Just a few quick things from me on Tuesday morning.  As usual, I’ll be talking about the food briefly, because I love food. 🙂

I love breakfast at the hotel.  The dining room is beautiful, and breakfast is a buffet.  It’s also the only place that I’ve seen coffee.  That alone makes it a highlight of my day. 😉  Highlights at breakfast this morning were…. BACON!  And, what appeared to be fried coconut crusted taro.  At first bite, it looked like there was meat inside.  It was even better.  I hope they serve this again.  This was the first morning it was offered.  I wish you could take this.

Universal truth: bacon is awesome.

After breakfast, I decided to go out walking by myself for the first time.  It sounds silly, but it was a very big deal!!  Every single time I go outside, I am overwhelmed by all of the sights, sounds, smells… concentrating on not getting hit by a car or motorcycle (you think Boston drivers are crazy….come to China!!)  I made it to the drugstore and home without getting lost.  And, I used my translator app on my phone to help have a conversation with the women working at the drugstore.  If you’ve ever traveled with me, you know that one of my favorite things to do in different countries is go to the grocery store and drug store.  You learn a lot about people and how they live based on the store!  I got shampoo and conditioner (this was actually the hardest part — I really needed help deciphering which was shampoo?  which is conditioner?  The life of a curly haired person!), toothpaste and a toothbrush (housekeeping removed or threw out my toothbrush), body wash, a face mask, giant bottle of water, and my favorite… a sun umbrella.  These umbrellas have a really thick black lining on the inside, and they keep you cool, and offer much better protection from the sun than a traditional umbrella.  I spent forever picking out which umbrella I wanted.  So many over the top designs – lace, sequins, sparkles, cats and dog prints, you name it.  One had the words “sample text” written all over it in a beautiful font.  😉

I leave for class in about two hours. Today I will be going over the history of Special Education law in class, a topic near and dear to my heart… and probably my favorite to teach.  After class, we are going to the Opening Ceremony for Summer Graduate School.  I’m allowed to invite 10 of my students to attend with me.  I can’t wait to see what the Opening Ceremony actually is!  We do no such thing in the US.  It should be pretty exciting.

Kristin