My welcome home meal and other things.

We all went out Thursday to the ICC North Culinary Arts Lunch.  I had a wonderful meal, talked to the instructors, and passed out a few gift items to people that I worked with.  I spoke with Chef Keith a while about being in China, told him about the cookbooks I brought back from the trip, and saw what he has been doing in the world of food.  It was very interesting and exciting.  We spoke a little about the solar coffee roasting project and what that project will be like.   I am looking forward to starting on that.  The food was great.  JoAnne and I have eaten many a meal at the North Campus Culinary Arts building but this one was very good.  We always shared the different menu items but yesterday they were all good.  They are never bad but usually one is better than the other.
After lunch I went to the ICC East Peoria Campus to attend the celebration of 35 years of service for Board member, Dr. Ehrich.  It was interesting to hear how much the school has changed since he has been on the Board.  He was involved in the program that first allowed students to use calculators in the classroom.  Think about that and what we do today in the classroom.  My classroom in China had a blackboard in it.
I then met with management and found out what I will be doing on Monday.  I will be clocking in at the East Peoria Campus and attending my first morning meeting to find out my work assignments.  I will pack my first lunch in four months.  First day back at work will be a long one because I will teach that night as well.  But I have a young heart.
It was strange to see a large parking lot again and to walk in to a building that has air conditioning.  In China the heat was shut down on March 15 and we did not have air conditioning in the building that I worked at. I remember when they shut the heat off because the next week it never got up to 50 degrees.  That building was so cold that in order to warm up you went out side in the sun, during the break.  It was bad for about three weeks.
Monday I will see how different it will be to walk around the US campus compared to being in Xian.   I have noticed just how much cleaner the sky and the air is here.  It is strange to look outside and see things look so fresh and green.  Xian is polluted and it is also dusty.  Here it is clean and fresh.  I have had to work on not saying Ni Hao and Xie Xie or other Chinese terms to people here.  My Chinese is not that good but I had gotten in to the habit of mixing the two languages quite a bit.  Now I have to work on getting things for the yard.  My first trip to the hardware store.

My first real meal since I returned from China.  I will have to post this on my QQ account and see how strange this looks to my Chinese students.