dudley house signed up various people to host small groups of new international students for dinner at a local restaurant today. i was surprised, however, when i turned up to collect my party, to find how few people enjoy vietnamese food, or wanted to try it. i had suggested pho pasteur because it was good, inexpensive, and within the square. and also because the other dinner hosts were going to mexican, indian and american restaurants. considering the number of asian students we get, i thought another asian restaurant would be good, and thai food (two restaurants in the square) might be considered spicy by some. but people kept coming to me asking - what kind of cuisine does this restaurant you're taking us to serve, and when i say vietnamese they said, thanks but no, and head off for the mexican and american sign-up desk. after 10 minutes i begin to regret my choice and wonder if i should have made it something more conventional, like japanese, or chinese. but we'd have to go up to porter for japanese, and i didn't want to take the new students so far out of their way, and there isn't a halfway decent chinese place till you get to changsho, and that is too expensive. but eventually a small group stayed - one costa rican student in romance languages (spanish literature a speciality,) two parisian special visiting students to the economics department, a chinese student doing classical chinese poetry (especially song ci), and a colombian student in biology (his work is related to plant physiology.) although i was a little disappointed not to have a mighty procession to lead to pho pasterur when we got to the restaurant i found that it was in fact the ideal number to dinner. six was a small enough group to fit a small round table, close enough to hear everyone else, and where three or four might have been more demanding on my conversation, six was just convival enough. a great deal of genial and intelligent conversation, the eu constitution being one of them. the french students commandeered the winelist (and one was taken aback that the french wines were the same price as the californian wines, and we all burst out laughing) and the final decision was come to by democratic elimination. a good deal of friendly teasing and laughter, everyone was extremely game to try different dishes, and most seem to have enjoyed themselves. afterwards i took them to toscanini's for ice-cream - it was the first time i'd been at toscanini's since i came back, i had the cantaloupe sorbet and the earl grey with lemon swirl. both were remarkable and complemented each other. i might go back tonight for more.