Wednesday-Thursday
Towards the end of the week I found myself thinking where the time had gone. Time has an interesting affect on me here in China where at some points this trip feels like it is an eternity and I have so much time to experiece everything, while other times I feel I am too rushed and haven't any time to do even a small portion of the things that strike interest in China. We have been super busy with Jason and Rina organizing many adventures/business visits for us during the week and even another organized visit to Bejing this weekend. We had a morning lecture on management/philosophy which proved to be quite different than some of our own practices in the west. A basis for a lot of thier management philosophy techniques have a direct relation or backbone if you will, of religion. This was extremely interesting to find how open they are to teach on, and even mention religious ideals in a teaching/educational environment.
After the lecture we met for lunch at the hotel and then were off to the Motorola battery manufacturing plant. This proved to be somewhat misguided due to the subject of battery making and the complexity of the materials/chemicals needed to produce them were not a subject that many of us had any idea about. On the other hand the plant itself was very interesting to see the layout of the process, and the incredible machinery included in the development of the batteries. The factory was laid out so that tours like ours and tours of potential investors could walk through and get a sense of the cleanliness and precision that they have at the plant.
After the visit all of the guys and 2 of the girls went directly back to the hotel to change for soccer with the chinese boys. We had all in all about 12 students (locals) and maybe 7 of our own and an additional 2-4 sideline cheer squad. It was one of the most fun afternoons i have had here, being in China on their turf in the soccer field, and learning their techniques or trying, and just interacting with them was really incredible for me. I was not surprised to find that we were some of the worst of all the players on the field, and even though i was one of the faster players it was no match for the technique and ball control that the Chinese students had.
Thursday we had a lecture on E-business which was interesting to learn more of the technology background of the culuture, and where they hope to be in the future in regard to technological advancements. According to the lecture the Chinese cluture as a whole is becoming increasingly involved with such things as internet users, and mobile phone users, and are expected to surpass the U.S. in the next several years. This however much be looked at in regard to total population as well, on a per capita basis the U.S. is much higher, however due to a massive overall population the Chinese numbers will soon surpass ours in technology users.
After class we got Chinese hamburgers (meat pies) filled with pork and green peppers. Then we all got ready to hike it about two miles or so to the karaoke bar with Richy (the bigger chinese student) and Lu as well as Rina, and John and Eric met up with us there later on. This was a blast, and very interesting to see how the culture has these "bars" everywhere which are just like a hotel, where you go and rent your own small room for your party/group and sing and hang out for a few hours. We were there from 2-6 which we thought would be too long, but by the end of it we were wishing for more time. The Chinese students once again outperformed us by a long shot, singing native songs as well as some english ones for us. We did have a limited english music selection, but overall found some classics we could all appreciate.
When we were done here we walked back and Morgan, Stacy and I had to run literally to the laundry-mat on campus to get out things before they closed. After that little bit of excitement we all met at the hotel and hung out a while before going to Ali-Babbas multi-cultural bar. I am not sure if that is how the bar set out to be, having a large gathering of different cultures, but it definitely is our favorite place and most interesting to go to meet people. I did not meet many people this time, but did meet one guy from manchester, and another from california, but was chinese, and also a guy from New Zealand. It was a fun night, and ended with all of us having the excitement of leaving for Bejing in the morning.