and practice Kungfu martial arts and they got really good at it.  They became like Robin Hood and his Merry Men: rob from the rich and give to the poor.  They became a legend and had stories about what they did.

Dinner was really delicious! First was a soup with pork and kelp.  It had great flavor and the kelp was some of the best I have tasted.  It's not my favorite food, but this I liked.  They kept bringing out different foods that were really flavorful.  It was a fun dinner.

Most of the dishes they brought out.  

This was a picture of a meatball that is covered in glutinous rice and has an egg that was cooked in the middle.  David didn't care for it that much, but I rather liked it.  He just doesn't like eggs that much.

Sweet and sour egg plant with bread sticks.  We all like this dish and it didn't last long at the table.  Super yummy!

This was like crispy Chinese pancakes that were toasted in cinnamon.  This one didn't last long either.

Pork soup with the kelp.  That broth it was cooked in was so good!

They came home with us afterward because they needed help with their acceptance letters to Duke.  There are so many parts of English to learn that even when they pass these tests to be able to go to an English speaking country, there is still a lot more to try and understand.  They are doing great and Bob and Anna enjoy learning.

Jinan turned really cold this week.  We were sweltering in our classes on Monday, but on Tuesday, we were back to wearing coats.  Not just jackets, we needed winter type coats!

I posted about this tree last week and this week.  This week, the tops all added some pretty green leaves.   I couldn't resist another picture of how beautiful these bushes (tree-lets?) are.

David and I went on a trip to the Yangtze River this week, so this post is short.  I plan to post about the trip tomorrow, but I haven't had time to catch up with everything.  David ended up in the hospital today, so all the time that I had planned to use to write about the trip tonight, has to be put off.  David is okay.  He has a bacterial bronchitis that they wanted to be cautious about until they had checked to make sure that he didn't have pneumonia.  He received two sets of two IV treatments today, one with antibiotics and the other was antiviral.  They also had him do some breathing treatments with a steroid to help clear the phlegm out.  He already feels a LOT better.

David getting his breathing treatment.