My blog has been pretty candid about my experiences in China over the past month. I’ve had lot of interesting conversations, nice weather though a bit hot, great bike rides and fun lectures. Occasionally weird food.

It really has been a wonderful month so far. But it wouldn’t be entirely truthful to say that everything is super-fine, all the time. In addition to coming down with Covid , I hit another sad patch about a week ago. It’s kind of weird/odd/noteworthy how things became sad: my Nigerian friend, Amaka, who is a grad student here gave me a warm hello hug. The feeling was almost electric — I said to her: “Wow, hugs… that’s what I’m missing here.” She had given me a spontaneous hug in the middle of a conversation a few days before too when I mentioned that I had four kids. That really took me by surprise.

Her hug was the first time I’d been touched or held in 4 weeks, with the exception of occasional formal handshakes. 

That night, I was thinking about her hug and it made me realize that I was really missing Andy and my kids and my friends. I was longing for the familiar. I had a good cry about it. And another cry on the phone with Andy the next day. Then it seemed to pass. It made me think a bit about what makes me feel good here. So, I tried to plan more of that into my life: good conversations with people, walks outside in parks and gardens, bike rides and reading. Staying in contact with my friends back home really helps too. I send texts and write emails to keep up with friends, and that makes me feel good.

And, of course, I enjoy writing this blog. I enjoy thinking about the best way to tell a story. It’s very rewarding. It feels like so many interesting and often hilarious things happen that it’s hard to know which ones to write about. 

I had another meal, this time in the dining hall, with three students: Violet, Veggie and Jellyfish. I am not making this up. They were lively, opinionated and just a bit silly. They obviously enjoyed each other’s company and we had some good laughs.

The night before, I had dinner with three male students at a Sichuan restaurant and it was the hottest meal I have ever tasted. We had some adventurous eating and I got to taste bone marrow for the first time. I thought it was quite delicious. So was the eel. The meal could have been even more adventurous if I hadn’t politely turned down his offer to order some brains for us. There’s one thing I won’t eat, and it’s brains.

These three young men were quite serious, so our conversation led us to the topic of their research projects. One of them is studying the compounds in foot sweat that make stinky feet. He said that his roommate has super-stinky feet, so in the service of science he asked his friend to not wash his feet for three days. Then my student took his roommate’s wretched socks, stewed them in the laboratory for a few hours and then extracted the stinky chemical compounds in order to isolate those that might be neutralized by a new chemical spray. I can say that it’s creative! I am glad I wasn’t around as he was stewing the socks.

The other student is studying insects as a viable food product. Specifically he is studying silkworm chrysalises and how they might be turned into a protein powder for human consumption. All the rest of us thought this was, uhhh, interesting but we were pretty certain that it wouldn’t be for our consumption. He said, “I like eating insects. They’re good! You just fry them up. I eat silkworm larvae. I’ve had ants and termites, though I don’t love those. I particularly like bees. Spiders are pretty good too, though of course, they aren’t actually insects. Beetles though. I won’t eat beetles. That, would be grim.”

Well-spoken, I’d say.