Monday, March 7, 2011 Shanghai
Dear Friends and Family,
The day started well. We awoke feeling rested and ready for adventure. Had to be answers to prayer. We both felt better than we normally do going to Europe. We were out looking for breakfast before 7:00, which meant that the only thing that was open was the KFC. It was fine. After Steve got a handout prepared for his class we actually slept a little more, but that was probably good. We got our exercise duds on, but really just went walking. We have an extensive shopping area near us, of which we’ve just scratched the surface. It includes a Walmart, believe it or not, and we made a stop there to get some plastic glasses and napkins. Napkins are in short supply in this country. You just about have to ask for them in restaurants. (The shopping area also includes KFC, Burger King, McDonalds (but only their ice cream) Pizza Hut and Starbucks.) We decided to go for a long walk toward the university.
The university was founded in 1905 by Jesuit priests, but that fact is pretty much etched out of any public history of the institution. It’s clear that the buildings on campus that are attractive are either from before the cultural revolution or from the last 5 years. After showers it was lunch time and we had a delightful repast at a place called the Paris Baguette.
The graduate student who met us at the airport came to get us at about 2:30 in anticipation of the 3:20 class start. Steve’s class is taking place in a lovely room with an oval shaped table. The building is brand new and boasts marble everywhere—much different than the worn buildings of Beijing U that we were at in 2006. I had just wanted to find out where he was to be so I left about 5 minutes before his class. He had about 12 when the hour was to begin but added another 10 in the next 10 minutes. It’s a very interesting group with one person who is 10 years out of her degree and is an editor of a major journal for the university and who had read 3 of Steve’s books. There are several who have studied in the States. Steve says that some of the students really wanted to hear him lecture on Kierkegaard, but this is a course in ethics, which will include SK but will not be exclusively about him. Steve couldn’t deal exclusively about SK because of the constraints of the grant from Templeton that brought him here. The seminar had to be about ethics or science and religion. Steve will lecture on Friday at a special time about SK. I will lecture on Thursday.
When Steve got back to the room it was clear that we had no one to host us for dinner. This is very different from our first visit here. We were taken care of so well then. This time we seem to be entirely on our own. I asked Steve what the difference was. Before the lectures were arranged by an evangelical in Hong Kong who knows Christians in the universities here. He contacted his friends, who set up the lectures in 2006 and who treated us so well. This time the arrangements are all made through “channels” that are strictly secular.
So we were game to find dinner on our own. What a hoot! We did not do very well. The restaurants around us are all just local places that are not accustomed to having tourists who speak only English. It didn’t matter at the Paris Baguette where we went for lunch because it was largely a self serve place. Tonight we went to a bustling, huge restaurant for which we had to wait about 15 minutes. They had a pictured menu with a little English, so we thought we could order ok. Wrong. The only thing that was edible was the veggie dish we ordered. The pork was dry and leathery. The lamb dish had parts of the lamb that we never eat. The rice that we ordered turned out to be greasy rice noodles! We just laughed all the way through. Everyone around us was having such a good time and enjoying themselves. I’m sure we didn’t go hungry, but we were wishing that we had had a host who could help us order better. Tomorrow night we will go to a more western restaurant and pay more than twice what we did tonight but the food should be a little more familiar.
Ok. I’m fading fast. I hope you have all had a good day. We so appreciate your prayers!
Love, Jan
No comments:
Post a Comment