Oh yeah and yesterday I ate frog. TWICE

On Saturday after registering for a 6 month intensive Chinese class at JiaoTong Daxue, exploring an electronic market...yes I was a kid in a candy store...huge nerd. The word for Apple in Chinese is Pinguo. I found software for 4$ that I will buy soon...not in the budget yet. Then we went to Taikang Lu in the French Concession. At lunch at a place called Commune. not much more than a concept. but would be nice in summer time. Walked around artist galleries and boutiques in the area. found a wall and some buildings that I really liked. On the way home I did a duet with the taxi driver.Yesterday I had my English class. The students are amazing, nice, cool...I had a funny moment in class where we were talking about the beach...you know the story about Seany on the beach when he was little driving his toy cars all over the woman in the bikini...(the one that has been told billions of times over dinners) In any case, it is one of those stories that each time it is told, it is funny, but I always say before it starts...not this one again! Well I told the "not this one again" story! Mommy and Daddy you would have been proud. I am not sure if the class understood, but I definitely got some giggles and blushing out of them. (I should add they are all in their 20s). Seven of my students took me for lunch. They are all really nice, we had a great meal that they ordered and remembered what I ate for lunch the last time I went with them (which was 3 weeks ago), and specially ordered me some of those same dishes that they knew that I liked last time. Little do they know that I am probably the least picky eater in the world, but it was an extremely nice gesture. On top of my special dishes we had a really great fish dish and a "mystery dish" that came to the table on a sizzling plate covered with a wet towel. I asked my students what it was and they all kind of looked at each other blankly, not knowing the English word. They started to say a word that sounded like "food"...so I was like...yeah I hope it's food (under my breath). I said is it fish? they said no. I said is it meat? they said no. The colour was white so I knew I was not about to consume a beloved canine friend. And I figured it was some type of sea food. I took a piece onto my plate and inspected it further. At a closer look, I became suddenly intimidated. It reminded me of the cow's eyeball that I disected in grade 9 science class. I had a slight panic, because it looked really chewy and I had a vision of me taking a bite and then spending the rest of the meal chewing on the thing so that I didn't have to spit it back onto my plate (which is actually an ok thing to do here...napkins are hard to come by and spitting is quite ordinary). I still don't feel comfortable with that...and I hope I never do. In any case. My students were all staring at me, so I had to take a bite. And it ended up being one of the yummiest things I have ever eaten! really tender and delicious! Then all of a sudden the word that they were struggling with before turned from food, into froog and then finally I said oooooh...it's FROG! And everyone agreed. I was very happy to have shared that experience with them!After class I hung out with a friend and then we met up with Landon, his fiancée Marissa (two montrealers) and Talia. We went out to eat and told them my story and had a great time ordering frog again for time two in one day! I'm all froggied out now.