More fun with Malatang

Part of the fun in going into the Malatang place is the reactions I get from the people there. Any time any of my students see me there they are always shocked that I'd be eating there, I think they believe that I eat at some sort of five star restaurant with gold plates every night. The people who work there seem to be entertain by just how many vegetables I can fit in one bowl. But today I got a much bigger reaction from a group of Tibetan students from the little school which is totally surrounded by our school, in my favorite metaphor ever. I don't see them much as they get only a few hours a week outside there walls, but presumably still inside ours. But today when I went for an early dinner there were about five of the Tibetan students all at the Malatang place. They are pretty easy to tell from the other students around campus both by their tanner skin and by the fact that they are a lot younger than our college students. Five of them were getting Malatang ingredients out of the fridge when one looked back and spotted me setting off a chorus of tittering. They were so enamored with me that I had to wait about five minutes before they moved away from the fridge enough for me to get my food. As we were all waiting for out food to cook one of the more adventurous students asked me where I was from, then dutifully repeated it in Chinese to the other students. After that she asked me a few other questions including if I had been to Tibet and if I was a teacher at this school, they seemed especially impressed by the fact I was. The girl who was questioning me only had basic English but her accent was actually really good and she was a lot bolder than some of the college students around here.