One of these things is not like the others...

I really hope that the Jordans don't tire of us too quickly because we practically invited ourselves to the pool with them on Saturday. Friday night Nathan got home from work and begged me to call Michelle to see if they were going the next day. I told him that if I did, I would tell her that Nathan was too embarrassed to call to which he grabbed the phone and called her himself. The appointment was quickly set and after institute we headed over to the embassy to enjoy an afternoon of swimming and sandwiches. I had a really good meatball sub while Nathan entertained the troops by polishing off a chicken wrap (it was more of an appetizer, according to him) and then a Philly steak sandwich. It was fantastic. I have started to notice that my freckles are coming out again. That usually means I am having a good time. The Jordan boys were thrilled to see Nathan at church yesterday as they thought he was just their pool friend (I am under no illusion that I am the big draw in the Jones family). We very quickly had two boys on our laps for the rest of the meeting. They are a hoot.

Saturday night, we ended up at a dinner where we felt completely out of place. The Ricks, the government relations missionaries, invited us to a dinner at Vikram Dutte's home. We met him at a dinner before that I wrote about. He is Hindu, but a huge champion of our church and regularly works with the LDS Charities here as he in on the board of four or five charities himself. Anyways, he had us, the Ricks, the Dunns (the country directors for LDS Charities) and the Katakas who are the Indian representatives of LDS Charities. Also invited were the former governor of Assam, Dr. Singh, along with a couple (I can't remember their names off the top of my head) where he was a syndicated travel columnist for the Tribune before starting his own weekend publication and she is directing the renewal development around the Taj Mahal. Fascinating people. As it turns out, Vikram and Dr. Singh headed up an independent observers group to monitor the first democratic elections in Yugoslavia. While Vikram didn't have anything really good to say about Milosevic or his opponent, he was quite disgusted with the American press and the distortion that he said they made of the facts. I teased him by saying the the US press never gets anything wrong, to which he had a good chuckle. Then his reporter friend told us about his favorite places that he had visited. He also told us about how much things have changed in Shanghai. The first time he went was in the early 80's when there was one five-star hotel in the whole city. While there, he was solicited to engage in some (what we would consider) illegal acts by the hotel. He came home and wrote his article, but before it was even published he had the Chinese Ambassador at his front door demanding that he retract it. It seems that the Chinese had people on the payroll at the Tribune to know when disparaging things were going to be written about them. So he refused to pull the article and was told he would never get a visa to China again, and he never has. His wife has offered to show us around the Taj Mahal under a full moon which she says is an other-worldly experience. At one point Nathan and I were sitting next to each other asking how we got invited to dine with a group like this. Needless to say, we really didn't feel like we brought much to the table but we had a wonderful time. Everyone was very kind to us and seemed very interested about WIU so Nathan promised to show any of them who would like around the university. It was a great evening even if we were completely out of our league!