Day 4

Today we arrived in Tianjin, China. We had a "welcoming dinner" with some of the Chinese students at a restaurant right next to our hotel. There were three girls and two boys that ate with the 19 of us. I sat near a Chinese student named Martin. He has been with UMD students every time they visit Tianjin for the past four years and he will be graduating in July. We bombarded him with questions for most of the dinner and I was so surprised how patient, open, kind, and willing he was to answer our questions. I am so interested in what the Chinese students like to do for fun and I felt like I got to know Martin very well. He also showed us how to grill our food at the table and explained what some foods were and helped me use my chop sticks. After dinner, Martin walked all of the UMD students to Carrefour (kind of like Wal-Mart) and showed us around. We plan on having a celebratory party for Martin graduating college in July. I am really excited to know a local because I think it will be so helpful.