Second day of classes was a bit rough. Everyone seemed to be pretty tired and burnt out today. It's nice to be able to go from class to class and see fresh faces as well as old ones. It is interesting to me to meet new people each day.
For lunch, most of us went out for Hot Pot at a restaurant between the hotel and campus. This is the first time I had seen a soup pot that was divided down the middle to split up normal broth from spicy broth. The hot pot was delicious; almost as good as I've had at home. I think that everyone who was having it for the first time thought it was very interesting and would love to have it again.
After lunch, we went to a Dairy farm. Here we learned about the manufacturing process of collecting and packing milk in China. Having never learned about this process in the US, I took a lot of new information away from this. I knew that milk had to be pasteurized to make it safe to drink, but I didn't know how many things milk could be turned into on spot at the faculty.
After the factory, we headed over to the SPD bank. This is probably where I experienced the most culturally different experience of the day. SPD Bank takes a lot of effort to let their customers know that they are being treated differently in each rank. There are several different VIP rooms and levels. In the US, there doesn't seem to be a difference between customers, at least nothing noticeable. Here at SPD, they dedicated a room in the back of the first floor to Business VIP members, the whole second floor to VIP personal members, and a room specifically for bank to bank business on the 5th floor.
After the tour, Alex and I wandered around in the alley market place by our hotel. I find it amazing how many different vendors can share a space. On top of that, I am still being caught off guard by how inexpensive everything is for you, as well as how honest they are with money, they seem to always give correct change even if you over pay by a few Yuan.
Here are a few highlight pictures:
Eating Hot Pot
The VIP room for independent customers
The Boardroom
SPD Bank
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