Hello Nanjing!

Now I am finally in Nanjing, the "southern capital" of China, where I will be studying at Nanjing University (we call it Nan Da or 南大). In addition to my studies in Nanjing, and thanks to a little bit of help from one of my friends in Beijing, I also have an internship in Nanjing working with Aoky Consulting, an IT consulting company that specializes in foreign export companies. Not only am I very excited to be studying at the prestigious Nanjing University (it is normally ranked between 3rd and 5th best school in China) but I am also thrilled by the prospect of working with a Chinese company, especially one that focuses on such a developing field as foreign export.

Nanjing is a beautiful city. It has much less pollution than Beijing and it has much more vegetation all throughout the city. Nanjing also has a much more home-like feel to it and it doesn't suffer from the often overwhelming hustle and bustle of a massive city like Beijing.

On the morning of my second day in Nanjing I stumbled into the CIEE Office (CIEE is the name of my foreign exchange program) and ran into a fellow named Andy who actually studied in Nanjing a few years ago and is currently researching in China with a Fullbright Scholarship. Andy was kind enough to show me and a few of my friends the lay of the land and within the first few days we were able to see many of the good restaurants, bars, and markets in Nanjing. While Andy is leaving today to continue on his research, his help was invaluable in our first few days in Nanjing.The people that I am studying with in Nanjing are also great. Not only are they all very friendly but they are also quite an interesting bunch.

My accommodations are also high quality. The dorm I am staying in was built only a year ago. I only have a few gripes about my room in Nanjing. While my bed in Nanjing is nice, I think that I slept much more comfortably in Beijing. On a similar note, the shower here requires that the hot water be turned on two hours before hand to ensure that it's hot, so I would say the showering situation in Beijing was also much more enjoyable. Overall, however, my room is very nice. Check out this picture that I snapped on the first day. The true test of my dorm room comes tomorrow - when my Chinese roommate moves in.

I started classes today and both of my teachers seem to be very helpful and intelligent. I think that my studies this summer in Beijing definitely helped prepare me for my experience in Nanjing. I am off to go do my homework now, but I will leave you with a picture of my favorite part of my room in Nanjing - the view.

Bye Bye Beijing

Ni hao! I know that it has been a really long time since I updated this thing but I am finally back at it. I have been super busy in the last few weeks with my stay at Peking University ending and my brief return trip home.

I spent my last few weeks in Beijing spending time with my friends and enjoying the city as much as possible. My friends and I ventured to our favorite bars and restaurants for the last time and tried to enjoy as much of Beijing as we could with what little time we had left. Sadly, my studies in Beijing finally ended on August 12th and I returned home to Nashville.

Here is a picture of all of my friends from Beijing and my teacher Tan Laoshi.
Sadly my return was not without incident. My connecting flight from Tokyo to Detroit was suffering from a serious overbooking crisis and they told us that it would be a minimum of 2 or 3 days before we could return home. To add insult to injury the majority of my friends traveling from Beijing back to the U.S. were on a different flight than I was and everyone, save me and 2 other friends, was on a flight that had no problems.

Luckily for me and my friends we were able to secure passage on a different airline (free of charge) and make it on a flight to Newark. However, we couldn't make it out of Newark that day and ended up spending the night at the illustrious Newark Airport Ramada. I would have felt great about staying in Newark if it weren't for the giant billboard right outside of our hotel that read "Help Wanted: Please Stop The Killings in Newark." If that wasn't already frightening enough the moment I walked into the hotel lobby I saw the scene in the following picture. Yes ladies and gentleman, my friends and I were privy to the 1st Annual FurFinnity Conference of 2007. What does that mean? Well, your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that my friends and I spent the entire evening cowering in fear of the pack of animal-suit-clad weirdos running around the hotel. Needless to say, my welcome back to the U.S. was a bit stranger than usual. Luckily I still had fun hanging out with my remaining Beijing friends that night and we even managed to meet up with one of their friends who lived in New Jersey - escaping the fur fanatics and making our way to a local Applebees.

The next morning I flew out at 6am on my return flight home with a tinge of sadness knowing that I wouldn't see any of my friends from Beijing until January 2008 at the earliest.

My short stint in Nashville was a great breather from my previous 2 months in China. I was able to relax, recover, and see some old friends. Unfortunately I didn't have too much time and before I knew it I was already packing up again and heading back to China - this time to Nanjing.
I woke up bright and early the morning of the 22nd and hopped onto a plane bound for China.