Friday Lunch

Today I ate 3 melons

but not by myself.

a group of my students from my "best" class took me to lunch. I have the most advanced class as my last class of the week. I appreciate how that worked out.

Helen, (because she likes Helen Keller) the class monitor, selected the best students and leaders out of the class, and she took us all to lunch at a casual eatery down the street. Her boyfriend "Jack" went out and bought 2 watermelons for desert. After Helen gave me a tour of the cafeteria I decided to order a deluxe noodle bowl. The soup was very hot and served in a hot, stone bowl. Inside were steamed greens, pieces of fish and noodles. In a smaller bowl Helen put some vinegar and red chile peppers. When I ate the soup, I pulled noodles, and vegetables out of the hot bowl and into the smaller bowl, that way it could cool a little bit and I could eat it.
The five students were all extremely excited to be at lunch with me. They were done eating, and I still had a bowl full of soup because they were asking me so many questions. Helen also got "farmers food" which is a bowl of cooked corn kernals in water, big lettuce leaves, onion shoots and cucumbers, and a dish of spicy sauce.
What you do is dip a cucumber or onion shoot in hot sauce, then put it in the big lettuce leaf along with a spoonful of corn, wrap up the lettuce leaf, and then eat it!
It was very healthy and delicious.
Helen also bought one corn on the cob, and said to me, "please Ms. Kraft, will you take the first bite?" I wasn't sure if I should be honored, or laugh. I took the first bite, and then she ate the rest. After we finished eating, we cut up one watermelon and ate it.
My students escorted me home by bicycle, and were happy to meet Ned. They were so cute and nervous when they talked to him!
Helen handed Ned the other watermelon that we did not eat, and they rode off smiling and waving.

Earlier in class, Helen did her "show and tell" presentation on what she calls a "hitting melon" there is no English word for this kind of melon they have. It is round and dark green and smaller than a watermelon. You open it by hitting it by your fist. She demonstrated, and broke the melon in half. She brought 2 spoons to class and gave me half to eat in class, and the other half for her and her friend. The melon meet is light green, more watery than watermelon and less sweet. Helen told me that it is a very nutrious melon and since it is so good for the body, it is hard to find. So I ate half a melon in class, while my students were during their presentations, one at lunch, and one right before dinner after Ned's and my bike riding adventure.