Week 2 Begins

Morning everyone, its almost time to head to class to begin week 2 in Tianjin. Class almost seems like routine now, which is odd for me as I almost never went to any lectures last year. I am hoping that today will be more interactive and that we can ask more questions. The topics have certainly been very interesting but lecture is rather drawn out. One important contrast I have noticed between UMD students and Nankai students, is that Nankai students do not skip class. I have asked a few of the students here if they ever miss class, and unless they are very very sick, the answer has always been no. At UMD I believe a lot of students skip class for really any reason. Teachers attempt to combat this by making part of your grade participation, which I think is pretty dumb. I have also gotten the impression here that students do not skip class, not because the material is too difficult, but rather as a sign of respect to the professor and classmates. Furthermore, I am trying to see whether the Chinese concept of time (the anecdote that 9:00 could mean 8:50 to 9:10) applies at the university. Maybe it is also a sign of respect to be on time, but I have not been able to see whether students frequently show up late or not. Even at UMD, I still believe it is very disrespectful to be late. All in all, my impression is that students here for the most part take their education more serious than students at UMD. However, I believe that this years group of students on this trip represent UMD very well and that together we have a wide variety of talents and are a very bright group. Personally, I love to compete at school and would love to see how I stack up over here :)