Hi, John,

I arrived in Kunming about 48 hours ago. It is quite the place. I just got back from a meal with the president of SWFC, Mr. Li, Zhan Hui, an elder Japanese man, and the two other teachers here. There also was a foreign expert there named Gary from Idaho who studies beetles here. Yunnan is a hotspot for tiger beetles, of which there 145 species, 78 living in Yunnan. The larvae live in tobacco plants and prey on harmful insects to this valuable cash crop. Consequently they receive virtually unlimited funding from the government. There have been two new species they've discovered. He's been here for four years; possibly you've met him. We went out for mushroom hotpot and drank plenty of moutai--especially Yoshizawa-sama. Forgive my tipsy fingers if there are typos. The president happens to speak Japanese (as do I somewhat) and there were quite a number of toasts. I ate click beatles (bamboo worms) and dragonfly larvae. It was an excellent feast.

I am impressed with the college. We had a tour yesterday of the campus and met some students conducting some plant research. There is cooperation going on between SWFC and the Field Museum of Chicago and the Nature Conservancy (Mr. Li is fond of wearing a jacket from that institution). I met the province's foremost authority on GIS (geographic information systems), and an insect expert who had quite a collection of bugs.

People stare a lot at me here. At the same time, I feel like I have a lot of privilege. It's not like being a foreigner in the US, that's for sure. I can pretty much go where I want and do what I want and people are pretty accommodating. Language is a problem however, but that will improve as I learn more Mandarin. It is amazing seeing people practicing taichi in the morning (I'm going to try to join them in the morning), retired people playing "mangjiu" (?) Chinese croquet. One lady said that she is my "nupengyou" which means girlfriend, hehe. That's all I could understand.

There are so many different types of vehicles on the road--electric scooters, bicycles, horsecarts, tractors-like contraptions, three-wheeled bike taxis. General madness and sensual overload, but that's what I was seeking. My apartment is a welcome sanctuary at the end of the day.

This is all in two days. This excludes the Orwellian medical exam which is a chapter in itself, especially the ultrasound organ exam; the paperwork at the PSB; the market (!!!). Exhausting but fascinating. A fellow teacher, also a fellow Iowan, is a funny guy. He sent some of the "hell money" that people burn for their ancestors here in China to his congressman and to Pat Robertson. It actually says "Bank of Hell" on it. Hehehe.

School starts next week. There is a lot of development on and around campus, including new apartments for the faculty where we will be moving in October. Looks good. I'll let you know how that all goes. We should be meeting the English dept. faculty soon.

This is less than 48 hours in Kunming.

Ryan