First email from China

Finally, finally found an internet cafe off campus. Sorry haven't
been able to write sooner. No one bothered to give us any maps.
Actually, two of us got separated from the rest of the group, and are
not sure where they are right now. Fortunately, though, we know where
we are. Very, very, very jet-lagged (not pills - I only took two on
the entire series of flights over here - you should be happy - and the
plane to St. Paul was a little plan. Lots of turbulence on the way
over, but too tired to care). Exhausted. Laura, I'm glad you taught
us those few words last time. I've remembered most of them, and I've
been haggling successfully. I speak more Chinese than anyone in the
group.

Food is still awful. Worse than I remembered. Breakfast is spiced
vegetables and hard-boiled eggs with weird brown yolks. Have found a
fast-food dumpling place and my favorite pseudo pringles flavored like
tomato soup. There's pretty much nothing else in this entire country
that looks appetizing, so we're skipping dinner.

Housing, however, is fabulous. Western toilets, toilet paper, a tv
with one English channel, a small refrigerator that I haven't figured
out how to turn on yet, and two twin beds in a small room completely
my own. Hot water in the shower, although low pressure.

Matt, we've been to the older market twice already, and there are the
most gorgeous rocks and fossils for totally, totally cheap. It's like
the samples from our paleo class all spread out on a couple of tables.
Whole trilobites. Those little spiro thingies. Fish in shale. The
coolest fossils are no more than $25 dollars, and that's before
haggling. Will look into the geology in this area a bit more. Wish
you were here.

Classes are going fine. Nice students, but very tired.

Phone card situation looks very involved. Probably will come back to
this cafe mostly, since it is only 25 cents an hour.