May 20, 2018 - Medical school graduation

We left off last week with news of our cricket purchase.  Jeremiah was pretty quiet for a few days and then became very social.  He loves to play music for us, which is rather nice while we study, unless it becomes too constant. And he has two houses, mostly because we thought they were interesting. We did have to leave him with our neighbors, the Ansteads, when we left for the weekend. While we thought asking someone to babysit an insect was a strange imposition, our friends bonded with him quickly. When we got back they offered us helpful tips about how to give him a varied diet because they had been doing research about how to keep Jeremiah healthy and happy.

This week we explored a university restaurant right next to our apartment building.  We have planned all year to give it a try and finally did.  They have a very extensive menu - which has interesting/hilarious translations:

And, of course, vegetarian goose!

John ordered the Yak belly:

And lived to tell the tale. It didn't taste like chicken...

We had a special treat this week. Elder Gong, one of the 12 Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, visited China.  There was a special District Conference held in Shanghai where we normally meet for church.  It was wonderful to listen to messages shared by Elder Gong and his wife, Susan.

Once Steven and Stephanie left China to go back to Iowa, we got busy with our classes - and then followed them to Iowa to attend Des Moines University graduation events.  We were there to see Steven get top awards in the awards ceremony and to see him graduate.

We were so blessed to be able to attend these great events with Kristina, see two of our grandchildren, a few good friends, and spend some time with Stephanie's parents, whom we love, too.

We were only in Iowa for a few days, but Stephanie thought going to the Des Moines Asian festival would be a fun activity for all of us. Of course it was! We watched Asian dances, ate Thai, Japanese, and Korean food, turned down vendors' offers to buy Chinese trinkets, and watched Brysen play in the park. John wore his special Chinese T-shirt and got some special time with Molly.

For this trip we flew to Des Moines on a Wednesday and back to China on a Monday.  That is a lot of sitting in one week! But it was well worth it, and Jeremiah won the hearts of our neighbors. We returned to Shanghai in time to conduct English Corner (our evening where anywhere from 40-100 university students come for activities that help them practice speaking English) that same night.  We did sleep well that night!