Fido for Dinner?

I went over to the guys' dorm last night to hang out for a little while. You remember how I told you that some of the students that are here from Northeast India are very Oriental in the way they look? Well, it turns out that they 're also very Oriental in what they eat. I walked into the room and one of the guys was very happy to see me because he wanted me to eat some of the meat they had cooked. This was special stuff - more specifically, it was DOG.

Now, I don't know where or how they had come to possess this stuff, and because I'm in something of a position of authority around here, I didn't really want to know. Anyway, at first I just said I would pass, but the more I thought about it, I realized that it's just animal meat, and the dog's already dead, so I'm not helping it any, right? So, lacking any moral objections....I ate it. Now, I just ate a little piece, because I wanted to make sure that my stomach wasn't going to have a problem handling man's best friend (it was fine). It actually tasted pretty good, but not like chicken, haha. It was kind of like beef a little on the tough side. One of the South Indian guys who doesn't eat dog couldn't believe that I was doing it, haha. Anyway, I figure it was good missionary training...can't be picky.

In other news, classes the last couple of days have been a little tough. I think part of that's due to the fact that the "new" is starting to wear off of everything a little, and I'm kind of settling into life here. However, most of it is that I've been a little stressed because of the academic side of things. Since we started last Thursday, I've had at least one (usually more) brand new student injected into each of my classes every day, because they just keep arriving late to school. I've got like 35 Greek students now, and I think 28ish Hebrew students. However, the sheer numbers aren't the problem. The problem is that two thirds of my classe will be at one level of knowledge, and the other third of the students will be at different levels, depending on what day they got here. You can't just jump into an intensive language course a week late and understand everything. This Indian time thing is really something else. I think the student body has doubled since the first day of the semester, haha.

Anyway, we're starting to get everyone caught up, so I'm feeling better about that. Hopefully we can have the whole class at the same level by the end of the weekend, so we can all push forward together. Also, we're finally getting textbooks printed for everyone, so that's going to help a lot.

Oh, and another tidbit of info - there is a guy and two girls from the states that are coming in later tonight, so I'll have some Americans to hang out with for the next ten days or so, which ought to be nice.

All right...prayer requests:

-Classes...mainly that the students (especially the ones that got here late) really apply themselves to their studies. Students aren't used to doing a lot of homework here, so I've had to play the mean professor a couple times in the last day or two because people keep skipping classes, not doing assignments, etc. I'm hoping I won't have to push them like this for too long, because it's not fun for them or me.

-Energy...by the time I get done teaching at 3:30 or 4, I'm pretty whooped from standing up and talking for over 3 hours. I'm making myself get out and be sociable, but right now I just feel like going to my room and going to sleep, haha.

-That God would just continue to open my eyes to what He has for me here...outside of responsibilities and stuff. I am just really trying to be open to hear whatever He's trying to tell me.